Dish and Dish-Honesty

My china cupboard must be part clown-car.

It has all the size and shape of a normal china cupboard…

But as I went to reorganize and thin out some things, I suddenly had enough dishes sitting on my floor to fill the entire Homer Laughlin factory…

(Plus, you know, there were all those rubber noses and floppy shoes to contend with.)


So HOW did this happen?

Well… (hangs head in abject shame)… I KNOW how this happened.

This happened because my place has become the Home for Wayward Tablesettings. I am a Housewares Softie. I feel bad when I see pretty china and glass sitting unloved and unappreciated in the thrift stores. It is cheap and beautiful and needs someone who will adore it and take care of it. I pick it up, and pet it, and inevitably… it follows me to my car.
Some people collect cats. I amass vintage dishware.

And having too much of either can be a little unhealthy.

I mean, OKAY, so it’s not like my neighbors are calling the Board of Health about the sickening smell of dishwashing liquid emanating from my house.

It’s not like I’m tripping over compotes as I descend the stairs. Or sleeping with thirty gravy-boats at the foot of my bed.

But do I really NEED SEVEN 1950s floral whiteware platters? Am I ever really going to have enough people to tea that 27 mixed ROSE-PRINTED TEACUPS will be the ticket to good hostessing?

Unlikely.

So it’s time to be honest with myself: I am not a Jane Austen character. I don’t have twenty of my closest friends to sit around the parlor every day and sip tea, nibble scones and chat about our lives and our hobbies…

Well, actually, I DO, but they’re online. They bring their own cups.

So this last week the floor between my living room and dining rooms looked like a rummage sale. And I forced myself to make some very tough decisions. Yes indeedy, it was like my own personal variation on that old Clash tune: “Should It Stay or Should It Go?”…

Except, you know, with more pink than punk.

Admittedly, I had a few moments where I MIGHT have gone a little too far over to the minimalist side. There were beloved pieces that spent a brief, miserable time in the discard pile before I realized that I am not actually, say, DYING…

Or moving into a nursing facility…. Or, oh, transferring to the Australian Outback…

And so I probably CAN KEEP a couple of my favorite Royal Doulton chintz pieces if otherwise it would make me sob into my salad plate.

But mostly I remained strong. So it looks like I’m going to try selling on Ebay for the first time. Not as a regular vendor, mind you. Just to clear out the extras and reduce my unhealthy teacup/meat platter quantities and other items to normal, non-Housewares Softie levels.

I WOULD sell them at a garage sale, for a quick and painless separation. But I’ve heard stories about that. Stories where strangers peer blank-faced into your windows in the dim of the morning, well before the sale starts. Surrounding the place, tapping at the glass, mumbling, drooling… It’s Dawn of the Dead for bargains.

Well, me, I put in over 45 hours a week, plus commute. And I am SO unprepared to fight off the zombie hoards at 5am on a Saturday…
At least not before coffee.

So Ebay it will be! I promise to you folks, this site will remain entirely free of info related to sales. I have no plans to turn The Thrift Shop Romantic site into any sort of vending medium.

However, if anyone does want to be notified by email regarding the Ebay items that go up for sale, I’d be happy to put you on a mailing list. Just click the Say Hi button and send me a note.

I look now in my reorganized china cabinet and feel a little more at peace.

I glance at the china destined to leave Waterhouse and I swallow the lump in my throat as I reaffirm my decisions. Yes, they are orphans now, lost children looking for a path. But they will find new homes. New homes where people will love them. Surely someone, SOMEONE must need a 27 mixed rose teacups …

Ah, Jane Austen, sweetie, you would have LOVED Ebay.

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PS-- This is the LAST WEEK for anyone entering the Nifty Thrifty Gifty Giveaway here. Please help me get more vintage china and other goodies safely OUT of my house by being a part of this fun little event. Click here for the details. The results will be revealed next week.
PPS--I was tagged by Debbie over at the CozyCottage blog, so if you’re dying to know seven obscure details about yours truly (I know, the curiosity has just been killing you), you can read those by clicking here.

Tag: Seven Obscure Things You Didn't Know About Me

I did one of these tags in May (click here if you’d like to read that one), but when my friend Debbie of the CozyCottage and TwiceUponATime blogs sent the tag my way this week I thought, what the heck. Let’s see if I can come up with seven more weird facts from my eccentric little existence.

(And no, I won’t blame you if you nod off. :)

1. I often drive to and from work listening to audio-books. My recent favorites are PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves series and also his “Uncle Dynamite” CD set. His sense of humor has me giggling out loud in the car. I can only imagine what my fellow-commuters must think.
2. When I was 11, I was so inspired by my Nancy Drews, I wrote a mystery novel of my own. It was called Key to the Blue Moon. And while looking back on it, though it’s hardly a publisher’s dream, it was great writing experience trying to develop a full-length story line.
3. I am learning to paint, and have taken two classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art. I’ve enjoyed the classes, but one of the most interesting aspects of the experience, I’ve felt, is getting to be in the museum at night, after hours. It’s surreal to venture to the classroom and pass by things like parts of animal skeletons, or taxidermy animals along the way. We had the entire art gallery to ourselves one night. I spent a few peaceful hours getting to copy one of Monet’s Waterlilies paintings.
4. I’m an only child. I often think, particularly at holidays, how nice it would be to have some brothers and sisters. But then again, if I had had siblings, I doubt I’d have spent so much time growing up writing stories. Things do balance out, don’t they?
5. I love black olives. I just don’t know what it is. In fact, you know how at Christmas sometimes you’d get an apple or orange in the ol’ stocking? Me, I’d get a can of pitted gigantic Black Pearl olives. Talk about obscure, right?
6. I really like the color fuschia-- it seems to have so much zing-- but I just can’t wear it because it looks glaringly bright with my red hair. I don’t want to scare the locals.
7. Spring is my absolute favorite time of year. There’s just something so marvelous to me about the longer days, the slant of the sun, the renewed chirping of birds and the atmosphere of possibility as the plants begin to bud. Spring feels like my reward for persevering through winter.
   

Well, that’s it! More minutia than you’d ever care to know, I’m sure.

If you haven’t stopped by this week’s feature blog post, “Dish and Dish-honesty” you might wish to pop over there... Click here.

Otherwise, I hope you’ll have yourself a rewarding week!

Kute-- er, Cute-- Kitchenalia

Cheap.

I am.

Or maybe we’ll call it “fiscally practical.” It has a nicer ring, doesn’t it?

Though I love those gorgeous vintage-look appliances that have a turn-of-the-century stove or icebox feel, they tend to cost more than a year’s worth of car payments.

I figure my refrigerator can’t drive me to work. My stove can’t transport me to thrift stores.

So being fiscally practical, these items are probably not in my future.


Instead I’ve got plain ol’ white no-frills jobbies which do what they’re supposed to and basically say:

“Pay no attention to me. I’m white and boring and not the focus of the room. Do you YAWN when you look at me? See, you’re yawning already. That is how plain and white and boring I am.”

(Hm. Sounds like my appliances are suffering from low self-esteem... Pity.)


But that just means other items in my kitchen get to step forward to make the room look as vintage/Victorian as the rest of the house.

It also means I can’t be much of a stickler for historical accuracy-- and it gives me the freedom to scour thrift stores and antique malls for cute kitchenalia.

I figure if the room simply evokes a sense of the past, I’m doing okay.

Thrift stores have been fun for finding things like casserole dishes and mixing bowls in cheerful retro colors.


Pyrex, I understand, has become increasingly collectible. Do you remember a particular Pyrex dish your mom or grandma might have used at family gatherings or everyday dinners? Maybe it evokes a certain sense of what “home” is supposed to be.

Growing up, my mother had a strange array of pink Pyrex dishes. I say strange, not because they weren’t adorable-- but because they absolutely weren’t her taste. Mom wasn’t a “Pink” girl. Mom was a “‘70s Harvest-Color Colonial Revival” girl. Yet pink Pyrex gooseberry-patterned mixing bowls still say “Mom is baking cookies” to me. And the pink Pyrex casserole dish above was like one Mom served scalloped potatoes in. I found this at the Goodwill for about $3.

The thrift stores are also good for finding vintage silver pieces. Sugar and salt shakers aren’t hard to come by at good prices. And serving pieces like ladles and serving spoons can be as functional as they are interesting to look at.


Please forgive the tarnish on these babies I’m showing here. Normally they’re polished up to a decent shine. (I’ve just been a bit pressed for time lately.) Let’s call the tarnish “character.”

Antique malls and flea markets have been good sources for finding intriguing kitchen implement, too. The wooden handles take on a nice patina with age, and things like this hand-mixer and dicer were only a few dollars a piece-- though it’s good to shop around, because these can run upwards of $8-$12.


Lastly, I thought it might be fun to show you some new kitchen items that seem to mesh well with actual vintage pieces. The “apple green” trend that Kitchenaid and Hamilton Beech have embraced has worked decently with my Depression glass-- it’s just about the same general color, and has a sort of vibrance that adds a little zing to a darker room. I just hang the teaspoons and measuring cups on hooks where I can get them.


The airtight canisters are Martha Stewart K-Mart purchases that are the same color as my jadeite. I use them for storing things like coffee and breadcrumbs. Again, it’s the color that I think adds a little something to the kitchen.

How have YOU tackled bringing a vintage feel into your kitchen? Has it been more difficult than the other rooms? I’d love to hear from you.

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Just as a reminder, the Nifty Thrifty Gifty Giveaway is still running, so you have until October 13 to submit your guesses.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted so far. If I haven’t sent you a confirmation that I received your entry, let me know. I had some flukey email one day, apparently, and at least one entry hadn’t come through to me. I don’t want to accidentally neglect anybody.

Click here if you’d like to read about the Giveaway.

Otherwise, I hope to see you all next week! Take care of yourselves!