Christmas with Old Country Roses

Okay I am sort of not really thinking of my table settings as “tablescapes,” because honestly, all I do really is set the table. But you have to understand, using a tablecloth and clearing the table of electronics before eating is really special in our house and only happens maybe twice a year. So it feels monumental, like a major tablescaping effort has occurred, even when most people would say it’s just a centerpiece and tablecloth.

Still, because such a monumental effort did occur, I feel compelled to share. 🙂  I was able to use my new-to-me Old Country Roses dinner plates and many other thrifty bargains to set a lovely little table for Christmas lunch.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

The place settings are made up of a sparkly gold round placemat, Old Country Roses dinner plate, Anchor Hocking gold-rimmed bread plate, and cloth (gasp!) napkins with a gold-tone deer motif ring.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

My sweet daughter, not realizing I had purchased the gold charger mats, gave me a set of four pretty red sequined placemats for Christmas. The photo doesn’t capture the scarlet color – they look more orange-red in the picture, but they are a beautiful deep red, a close match to the tablecloth.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

I used the gold as planned under the plates, but I did use one of hers to anchor my centerpiece. The centerpiece incorporates the free greenery I found at a tree lot, my faux mercury glass attempts, and two pretty, heavy crystal votive holders I found on a recent thrifting expedition.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

Drinkware is vintage from my grandmother Verdie, flatware is vintage Oneida Chandelier from my great-Aunt Hazel, and the S&P set is vintage from my mother-in-law. All of these delightful ladies have passed on, but I love using pieces from their collections.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

Finally, here are the OCR pieces I used on the table, all (hand-) washed up after lunch and dried with a cheerful vintage dishcloth.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

I have a hard time explaining why it is that having family dinner on Old Country Roses seemed so special to me – I suppose because it took me a long time to get enough pieces together to be able to do it. At any rate, our lunch was delicious and certainly this was the prettiest table we’d enjoyed together for quite a long time.

Christmas with Old Country Roses | Vintage Floral Cottage

I’ll be sharing my sweet Christmas table at Tablescape Thursday (even though this is really just a table setting – LOL) at Between Naps on the Porch!

I hope your Christmas was as lovely as mine!

Posted in Holidays, Tablescapes | 16 Comments

Fabulous Peanut Butter Fudge

Quick, easy, amazing… those are the three key ingredients that inspire me to try a recipe. I was digging through the box of clipped recipes that I got from my dear mother-in-law, and came upon this little gem from the “Quick Cooking Collector’s Edition. The clipped recipe was submitted by Mrs. Kenneth Rummel of Linglestown, PA. I decided to try this and it is simply outstanding, so felt I had to share. The photo shown here is my own.

Peanut Butter Fudge | Vintage Floral Cottage

Peanut Butter Fudge

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1-1/3 cups peanut butter, creamy or chunky
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme

Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan; set aside. In a saucepan, bring sugar and milk to a boil; boil for 3 minutes. Add peanut butter and marshmallow creme; mix well, blending thoroughly. Quickly pour into the 8-inch buttered pan; chill until set, about 2 hours. Cut into squares.

Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment

Son of Zipper Pouch

I’ve been on two cruises in our lifetime, and both times we took the exact same boat and the exact same itinerary. We’ve been to the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota twice, and both times we took the same route and the same scenic rides. So it’s not too surprising that when I needed to make a second zippered pouch, I used the same fabrics, with the same details, that I used the first time around.

Son of zipper pouch | Vintage Floral Cottage

The first pouch I made using Kate’s super-simple tutorial at See Kate Sew turned out so cute… my daughter loved it as much as I did, and she used it as her pencil pouch at school until the day her car was broken into and her backpack stolen. The little pouch disappeared that day too, along with her camera, some personal letters, and a couple of textbooks.

Now that she’s headed off to college, she asked me if I’d make her another pouch so of course I couldn’t say no. I used all materials on-hand, so the trim is a little different – and I’m still working without a zipper foot so I had to work carefully around the zipper pull. But overall this “second draft” turned out just as cute as the first one, and again I just have to say how easy the tutorial was for this project.

Son of Zipper Pouch | Vintage Floral Cottage

Son of Zipper Pouch | Vintage Floral Cottage

Son of Zipper Pouch | Vintage Floral Cottage

Son of Zipper Pouch | Vintage Floral Cottage

I may need to make a few more of these!

Posted in DIY & Crafts | 1 Comment

Pretty Creamers survive the decades

I am participating in Vintage Thingie Thursday at ColoradoLady’s lovely blog! Be sure to click through to see many more treasures!
(Please note that the photos in this post are watermarked by my previous blog, Painted Piglet.)
Today I’m sharing two very special Depression Glass creamers. Special because, not only have they survived many, many decades of use and display, but they’ve been handed down through my own and my husband’s families – so they’ve not just survived, they’ve remained in the same family hands all this time. 

Fenton Orange Tree Creamer | Vintage Floral Cottage

The first creamer is a Fenton piece in the Orange Tree pattern. This pattern was introduced in 1911 and was one of Fenton’s most popular over the many years it was produced. It features an iridescent finish in the marigold color. Apparently, many footed Fenton pieces of this era suffered damage to the feet, even just coming out of the mold during production. I’m amazed that this piece, which was passed down through the paternal side of my husband’s family, has no damage whatsoever – to the feet, the scallops, or anywhere. 

Bird & Strawberry Creamer | Vintage Floral Cottage

The second piece was made by Indiana Glass Company in the Bird & Strawberry pattern, which was introduced around 1916. My grandmother passed this piece to me when I first professed an interest in Depression Glass as a young adult. She told me it had been purchased new by my great-grandmother. Since Great-Grandma had married in 1905, and had children in 1906, 1908 and 1910, I imagined her purchasing this for her young family’s breakfast table. It, too, has survived the decades with virtually no damage – a tiny nick in the spout is the only imperfection.
Both of these little creamers have long been retired from daily service and today sit in the built-in hutch in my dining room alongside several other pieces. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share them! 
Posted in Secondhand Lifestyle | 6 Comments

Not just for special occasions

I might be obsessing just a bit about dishes this week, but while I was enjoying a few vacation days I made an effort to do a little re-organizing of some of my dinnerware. We have a built-in hutch on one wall of our late-50’s dining room (it was probably pretty mod-looking when it was built, but I would love to find a way to shab it up a little) and previously, this unit was displaying some family keepsakes and my Depression Glass. Several of my most recent dishy finds were hiding in a cabinet in the Mom-cave, and I wanted to bring them out so they could be easily accessible. 
To accomplish this, I moved all the keepsakes to the top shelf of the hutch, moved the Depression Glass to the more un-accessible side behind the dining table, and used the two remaining half-shelves to make some pretty stacks. Here are some of the goodies now contained in the hutch, right next to the table where they might occasionally get used! 
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
In addition to my lone piece of Franciscan Apple (a beautiful serving platter, which was a wedding gift), there are lots of other lovelies in this small space – most of them thrifted or the result of disciplined eBay bidding. I don’t certainly have a collection yet to rival those of my favorite Blogland tablescapers, but I’m working on it! Here are some of my favorites:  
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
Royal China Currier & Ives, here stacked with a plain white/gold-rimmed dessert plate from Pier 1. These were a gift from my grandmother – she gave me complete service for 8, which we had used at family celebrations in her home for more than 20 years as I was growing up. I had also collected a few serving pieces over the years, but after the flood in 2008 I actually down-sized this collection based on what I reasonably expected to use. I now have 8 dinner and 8 bread plates, an oval platter and two round platters, plus a small tab-handled underplate and a lidded casserole dish. 
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
Homer Laughlin Glenwood – four dinner plates, which look lovely stacked with the Homer Laughlin Empire dessert plates I recently acquired. 
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
Cunningham & Pickett Norway Rose – two oval platters. Notice how similar they are to the Glenwood! (I’ve noticed other similarities between various C&P and HL patterns. “Veddy inn-terr-esting,” as Arte Johnson used to say.)
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
Johann Haviland Moss Rose – three dinner plates and four berry bowls. 
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
Set of four un-marked dessert plates. 
Some favorite dishes | Vintage floral Cottage
And my favorite among  favorites, Royal Albert Old Country Roses (again layered with the Pier 1 dessert plate). So far I have three dinner plates, three salad plates, two dessert plates, and one cup & saucer. I’m working on acquiring four of each of these pieces, but I’m determined that each and every acquisition will be a great bargain so it’s slow-going. 
My attempt to re-organize was met with some gentle teasing by Mr. Piglet, who thinks that because we have a three-person family we only need three plates. He doesn’t know I am dreaming of the day when I need a dedicated dish room! 

Posted in Tablescapes | 3 Comments