I’d like for you to take a moment and close your eyes.  Okay, finish reading this paragraph first, and then close your eyes.  I want you to imagine a piece of furniture or an accessory that you’ve always wanted but don’t have for some reason.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

So, what was the item that you thought about?  Was it a new turquoise sofa?  A fabulous piece of art?  A bed with a tufted headboard?

For the longest time, the item that popped in my mind when I dreamed of new accessories was a vintage cuckoo clock.  I spent hours searching local vintage shops and online stores trying to find the perfect clock.  I wanted it to be vibrant and have a lot of personality.  I wanted little dancing people.  And most importantly, I wanted the little cuckoo to pop out of his door and tell me the time.

One day not long ago, I happened upon my dream cuckoo clock on Etsy.  It was a great price and in working order.  Sold!

I had never owned a cuckoo clock before, so I couldn’t wait to get it up on the wall once it arrived.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.

I had no idea what was in store with my new/old friend.  I didn’t realize that the chains were quite so long, so I had to hang it about eight feet off the ground to keep Emma from touching it.  I had no idea that it was such a beast to set, so I spent lots of time up on a ladder advancing the hands to the right time.  I didn’t actually know that I had to wind the dang thing every day.  There was no way to turn it off at night, so we spent a few nights waking at every hour (and half hour).  And for some reason, that little cuckoo would sometimes chime 13 times at 2 o’clock and once at 7 o’clock.  I finally got fed up and stopped it’s pendulum.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  It still hangs on my wall (in a new location that’s not quite so high), and I worship the ground wall it hangs on.  It just doesn’t keep time.  Or chime.  Or tick tock.

After all of that time I spent longing for a cuckoo clock, I felt kind of let down by the realization of my dream.  As much as I love my clock, it turned out to be a lot less fun than the dream of owning it.

Perhaps, there are some things that we need to keep imagining instead of rushing to embrace.  Part of the excitement of DIY and adding fun pieces to my home is the hope and promise of things to come.  Once they come to fruition, or as I’m in the process of DIYing them into fruition, my mind quickly moves on to the next piece.  Maybe the dream of a cuckoo clock is better than the clock itself.  I think the clock has taught me a valuable lesson on not always getting exactly what I want.

Have you ever had that happen?

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you are bound to have noticed the little obsessions that enter my mind, rattle around a while, and then leave as quickly as they came.  Most of those ideas are decor related, and once I satisfy the obsession, my mind moves on to something else.

For today’s look into my crazy mind, we’re going to talk about bread boxes and my desperate desire to have one in the kitchen.  My family doesn’t even necessarily eat that much bread at home, but something tells me that it would taste so much better if it was removed from the plastic bag and placed in a bread box (Don’t even kid yourself about my ability to bake a loaf of bread, okay?  My bread is totally store bought).  We’ve been storing our bread on top of the refrigerator so that it doesn’t get smushed in the pantry, but the heat is making it go bad pretty quickly.  A bread box is supposed keep its contents at room temperature and allow just enough air in to inhibit mold growth, so it’s probably a better bet than my next option of putting the loaf in the pantry.

Plus, bread boxes are just plain darling.

My conundrum comes with selecting a winner from the oodles of bread boxes sold in stores. From what I can tell, there are two basic styles of bread boxes – metal and wooden.  Let’s go ahead and toss the wooden one out the window, because I don’t want anymore wood in my kitchen due to my dark cabinets (that I desperately want to paint turquoise one of these days) and dark counter tops.  Let’s check out some metal contenders.

Crate and Barrel offers two sizes of bread boxes – one holds 2 loaves and the other (above) holds 3.  I really like the shape of this box, but it’s too chrome-y for me.  I envision lots of little finger prints on it, so this one doesn’t win the prize of getting to come home with me.

West Elm offers a white enamel bread bin in a gorgeous shape.  I love that it sits on a wooden base and and has an interesting shape.  I just wish that it came in a color other than white, although it is definitely better than chrome.  At this stage in my home, I need my kitchen accessories to bring in some color since my cabinets don’t.  But, I am a sucker for enamel.

Since color is what I crave, I’m really crushing on this red retro-style bread box at Williams-Sonoma.  It looks like a little steel safe, doesn’t it?  Hands off my bread, crooks!  This one is definitely in contention, although it’s price ($80) is a little hard to stomach.

And of course, I had to include this little cutie found on Amazon.  I’m drawn to anything I find in this deep turquoise color.  I just always have the feeling that anything unbranded and unrated on Amazon is probably not worth the time and money to order.  Thoughts?

My other option, and one I will likely further explore, is to actually go vintage.  Upon quick glance, there are many options available on Ebay, including some fun mid-century designs.  But, I question the type of paint used to coat those beauties.  Was it lead?  Perhaps I should roam around my favorite local vintage shops with a lead paint test kit, swiping all of the bread boxes in sight.  Don’t put it past me, y’all!

Do you have a bread box?  Did you grow up with one on your kitchen counter?  Please pass along any wisdom you may have while this current obsession still occupies my mind.