January 4, 2012 | 
Author I love to dish! When my friends get together we could dish for hours! So, tell me, are you what you eat? If that were the case I know I’d be a handful of Pixi Stix tonight! (Target had a 90% off Valentine’s Day candy. Need I say more?)
I ask because I’d like to change the question up a bit…Are you the plate you eat off? I know it’s a weird question, but tell me… Are you eating off of Aunt Mildred’s 1970′s brown and orange mushroom collection that match the glass toad stools she left you? Are you hiding away the pretty dishes you think are too fragile to use? Or are you fully enjoying those special pieces? For me, my mother “graciously” handed me the set of china her father-in-law (you heard me right) picked out for them. They weren’t too bad if you like pictures of old mills, but I was happy to move onto something that made me a little happier and I know my Mom was!
At some point in my married life, I started realizing how much I loved plates. Not just for eating, but for decorating too. The plates were more than dinnerware. They were art. The best part about the art? They were cheap! I’m truly a vintage plate kind of gal. Give me a red transfer-ware plate and I’m in heaven. Find me a rare green one and I’m practically delirious! When I’m at my most absolutely favorite store in the whole wide world, Homegoods, I always start in dinnerware and most often skip the wall art section altogether! They always seem to have a new piece and I can almost guarantee I’ll find the color or style I’m looking for whether it’s vintage looking or something more modern.
Now, all this is not to say dishes cannot be beautiful in their intended place. In fact, the opposite is quite true. Even though I’m not particularly fond of cooking, sitting down at the table with pretty dishes and matching drinking glasses puts me in a good mood. You see, if I don’t catch my kids, they tend to put the Scooby Doo cups from the fast food place with the expensive red water goblets I keep on the top shelf! But, if the matching ones are out, I feel at peace. That is until we’re done praying and the conversation turns to blowing up heads in cartoons and #2 asks if he can blow up a grape in the microwave to demonstrate what it would look like.
Perhaps one of the things I love best about dishes is they tell a story. Believe it or not, even Aunt Mildred’s toad stools! (Although, really? Toad stools?) I love looking at some of the beautiful dishes my Mom left me when she passed away. There’s a precious bone-china cookie jar that belonged to my great-grandmother. There’s the china Mom picked out later in life (after getting rid of “Old Mill”) and loved using. I don’t use them every day, but I do have them displayed as priceless works of art.
So next time you’re feeling like you can’t afford art work, pull out some of your favorite dishes and if your table feels lack-luster at dinner time, bring out matching plates and cups. That might just be the Pixi Stix to your toad stool kind of nest. Oh, and to my daughters, I still have the “Old Mill” china in the attic waiting for you!
To dish some more, check out the book, The Vintage Table: Personal Treasures and Standout Settings by Jacqueline DeMontravel (available on Amazon).
