Vintage China

 For several years I've enjoyed collecting random pieces of pretty vintage china when I find it at a garage sale or thrift store. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know about my eclectic violet tea set. Other than that the only full set of china I have is a set that Mother gave me that originally belonged to my great-grandmother.

I have treasured Granny's china and enjoyed displaying it and using it, but the pattern is not one I would have chosen. I like a delicate floral pattern. In fact, my favorite piece (other than the violet dishes) is a sweet little bread-and-butter plate I picked up for 50 cents about 3 years ago.

Imagine how thrilled I was this morning to discover a full service for 8 of that very pattern at a Salvation Army store we just "happened" to go in!

The set included dinner plates, soup bowls, salad plates, dessert bowls, and cups and saucers, plus a serving bowl, a cream pitcher, and sugar bowl. There were only 6 cups, but 8 of everything else (except the serving pieces, of course.) The price marked was $52.10. The dishes were all stacked on a counter so I thought maybe they had been spoken for. I asked the lady behind the counter who told me she had just put them out.

Lyle had given me some money a few weeks ago that he said I was to spend on something just for me. I had been hoarding it for just such a time. As I stood deliberating over it, the manager announced over the loud-speaker, "Our special today is 25% off brick-a-brack items..." That's when I noticed that the price tag was labeled "brick-a-brack!"

"This would be 25% off?" I asked the lady.

"Yes," she assured me. "It's labeled brick-a-brack, so that counts."

"I'll take it!" I declared.

She offered to wrap it and box it up for me while I continued to look around.

I went to find Lyle. "I just bought a set of china dishes," I told him. He knows my fondness for pretty china.

We were casually wandering through the furniture department when I spotted a hutch.

Lyle said, "I guess you need that to put your dishes in, don't you?"

It was marked $80. Mmm. I didn't really want to spend that much.

"Furniture is 50% off today," Lyle told me.

"It is?!" I guess I had been so tuned in to the "brick-a-brack" special that I tuned out everything else.

 So I got my dishes for $38... and the hutch to put them in for $40.

My "new" dishes coordinate nicely with Granny's china (which includes service for 6) so now I have enough dishes that I can have up to 14 guests and still set a pretty table! Before, any time we had more than 2 people for dinner I had to either use every-day dishes or paper-ware.

Naturally I had to come home and rearrange the living room to fit the hutch in just so, and then arrange all my pretty dishes in it. What fun!

How about a cup of tea?