New Plates for a New Year!

We have been needing new everyday dinnerware for a long time. This is our old set.



I bought it from Fingerhut almost 23 years ago, right after my husband and I got married. In those days you could purchase from Fingerhut and pay over time with a coupon booklet they provided. I haven't bought anything from them in years, but now it appears you must get their credit card to get the time payment option.

The set has lasted well but is showing its age. We still have all eight of the dinner plates. Only two of the salad plates are left. I think we may have all the bowls. We have all or most of the saucers but only one of the little teacups. We never used those for tea or coffee. Too small. Instead they were used like little dessert bowls for ice cream and such. But they were so delicate that they broke easily. They didn't need to be dropped. Just being put in the sink with a bunch of other dishes was sometimes enough to break off those little handles.

This set was also not microwaveable. Of course, that didn't mean we didn't do so occasionally for short bursts. But the silver trim meant sometimes little sparks would fly off the plates when we microwaved them too long.

So, back to the point of the blog post. I have been longing for new dishes for quite some time and have had a picture in my head of what I wanted. Instead of the blue color scheme, I wanted to go bright--green, gold, orange, burgundy--maybe something in a Venetian/Italian motif with fruits or vegetables. Several times over the past few years I have seen a set I liked, once at JC Penney and once at Wal-Mart. But the funds weren't available and eventually the dishes weren't either.

Imagine my surprise on Christmas morning when I opened a huge, heavy box from my son to discover a new set of dishes! They were very nice, but it turns out they had that same sort of silver rim so were not microwaveable. They were also plain white and quite elegant, and I had envisioned something a little heavier and with some color. My dear son was very understanding and gave permission for me to return his set and look for something else.

I spent several days looking online and finally found this treasure: a discontinued set from Gibson called "Royal Rooster." I had to buy the dishes from one store and the completer set from another. Both were clearance priced. Turns out at one time there was matching glassware for the set, but it is nowhere to be found, not even at Replacements.com. Guess I'm not the only one who drops glasses.

Isn't it a lovely pattern? And my husband likes it too, I think because it matches this guy on top of our refrigerator (a gift to him several years ago from his secretary, a.k.a. known as Pastor's wife and Evan's godmother).


Of course, now I have all sorts of kitchen decorating ideas to complete the look. Some new paint, maybe a little rooster border or stenciling, some new kitchen towels . . . Cock-a-doodle-doo!