Violets on the Tea Cups

Last month when I was in Indiana, Rachel had a gift for me. She said it was a thank you gift for helping her with her blog. I was so excited to open it up and discover a cup-and-saucer set to add to my violet tea set collection. It's the cup with a pedestal between the sugar bowl and cream pitcher. Isn't it beautiful?

My collection started in 1995 when my mother brought me the tea pot from England. Later she gave me a cup-and-saucer set that coordinated but was actually a different brand. Over the years the collection has grown piece by piece. I first started blogging about it in 2008, at which time I had the tea pot plus three cup-and-saucer sets. I've found several pieces at thrift stores or garage sales, but the ones I treasure most are those given to me by special people in my life.

Sentiment aside, I have a hard time choosing a favorite piece. I think it's so much more interesting to have an eclectic set, than if they all matched and were purchased at once.

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?

Vintage Sugar Bowl

I am just dying to show you my bedroom makeover, but until we start having some sunny days around here I'm having a hard time getting pretty pictures with natural light. I'm trying to appreciate the spring rains but I have to say the sunshine will be very welcome when it finally comes.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the latest addition to my mix-and-match violet tea set. I haven't been actively looking for pieces to add to it, because I have enough cups and saucers now to host a pretty good size tea party.

I was browsing a thrift store a few weeks ago and spotted a violet sugar bowl. I didn't have a sugar bowl!

It even had the lid with it. I've seen other sugar bowls at thrift stores and garage sales that are missing their lids. As I picked it up to examine it, I realized it went with the snack plates sitting under it, and they were priced as a set-- $6 for 5 plates and the sugar bowl. 

Now I ask you-- what would one do with a set of five snack plates (complete with rings for the cups to sit in-- but no cups) and a sugar bowl, except add it to an eclectic tea set? I couldn't pass up a deal like that, could I? Of course not.

The plates are shell-shaped and I thought they would match the one snack-set that my friend Denise sent me awhile back. It turns out that these plates are slightly bigger and the pattern is a little different. This isn't the first time I've added to my set thinking one piece matches another piece I already have, and then they turn out to be different. That's one aspect I enjoy so much about this collection.

I've also added a couple of vintage violet greeting cards that I came across among some old family letters. And my sister-in-law recently gave me a beautiful vintage hanky with embroidered violets to add to the display. (I had taken this picture before she gave it to me.)

I wonder what will be added next? A cream pitcher would be at the top of my wish list, but we'll see.

Since it's Thursday, I'll join in with Vintage Thingies Thursday @ Colorado Lady... and hopefully by next Thursday I'll have some pictures to show you of my "new" vintage bedroom furniture.

Summer Saturdays

The past 2 or 3 summers I have managed to convince the Man of the Place that a fun "date" is to take me garage-saling on Saturday mornings. We pick out the "Saturday only" garage sales listed in the Nickel's Worth, he programs Rhoda (our GPS), we stop at the ATM and then our favorite coffee kiosk, and we're off. Some weeks we find very little. Other weeks we spend our full "allowance" (usually $40-$60). It doesn't really matter. It's just fun.

Yesterday was our first garage sale expedition for this summer. As we waited for our coffee, he asked me, "What are we looking for?" Umm... well... I'm not really sure. I'll know it when I see it. But... umm... clothes, if we can find any that fit... and umm... well, you know, pretty vintage dishes and stuff. Can't you imagine how excited the man is to set off on a shopping trip with such a vague list? He kinda smirked at me, but good-naturedly followed Rhoda to our first "destination" (that's what she calls Garage Sales).

It turned out to be a good day for bargains. We got a nice 2-person swing for the backyard (like a porch swing, only on a stand), a vintage floor lamp for the family room, some books, games, and puzzles for Becky, some jeans, hand-towels, and a nice purse-- all for less than $50.

But my favorite find?

This sweet vintage plate and three pretty hankies for a grand total of $1.25!

This is what I'm really looking for at garage sales. Just a wee bit of vintage loveliness to add to my "parlor" decor. I love finding just a bit at a time like this, because then it doesn't cost very much, plus I don't end up with more stuff than I know what to do with.

Want to read about more garage sale finds? Visit the Garage Sale Treasures meme @ My Life on a Taffy Pull.

99 Little Doilies

 I'm not still "into" the Victorian decorating style that was so popular in the 1990s, but I still like my vintage doilies. I like the way they look under a vase or knick-knack on a shelf. And I love making them! Still, I have to admit, there's a limit to the number of doilies one room needs.

Not too long ago, I saw an article about how "housewives" used to crochet edges on fabric circles to place between their china plates when they put them away. Since I have a small collection of lovely vintage dishes, I immediately decided that I "needed" to crochet doilies to stack between my dishes!

I have had the 99 Little Doilies pattern book on my wish list for awhile, so I was excited when it finally became available on Paperback Swap. I have several partial balls of crochet thread of various colors stashed here and there, so I've set a goal of making each of the 99 doilies in the book in order, and posting a picture of each one as I finish it. I'm sure it will take awhile! Even at one a week, that's pushing 2 years. And I seriously doubt I finish one a week... because, you know me, I can never have just one project going at a time.

Even with my Great Need for doilies to go between my dishes, I definitely don't need 99 of them! So I expect I'll be giving some away as gifts. I dunno, though. Does anybody besides me still like doilies?

I'm also still working on the curtain for my bedroom. The socks aren't finished either. And I'm still carrying around a bit of tatting. But I did finish a pretty pink cape for my daughter to go with her graduation dress. I'll show you a picture once I get the hook-and-eyes sewed on and get it pressed. She's happy with it.

"A Young Girl's Dream"

If you've read my blog for very long you know I have a small collection of vintage dishes... just odds and ends I've picked up here and there. Most don't have any sentimental value. I just think they're pretty.

One of my faithful blog readers is my Aunt 'Lene who blogs at Meditations and Memories. She also collects pretty dishes, but she's been at it a lot longer than I have! Last summer when I went to Louisiana for my grandmother's funeral, Aunt 'Lene gave me this pretty Norman Rockwell plate. She has a whole collection of them on the wall of her dining room but she wanted me to have this one. She said it made her think of me and she thought I would like it. She even let me look at her other Rockwell plates to see if there was another one I would like better. There wasn't. She was right! This one was my favorite!

So she told me me the story about it. She had seen the plate advertised in a magazine, 25 years ago or so, and just loved it. So she splurged and bought it for herself. She said it reminded her of a trip she made by bus when she was a young lady. (Aunt 'Lene, correct me if I got the story wrong!)

It's a limited edition plate (though not particularly rare) with a date of 1985 on the back. That must have been about the time Aunt 'Lene got it... and it was the year I was married. So that makes it even more special to me!

Right now I have it on a shelf with other dishes in the living room. I plan to eventually hang it in the bedroom when I finally finish re-decorating in there. I think it will look neat with a vintage suitcase and some old linens nearby.

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingy Thursday posts.

Liberty Blue

For the last couple of years--ever since we moved into our "new" house--I've been collecting a few eclectic pieces of old china for the living room shelves. Not a complete set of anything, just pretty pieces I come across at garage sales or thrift stores. While I was at my parents' house at Christmastime I was able to add a few pieces from my past. Here's the story:

When I was growing up my dad almost always had a secondary job in addition to pastoring. In 1976, when I was 10 years old, he worked at the A&P grocery store. We liked that job for him because he often brought home really cool stuff that the store was discontinuing. That year, in celebration of the Bicentennial, A&P carried this set of Liberty Blue dishes as a special promotion. You've seen those types of deals. Buy so many dollars worth of groceries, get a certain piece of china for a really cheap price this week. At the end of the promotion, for some reason, the store had a whole bunch of the little dessert bowls leftover, plus, apparently, a cream pitcher and salt-and-pepper set, and I don't remember what else.

Mother had the idea that we girls could start our hope chests with these dishes. So we did! I think I had a dozen of the little bowls. No plates (the plate in the picture is actually a different pattern), no cups and saucers, just these few odd pieces.

I never did care for a busy pattern on dishes, so I didn't think these were especially pretty, but I did think it was interesting that each piece featured a different patriotic scene. The little dessert bowls have Betsy Ross. For some reason the cream pitcher and the salt-and-pepper shakers both have Paul Revere. I found a list of other dishes (and scenes) in the set at Robbins Nest, and I was just amazed at the prices! Which brings me to the second part of the story.

Like I said, I wasn't real crazy about these dishes, but I did use the little bowls for several years when I was first married, just "for every day" and of course, some of them got broken. After we had been married 13 years, we were packing up to move from Kansas to Idaho. My mother came to help. We had a garage sale and got rid of a lot of stuff, the way you do when you move. I stuck these dishes in the garage sale box, but I guess my mother decided they were worth saving. I didn't remember that at all.

At Christmastime (just past) I noticed that she had two of the little bowls sitting on a shelf in the bathroom with shells in them. I assumed they were some she had from the left-overs Dad brought home all those years ago. I thought how neat it would be to have them for my "dish shelf" so I decided to ask her about them. "Mother, you know how you've said that if we see something in your house that we want, we should just ask you for it? Well, I'd like to have those two little Liberty Blue bowls that you have in the bathroom."

Her immediate response was, "Why, of course! Take them!" So I moved the shells to another dish and washed the bowls. The next day she came in carrying a taped-up envelope box from the basement. "Karla, look here!" I went to see what she had. This was the box of "treasures" she had "rescued" from my garage sale almost 12 years ago. In the box was another bowl, the cream pitcher, and the salt-and-pepper shakers! (The rest of the stuff in the box I still didn't want.)

I was happy to have these nostalgic pieces back in my collection. And my mother is just gloating that she thought to save them... especially after I showed her the current price of these dishes!

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingy Thursday posts.

Additions to my violet tea-set

My eclectic violet tea-set is growing! Last summer I added a cup-and-saucer set I found at a garage sale, and then in March I received another cup-and-saucer set in a tea swap I participated in. So then I had the teapot plus 5 different cups-and-saucers.

A couple weeks ago I found this cute little demitasse-size cup-and-saucer at a thrift store to add to my collection.
Later, I couldn't pass up this pretty violet saucer for 75 cents at a garage sale, even if it didn't have a matching cup!
I just tucked it up under another saucer for now.
Who knows? I might come across a stray cup sometime that doesn't have a saucer, and then those two pieces can be partners!

Thrifty China

I like watching for odd pieces of pretty vintage china at garage sales and thrift stores. I'm somewhat frugal when it comes to collectibles, so I don't collect anything expensive or very valuable. Just cheap pieces that I like.

A few weeks ago I found 2 large soup bowls with a gold-filigree-on-dark-green border that I thought were pretty. They are a very practical size so I was happy to get them for $1 each.

This past weekend I found a similar saucer for 75 cents. As I was buying it I thought about how fun it would be if it happened to match the 2 bowls. I had to laugh at myself when I got home! The saucer had a red border... and I had completely forgotten that the bowls were green!

But they look pretty together, don't they?
I also got this red transferware saucer at the same garage sale for 75 cents. Actually, I'm not sure that it's a saucer. It's probably a bread plate, but it's the size of a saucer.
Then I stacked them all together with another bowl and a lidless sugar bowl that I had added to my collection last summer.
I use my pretty dishes occasionally... but mostly I just enjoy looking at them.

A Tea Swap

This is a shout-out to Diane @ Little Birdie's Nest! Back in the fall she hosted a "Falling Leaves Tea Swap" that I participated in. I had a lot of fun putting my package together with fall themed basket of pumpkin spice tea, and some crocheted coaster doilies that I made of fall-colored thread and other goodies. I was disappointed when I learned that the package that was sent to me had been lost in the mail, but those things do happen from time-to-time... so I didn't think too much about it.

However, Diane did! When she found out I never received my package, she put together one for me! What happened was not at all her fault and she wasn't at all obligated to make up for it... but I think she must just be a very thoughtful person.

It was a delight to open the box and find a box of chamomile tea, a pretty vintage apron in spring green with a rose applique pocket, a set of rose-colored napkins, 2 pony-tail elastics, some tea-time recipes...
...and best of all, a violet cup-and-saucer set! Diane must have read back through my blog to discover that I have a mix-and-match violet tea-set! This makes 5 violet cup-and-saucer sets in my collection, and each one is distinctively different. I love it!

Thank you, Diane!

My Calendar Plate

My mother always uses her "good china" for special occasions -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, company dinners -- and when I was a little girl, any time the table was set with Mother's good china, I had the privilege of eating from this "special" plate. See? It's a calendar of my birth year!
I have four siblings and none of them had a "special" plate. One time I asked Mother where my plate came from and why the others didn't have one.

"Oh, it was in some stuff Grandmother had... and since you were the only grandchild born in 1965, she gave it to you."

It wasn't like Grandmother to buy such things for gifts for the grandchildren. She was much more practical than that, and besides her gifts were usually hand-made. I wonder if she received it as a gift for Christmas 1964 and when 1965 was over she "re-gifted" it to me? Or maybe it was in a box of stuff she got at an auction?

In any case, it was my "special" plate and so I got to eat off of it on special occasions. That's why the design is beginning to wear off. It's amazing to me that it has survived all these years without getting broken!

Visit Coloradolady for more Vintage Thingy Thursday posts.

Violet Teacup

Remember my mix-and-match violet tea-set? I found another cup-and-saucer to go with it! That makes four... and each one different. This one's not quite as pretty as the other three, but for $3.50 I'm not complaining!
Isn't it fun to collect something just a little out-of-the-ordinary and then find a piece for your collection at a very reasonable price?

Just thought I'd show you the latest addition as part of Kelli's Show & Tell Friday.

Pretty dishes!

If you've been following my blog for awhile you may remember a discussion my aunt Rachel and I had back in the winter about a certain style of vintage china that we both like. (Be sure to read the comments on that post if you click back to see what I'm talking about.)

A couple weeks ago I was out garage-saling and happened upon this pretty serving bowl.There were no prices marked (one of my pet peeves at garage sales, as I hate dickering!), but it had a couple of small chips out of the side of it, so I was hopeful that it wouldn't be too expensive. When I asked the lady about it, she looked it over and then asked me, "What would make you happy to take it home with you?" Considering the chips, I tentatively said, "A dollar?" She was happy with that. "A buck? It's yours!"

Since I have red accents in my kitchen (and I love the dainty pattern) I was very pleased to get it. I had seen similar patterns in blue and green, but I hadn't seen the red before.

Imagine my delight to discover a "matching" sugar bowl marked 50 cents at another garage sale that same morning! It is missing it's lid, but look at the pretty flowers painted on the inside!The outside of the sugar bowl is half red like the "ribbon" on the bowl. But I couldn't figure out why the sugar bowl had the gold filigree on it and the bowl didn't.
Then I turned the dishes over. Turns out, they are not the same pattern at all! They aren't even from the same manufacturer. Imagine that! I would have never known.

Maybe that will double my chances of finding more pieces in either of those patterns, you think?

Stop by Kelli's House for more Show & Tell posts:

Tea Pots

The theme for this week's Gracious Hospitality blog-o-thon is to tell about tea pots. Many of the ladies participating have lovely collections of tea pots. I don't. I only have 2... my beautiful china tea pot with violets on it, and my more practical stoneware tea pot in the Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne pattern. I have posted pictures of them previously, so I won't show them to you again... but I thought I would tell you about my new tea kettle!

A couple years ago a lady my husband worked with gave me a big collection of Yorktowne stoneware. Her dad had given her various pieces over the years so she had a sentimental attachment to it, but had gotten tired of it and didn't need it any more. She was glad to be able to give it to someone she knew would enjoy it and appreciate it. And I have. It's a pattern I've always liked.

A few weeks ago I was in our local Pfaltzgraff outlet store and was browsing the Yorktowne aisle. As many pieces as I have, there are tons more I don't have. Not that I need more. I was just interested to see how many things they had come up with for the collection. It occurred to me that I did need a new tea kettle, but that was one thing I didn't see on the Yorktowne aisle. After browsing a bit longer I started to leave the store when the lady asked if I found what I was looking for. On a whim I asked, "I guess there's not a tea kettle in the Yorktowne pattern, huh?" She told me, "Oh, yes, there is! It's over here with the tea kettle display!" Dummy me. I had been looking for it with all the other Yorktowne stuff! So I splurged a little and bought it! Isn't it pretty?

Decora-a-Tea

This week's theme on the Gracious Hospitali-Tea Blog-a-thon is to share ideas and pictures that incorporate tea and/or tea themes into home decor.

Now, as you no doubt realize, my home is not all put together yet from our move... and my decorating is not complete. (But then, is it ever?) But here are a few pictures that go along with this week's theme.

First, my violet tea "set" that I told about in January. I have it on the mantle of my "faux" fireplace in the living room. My mother added a piece while she was here. She found the little pitcher night-light/scent-warmer that fits right in, while we were out shopping. I put rose-scented oil in it for now, because that's what I have... but I'd like to find violet-scented oil for it if I can. I also want to add some taper candles and greenery to this grouping, but for now it is simply the tea-set on a doily.
For some reason this Precious Moments figurine always makes me think of tea-time. The name of it is "You are Always There for Me"... and it portrays one little girl comforting another. Good friends, a listening ear, a hanky (if needed), and a cup of tea... isn't that what tea-time is all about?
Last week I quoted from Anne of Green Gables for my Liter-a-Tea post. Well, I found the neatest book this week: The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. One chapter in the book was all about tea-time. It even gave a typical menu, listing four courses: sandwiches, biscuits and jam, cookies or fruitcake, and dessert. I'll probably share some more of the ideas later, but I decided that my girls and I should start having tea every day! We usually eat lunch around noon, but often supper isn't until 8:00 p.m. or later, so of course we get hungry in between and do a lot of snacking. More than we should, I'm sure. So I told the girls that we will start having tea at 4:00 p.m. and cut out all this between-meals snacking. They loved that idea, and I think it will be a fun memory for them, as well as a practical idea. I plan to add either fresh fruit or veggies as a substitute for the dessert course. I just don't see the need for a cookies and fruitcake course, followed by a dessert course! LOL! And just as Marilla didn't let Anne use the rosebud-spray tea set for her tea with Diana, we won't be using the violet tea set for every day. Instead, we have this friendly little fat stoneware tea-pot that matches my Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne dishes.

Time for Tea

Denise says that January is Hot Tea Month. Never heard of it before, but I'll take her word for it. She is celebrating each Tuesday with "Tuesday's Tea Time"... and I'm joining her for tea this week! (If memory serves--which it very well may not--I'm thinking her birthday is this week, too. It's been way too many years since we were little girl pen-pals!)

As my contribution to "Tuesday's Tea Time" I wanted to show you my very unique tea "set". You notice "set" is in quotes? That's because it's not truly a set... but I love it! My mother bought me the beautiful violet teapot when she visited England 12 years ago. Then 2 years ago for my birthday she surprised me the cup-and-saucer on the left. It looks like it matches the tea-pot, doesn't it? It's a different brand, though. Soon after that a dear friend gave me the cup-and-saucer on the right. And just this past summer Mother gave me the one in the middle "just because". Each one is white with violets, and edged in gold. They are so beautiful! And I love that each one is different. It will be interesting to see if I ever find (or receive) more.

(And, no, Rachel, the violets aren't begging to live at your house!)