Favourite Things Friday: Royal M China, circa 1959

Occasionally we all inherit, or are given, or get something or some things that are too good to use for a variety of seemingly sound but really quite silly reasons—they’re heirlooms or too rare or too expensive or too fragile or too pretty. The result is heirloom linen handed down from generation to generation that falls apart when some benighted heiress decides to air it. While I’m glad that past generations saved some things we now enjoy, we are enjoying them by using them instead of carefully storing them for our kids—in turn to store. Unused beautiful things are a waste. –Malcolm Forbes

There is an elderly lady who attends my ward {congregation} whose husband passed away several months ago. Sunday-before-last, during Relief Society {Women's Sunday School} the leader who was conducting announced that the woman was moving and had a nice set of 12 dishes she'd like to give away. I'm not sure what came over me, but I heard “12 place-settings” and I said “yes, please!” My hand went up like a shot.

And then I felt a little guilt. Not enough to not take the dishes, mind you. But I wondered if perhaps someone else who didn't have a set of china could have used these dishes? My grandpa gave me my grandma's beautiful set of Noritake Pasedena, to which I've added more pieces. I love it and use it all the time. I think I was secretly hoping that this new set of old china would match my old set of old china so I could have 20 matching place settings. But it didn't. So now I have two sets and I don't think it is superfluous at all. Well, maybe just a tiny bit. But I'm in love with those pretty blue flowers and now that I've got these dishes in my possession, I can't bear to let them go.

I don't know much about vintagey things. The mark on the bottom says Royal M by Saji and the pattern name is Liege. I googled and couldn't find much at all about the Royal M company, which is a disappointment. I do know that the woman these pretty dishes came from got them in 1959. And that's about all I know about them, except that they are beautiful and have already had a turn at Sunday dinner. We'll be switching off every Sunday and special occasions. The Little Bugs think it is awesome to eat of china on Sunday and remind me if I forget and set the table with our regular dishes.

Today's post brought to you by:

Vintage Thingy Thursday: Salt & Pepper Shakers and Butter Dish For My Old China Set

Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.
–H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

My grandpa sent me a Valentine . In that Valentine was a check. It was payment for the bibs I made him . I told him more than once that he didn't need to pay me. And I probably should have sent the check back . But I was too busy thinking about what I wanted to do with my Valentine. It wasn't anything responsible, like paying bills. I was thinking of selfish things I could buy for myself. I thought it was kind of fitting to buy a few more service pieces for my china with the money he sent me, because he gave me the set of dishes. I went straight to eBay and got the salt & pepper shakers. So cute! And the butter dish. To die for! Not to mention really hard to find .

Pasadena 6311 came out in 1962, but there is no telling exactly how old these pieces are, because they could have been manufactured any time up until 1978. This pattern, which is 49 years old, is so timeless. I think it is so pretty and I love getting 'new' pieces to add to my set.

And shhh . . . don't tell . While I was buying the butter dish and the salt & pepper shakers, I got a cereal bowl because one bowl was missing from the set my grandpa gave me and I wanted to take advantage of combined shipping. I mean, I could have ordered it separately some other time and paid a separate shipping. But why not have it tag along in the same box as the butter dish and salt & pepper shakers. I just makes sense to save a little money on shipping, right? Right.

I think I'm finished collecting service pieces for now. As cute as the coffee pot is {not to mention the tea pot, sugar bowl and creamer}, I'm thinking those pieces are just something that I won't use very often at all. I would like to get my hands on a round covered vegetable dish, though, the giant price tag notwithstanding. And I'm kind of dreaming of expanding my set from 8 place settings to 12. That's going to have to wait for a bit though. Still, it is fun to have something to look forward to.

Today's post brought to you by:

Vintage Thingie Thursday: New Service Pieces for My Old Set of China

It's a wise husband who will buy his wife such fine china that she won't trust him to wash the dishes. –Unknown

Last spring, I inherited my Grandma's china. I was really excited to have something so special that belonged to her. I received service for eight {minus one cereal bowl} plus an oval serving platter and an oval serving dish. In general, I'm not much of a fan of vintage or antique for me because when I find something I like, I want to have the whole set and not just one piece. Collecting vintage often means that you can only find a few pieces and the missing ones are irreplaceable.

When I got my china set, I poked around eBay a bit and Googled to see what I could find. I came across Replacements, Ltd., whose motto is, We replace the irreplaceable!® I was so excited because they had pieces for my china set which was discontinued about 32 years ago. When I made out my Christmas list, I made sure to include a few pieces that I was keen on getting and guess what? My mom totally came through! She got me a a second oval serving dish and a round serving dish as well. I was really excited about that.

My birthday is three weeks after Christmas. There are pros and cons to that. One of the pros is that if I didn't get everything I wanted for Christmas, I can always ask for it for my birthday. And once again, my mom really made my birthday. She got me the gravy boat I've been coveting from the moment I found out there was one that matched my set. I absolutely love it! She ordered it a week before my birthday and it just got here this week. Obviously they thought the label said slow boat instead of gravy boat because it took three weeks to get here.

It was totally worth the wait. I'm all weak in the knees for this adorable little gravy boat. There are little divots on either end of the bowl to rest the spoon in the rim, and the underplate is attached for ease in transportation. The best part is that it is all shiny and new. I would never guess that it was made in the late 60's {or even the late 70's; the pattern came out in 1962 and was discontinued in 1978. I'd guess my Grandma's set was purchased around 1965, but there is no telling exactly when these 'new' pieces were manufactured}. I haven't put it away yet because it makes me happy to walk by and see it on the kitchen counter. We're having mashed potatoes and gravy on Sunday so we can use it. I'm really excited.

And now I've got my eye on the butter dish and salt and pepper shakers. Too bad Christmas and my next birthday are so far away .

Today's post brought to you by:

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Statuary

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. –William Faulkner

This pretty statue is one of the things I collected from my grandparent's house when it was being cleaned out to be sold. It, like most of the other items I picked up, was quintessential Grandma Betty, and even though it is not really my style, I couldn't bear to think of it being sent off to the thrift shop. I'm a practical person and so I decided that I would bring this little statue home and put it out in my gardens. I knew just the perfect spot, right near the hydrangea and just in front of the purple coneflower, and I thought she would look so lovely there. After closer inspection, I discovered that she is chalkware or plaster with a gold 'wash' and I decided that she probably wouldn't hold up to the natural elements in the garden very well. Still, I'd already decided to take her home and so here she is, without a real place to keep her. Right now she lives in my little office, because it is low-traffic and she's less likely to get broken in here, but she's shuffled back and forth from spot to spot when she gets in the way. I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on and find her a permanent location.

The statue stands 25" tall and is marked Universal Statuary Corporation, Chicago, Ill., 1967 along with the number 409. She lived at my Grandma's house for as long as I can remember, although I can't be 100% sure that she was actually made in 1967, because the date on the statues from Universal are design copyright dates and not production dates. There is a sticker on the bottom of the statue that says Hatch's Gifts, $36.98. The thing I remember the most about looking at this statue at my Grandma's house when I was little was how close to naked she was. I was a little embarrassed for her.

This second statue belonged to Grandma Betty's mom and was the reason for the first statue I showed you; Grandma Jesse had a pretty statue, so Grandma Betty had to have one too. When Grandma Jesse died, this statue came to live at Grandma Betty's with the first statue. I'm not sure of the details, but I think it involved Grandpa Homer sneaking it out of the house for Grandma Betty. I don't think this statue is as pretty as the first, but I had to keep the 'set' together. Her form isn't quite as feminine or proportionate and as a child, aside from me thinking that she was also very scantily clad, I thought she was rather hippy. However, having grown up to be rather hippy myself, I now find that she doesn't look all that hippy to me anymore.

She stands at 27", but her pedestal is also a little taller than the other's. She is also chalkware or plaster, but is not marked with any sort of company name. I don't have any idea how old she might be, except that by deductive reasoning, she is older than the other statue. I do not have any memory of her in Grandma Jesse's house. But that doesn't mean much. Grandma Jesse died when I was 13, so I don't have very clear memories of her house. She also had a lot of knick-knacks and her Grandfather clock and the small organ were my favorites things to look at when we visited. Sometime after this statue came to Grandma Betty's, one of the little grandkids knocked her over and broke her in half at the waist. They took her to an art school and had them repair her. If you click on the picture to enlarge {right click to manually open in a new tab, or center click to do it automatically} and then click on it again, you can see the fault line.

Perhaps someday when I have a fancy parlor, I'll put these two statues in there along with some pretty flowering houseplants and make my own sort of indoor garden/art museum. And when I pass on, perhaps one of my grandchildren will take the statues of the nearly-naked women home to their house and find a place to put them.

Today's post brought to you by:

Not-So-Vintage Thingie Thursday: Victorian-Style Pitcher and Basin

Grandmothers are just antique little girls and grandfathers are just antique little boys. –Unknown

Last spring, when we were cleaning out my maternal grandparents' house so it could be sold, I picked up a few great heirloom-y {a valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations} type items. I'm sure none of them have much monetary value, but the sentimental value is pretty off-the-charts for me. I was kind of excited to show these things {like my grandma's 1965ish Noritake china set} ala Vintage Thingie Thursday, but wasn't sure exactly what qualified something as a Vintage Thingie and was timid about linking up. I wasn't sure of the origins of a couple of things, so I posted them without the Vintage Thingie designation. I gave away a lovely set of milk glass serving dishes that I think were in the neighborhood of vintage, but I've held off on posting the other things that are researchable and identifiable because really, I'm not a collector of vintage {except for these few things of my grandparents, which hold sentimental value} and don't know much about the world of collectables and antiques.

So it is with trepidation that I make my first official Vintage Thingie Thursday post, because I'm not sure if this Victorian-style pitcher and basin are actually vintage {but I wanted to show them off anyway because they look vintage }. The underside of the pitcher is marked VB Athena California, so I Googled. The company was founded in 1977, so at best, this pretty set is only 33 years old {which is not even as old as I am}, but I'm pretty sure it is more like just 30 years old. Where is line of demarcation for a vintage thingie? {And do I fit into the vintage category ? I'm not even 40. If I am vintage, how does that define me? Because I certainly don't feel vinatage. All good questions, but subjects for another post. Sorry for the tangent. Hopefully the close-up of the flower detail was entertaining. Moving along now.}

While I don't know exactly know old this pitcher set is, it looks vintage and I do know a bit of the history of how it came to reside at my grandparent's house. When my grandpa's mother passed away, my grandpa and grandma inherited her old brass bedstead {which has now been passed on to my youngest brother}, and redecorated their downstairs bedroom around that big brass bed. They put up blue damask wallpaper, placed an old rocking chair next to the bed and filled the shelves above the bed with their own collection of old-fashioned things {this vase being one of them}. They also kept my grandma's mother's old 1960's Bernina Sewing Machine {a post for another Thursday } in that room and on top of the cabinet that housed the machine sat this pitcher and basin. I'm pretty sure they bought the set new and for the express purpose of decorating the old-fashioned room. When it came time to clean out their house, I couldn't bear the thought of it being sent off to a thrift shop. So I brought it home and found it place on the corner of my dresser. And while I think it looks lovely there, I am glad that I don't have to use it.

Today's post brought to you by:

To the Head Elf

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. –Laura Ingalls Wilder

Dear Santa,

It is only 39 days 'til Christmas. I'm a little alarmed by its rapid advance. I hope you're taking it all in stide, though. After all, you are The Man with The List. I thought I'd better get a letter out before too much more time passes, just in case you're not sure what to get me. The Little Bugs will be sending theirs along separately. I was going to wait until after Thanksgiving, but I decided that I didn't want to risk leaving you with too much to do at the last minute. I've been a very good girl this year. I make sure my family has clean socks and undies at all times, I cook dinner {almost} every night {and we hardly ever have Cheeseburger Macaroni or anything else from a box}, I make sure the Little Bugs get their homework done each day and eat vegetables on a regular basis {because they're good for you even though they mostly taste yucky} and I've been working on not procrastinating. I still need a little work on that, but overall, I think I've improved. So if I made the nice list, I'd love to find any of the following under my tree on Christmas morning.

• 3½" Drunkard's Path AccuQuilt Die Cut {I aleady have the 7" Drunkard's Path and love it, but I need the smaller one so I can use Michelle's totally awesome scrappy layout.}
• 2" Square AccuQuilt Die Cut and 5" x 10" Cutting Mat
• Any of the following pieces of China to go with my newly acquired set {Replacements.com is a great place to look}:
—Gravy Boat with Attached Underplate {eBay's got a great deal on one}
—Lugged Cereal Bowl {to replace a missing one}
—Round Covered Vegetable Bowl
—Round Vegetable Bowl {eBay's got a great deal on one}

I've given you lots of options to choose from and even did a little shopping around and price comparison. Any one of these items would be great. I kind of listed them in order of preference {within each category}, but use your best judgement. I hope you get through your list. In the meantime, I'll be plugging away at mine. I've got some great ideas for gifts to make this year.

xo –Elizabeth

Degnoming the Garden

I spent a bit of time degnoming the garden today. Man, do they know a lot of excellent swear words.

This is the front garden, also known as the Birdbath Garden {because of the birdbath sitting in it}. It sits right up next to the front porch, so part of it is a shade garden and the rest is sun. I've got a variety of pretty Hostas in the shade part of the garden, but they are too low to be seen from this vantage {also, the snails gnomes have eaten them to shreds this year}. The sidewalk that runs in front of it leads to the front door there, on the right. The perennials have provided a lot of beautiful color this year, for which I am grateful because annuals {which I usually put in all those empty spots along the front} were not in the budget.

Here is a close up of my favorite section of this garden. A picture doesn't really do it justice, but I love how the Black-Eyed Susans and the Shasta Daisies and the red Yarrow all look together as a sort of hedge behind the Sedum and Valerian and the Cotton Candy Cone flowers.

This Little Missy Daylily was a particularly pleasant surprise. This is the third year it has been growing in this garden and if it didn't bloom this year, it never would. I'm so glad it did.

This is the Sidewalk Garden, another garden in the front of my house. It isn't super colorful {also missing the annuals} right now. The Peonies and Irises and Shasta Daisies and Hardy Geraniums have finished blooming and the Old-Fashioned Orange Daylilies are almost done too. Pretty soon some Hardy Gladiolus will bloom, though, and those are pretty spectacular.

Even when it is mostly just greenery like this, it is still pretty amazing to me because it looked like this at the beginning of March.

I don't cut flowers from my gardens and bring them in the house often. I just can't bear to do it. I even have a 'cutting garden' but I just can't bring myself to cut the flowers out. It leaves a hole in the 'bouquet' in the garden, and they just don't look the same in a vase and cutting them makes them die sooner. But, I wanted to show off this pretty vase I got from my Grandparent's house when I was there a while back as it was getting cleaned out to prepare to be sold. So while I was weeding degnoming, I chose some flowers that were really close to being finished anyway {the Allium looks like it only has about 10 minutes left} or were in the back yard and wouldn't detract from the view from the street {yes, I'm a total show-off}. It will make a pretty arrangement on the table for a few days and I won't feel too badly over it. In this bunch: Autumn Red Daylily, Coconut Lime Coneflower {I just love green flowers – they are such a contradiction}, Shasta Daisies, Dianthus and Drumstick Allium.

Here is a close-up of the etching on the vase. Unlike with the china, I don't know if this is old or new, but I really thought it was pretty and the value lies in the fact that it belonged to my grandparents. I may be cutting flowers to bring into the house a little more often, just so I can use this vase.

Glass Serving Dishes

As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.
The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber
Burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning.
So one generation of men will grow while another dies.
-Homer, Iliad

I've been reminiscing about my maternal grandparents in the last few weeks. I showed you their house and the china that was my Grandma's and is now mine. And I gave you her meatloaf recipe (which I've tinkered with and made my own) and gave away a set of her old milk glass relish plates.

Today I want to show you a set of serving dishes I picked up for myself when I was at their house helping clean things out a little bit. I have absolutely no idea where they came from, who they were made by or how old they are. They could be as new as 7 or 8 years old and have come from Bed, Bath & Beyond. Or they could be 30 or 40 years old. Whatever the case, I thought that the design in them was pretty and glass goes with everything. I don't have very many serving dishes because I like everything to match. My everyday dishes didn't have a matching serving set available, and I didn't want to mix it up, so I make due with the bowls and plates from the set for serving dishes. But now I have a pretty set of larger dishes for serving.

We were invited to a little barbecue tonight. I thought this would be the perfect time to use my new serving dishes because it would be very poor manners indeed to show up empty handed. So LadyBug and I donned our aprons and spent a couple of hours in the kitchen. We baked a Texas Brownie Sheet Cake, adding the little nonpareils sprinkles at her suggestion and then we put together a really fun fruit salad.

LadyBug and I had so much fun in the kitchen today. Unfortunately, no one was around to photograph our fun. I would have loved to show you the two of us together at work because it was a nice afternoon. We worked at her pace and she was so interested in learning new things, like how to use the can opener or how to peel the kiwi {hint: use a potato peeler} or how to remove the stems from the strawberries. She commented on what we were doing and asked questions as we went along and was so eager to help. She is a very restful person to be around, observant, clever, never impatient and always willing to do her best. She is pretty amazing and I love it when she helps.

I love this fruit salad for taking places because it is cool and refreshing and always gets such compliments. Until now, though, I never had a pretty bowl to show it off in. I always used a large, opaque Tupperware Thatsa™ Bowl because I'm always taking the fruit for a large crowd {have I mentioned? Mr. Bug has seven siblings, all married with kids. Lots of kids}. But tonight's party was smaller and so I decided to use my pretty glass bowl.

Layered Fruit Salad
In a large bowl layer:

• Seedless grapes, washed and stems removed
• 1 large (29 oz.) can sliced peaches, drained or two fresh peaches, peeled and sliced or two fresh nectarines, peeled and sliced or two fresh mangoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 container fresh strawberries, washed, stems removed and quartered
• 2 large (20 oz.) cans pineapple chunks, drained (save juice and soak banana slices in it) or 1 fresh pineapple, cored and cut into cubes
• 3 medium bananas, sliced and soaked (a minute or two is plenty, but more doesn't hurt) in pineapple juice or other citrus juice (lemon or orange)
• 2 large (15 oz.) cans mandarin oranges, drained or four small (8 oz.) cans mandarin oranges, drained
• 3 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup raspberries, washed

Cover and refrigerate two or three hours (overnight is OK) before serving.

Notes:
• I like to make this salad the night before I'm taking it somewhere if we're going early in the day. That way it has time to chill. The bananas aren't a problem as long as they've been soaked in pineapple juice and you put them down towards the bottom of the salad (they are between the pineapple and mandarin oranges on purpose).
• This salad is obviously best when fresh fruit is in season, but it is delicious year-round. Some of the ingredients may not be available fresh, but frozen or canned fruits work well. When using frozen fruits, make sure to get the fruit only and not fruit frozen in juice or syrup.
• To make a really large salad (like in the 32-cup Tupperware bowl), start with watermelon cubes at the bottom of the bowl. I usually just get a small (bowling ball sized) watermelon and use about half of that.
• Use whatever color of grapes you want. I happen to like red grapes best, but when I make a large salad, I use green and red for added color.
• When using canned peaches, cut the slices in half length-wise making two slices from each one. I do this because they are too big to be nice bite-size pieces how they come in the can.
• When doing a larger salad, increase the strawberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, kiwi fruit and raspberries by a factor of one.
• When raspberries are not in season, put the strawberries on top of the mandarin oranges instead of lower down in the salad. The red looks pretty with the green kiwi fruit on top.

And for those of you who insist that it isn't fruit salad unless there is a little fluff to go with it, you can serve this fruit dip on the side (but you really don't need it).

Fruit Dip
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 container (7 oz.) marshmallow creme
2 tablespoons orange juice

In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, marshmallow creme and orange juice with a hand mixer until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled. Serve with fresh fruit.

Grandma's Meatloaf

If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.
-Linda Henley

Remember my cute grandma, Betty Jean? Well, the other day when I was showing you her china (which is now mine) I got so wrapped up in trying to decide if the china was vintage or collectible or antique that I forgot to share with you her recipe for meatloaf. Only it isn't exactly her recipe anymore. I've fiddled with it until I've got what I think is the perfect recipe for meatloaf, but it starts with her secret ingredient, sausage. I think I'll be serving this on Sunday on her pretty china plates.

Meatloaf
2 lbs. lean ground beef
¾ lb. country style sausage
½ cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

• Heat oven to 350˚. Lightly beat eggs in a prep bowl. Combine beef, sausage, onion, eggs, breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, garlic, zucchini, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
• Divide meatloaf mixture into two large loaf pans or four mini loaf pans. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes for large loaves or 45 minutes to 1 hour for mini loaves, checking to make sure meat it cooked all the way through at the earliest cooking time and cooking for additional time if needed.
• Serve with baked potatoes or instant or homemade mashed potatoes, veggies and fresh fruit.

Serves 6 to 8

Notes:
• I freeze one loaf instead of cooking it. I place the meatloaf mixture in a freezer bag, put the freezer bag in my loaf pan, shaping the meat mixture to the pan. Then I put it in the freezer and when the meat is frozen, I take the bag out of the pan and put the pan away. When I thaw it, I take the frozen meatloaf brick out of the bag, place it in the pan, cover it and let it thaw in the refrigerator over night.
• Leftover meatloaf makes excellent cold meatloaf sandwiches.

A Vintage-y Giveaway

I've been hinting at a giveaway for a while now. And this post is about a giveaway, just not the giveaway. So, keep watching for the 'bribe more people into reading my blog' giveaway. I'm getting closer to being ready for it. The giveaway I have today is a surprise giveaway, in that it is a surprise to me to have something to give away. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm not a big fan of vintage for myself. But I've got a lovely set of new old china from my grandparents and while I was at their house, I picked up a few other heirloom-y items that I knew I would love and use. I also picked up a little something that I just couldn't leave behind, but know I'll never use. And so I want to offer it to someone who will use it.

Behold, a vintage set of relish plates.

I call them vintage because I know absolutely nothing about them, except that they are milk glass and I don't want them to end up at the D.I. They are in excellent condition and come from such special people that it has become my mission to find them a good home. I would like them to go where someone actually makes deviled eggs when company comes for dinner and wants a pretty plate to put them on and will use the matching plate to fill with carrot and celery sticks and whole black olives.

If you are a collector of vintage and would love and use these plates, leave me a note in the comments and tell me why I should give them to you. I'll leave the comments open until next Saturday (May 15th) around noonish (MST) and then I'll read through the comments and decide who makes the best case for taking care of these pretty plates that belonged to my Grandmother. If you, personally are not interested, but know someone who is, send them by to leave a comment. You do not have to become a follower of my blog to qualify for entry, as I'm not a big vintage collector. I will be showing you a few more things I got from my grandparents, but other than that, I'm mostly about Twilight and quilting and gardening and family. As I mentioned, my goal is to find a good home for these plates.

Summing up the giveaway:
* Each person is allowed only one entry.
* You do not have to follow my blog to qualify for the giveaway.
* Leave a comment telling me why you want these plates to enter. I will be choosing a winner based on the reasons why he/she wants the prize, so you gotta want these plates for your own use and enjoyment. I'm not offering them up so that you can try and make a buck off them later.
* Comments will close on May 15th around noon (MST). The winner will be notified by e-mail and I'll post the winner and comment here within 24 hours.
* Please leave your contact information. If your profile does not include your e-mail address (which you can change in your profile settings), then please leave it in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com. If I can't contact you, you can't win.

Good luck! I'm looking forward to reading your comments and choosing a winner.

Reminiscences & Inheritances

This beautiful couple is Betty Jean and Thomas Homer, my maternal grandparents. They were married on June 12, 1946 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. My grandmother, Betty, was born on January 25, 1927 and passed away on December 13, 2003 after suffering a stroke. She attended three funerals in the space of two weeks; that of her oldest daughter's boyfriend who passed away from cancer, that of my paternal grandfather, and then her own. My grandfather, Homer, was born on December 28, 1927 and celebrated his 82nd birthday last December.

Grandma's death was very unexpected. She was healthy and active, busy with church service and family and taking care of Grandpa. As he's gotten older, his health has declined and it has been difficult to see him struggle with losing his independence. Due to a condition called macular degeneration, he started to lose his sight at about age 18 (I know Wiki says that it happens later in life, but his is an inherited condition that begins in early adulthood). Nevertheless, he remained independent and found ways to work around his vision loss. The only thing he gave up because of it was his driver's license. But due to recent difficulties in his health, he has finally given up his home and moved to an assisted living center.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but judging by the bouquet she is holding I would hazard a guess that it was at the reception held for my grandparents on the day after their wedding. Isn't my Grandma beautiful? She reminds me a little bit of my mom here. And just look at those legs! I inherited those legs. I also inherited my beautiful, no plucking, sculpting or shaping required, zero maintenance, wash-and-wear eyebrows from this delightful Grandma of mine. Unfortunately, I also got her flat backside.

I was so blessed to live near to my grandparents growing up. My grandparents made all of their grandchildren feel like they were the favorite, but I know that I was the true favorite. I'm the oldest grandchild, after all. I have so many special memories of these grandparents. I grew up with five brothers and sisters and when the noise and confusion grew to be too much, I could always go and stay at my grandparents'. I loved to go and sleep over on Friday nights. My grandma would let me have what she called 'a bowl of mush' (cold cereal) for dinner and I could spend time all by myself in the quiet of their house watching TV or reading or playing. It was such a treat to spend time at their house.

With my grandma's death in 2003, came the inevitable beginning of the dividing up of possessions. Grandpa gave away all of her clothes and then divided up the jewelry. As the oldest grandchild, I was allowed first pick from her jewelry box. I chose a lovely emerald cut garnet ring. You see, she and I are both January girls. I loved that we shared carnations as our flower and garnets as our birthstone and I love that I have her garnet ring. I love the deep red color of the stone and the simple elegance of the ring.

My Grandpa always went by his middle name, Homer. His mother knew a boy named Homer and considered him a kind and good person, so that's what my Grandpa went by. Considering the old-fashioned names of some of his other siblings (like Newell, Otis and Thora), I think he probably got off easy. As I mentioned, Grandpa is very independent. He never depended on anyone for anything. Even as his vision has deteriorated to nearly non-existent, he still reads menus and newspapers for himself. I think I got a little bit of his determination and independence. I also got his fair skin, freckles and blue eyes (although my dad has blue eyes too, so that might have something to do with it). I also inherited his thriftiness and love of getting a good deal.

Now that Grandpa has moved to an assisted living center, his house needs cleaning out and things need distributing. My grandparents really kept an orderly home. They didn't hoard and there wasn't junk all over the place. Grandma was an excellent housekeeper and the rooms and living spaces were not just neat and tidy, but clean. She would routinely wash walls, and there was never a speck of dust or a fingerprint anywhere. Not only that, the storage spaces and cabinets and closets were also neat and tidy. But there are still many possessions to distribute.

A few weeks ago my mom called and said my Grandpa wanted to know if I wanted my Grandma's china. He felt that as the oldest grandchild, I should be offered the dishes. He knew what a special love I have for my Grandma, for both of them, and I was touched and honored. When I was married, I never registered for China. We were starting off so poor that I felt it frivolous to request such expensive gifts when basic necessities would be in short supply. Yesterday I went to visit my Grandpa in his new home and stopped by to get the china from his old home. I picked up a few other things that I will show you over the next while, but since this post is already really long, I'll just show the china for now.

The pattern is Pasedena 6311 by Noritake. I reckon that this set is about 45 years old. It is so beautiful and simply elegant, not to mention in excellent condition. There are eight of each of the plates (dinner, breakfast/salad and bread and butter), eight of the small fruit/dessert bowls, seven of the lugged cereal bowls (left-hand side), an oval serving platter and an oval serving dish. Aside from the missing cereal bowl, there is only one little chip on one of the breakfast/salad plates. The white gold plating on the rims is completely in tact on every piece, as is the beautiful rosebud. What an amazing and precious inheritance.

The Little Bugs wanted to know if we were going to eat off these dishes. Most definitely! What is the point of having something so beautiful, if we're not going to use them? I think Sunday dinners will be served on the new china from now on. Mr. Bug was surprised to find that the china is from the late 1960's. He said it looks like new and might be something you could find today. I agree; the pattern is very timeless.

Over the past few weeks, I've been so excited about sharing this new treasure with you. Some of the blogs I follow have owners who collect vintage items and post about them on Mondays or Thursdays. I wondered, though, what does vintage really mean? Do I have some vintage china and could I be part of the cool kids who post about their vintage treasures? I looked it up.

The correct usage of the word vintage is to identify the year when a wine was made. Since the term has been hijacked and abused for the sole purpose of describing and hocking other non-wine related items, it is rather meaningless and can pretty much be used the way anyone wishes. The use of the word vintage most often says the owner doesn't know anything about an item.

To use the word correctly, as with wine, it must be used with a year. As in:

My car is vintage 1996.
My computer is vintage 2010.
This WWII uniform item is vintage 1943.

Since I don't know the exact year the china was produced (sometime between 1965 and 1970, I'd wager), I can't correctly identify this as 'vintage 1965 china.'

In common use the undated term describes something that is old enough to be in fashion again. Thus since 1970's styles are in fashion again, they are 'vintage.' 1980's styles haven't yet been resuscitated; all they are is 'out of date.' At this point they haven't made it to the 'vintage' category. Put simply, a vintage item is defined as having an enduring appeal.

So, if I were to apply the term in common use, I could say I've got some pretty amazing vintage china.

I also wondered what the difference is between vintage and antique? From Wikipedia: An antique is an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age, rarity, condition, utility, or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era in human society.

Antiques are usually objects which show some degree of craftsmanship, or a certain attention to design such as a desk or the early automobile. They are bought at antique shops, or passed down as an estate. Some valuable antiques can be bought from antique dealers and auction services or purchased online through websites and online auctions.

The definition of antique varies from source to source, product to product, and year to year. However, some time-tested definitions of antique deserve consideration, such as the following:

1. An item which is at least 50 to 100 years old and is collected or desirable due to rarity, condition, utility, or some other unique feature. Motor vehicles, power tools and other items subject to vigorous use in contrast, may be considered antiques in the U.S. if older than 25 years, and some electronic gadgets of more recent vintage may be considered antiques.

2. Any piece of furniture or decorative object or the like produced in a former period and valuable because of its beauty or rarity.

The definition of antique is rather broad. Based upon the second part of the definition, valuable because of its beauty definitely applies here. If nothing else, in a few more years, my china will definitely be antique.

Though vintage or antique leave room for question, the term heirloom is a perfect fit. Indeed, my china is a valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations.

Epilogue:
I'm not much of a fan of vintage or antique because so often pieces are missing and irreplaceable. I love to have a complete and matching set. I've been Googling and found Replacements, Ltd., whose motto is, We replace the irreplaceable!^® I'm excited to report that they have lots of pieces for my china set. At the very least, I can get one more cereal bowl to complete my eight-piece set. I'm considering expanding the set to twelve settings and there are a few serving pieces I'd like to add, like the gravy boat with attached underplate, one or two more oval serving platters and the round covered serving dish. I've also admired the coffee pot with lid and the creamer and sugar bowl, although we don't drink coffee. Perhaps I can find a salt and pepper shaker as well. There are some pretty amazing possibilities here. This is definitely vintage I can do!