My Affection for FUNERAL BASKETS!

Well, who doesn't love a good old funeral basket, right?  I fell in love with these old baskets a few years ago and have been collecting them right & left ever since.  Our house was becoming sort of over run with them, so I've had to say good-bye to a few, but have kept my favs.

I'll admit I was a reluctant collector at first, especially when I found out that these pretty Victorian baskets were called "funeral" baskets - kind of creepy.  After looking through a lot of Victorian photos (another obsessive collection!), I noticed that these baskets were also used at weddings, birthday parties & graduations, so that took the "creepy" right out of it for me and I plunged right into another collection.

I can't remember now, when or where I picked up my 1st one.  I don't even remember which one was my 1st one, but here are a few pics of my favorite ones!

Most of these basket will have a metal or paper mache insert that would have held a soaked sponge to keep the flowers fresh.  If a basket is missing the insert, like the one here to the right, you can just fill it with shredded craft paper.  I love old sea shells & old photos, so I use my funeral baskets a lot to display them. 

The second basket I'm showing has a nice large shell with a picture of my mother when she was 2 years old.  Oh my gosh, she was cute!!  She's nearly 80 now, and I'm telling you, she is still a cutie pie!  I have an old oval frame just resting in front of the picture, because I didn't want to cut the picture down any.

These small baskets sit above our oak buffet.  I love the smaller ones just as they are and don't usually add anything to them accept shredded paper.

Patrick found this one in an old house he was cleaning out.  It's a really good basket, and probably my favorite.  I don't know the little girl in the picture, but I loved her sun bonnet, and thought she needed to be with some sea shells.

I got this adorable pink basket at an antique show we were doing in Baltimore.  The last day of the show was so slow - hardly anyone walking around at all - so the dealer beside us and I just started trading our stuff!  I had been eyeing up this little cutie the whole time and was thrilled to get it!  It's just the perfect size for my little sand dollars!

(-: Are you sick of funeral baskets yet, or should I go on? :-)

Well, I'll tell you what.  I know you have other places to be & things to do, so I'll blog more funeral baskets on Monday - same bat time, same bat station. 
See you then! 

Enjoy the race on Sunday!  God bless, Karen