My Style Evolution?

I married young and pretty much everything we furnished our house with was handed down to us in one way or another.  We picked up things at a garage sale here and from a relative there.  For years I described my style as "eclectic."  I really didn't know what else to call it, given the mish mosh of things we had acquired. 

Then, about 15 years ago or so, my late husband and I got on a decorating/fix things up around this place kick.  I started really thinking about it and assessing my style for the first time.  After many a magazine quiz,  I came to realize that my style, so to speak, is "country."  Not an over the top, ruffles everywhere country, but country none the less.

When I started looking around at the things I had brought into my home over the years and what I had done with them, I realized that although the core of the items in my home might vary, depending on their origin, once I put my own spin on it, country they would become.  For years I didn't recognize that my style had a name; I just collected things I loved.  I rarely actually purchased anything, but friends and family knew what I liked, so wicker baskets and decorative tins found their way to me again and again.

One of the best examples of the way I tend to do things is my cup cabinet.  When I was a very little girl, my grandmother started giving me demitasse cups.  When I was about 10 or so, the collection had grown to the point that they needed a place to call their own, so for Christmas, my parents gave me a china cabinet to house them.  It has been forever known as "the cup cabinet."  (This was all very exciting to me, because it was such a grown up gift.)  The cup cabinet is gold and French Provencal and houses several dozen antique demitasse cups.  Because I am me, however, I top this rather elegant piece with a large wicker basket filled with pine cones.  It is one of my favorite things in my house.
 

This picture doesn't show much of the cabinet, but it's
the best I have without actually pulling out the camera.

I was thinking about all of this recently and about my affinity for apples/fruit decor and I realized that I have always loved these things.  I first married in 1977, at only 17.  I didn't really know anything about anything at that point, but I dutifully went and registered a gift registry for my wedding, just as my mama told me to do.  A number of the things I chose were Corning Ware Spice of Life pieces, some of which I still use regularly.

Corning Ware Spice of Life
(Some of the pieces I don't use anymore are in my Etsy store.)

When I look at it, I realize that those Spice of  Life veggies that I still love so much, are really almost the same as the fruit motif that currently adorns my home.  I guess 51 year old me doesn't fall far from the tree where clueless little 17 year old me sat after all.