Jun 13, 2010

Show Us Your Life: china patterns

So Kelly did a Show Us Your Life: China Patterns on Friday, but Nathaniel and I were at home feeling really sick, and I didn't get my act together in time to participate. You know you're sick when you feel too bad to sit on the couch with your laptop and Google pictures of your china patterns.

Anyway, since I typically do some sort of "home" post on Sundays, I thought this would be a good chance to show you how much someone's taste can change in 15 years ... because WOW. This year we've been married 15 years.

I remember when Grayson and I went shopping for our china selections, and our taste in dishes turned out to be as different as our taste in music. Which is to say, we like totally opposite things with about a .5% overlap in things we like. That made for a difficult afternoon, but ultimately we decided on Colorstone Sapphire by Sasaki. It's blue. Actually, to be more specific, it's BLUE.



Grayson's only complaint about the dinner plate was that it was almost flat with a very slight grade down to the center, so food sort of all ran down that way. It was unique because it was the only design we saw as we shopped that didn't have the more traditional shape of a ledge around the edge and a flat center of the plate. Upon reflection, I think the majority probably had it right from the functionality perspective.

Each piece actually has a white band around the edge to break up the Smurfiness of it all, but you can't see it so well in that picture of the dinner plate. (Thanks, Replacements, Ltd.) You can see it a little better here:



And I don't know what to say about the difference in the blue color between these three shots, except that the actual color is closest to the middle shot.



Moving on (because I know you're utterly CAPTIVATED!), we chose Imperial Lapis by Mikasa as our fine china pattern.



Again with the blue, although this time we added a gold band! I think I gave Grayson more input on this selection, because I've never been a fan of brass/gold finishes. Frankly, I'm surprised I agreed to it.


And it is here, at this moment, that I would like to say to the People Who Were Part of My Life When I Got Married: It would have been IMMENSELY HELPFUL if you had said to me, "Katherine, just because you like blue today does not mean that you will like blue so much in five years that you will continue to enjoy eating three meals a day off of it, in casual and in fine dining style."

When we got married, we just chose the casual and the fine patterns. Several years later, I fell in love with Pottery Barn's reindeer Christmas china (available seasonally).



I purchased the dinner and salad plates, and one serving platter in that pattern -- and even though that was probably 10 years ago, I love them to this day.



Of course, I only see them once a year, so that might explain why I haven't tired of them yet.



Speaking of tiring of things, last year I decided that I was over the blue of the casual china. I sold it and bought this less-expensive, more neutral set of Antique Beaded dishes from Ballard Designs.


It's not quite Restaurant White dinnerware, but it's about as close as I can get to that without going pure white with no ornamentation. Food looks GREAT in it.



Seriously, that footed bowl can rock Raisin Bran like nobody's business.

2 comments:

Carry Grace said...

I think someone did try to tell me that I wouldn't always like green and blue on my everyday china, and I still didn't listen. It's funny to look back and see how everyone's taste in things changes.

Katherine @ Grass Stains said...

Nikki, I agree! I'm hoping that since I switched to something really neutral, any change in taste will be moot. But I don't trust myself to never change again, which is why I went with a pattern from Ballard's that was inexpensive compared to place settings from department stores. :)

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