Doily Bin

My friend Christy and I went shopping today to find some things for her sister's wedding ceremony. First of all, the last time I saw her sister she was a toddler, so I had to really get used to the idea of her as a bride.

This was our main task: To find doilies. The vintage theme is very hip and cool these days, and what is more vintage than doilies?

I remember hearing that a bride wasn't ready to be married until she had no less than 100 doilies. I tried to google that just now and spent way too long reading about the history of doilies. Something by all rights, I should not have time for. Who sits and researches doilies?

Evidently they came about because our foremothers were sick and tired of their greasy men coming in and ruining the arms of their furniture. So they started making them in order to keep their couches looking lovely. That's so great. I can just picture that first woman who decided to stop nagging and start knitting.

Here are some ways to use doilies. I think I may now be a fan.

These aren't your Grandma's doilies. In fact, I found some made by a guy who loves to come home from work each night and crochet his manly doilies.

So back to our hunt for doilies. I decided to try our local thrift store. We walked in and I asked the lady behind the counter if they had a "doily bin." She stopped and looked at my expectant face and shook her head no. I said," Wow... I don't think I have ever uttered that sentence before." She pointed us to the area where they would be but told us there was no "doily bin." We found a few laying on a shelf and jumped up and down over our tremendous luck. She told us how great that was that we could become so happy over doilies! She walked back to her counter and I turned and saw it. A doily bin. There was even a little sign hanging sweetly off the front that said

DOILY BIN

I looked at Christy and said, "I have to go show her this "doily bin! She has to know in case others come in and ask her if there is a "doily bin" in this store!"

I picked it up and hauled it to the check out. Her back was turned and she was in a deep discussion with another employee. The lady she was talking to pointed to me. She turned around and gasped as I yelled,

"LOOK! A DOILY BIN!"

"Well I'll be!" she said. "I am so thankful you showed me that." And she did indeed look truly thankful.

I took the bin back to it's proper place and we happily pawed through it to find what we wanted. Most of them were under a dollar! We hit the doily jackpot and her little sister would be so happy.

After shopping we went to Starbucks to get a drink. The guy at the window asked what we had been doing all day. I told him we were hunting for doilies. He stood there looking confused. Christy pulled one out of the bag and showed  him. He said, "I have never heard of a doily in my life, and now that I see it I still don't know why anyone would want one much less pay for one and it has less material than my shoe lace."

He just didn't get it. We took a picture of him holding it, trying to make some sense of it. He said he never dreamed he would one day be a doily model and that his $40,000 engineering degree obviously did him no good in the real world if he couldn't even identify a doily.

   

We took our drinks and left, happy with our good luck. I hope Jessica uses these in her wedding after all of our hard work.
If not, she can use them to keep her new husband's greasy arms off of her couches.