Pottery, Pottery, Pottery...

...with some mercury glass thrown in for good measure! I can't remember where my love for big, old, chunky, beat up pottery jars began. Perhaps back when I was trying so hard to give my house that Tuscan feel. It was about the same time that daughter #1 became a representative for Southern Living at Home. They had some of the most beautiful things ever and I think I bought 5 or six of their olive jars in different sizes and colors. And then about the same time, PB started featuring their jars as well and I have been hooked ever since. I still find most of my newer favorites at PB but I have found a few in independent decor boutiques and recently even in HL. The ones in HL are not made as well-they tend to chip easily and the ceramic underneath is bright white. But, if you are careful and watch your sales-and, it might be something you are only going to display for a month or so anyway-as opposed to say something red that will appear on numerous holidays, it may be worth the bang for the buck. HL is by no means cheap. In fact, I think just about all of their decor items are priced too high. But, they have 40-50% off items about every other week so if you can wait 7 days, you can be pretty sure you can get what you want on sale.

Now, ALLLL that being said, we will head into my dining room. I hadn't realized that it was decorated almost entirely with pottery or mercury glass-throw in a few blue wine and beer bottles too-until I was posting these pictures. But, whoever said Uncle Sam had to be everywhere?

I did the hutch a little differently this year. I left off a lot of the tchotchkes and put out all of the stars and stripes dinnerware. It doesn't feel cluttered and I like it better.

I really didn't want any more of the subway art, but I needed a little something on this bottom shelf of the tea cart and I already had this image downloaded. I think it appealed to me this time because it wasn't red, white and blue and I already had the metallic frame as well so I thought it would be a good match. Sometimes I surprise myself because if I had to pick, I would probably always pick the traditional colors of a holiday-go figure!

And here is exactly what I was talking about in this post and the last. This really should have been the last thing I would purchase because it is a blue decor item and it is pottery from HL. But, it serves my purpose because it will only be used for the 4th of July decor and, it was 50% off. It also doesn't hurt that all of the blue pottery I found at PB is no longer available. This was the perfect size to finish off this spot, so it was a go! The fact that it was "battered" didn't hurt either. My husband still can't believe that I spend money for things that are beaten up-sometimes more money than if they are brand new! More to come-stay tuned!