My Tobacco Basket

This is the tale of a tobacco basket.  It survived quite a journey to get from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina to my home in Maine. Thanks to some good karma and two good friends, it finally arrived.  

Here's the story . . .

I first saw "my" tobacco basket at this antique shop on our camping trip "Down South" in March.

The shop, Linda Page's Thieves Market, is right over the Ravenel Bridge from Charleston in the town of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It's a fun place to stop if you get to the Charleston area.

I looked up, saw the big tobacco basket, and I knew I had to have it. DH did not exactly agree.  And his arguments were pretty sound:  Tiny camper; HUGE basket (40" square!), long ride to Maine. As those of you who have been married for a while know, sometimes you do have to "know when to fold 'em". So . . .

I left South Carolina basketless.

Back in Maine, I was still  pretty bummed about missing out on my basket.  "Maybe", I thought, "I'll just make my own." I found a good tutorial on a blog called Anderson & Grant. But once I figured out the cost of the materials and the time it would take to make, I got discouraged. To weave the size basket I coveted, I'd have to mold the reed around a card table top (per another site I found). How was DH not going to notice me doing that???

So I looked online. I liked these vintage tobacco baskets on Etsy. . . until I saw the shipping charges. . $300.00! No way. Looked like no tobacco basket for me.

And then the BIG IDEA hit me!

While we were "down South", our Maine friends, Bob and Peg, stopped by our campsite to visit. They had "followed" us to Florida and said they were planning to stop in Savannah and Charleston on their way home in April.

Hmmm . . . Maybe Bob & Peg could go to the "Thieves Market" for me and sneak the basket home in the back of their car.  Then I'd just have think of a way to slip it into the house, nail it to the dining room wall, and act as if it had always been there.  (DH would never notice.)  So I texted them.

Here is Peg's reply from the Thieves Market; the basket was still there!

Good friends not only go along with our crazy ideas, they dicker. Bob and Peg saved me 20% , bringing the basket down to $80.00. They texted me this picture of Bob holding the basket with the caption, "Mission Accomplished".  Yes, the basket is almost as  big as Bob!

The last photo they texted was this one. Final challenge was met:  The basket fit in their car. And, the next day, it was on the way to Maine!

I figured that if anyone could figure out a way to get that huge basket into a fully loaded Subaru it would be a physics teacher like Bob. Those skills helped him win Survivor Gabon in 2008. Bob and I taught high school together for years and remain friends.

Here are Survivor Bob and Peg, my "basket buddies", in Gabon, Africa.

Yesterday, DH and I drove to Bob and Peg's farm and picked up the tobacco basket.

It was a bit tricky to hang, but it's up now and is the focal point of my dining room.

I think this tobacco basket and I were meant to be together.  

And we are  . . .thanks to good friends.

I love it!

This post is linked to:

Amaze Me Monday #259 at Dwellings

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #215 at The Painted Hinge

Metamorphosis Monday #480 at Between Naps On the Porch

Sundays at Home Link Party at Little Farmstead

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life

Talk of the Town at Knick of Time

Wow Us Wednesday #382 at Savvy Southern Style