Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Feeling all white now...

There's a bit of a theme happening with this week's frugalling purchases. Lots of white. (Total cost: $12.90)

Well two themes, actually, if you count the fact the plates and bowls and the cup and saucer are Maxwell Williams (the cup and saucer matches the four I picked up last week).

My old Crown Lynn dinner set was bought around 20 years ago (if you're a Wellingtonian you can date the purchase by the fact I bought it when the Kirkaldies kitchen department was across the road in the Harbour Centre while the towers were being added - so around 1985-6 ish?) and has had pretty much daily use since then. And it looks like it could do with a rest.

The purchase of the original 4 Maxwell Williams cups and saucers for $4 and the discovery of a fifth (for $3) got me thinking. Could I possibly collect an entire "new" dinner set from the op shops? So I had a rummage round in the piles of plates and it came to pass that I bought 5 white bowls and 7 white side plates for 20 cents each.

And so the Great Frugalled Maxwell Williams Dinner Set Challenge of 2006 begins.

10 comments :

Anna Davern said...

Nice purchase! I'm envious of the pineapple find.

Anonymous said...

is the big thing on the left a planter? very good finds as usual!

Anonymous said...

yeah, um that was me...i can't type! lol

AMCSviatko said...

Planter indeed. And at 30 cm high and 33 cm across quite a find for $5.

Not sure where it's going to end up - I'm thinking it might be good as a rubbish bin or maybe to keep something big and bulky in...

annadee - if I ever get sick of the pineapples I'll send them to you quick smart!

Margie said...

I love the pineapple shakers too!

A few years ago I assembled an entire dinner set out of mismatched green things. I had plain and patterned things and all different shapes and sizes.

It looked absolutely excellent when I had a dinner party and all of it was out at once, but when there were just two people eating it felt kind of sad having things that didn't match. The particular problem was that all of the bowls were completely different shapes and impossible to stack in the cupboard.

So the green dinner set got broken up into bowls and mugs that were useful for the tea room at work and the rest went back to the op shops again.

Your idea of all white and all M&W is excellent. Probably much more challenging but also will be so much more satisfying when you get a complete set that's a proper set.

AMCSviatko said...

Thanks for your comment, margie.

The pineapples are actually hollow - the only thing I can imagine they are is candle holders for very narrow candles...

I'm already doing similar to your green mismatched crockery idea but in black and white(see details way back here: http://theshoppingsherpa.blogspot.com/2006/02/corners-of-my-home-week-3.html and please don't point out that I need a new dinner set like I need a hole in the head!)

twitchy fingers said...

Hey Sherpa, do you know you've been featured on Whip Up? Its at http://whipup.net/2006/10/11/modern-miniature-worlds/ Congrats!!

createacraft said...

I tables in white.. linens plates.. accessories..
enjoy those a lot..

Anna Davern said...

I think the pineapples may be toothpick holders? Although I don't know why they'd come as a set of two.

Margie said...

Well, yes, you do have a lot of crockery. But all of it is very lovely.

Perhaps that was the problem with my dinner set was my stupid rule that absolutely NOTHING could match. So even if there was a matching plate and bowl, I would only buy one, and if there was a whole set of green things, I didn't buy any.

Matchy matchy is nice, I think. Now.