Mmm, maybe. It's fairly simple.
1. The dishes must be dishwasher-safe, and preferably microwave-safe as well.
2. They must not have metal on the edges (see microwave-safe), if they do, it must be silver, not likely to need microwaving, and again: dishwasher safe. I thought most of the new Noritake patterns were dishwasher safe, but I was looking at a white & silver set at Costco, and it said hand-washing recommended. Nope, forget that. I'm not hand-washing a whole set of dishes!
3. The pattern can't be too... fluffy/frilly/floral/etc. If that made any sense. Most people who know my style will know what I mean. I like feminine things, but nothing too frilly. Having said that, my dishes do have flowers on them, but they're not the sort of floral I hate.
4. If they last, great. I'd like them to last for a good while, but they don't have to be passed on for generations. That only burdens your daughters, grand-daughters, and so on with dishes that they may or may not like, but feel they have to keep. (See Mom's post, re: the family heirloom dishes) My dishes were made in the 70's, so they're already about thirty years old. So while Noritake lasts a while, some of their life-span is already gone. (Lifespan for the dishes, that sounds slightly strange...they're going to die!) Um, anyway...
5. They must be colors I like...although this point is negotiable seeing as I don't have any house decor they have to go with right now. If I ended up living in a house with say, wallpaper in the kitchen/dining room that can't be changed and it clashes horribly with the dishes..well, then...I might have to have different dishes at some point. Right now, they're in storage boxes, and I like them (dishes, not boxes), so it's not really an issue! :D
So that's my dish philosophy, or what I have of one...which brings me to the main reason of this post: Rocks In My Dryer's Spur-Of-The-Moment Dish Carnival!
Because while I was digging dishes out of the attic and photographing them for Mom, I might as well do mine too!
These are the dishes I'm collecting. In fact I have almost all of them, I just need about a dozen salad plates, and some soup bowls, and I'll be done.
They are Noritake brand, and the pattern is called "Reverie". They do have flowers on them, but they're the type of flowers I can stand...fairly realistic, in tasteful colors, and tastefully placed in the pattern. There's also a butterfly, and little tiny red ladybug, although it's so tiny I don't think you can see it in that picture. So these have a lot of my favorite color (green) and one little spot of my second favorite color, red.
So that's my dishes, and a philosophy to go along with them! :P
11 comments:
It is a long story and I know this might sound odd being a guy but I happen to own a bunch of Noritake china and it goes in the dishwasher just fine...so maybe that recommendation of hand-washing is just that, a recommendation but not required. :p
My dinnerware philosophy is very simple, I don't want dishes that break. I want something that is next to stone in strength and durability....
I like Georgia O'Keeffe flowers, and I like to paint them, but I have never been a big floral person either.
You have a set of Noritake dishes? That does sound a bit odd...how do you happen to have them?
Most of the Noritake dishes, especially the new ones are supposed to be dishwasher-safe, plus we've got several pieces of various patterns and they all wash fine too! So I don't know...the ones I saw at Costco did have a really raised silver edge, so it would probably come off.
Mandolinartist, that's right, you're not very floral either...hmm...that sounded strange! What kind of dishes do you have?
Hey Will, what pattern/s of Noritake china do you have?
Without the (God-given!!) restraining force of my husband I could be a serious chinaholic. My trouble is being unable to pick one pattern and commit to it. I just drive everyone around here batty talking about the options.
I just have one pattern, Somerset. I acquired it while cleaning out a house for renovations last year. It is from the 70's I think and is somewhat over the top in terms of flowery colors but it was free and I did not want to throw it away...
We have white dishes with blue stripes around the edge/rim... They are sort of "in between," so they could be used daily or perhaps for guests! We have 8 settings. However, we have really decorated our kitchen in more "fall" colors: browns, greens, oranges. When we were married, blue was our wedding color, so we got several gifts for the house in blues. We stuck with blue in the bedroom and bathroom but not EVERYWHERE else.
Mandolinartist, you're actually getting rid of your blue decor?! I thought you loved blue stuff! Isn't your couch blue?
Will, that pattern is rather over-the-top flowery! Dad bought a teacup and saucer in that pattern for Mom so I know what it looks like. It is good quality china though.
Actually, Somerset was made in the 50's-70's, so it could be fairly old.
Ooh ... nice dishes! Very pretty! I love the cup and saucer! :->
Somerset is kind of foofy for guy dishes (what would those be, anyway, something with antlers?) but it has some advantages. It's got several colors so it goes with other things, it's a classic style, and the tea cups are a nice shape without fiddly handles. I have a Somerset cup and saucer...one year my husband got me a bunch of cup and saucer sets for Christmas so I could be girly while drinking my tea. :) (Oops...paging up, I see Natalie already said all this)
All you young people buying dishes while you're still single...this is probably a good idea. Natalie and I have discussed this before so she knows what I mean. Her dishes are very much "her". She also likes black and white and will probably end up collecting black and white dishes someday. So, while she's single she can collect all this stuff that reflects her personality.
Once a couple is trying to select things like this together, it becomes harder to figure out how to reflect two personalities. Okay, maybe this is just getting too deep. Mandolinartist knows what I mean, though...there's a lot of compromising of tastes that has to happen in marriage.
My husband is one of the pickier men I know when it comes to aesthetics, but even he says that if I had already owned several sets of dishes when we got married it would not have bothered him. He would have been relieved to not have that decision to make. So, anyway, single girls...Natalie, Rebecca, Andrea...the rest of you I don't know. Buy the dishes now, so you don't have to do dish negotiations with Cuthbert and Edmund and Ralph and Enrique at the same time you're planning a wedding.
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