I've been reading about people who
collect china. For years I bought sets of pretty dishes and never used
them. My cabinets were filled to
overflowing and I had to do something so I gave the china to family, sold it on
ebay, sent some to Salvation Army and kept only my Mother's beautiful Haviland
and my own Christmas Spode.
I'm afraid to use the Florentine
Haviland, not because it can't be replaced, but because the replacements are
not my Mom's. The replacement dishes are
not the ones she used everyday--not like the plate she smashed over the edge of
a counter when she found out that I went to a concert with a boy but told her I
was at a girlfriend's house. Not the
same at all!! I sometimes have a cup of
tea in one of her cups and I can feel her hand on my shoulder. I think she is telling me to "Wash that
cup and saucer by hand and put them away carefully!" Due to the visionary talk I don't use her
crystal either.
That leaves the Christmas Spode. Yup, that's what we eat on every day. Every day is Christmas around our house. Our sweet son-in-law says he hadn't lived
until he ate pizza served on Christmas Spode in August. He says it's nice, in a "My
mother-in-law is wacky" kind of way.
I get that a lot when I pull out the Spode!
Then there are our wine glasses--no
stems! They are little round tubby balls
of crystal that friends roll their eyes over when I serve wine. I will not go into the wine glasses right now
except to say that the people who think stemless wine glasses are a new thing
should think again, because I brought these babies from Germany with me 35
years ago.
I have to admit that I love seeing my
friends' and family's china--what they buy, what they use, what sits in their
cabinets and is never used. I believe
that nothing is more telling about personality than china, crystal and silver
choices. I hope you will share yours
with me and tell me how you came to purchase/inherit them.
Speaking of silver, our was a wedding
gift. I hate polishing it so it sits in
the silver chest and is never used. It
doesn't go with the Christmas Spode anyway.
Knitting is coming along:
Lace Edged Sweater
finished
2 Kaths Hat through
Fair Isle and headed toward long back and tassel
5 comments:
I love that you use those dishes daily!!!!!!!! You are so real Katherine!!,
love your white sweater. I would never be so brave and knit with. White....yours is lovely.
Your stocking cap hat is adorable too
I thought stemless wine glasses were new.....I should have known....too smart an idea to come of age recently
I have a set of Noritake china that hasn't seen much use since I purchased it over 30 years ago. I sold a lot of the service pieces to Replacements Ltd. about 10 years ago for more than I paid for the full set of china. How's that for an investment?
I don't own any wine glasses, so any wine served at my house is poured in regular juice glasses.
I love it!! I *HAD* Spode china like that, but my moron first husband set a stack of plates on a hot (not ceramic top) burner years ago, and they exploded to dust.
They were my grandmother's. Luckily, my mother later gave me the same grandmother's sterling flatware...
i have too many sets of dishes but I love them all
My wedding china I didn't get until our 25th wedding anniversary is Old COuntry Roses by Royal dalton, my sil at the time gave me service for 4 and that year for my birthday my son bought me one more place setting, Last spring we replaced our every day dishes with some from Pier one but have used them only once. We have two sets of Christmas dishes one set Longaberger and one novelty plates from AC Moore. and every night we use various dishes from our 2 for collection, several people through the years have given us dishes since we became empty nesters and some I bought, we have lots of different kinds of 2 fors---maybe 7 or 8 different sets. I have given away more dishes then I can remember and like Chan hubby I dropped a whole stack of sevice for 12 and broke every single one of them !
YOu're my kind of gal. I didn't start "collecting" dishes, but inherited several sets. Then, of course I had to have my own. Oh brother...what was I thinking...well, I was young...okay?
Like you and like commenter, Grace, I find I don't use them and give them away. Now I pull out the china for cookies and to make dull occasions special. Long live wacky!!
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