Dishes, Dishes, Dishes! ~ Faithfulness Farm

Remember back at New Years when everyone in blogland was picking their word for the year? I didn't really find one that fit but I should have picked DETERMINED! I entered this year determined to NOT add to my lumbering collection of dishes. I've done pretty well. In January, I was off to a shaky start when I found these vintage Clover Blossom dishes to complete my everyday breakfast set.

But I gave some dishes to Goodwill in my January organizing blitz. That round of purging was pretty painless. It was mostly, the *WHAT WAS I THINKING* dishes.

Then along came March -- FOREVER I had been coveting some Mikasa white dishes and found (at Goodwill again) a complete set for 8 of French Countryside (with completer pieces) for a fraction of their worth, in pristine condition and they came home with me too.

I knew I'd use them and indeed I do. I replaced my old *everyday* dishes with them. AND I gave my old everyday dishes away to a friend. Although I liked my old white dishes, the parting was pretty painless.

Spring and summer found me pretty distracted and although I did do some thrifty shopping, I only breezed past the dishes. I completely stayed away from my old haunt, TJ Maxx....that is, until late summer. I went in there with daughter to *look at baby stuff*. I knew it would be hard for me and indeed it was. One stroll down the clearance aisle and away I came with ......

Now let me clarify, the green square Mikasa's were already mine (yeah, I lugged them babies all over Mall of America last year -- I think my right arm is now permanently longer than my left). What gave me such temptation was the square rooster plates -- BUT in all reality, I NEEDED square rooster plates to go with those (never been used) square green plates. I was TOTALLY justified in my purchase! When I got home, I searched my dish collection for something to go from my collection -- hum, I was pretty sure I could part ways with some funky dessert plates I had picked up somewhere in my travels. Off to the GW with them. Whew, I have not *added* to my problem, I mean collection!

Then I ran into a REAL problem -- A stack of 8 of these babies at GW.

Yeah, they are in my dish storage awaiting a holiday tablescape. NO MORE THOUGH -- NO MORE! Oh, and I didn't part with a thing -- my thought is I'll use them one season and then away they go! It isn't technically an addition if I'm not planning to keep them long term, is it?

A few weeks ago my daughters and I made our annual trip to Lincoln, NE to visit The Historic Haymarket (and this bad blogger totally went off without her camera -- it was sitting on the dining room table where I left it). This is a trip I look forward to every year. In the Haymarket is Burlington Antiques. My daughters ditched me there to run off and eat all sorts of foods that are forbidden for me to eat, lol. I was totally okay with that - you see, Burlington Antiques has more DISHES than your average antique mall. I knew I wouldn't be coming home with any of those dishes and enjoyed a long stroll through taking in ALL the wonderful antique and vintage dishes.

Even though I didn't buy a thing in that trip to the antique mall it STILL got me into trouble! You see, on Saturday, I was on the GW side of town and before I knew what was going on, I was pulling into the parking lot and heading right in the door. Let me say that this isn't my favorite time of year for thrifty shopping -- too many Halloween costume seekers are rummaging through my favorite thrifty source this time of year. That said, I made a pass around the whole store and then headed back to the dishes - spying a box on the ground, I take a peek inside and recognize what I see -- China -- made in England, bone china -- ROYAL WORCESTER CHINA -- TOPAZ BY ROYAL WORCESTER BONE CHINA. This was one of the chinas that I studied for quite some time during my trip to Burlington Antiques. I loved the fall like pattern, and the calming sandstone colored rim and the name -- my oldest daughters birthstone and now here I was holding a box full of it. The price ------ $3.00!! FOR ALL OF IT!! My GW has taken to putting sets of dishes in opened topped boxes and then using packing tape to make a see-thru but cannot handle thru top. You can see what is in the box but not really see anything under the first layer or so. Nothing was packed in paper so who knows what kind of condition these are actually in. Since the asking price was only $3.00, I took a chance on condition and exactly what was there. Once home, I inspected all the contents and basically pieced together 4 complete place settings (dinner plate, salad plate, bread & butter plate, dessert plate & cup & saucer). I am happy with that -- 4 diners is the most common at my dining table....anything more than that, and it will have to be a different set of dishes.