Pitcher This: Something New for the Kitchen

Do you ever see something on a vintage store shelf that you instinctively grab, march to the cash register, and pay for without thinking? In mere seconds?

I did that last week while getting some holiday shopping done in our quaint Main Street shopping district.

First I have to back up a bit and confess to the contents of my Etsy favorites account. This item has been hanging out there a looooong time:

Czech pottery cookie jar from Etsy Seller FuzzyMama

It's a Czech pottery cookie jar, probably from the 1920s or 1930s. I love the Art Deco design, the color, well, everything about it. Except the price. $170. I know. Knowing what I know about the item's history and rarity, it's a fair price--- I am not dissing the seller for pricing it the way she has. But one hundred. seventy. dollars. Eeesh. It is not unlike what I say when looking at gorgeous, but several hundred dollar purses-- "If I bought that, I wouldn't have any cash to put in it, so what's the point?" Same deal here. If I bought it, I wouldn't have any money to put cookies in it. And that would be sad.

It would be impractical too. As much as I love vintage cookie jars, they're usually tiny by today's standards. With four boys ranging in age from 8 to 17, I need a cookie jar roughly the size of a 5-gallon bucket to keep this place stocked. It's not funny. They're hungry. It's a challenge to keep up with them.

So, anyway. This cookie jar, lovely as it was, stayed on my Etsy wish list and firmly in my dreams. And then I walked into a new vintage/antique store downtown and found this:

Can you believe it? It was in my hands before I even had time to think. And the price? $18. Very doable for an item I already loved, because I'd fallen in love with its partner cookie jar over a year ago. It's a cream pitcher, and holds a little less than a pint.

It also coordinates fantastically with another loved piece of Czech pottery I have owned for about 10 years:

The oatmeal container actually and for real contains oatmeal, since I'm a big fan of it. I can't help it. I'm adult who likes to eat mush. With brown sugar and whole milk. It's as good as dessert to me, I swear.

I have grown to believe that with few exceptions, the things like this that I buy must have a purpose, or you're just cluttering up your house. It was obvious to me that I was going to buy this and purpose be damned. But I do think I've thought up a good way to have this in my kitchen, earning its keep.

Right next to the refrigerator is a little "breakfast station"-- the toaster, the featured oatmeal container above, and the cupboard above holds the bread, bagels, peanut butter, etc.

If you stop by my kitchen on any given day and check the dishwasher (which probably hasn't been run yet, sorry), it's full of butter knives. The boys make a lot of sandwiches, bagels, crackers with cheese, graham crackers with peanut butter, and for every snack there's a knife involved for spreading. So much so I have complained about the difficulty keeping a clean supply around.

My idea is to keep a stash of (probably thrift store) knives in the pitcher at the breakfast station, since there's no additional drawer space on that end of the kitchen. That way it can hang out with its new partner the oatmeal container and they can look good together. It can provide something at the ready for peanut butter, mayo, and whatever other condiment the boys are busy spreading around, and earn its keep while looking fabulous.

I'm so happy to have found this affordable substitute for something I adored. Have you ever had anything leap into your hands like this?