I love March, when during the Slice of Life Challenge, I commit to writing on a daily basis. It's fun during 31 days of posts to watch the ebb and flow of my writing. Some days I'll be incredibly pleased with how a post turned out; other days I'll just be glad I posted anything at all. A huge thanks to the gang at Two Writing Teachers for hosting, organizing, and commenting on this ginormous event each year. I appreciate the community of writers you encourage the entire month of March, and all the Tuesdays the rest of the year. Thank you, thank you.
This March, I plan to connect as many posts as possible to my #OLW for the year - SAVOR.
We got married in 1985, and the dinner dishes we received as wedding presents were a beautiful blue Pfaltzgraf pattern. I loved those dishes!
I still loved the Pfaltzgraf dishes in 1995.
By 2005, I was getting a bit tired of the pattern, but didn't have the energy to do anything about it, except just look at what was available when I was browsing in stores. Buying an entire new set of dishes with matching serving platters seemed like a lot of unnecessary money, especially as we were getting ready to start paying for college tuition.
In 2010, I was ready to get rid of the Pfaltzgraf. After all, these dishes had served us well for 25 years. Certainly, it would be ok to move on. During a trip to Ikea, I found some plates that might work, and I bought a set of four. I didn't love them, but we liked the color, we liked their shape, and they were easy to take care of. We were empty nesters so four sets of dishes seemed like enough for the two of us. Life was good for awhile.
2014 - I was at Macy's buying my niece's wedding shower gift, and she had registered for a lovely Noritake pattern. I thought to myself - this is it! This is the pattern I want for our daily dishes. So I bought a set of four for yet another test run. The first week we had them, I broke a bowl, and cracked a dinner plate; the sales lady had told me they were almost impossible to break. I didn't have the heart to replace the bowl and the plate just to break them again, so I kept my mismatched Ikea and Noritake dish sets, and worked with that.
It's now 2017. We just purchased a new kitchen table, and instead of settling for mismatched dishes anymore, I have been actively looking for the "right" dish set to go with this new table. Today, I found myself again buying a wedding shower gift; this time for a friend's son and his fiance at Crate and Barrel. I've always loved that store, and can spend hours just browsing, but today I did a little more than that. I brought home another pattern for a test drive. I like every single thing about these plates so far. Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned... Hopefully, by next Saturday, the dish saga will reach its conclusion: we will love using the plates this week, and I will head back to Crate and Barrel to purchase an entire set of dishes and platters.
And when that happens, I plan to savor every moment of using those dishes since it's taken me 7 years to figure it out!
Ha! I love your journey with your dishes. We've had ours for only 21 years now, but they are much older than that. We got Fiesta dishes handed down from my mom and great aunt. Every once in awhile I contemplate using something else, but then change my mind. Good luck on your journey! Crate and Barrel is one of my favorite stores.
ReplyDeleteBuying dishes is indeed a saga. Breakage is a "happening" in my house so my very best loved dishes, I always handle with utmost care. My mug cabinet, on the other hand, is a mix of many that I have acquired over the years. Of course, my brand new Christmas mugs are now missing a few. I hope your dish saga comes to a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Pfaltzgraf dishes. They use to make them right here where I live. We had a service for 12, the Folk Art pattern. I have my great-grandmother's Fiesta dishes but I have never used them. Now we have an updated set of Pfaltzgraf dishes but the pattern, Cappuccino, has been discontinued. I love them and will probably keep using them until they dwindle away.
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate your story - my dishes are a basic white set I bought on a big sale about 7-10 years ago. I don't really like them, but they are sturdy and match. I'm at about your 2005 level - can't justify paying for new ones, but not really liking what I have! Hope you find what you're looking for!
ReplyDeleteHope those dishes will work out, but be sure to buy all you need. They discontinue patterns with no warning at Crate and Barrel. This prompted us to take on simple white dishes. They seem to always be there.
ReplyDeleteYour slice makes me laugh! About twenty years ago, I bought myself Pfatzgraff. I had that for a long time, until I adopted the boys and then they started getting broken. Now we have a mishmosh- a few leftover Pfatzgraff, and some from my mom's house, a few from when the boys went off to college, etc. You make me think I need to go get new dishes.
ReplyDeleteOur dishware has been breaking at an appalling rate lately. My husband got the set before we met, so nearly 20 years ago. Our dishwasher and the way the kids handle the dishes are the two main culprits. I actually just bought four dinner plates at the Dollar Tree last weekend so we wouldn't run out of dishes after every single meal. I think I'll wait until the empty nest stage before thinking about a more elegant solution.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has a dishware obsession--my father says she cannot bring anymore china into their house (I think she's got something like six or seven complete sets...the product of thrift store finds and estate sale bargains...) I totally think of her as I read this post. I wish you luck in your Perfect Dish Quest! May it soon come to a happy conclusion. :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your dish slice in a timeline structure and had to chuckle. My second set of Pflatzgraff dishes are used and loved. I bought an IKEA set to give us more bowls but know I should someday start new.
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