Let's Dish

Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer was thinking of washing her hands of her dishes earlier this week. However, after she took another look at her beautiful, but never used, fine china, she had to admit it was awfully pretty.

I love our china, that my husband picked out by the way. Who knew he'd want such a say? He insisted we pick a color we thought we would use in our home decor (blue), and he refused to buy dishes with flowers on them. We did pick this dignified Presidential pattern that must be hand washed. I love to use them on special occasions, but he groans every time he has to hand wash them.



I love, love, love my Spode Christmas China. It's the same pattern my grandmother had. My mother-in-law has diligently bought me 14 plates over the last few years. I also have various serving pieces, dessert plates, and a few cups and saucers. Every time I look at these plates I think of my grandma which fills me with love. I keep them in our plate cabinet year round and we use everyday from Thanksgiving to New Years.

Here are our well used, much scraped everyday dishes. We originally had 12; we're now down to 8. I think we only have 4 bowls left. The most interesting story about these dishes is the hike my best friend and I took to find them one day. Actually it's not even that interesting. I'd love to replace them, but they work.


However, since we only have 4 cereal bowls left in our everyday pattern, we use these well photographed snowman bowls year round. We've been doing using these since before Birdie was born, oh, 9 years ago. They're a great size and shape. I'd love to buy dark red bowls, but then I'd feel like I needed matching plates. And while these certainly don't match and aren't year round appropriate it's how we do bowls here at Casa NOT Martha Stewart.



These are the bowls my family used for spaghetti growing up. They are one of the few family heirlooms from my mom's side of the family. I never had spaghetti any other way. My mom wasn't a great cook, but she made fabulous spaghetti sauce. She gave me these dishes a few years ago. I had high hopes of my family using them, but my husband, you know the one with lots of opinions on dishes, refuses to use them. I have to admit they look tons better photographed than in person. Still I can't imagine ever getting rid of them.



Hon loves these pasta bowls. They're twice the size of the heirlooms and a lot more sturdy. Plus they're pretty and match our decor. You know how important that is when you fill them with spaghetti.






Finally, one last look at part of my tea cup collection. You're probably not surprised that my dear husband started this collection for me years ago. I'll blog about it someday, but I will say it was truly the most heartfelt present he ever gave me. A lot of love went into purchasing and choosing each of these tea cups. The tea pot in the back is from my grandma. I don't use them very often because I'm not the graceful sort that can hold a saucer and tea cup and not spill something, but we've built beautiful memories of tea parties with Birdie and her grandmothers, aunt and I.

If you haven't been totally put to sleep by a look at my hodge-podge collection of dishes, you can check out other collections at Rocks In My Dryer.