I’m on my second cup of coffee and humming and laughing to myself as I write this. You see, when I was little I thought I could sing.
Like really, really sing.
Like call me an agent, I’m available for a record label type of singing.
I would sit in the back of my parents’ station wagon with the seat put down and my brothers and sisters as my audience and belt out song after song.
My repertoire was wide and varied. I sang anything from Amazing Grace to I’m a Little Teapot with my own special twist….
….and choreography.
Bless my heart.
I’ll save the details of my short and underwhelming singing career for another day, but since we are talking decorating with collections and measuring cups today. Let’s begin with an oldie but a goodie that I’ve adapted just for this post.
All together now. One hand on your hip and crook another like a spout:
I’m a little measuring cup
Short and stout
Here is my handle, here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
Here me shout
Just tip me over and pour me out
Here’s the beginning of my just started measuring cup collection.
I have four of them.
The only requirement is that they have to look like cream ware and be sassy.
And like all good collections, I didn’t find them….
….they all found me.
I just found this one from Joanna Gaines’ shop, Magnolia Market in Waco.
Be still my heart.
It measures just like I do.
This set of four came from my friend Laura’s shop.
You can see them in the first picture in this post on the upside down bookcase that’s trying to look like a hutch in the kitchen.
The writing just inside the edge of the cup gets me every time.
This is the cup that started it all.
I bought this cup one summer at the Christmas Tree Shop at the cape for only $1.99.
It reminded me of something Laura Ingalls might have used…right after she hung her sheets out to dry.
And last, but not least, my favorite measuring cup of all from Anthropologie.
It’s a party waiting to happen.
It looks all calm and cool and collected with its embossed markings and milk bottle exterior.
But inside?
This is what it looks like.
Each layer has it’s own color.
Sometimes I forget about the color inside and it makes me laugh when I open the top to measure something.
That’s it.
That’s the collection and how I decorate with it around the house.
If you see any measuring cups around town that I need to add, just let me know.
In the meantime, if you need to borrow a cup of sugar….
….I can lend you one in style. 🙂
What do you collect?
And more importantly….does it come with it’s own choreography? 🙂
And I get by with a little help from my friends
Here’s some fun tips and decorating ideas for July:
Awwww..... I love the little measuring cups... and lest we forget... ANYTHING from the Magnolia Market is special .. without a doubt!!! Just ordered a sign from them for my Son & Daughter in Love's 20th anniversary!!! WOW... how could that baby of mine be a married man of 20 years?????????? :) ..... I ordered the "Grow old with me...the best is yet to be" metal sign that I saw first on Fixer Upper ... too bad you're singing career didn't take off.... lolol.. OBVIOUSLY... you were created for bigger and better things....... :) :) :) ..... thank you so much for sharing Kari Anne.. and Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!!
Love the new collection! I thought you were going to break into song after, "...if you need to borrow a cup of sugar....." "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". :)
Measuring cups that can be nested on the countertop, like the milk bottle one, are a great idea. I have little metal ones and they don't sit well in the drawer.
I love old glass pitchers for iced tea and lemonade. I collected for a good while then got overwhelmed for a good storage idea. Some were sold, others are still hiding away in the pantry. Love them.
I'm waiting to hear you sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with choreography!! I am very nostalgic about that song --that was the favorite song my kids and I worked on when we were potting training. Oh, the memories!! And what do I collect?? Well, cookbooks for one, copper and loads of paper that I don't know where it came from. I am constantly Feng Shuing and the next day that junk is right back. I pray nobody opens my drawers. I shutter to think. I love your measuring cups because I really love anything that has to do with cooking. I think I need a major organizer to come to my house --nah!! I'd be afraid they'd refuse to do the job. Your house looks gorgeous. I'm baking today -- do you have any milk?? Big Hugs to you!!
Love your measuring cups. I live in a condo now so my collections have been shrunk. My favorite collection was started by my husband and daughter for a Mother's Day. It is a group of alphabet blocks with animals on top. They are signed by Tom Wolfe. It did not take too long to get the whole set with birthdays and other events.
We must be vicarious twins as I labored under the illusion that my singing career was inevitable until......yesterday :) I love the measuring cups and the Christmas Tree Shops!!! I collect white Ironstone, ice tea spoons, old alarm clocks and Peanuts items. Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang have been my best friends since I was a child. Have a great day & thanks for sharing!!!
Love your measuring cup collection....how unique! I do have a few unique measuring cups - one a cobalt blue from my grandmother - but I collect Currier & Ives dishes in the blue & white, Polish pottery (my in-laws lived there for a time and started my collection), chicken pitchers (my husband started that collection after several port visits via the Navy) and I've just started a collection of rolling pins. Thanks for sharing! I always enjoy your blog posts. Blessings, Lanita
What a cute, fun collection...and usable to boot! I collect glass paperweights...no singing...no dancing....they just sit there and look pretty! ;)
I love this, I accidentally started collecting measuring spoons. My mom gave me some once for a gift and I have got different ones here and there over the last few years. My favorites are the Mason Jar Measuring Spoons from World Market. I love all your measuring cups! :)
I bet you have some loyal fans who love reading your blog, and who would love to contribute to your collection to show that love!
Love your collection. Have a few myself but never really collected them. Love Magnolia Farms, of course, and all that they do on Fixer Upper. Tape every single show and watch and re-watch! I started collecting whiteware and a little ironstone in Florida. However, I just rent so I can't over-indulge! Safe 4th. and Proud to be an American so we can indulge.
Oh my....your measuring cup post just placed me in a fit of giggles! Can't think of anything at this moment I collect but I can say I love collecting in my mind stories and such of laughter and giggles... and today.....your post tops them all! :)
I thought I could sing, too, when I was little. I sang just exactly like Mighty Mouse. When people turned in surprise when I sang in first grade group singing, I thought they were in awe and wonder at how beautifully I sang. Eventually, I realized that I was mistaking horror and alarm for admiration, and learned to lip sync.
Hi Kari Anne, I subscribe to like ten blog posts - they come straight to my email - and yours is like the first one I read...everyday! You are a very funny and cute writer! Short and simply speaking!!! I really enjoy what you have to say. I have a collection of crosses, hearts and I also have a letter wall in my office/craft room. No songs to go with the collections, but that's a good idea! Ohhh and Joanna Gaines, I am a little obsessed with her and her show and her store and how cute she is too. Wonder what she'd look like in red lipstick??? Anyhow, I just want to mostly share how enjoyable your posts have become to me! Thanks! My website is still a work in progress and I am hoping it will get as good as yours, sooner than later, but I have a full time job elsewhere and really don't have that much time to spend on it! Nor have I figured out all the technology behind it! Have a great day! cjn
mmmm what do I collect??? Laughing at self here. I have collect [ed] so many things in my lifetime. I too have some of what I call unusual measuring cups...not all are complete sets. People give me strange things. One of those is set of [primitive] hand carved 'measuring spoons' perhaps from Mexico...not sure. They are wooden spoons with long handles but totally crudely [though wonderfully] carved. A few days ago I measured contents of each spoon and penciled in amt on the back of the handles..while they are large the actualy contents are less than what they appear - fun, fun post. yes you've inspired me to gather up mine and share a post/pictures of same. It won't be so perfect and beautiful as yours but it's mine.
What don't I collect!!! Shells, old wooden ladders, small old oil cans, miniature animals, chicken "stuff" (now that we have 5 real ones I love chicken stuff!), quilts, turtles, globes, license plates, I think I have a problem!!!!
You certainly have a great collection going there Kari....I'm a Little Teapot was the very first song I sang and swung my arms to in front of an audience of first graders!...that was just a few years ago!...:) Love the measuring cups!
You're a hoot Ms. Thistle! Lol! Hmmm...what do I collect? Well, I have this thing for glass & baskets! And I'm pretty darn sure that I've cornered the market on paint! Lol!
I collected Peter Rabbit figurines by Beswick. Tea sets and all kinds of Peter Rabbit dishes, egg cups etc by Wedgewood. Sad to say now I am living with my daughter and will be selling my pieces. Some are 40 years old. I also have bunnies by Royal Copenhagen. But no place to display them. I am going to take pictures of them before they go to a new home someday.
I love this post
Oh, your measuring cup collection is just lovely and what a sweet surprise inside with the one from Anthropologie...it's always good to keep things and people around you who make you smile and laugh! We moved into this little house after losing our home and everything in it in a house fire and, in one of the cupboards, the previous owners had left an old Pyrex measuring cup with the D-shaped handle...I thought that was pretty cool, but it can't even hold a candle to your sweet, little, cream-coloured ones! Since our fire last year, I've stopped collecting and have been focusing more on furnishing as inexpensively as possible. The one thing I can't give up on is music, though....it's one of my favourite things in life and sounds like it might be one of your favourite things, too! I'd love to have a singalong with you some time! :)
Your singing as a child sorta reminded me of my sister. When she was in the second grade, she came home with a book and started reading: "SEE DICK! SEE JANE! SEE SPOT AND PUFF!" We asked her why she was yelling. "My teacher told me to read aloud!"
I love your new collection! They are adorable! Kathy
...Hi KariAnne... I love your collection of measuring cups..... especially the stacking 'milk bottle' ..... so gorgeous with the lovely colours inside..... I don't collect anything these days..... Hugs... Barb xxxx
Karianne, It was bailey Irish cream cups, with the whimsical faces, then vintage cherubs. I'm all set at the moment but some people think I collect lamps, chandeliers, and mirrors. Ha! I think your measuring cups are sweet. Christine
Ah, collections, I have a few, all relatively casually put together rather than sought out. They are mostly put together with discovered vintage treasures that have slowly grown into collections as I have found things that "spoke to me". Some of my collections include thimbles, vintage haberdashery, jugs/pitchers, owls and vintage books - especially children's books and vintage school readers. I had forgotten about the Christmas Tree Shop at The Cape. I was in the USA (from Australia) for my sister's wedding in 2004 and spent a week in Orleans at her Inlaws vacation home, but as I was staying with a group of family and friends there was limited time for browsing and souvenir shopping, but I did grab a few "Cape Cod" themed bits and pieces from the Christmas Tree Shop.
You always measure up in my book! I collect vintage quilts, ironstone, sea glass 'n pine cones. Happy day friend!
Oh, Karianne. Your measuring cups are so adorable (and not just because I have two of them myself). This almost makes me want to start a new collection to add to my already-full collections of things-lol. It's fun to keep your eyes peeled for things like this, isn't it? Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. Enjoy the week, Lisa
I have that same measuring cup stack from Anthropologie! I also bought it because of the surprise of bright colors inside. I love it. Growing up, I used to sing constantly. Recently, my in-laws (the whole big family) heard me sing with a piano player in a lounge while we were on vacation. They were all shocked. They've known me for 20 years and none of them had ever heard me sing before. It was pretty funny. The next day, they kept asking my kids, "Did you know your mom could sing???" Yeah. Bathtub & bedtime songs... Ha! Ha! Best, Michelle from simplysantabarbara.blogspot.com
I love all the measuring cups! And I think we all had secret dreams of stardom... I think I though I could be a great figure skater. I can barely skate, but as a little girl I had big dreams about doing it one day. :)
And IF you need to drink your milk out of a measuring cup Drew has you covered! He loves the one that came from the Cape. He says that is HIS glass when he is at Ms Kerrianne's.