chimesblog

When I was moving, I uncovered these fabulous dishes I was working on back in 2009.  I totally forgot about them, but am hoping to finish them before Craft Saturday on April 30.

Except … I have no idea what to put in the ribbon on the hearts. There are 4 plates that need something filled in and I plan to make the mugs to match.  I was going to do Mom, Dad, Love and something else, but realized if a family that didn’t have a mom, or didn’t have a dad might want these dishes and be offended.  My best idea so far is to keep it blank and personalize it for the person who buys it, but that’s not probably the BEST way to go about it.

Ideas???

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Hey all!  Just a little reminder that my Moving Sale on etsy is still going.  Pick up some fantabulous deals. As always, shipping to Des Moines and Ames areas (within 25 miles of each) is FREE. Convo me or drop me an e-mail, tweet or facebook message before buying so I can adjust shipping.

Also — the biggest steals are the Birdies and Coffee plates and bowls. Normally are $10 per plate/bowl and are $5.  Price for all 7 of either is $30 (or I could do $50 for all 7 of both).

Thanks! And be on the lookout for all new items popping up in the next few months AND a brand new store in the fall. STILL not sharing what it is, but am thinking about doing a giveaway sometime soon for anybody who wants to venture a guess.

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For those of you who don’t know, I’m kind of obsessed with vintage pyrex. Specifically the spring blossom (or crazy daisy) pattern.

I’ve been collecting random pieces and have all the cinderella mixing bowls (almost 2 full sets actually), the butter dish, some mugs, a couple of casseroles, etc. BUT I want the dish set! In its entirety. My friend Shelly has the corelle set AND matching silverware that she inherited from her parents.

Anyway — I *just* had a fabulous idea thanks to the PYREX LOVE group on flickr.

I follow the Pyrex Love pool in google reader, and I saw this photo:

And it occurred to me … all pyrex is cool. So why not have a purposely mismatching patterned set? All the pieces would be the same shape, but the patterns would be different. How easy and cheap would it be to randomly pick up pieces at Goodwill and Salvation Army? I’d replace my current dish set with these pieces one by one (I’ve already done so with the spring blossom mugs anyway).

I’m really excited about this! I love when I have an “aha” moment.

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Just thought I would mention that not only did I finally get rid of most part of my stuffed Care Bears collection, but I decided to use the collectible glasses from Pizza Hut (1983? 1985?) for their given purpose: for drinking out of.

Mark’s glass is sporting Tenderheart Bear (and for those of you who aren’t cool enough to remember which one that is, it’s the one on the left) and my glass has Cheer Bear on it.

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I made an executive decision.

Let me preface that: I’m moving in less than a week and I’m in purge mode.

Decision made. I’m going to paint up the set of dishes I’m currently using. They’re corelle from the mid to late 90s. Or early? I can’t remember when we got them. They’re the second set of dishes I grew up with. Regardless, they’re boring, but still in fabulous condition.

Moving has definitely spawned a lot of really creative ideas. I’m moving into part of an old Victorian house — so I’m in vintage mode. I want to find a ton of vintage or pre-owned things and fabulize them into my own pieces.

I’m also moving to the first place I’ve ever been allowed to paint. This. Is. Exciting.

That was a tangent, but nonetheless exciting.

Anywho — back to painting Mom’s old dishes.

I started with the teacups. Frankly, because I never use them, and nobody really used them at my house ever, so they’re like brand-new … and I was kind of thinking of just painting them all and selling them off. I don’t need a MATCHING set of dishes, and I have 12 spring blossom pyrex teacups (and dammit, if Shelly would give me her dishes, I would be in heaven. She has a whole set of spring blossom green pyrex dishes — silverware and all — I am SOO jealous).

Buuuuuut, this is freaking cute. So, I must keep it. And make more.

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It’s been a really long time since I’ve painted dishes.  I quit for a while a few months back because I have a pretty large inventory and it was taking up most of my kitchen. However, a few of my girls and I were antiquing one day and I found some really great dishes that I just had to snatch up.

Needless to say … whoops!  Especially since I’m moving in less than a week … but, oh well. I’ve got more cute dishes!

I found a pretty complete set of pyrex grey dishes, so I’m working on making 4 place-settings with a dinner plate, salad plate, saucer and teacup.  I just received some teacups that I ordered off ebay — so I’ll be painting those soon.  I have about 12 additional plates to the ones that will make up the 4 place-settings.

My little birdies pattern looks really cute on this set of dishes. It’s simple and not over-powering.  It’s also something that can be easily replicated on several pieces so it looks pretty consistent across the board.

I toyed with the idea of making each dish have a different pattern, but I think that idea’s going to go on the backburner and I’m going to try working with a cohesive set first.  I also thought about adding a small quote on the pieces, but people are so subjective about text that I thought it best to just stick to a pattern for now.

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