Browsing the archives for the picnic baskets tag.

Searching for the Perfect Picnic Basket

California, Domestic, Healthy

Today I’m linking up with Dandelion House, Happy Go Lucky Blog, and Chubby Cheeks Thinks.

I have had a love for all things vintage and slightly chipped and worn and almost matching for as long as I can remember. I used to beg my department store-loving mother to take me downtown to Toronto’s Kensington Market so I could hunt for treasures from my favorite thrift stores. The concept of used clothing totally skeezed her out so most of the time my dad and I would go together – and more often than not, he’d find a treasure himself!

My husband however, is not so down with vintage stuff. I’m not going to get all psychological here, but he’s defo the kind of guy that likes new and shiny things. He likes sets of things that match. He likes new and matchy things even more than I like vintagey things, so a very long time ago (over a decade ago anyway) I stopped bringing random old cups and mismatched plates home and instead started hitting up Ikea and Pier 1 and if I’m totally honest there may have been some Crate & Barrel and even some Pottery Barn going on as well. Last year we bought a very pretty house in the woods of Central Ontario and we were slowly filling it with catalog wish list goodies. Then my husband was offered a situation he couldn’t refuse in Los Angeles – so off we went!

Fast forward to a few months later. We came down here with just a small trailer of absolute necessities. We packed light for two reasons – we didn’t think we’d be here very long and we knew we had to declare every single thing we were bringing aka ‘importing household items’ for CBP. After some bitching about how lacking my LA kitchen is (and truthfully the rest of our apartment is equally lacking), my friend Vanessa brought over some thrifted cups and cutlery for us to use because she’s super sweet like that, and one of those cups is now my husband’s hands down favorite cup of all time. He oddly likes that there isn’t another one of them in our little collection, which of course spawned a conversation about the possibility of creating a vintagey apartment down here and it was like 1000 Christmases rolled into one when he said he was totally down with it. All I’ve thrifted since that convo is a zebra print plate and a Little Miss Chatterbox cup, however last night? Oh last night I spent hours on Etsy looking for just the right picnic basket.

I proudly found this $60 wagon at a streetcorner ‘yard’ sale for $15 a couple of weeks ago and can now pull my two smallest wee ones to the farish park that’s perfect for picnics. Vanessa and I took the kids there for a picnic once already but picnics are always better when you’re rockin a beautiful picnic basket, right? Right?

These baskets are all amazing. I adore them and once I complete my actual shopping list of things I need for our new place I’d love to get a couple more and start a collection. I’m not including the basket that I picked in these pictures, I’m going to wait until it gets here and show it to you on a picnic!

Vintage wicker picnic basket with wood double lid
Retro Picnic Basket
This is one of the first ones I fell in love with. It’s $50 but there’s no domestic shipping on it! The fabric inside it melts my heart and I absolutely adore the double lid.
I crossed this one off my list when I decided that I had to have a double lid, otherwise this was a strong contender because it’s so roomy and I’m always packing a picnic for at least 4!
Vintage Jerywil WOOD PICNIC BASKET Wov-N-Wood Interior Pie Basket Androck Dishes Olive Green Tulips
Vintage bent wood Picnic Basket with wooden pie stand. Wooden Pie Basket
The charm of this basket is that it comes full of goodies (4 each; large plates, saucers, coffee cups, drinking glasses, forks, knives & spoons). I came thisclose to picking this basket and it’s dishes.
Are you kidding me?! A pie basket?! I love this!! I think it might be a bit too small for us though and again, as sweet as this one is the one I picked is even sweeter!

In this Etsy adventure I also found a really adorable little something for my sister – shipping on it to Canada is the same as here, so I could even have it shipped right to her so I’m not paying shipping twice! I also came across a lot of really painfully cute plastic picnic baskets from the 70s for the kids, but I’m not sure I can justify getting one for all of us and then another one! There is one more picnic basket that was in the running that I’m not going to post because it is perfect for patio picnics and I can’t wait to show it to you – on my patio!

Obviously, I’m obsessing over all things picnic (summer has officially hit LA, but of course coming from Canada even their ‘winter’ is official summer to us) and all things vintage (getting the thrifty green light from my husband has me totally over the moon with excitement). I apologize to everyone who reads this blog and loves all things shiny and new because I have a pretty good feeling that all of my Window Shopping Wednesday posts are going to focus on all things slightly worn. 😉

I will leave you today with some vegan picnic inspiration, courtesy of Mama Pea. I haven’t coughed up any recipes from this book yet because I really think it’s worth picking up – but Mama Pea gives you this recipe on her blog.

Peas & Thank You's Picnic Tortilla Pinwheels

Peas & Thank You's Picnic Tortilla Pinwheels

I’m aware that I used a piece of bread and the recipe clearly calls for a tortilla. Since I snapped this photie, I have made them properly and they amazing either way. They’re perfect picnic food too and will absolutely find a place in my new basket. <3

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