Monday, September 19, 2016

new mantra


My new mantra is I can't break it if I don't use it.  I love pretty dishes, my mother loved pretty dishes. I have more pretty dishes than the average person just ask the movers.  But the thing is I just move the dishes and don't use them because they are so pretty.  Darling daughter has made it clear that she doesn't want all the pretty dishes someday.  She claimed the grocery store premium dishes that grandma so frequently used because grandma didn't care if a piece broke and they went in the dishwasher.  Which leads to the argument that if you don't use it it doesn't become a treasured heirloom.  So I am going to start using my wedding dishes for everyday along with my fostoria goblets ( my mother and mother-in-law bought every last piece of misty blue fostoria the shop had before they went out of business a couple decades ago,  I have 20 goblets and 15 sherbets, does any one really need that many pieces?) and if something breaks so be it. Rather than my pretty dishes ending up at a yard sale or the second hand store and selling for next to nothing,  I am going to use them and enjoy using them and if they break they break.  I know people who have helped set their kids up in an apartment by furnishing it with hand me down pretty dishes from aunts and great aunts and being told to just use them and put them in the dishwasher.  So I am going to honor my mother and grandmother by using their dishes and please my children by maybe leaving them some tea sets of six instead of twelve.  --Ann--
P.S.  I thought green tea might taste better in a china teacup but it really didn't help.

8 comments:

cityquilter grace said...

i think that's a great idea...if there are any left, somebody will use and enjoy them as you have...might be a good idea to document where and from whom they came...in case they get adopted out someday...

Doniene said...

Hello Ann, I'm a new follower and have joyed getting to know you a bit! I too love pretty dishes and have enough to set up three households ( so my hubby says LOL) and I so enjoy using my "heirlooms"!

Have a blessed day!

patty a. said...

I have a set of Royal Dalton china I bought a place setting at a time. My Mom would not eat off of them because she was afraid of one getting broken. I had a friend come to visit a couple of years ago and I put one of the plates in the microwave to heat something up. The plate cracked. That was a lesson learned - don't put fine china in the microwave! I just couldn't throw the plate in the trash so I sent it to Vicki of Colorways by Vicki Welsh and she used it for her mosaic wall in her studio. I think I will go home and make myself a cup of tea in my fancy china.

Ramona said...

That's a great idea. I have several sets of china here, too, and my daughter doesn't want any of it. I use it for special dinners, but not often enough. Enjoy drinking your tea from your pretty cup! (And I don't think drinking green tea from Presidential china would make it taste any better! :D)

Sharon said...

You are so right. The things my girls want are the glasses from the World's fair in Seattle, the glasses collected for each gas fill up and etc

Vic in NH said...

I'm jealous that you have progeny upon whom to pass your treasures, my stuff will be bound for Goodwill or worse. I use a couple of sweeteners in the green tea and found it palatable enough to enjoy. Honey is nice, too.

KrisR said...

Terrific! I started doing that a few years back. Same with quilts. I tell people I give quilts to that if they wear holes in them - I'll make them new ones.

J Barham said...

I collected a set of china from a Safeway store in my little hometown in Kansas. This was when I was 18 yrs. old. They were destroyed in a housefire in 2006. In fact, everything was destroyed and we had to start over. My daughter's MIL gave me a pair of china plates, dishes, and teacups. Just enough for the 2 of us. I have them stored away for 'some day'. I guess I should get them out and use them! Thanks for the posting and encouragement. Just another thought...I drink green tea, also. When I am brewing the tea, I put a peppermint tea bag with the green tea bag. The peppermint tea bag is herbal tea with no caffeine. It is truly delicious to my taste. --Joyce