N and I just had his parents and little brother over for dinner this evening. It was stressful getting prepared, but in the end it was a hit. Along the way, we definitely had a little drama here and there. At one point I thought to myself, “How does N’s mom do it?! Whenever she has us over she’s completely prepared and looks fabulous!” This was not the case with us tonight. (Of course.) Although in the end, everything ended up okay. However along the way there were definitely some things I took away from the evening:
- I need more serving plates & bowls. We had virtually nothing to put the food in other than what it was cooked in. Tomorrow N and I have decided to head to “It’s New to You” first thing to pick up some vintage treasures.
- I also need more serving spoons & such. I mean…people can’t dip out those veggies with their fingers, can they? I never even realized I had nothing to scoop [and dip] things with.
- I need a tablecloth for the dining table. There were a couple of spills that almost gave me a heart-attack because all I could think about was….”MY DINING TABLE!!!”
- I also need more dinner plates. I broke two of my antique bone china dinner plates [shown below] last night and I almost started crying. I’m still more than a little broken-hearted about the whole thing…but I’ll just keep searching ebay non-stop until I find more. There not easy to find though…they were discontinued in 1851. *sigh*
And as I mentioned in the last post…my New Year’s resolution for 2009 is to have people over more often. This was the first attempt…and I think it turned out well overall. 🙂
House Obsession 
Have you ever looked at Replacements.com? It’s where I got the gravy boat to my 1950’s dinner set.
you might also search replacements.com – they are a good source for vintage china, crystal, silver etc – might be a little pricey, but if you only need one or two pieces….also they might have serving pieces to match…..
Ha! Yep, I looked into replacements.com. It’s just that because the china is from 1851, there aren’t that many pieces on there. No serving pieces (although I found some on ebay), and they do have some dinner plates that I may end up getting. It’s just that they’re so expensive. Oh well. haha. Again, lessons learned. Always carry the expensive antique plates with TWO hands.
What a shame about those plates! They are so pretty.
I agree that serving spoons would certainly be a good investment before you have another dinner party.
Yeah, Christmas night, I spent 1 1/2 hours making a fancy gravy. While setting the table, G asked where my gravy bowl was. Uhhh, in a box in my mom’s attic. I’ve never used a gravy bowl before!
Haha. I hear ya Johnna. It’s funny because at the last dinner at his mom’s house she served gravy…and I got schooled in how to use it exactly. It turns out you’re not supposed to pour it out of the spout. (At least not at her house.) Doing it that way gets gravy everywhere.
Hmm…never knew that. Until I spilled gravy on the tablecloth. Oops!
What’s the manufacturer’s name? and pattern name? I will keep an eye out at the farm sales out here for you…there’s always lots of china floating around 🙂
Hey thanks! It’s Mintons. There is no pattern name…just a number. A300. It’s usually hand-written, but the dead give away for it is the bright turquoise rim and the floral swags. 😀