Guest Post: Michelle loves China!

I'm back with hat in hand and pink with embarassment. Lovely Michelle of Three Men and a Lady sent me her post in plenty of time and I simply missed it entirely when I was going through emails. I am a louse. Especially terrible because Michelle is so incredibly talented and Im her biggest fan. You might remember her from when she shared her amazing striped hallway awhile back but there is so much more eye candy on her blog. After you read her post below, go check out her blog - you'll be a fan too.

I adore china. When I go thriftin' one of my first searches is for lovely pieces of china. I like to imagine that each piece has some neat story. But I'm sure it probably belonged to someone who only brought it out for use on very special occassions.

I've acquired quite a collection of lovely mismatched china over the years. I don't believe such pretty pieces should be tucked away on the highest shelf and only come out once a year. I use my finds as my everyday china. None of my pieces match but it's fun to see who ends up with what plate and makes for good conversation.
Not only do I use my treasures for mealtime but I also have them all over my house for other purposes. Someday when I find a good chunk of time perhaps I'll hang it on my wall as art. In the meantime, here's what I do with it...




Using epoxy, I glued candles stick holders to the bottom of plates to make pedestal stands.
These also make great gifts instead of giving cookies on a paper plate.

On my nightstand I have a dish to set my bottle of water and a little bowl to place any trinket's in.

On my entry table I use this toast holder to organize my mail and another plate to catch keys, cell phone, etc.

After washing 12 cups a day I decided it was time to get smart. I picked 4 China dishes from my collection and put them on the counter. Each member of our family got to pick one as their own. Now after they use their cup they put it back on their dish for use next time instead of the sink.

Even my scrubber gets a little spot to hang out and dry when not in use.

They also make great catch-all's for organization...

as well as jewelry.

Re-think your china. Use it for muliple purposes and show it off.

22 comments:

  1. I love it!! It's so nice to see someone using all those "precious" pieces for everyday!

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  2. Wonderful ideas! Love them all and will now be venturing out for some thrift store finds! And I'm going over to Three Men and a Lady for more browsing. Thanks for sharing, as always.

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  3. Great ideas! Her blog is fantastic!!!

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  4. Very beautiful ideas, I especially like the cookies on the stand with the cover! So pretty!

    I will re-think my dishes for sure!

    Cindy

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  5. I love it! Really original uses. My favourite is gluing the candlesticks to the bottm of a plate. Oooohh....the possibilities are working in my brain!!

    Thank you!

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  6. Someone just suggested to me the idea of candlesticks glued to an old plate. I couldn't really picture it, but it looks great! I think I'll give it a try.

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  7. wonderful. love the use of china for everyday things. great job!!

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  8. I love these ideas! I'm going to steal a few of these ideas too, I think. Hmmm...off to the antique stores near work for lunch today!

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  9. I love using china for catchalls. My favorite is my grandmothers green fruit bowl for my sunglasses and keys in our entrance.

    http://styleandcentsability.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/before-after-entrance-way/

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  10. I've been using them lately to corral(sp) my jewelry. In the past I had been over looking them while thrifting

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  11. I do the same thing! I use some neat milkglass and china for cottonballs, q-tips, t-brush holder in my bathroom, jewelry in the bedroom, rings in the kitchen (when doing dishes), brush holder too! Love the cake/cookie stands though! Need to find candlesticks now...

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  12. Wonderful post, beautiful ideas!! Thanks so much...off to dig out my mismatched china....!

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  13. Wow, neat ideas! Some I use, some I will after this!

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  14. Love this! We have a plate and a West Elm bowl that hold things on the table next to the front door, but I suddenly feel the need to branch out more! Especially with my husband teasing me about buying too many dishes!

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  15. Love these ideas! I'm must get out shopping this weekend to look for some of my own :)

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  16. oh my! it all looks so chic and wonderful!

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  17. I love china as well - these are all great uses - I think my favorite is the cake dish!

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  18. Awesome post! I just wasted like an hour browsing hideous sink caddies the other day, when all I need is some pretty dishes!

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  19. such great ideas for using China pieces!

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  20. I make the cake plates, too! I've never ventured beyond glass candlestick bases, but am TOTALLY going to try your milk glass base idea. :-) Don't pretty dishes make the best storage ever?

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  21. So, so pretty! I especially love the "by-the-sink" china. I need to implement this at my house pronto:)

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  22. This is so funny, I found that exact milk glass bowl at a flea market here in Sweden, and made a blog post about it just yesterday. Do you have any idea what kind of bowl that is, I've never seen it before?

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