Arabia is made in Finland…go figure. And whether you pronounce it ah-RAY-be-ah - or ah-RAB-e-ah - it is beautiful stoneware, often with a retro look and feel.
The first time I saw this china, I’d never heard of it, but liked it. I found the blue striped Uhtua pattern. It was so unfamiliar that I [...]

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Many vintage china patterns are based on the perennial garden favorite flower, roses. No surprise, roses are romantic and feminine. Many of the dinnerware designs that use this motif have a soft, pastel color scheme.
Make roses your theme for mix and match table setting and the possibilities are enormous. Whether you are planning an intimate [...]

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Weddings - in June or any other time - celebrate traditions important to family and friends.
Vintage china, carefully selected to complement a wedding theme, can add meaning and beauty to your engagement party, rehearsal dinner or a wedding banquet. If the wedding will feature a big dinner, consider using vintage dinnerware on the head table [...]

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Blue and white china. Crisp and clean, great for summer table settings.
Around our house, you can have any color, especially blue. It’s easy to mix and match with other blue and white wares, especially those with simple bands of color.
Blue and white reminds me of the salty sea shore or a breezy summer sky.
Some of [...]

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We’ve got a definite weak spot for 1970s dinnerware we find in our travels, especially the stoneware.
Patterns from Midwinter, Mikasa and even Noritake go great with table settings based on the days when vintage was new: back to the land, Earth Day, Earth Shoe and The Mother Earth News.
Midwinter’s series of patterns – Sun, Moon [...]

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Now that Easter is over, time to get ready for Mother’s Day (second Sunday in May).
By adding some vintage charm to your table setting, you can impress your mother, family and friends with a table setting that is creative and shows off your china to enjoyable effect.

Feature Mom’s favorite flower – such as roses, daisies [...]

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Traditional holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter have built in table setting ideas. Turkeys and bunnies, snowmen and colored eggs can suggest themes and color palettes for dinnerware very easily.
Earth Day isn’t in the same category. It began around 1970, so maybe grandma has some vintage china to contribute to a table setting, but it’s [...]

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Indigo Moon has been on our radar screen ever since the first time we saw it. One, because it’s blue. Two, because it’s so cool.
It’s an occupational hazard of life on the dish trail: Sometimes you want to keep your finds.
As soon as I see blue, the cart turns in that direction. If I put [...]

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After visiting the cider mill (see last post) I went out and found a favorite dinnerware line, Mikasa Potters Art.
Thirty years ago, there was another “green” trend in the marketplace. One of the results was the Potters Art line by Mikasa. This is heavy dinnerware with a handmade look and feel. The dinnerplates, for example, [...]

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Some years ago, at a carry-in lunch, a colleague brought a great Broccoli Salad.
I liked the interplay of the crunchy, raw broccoli with the zingy sweet and sour dressing. But the recipe was missing in action.
So I went home and developed my own version. It’s great in the summer, when cool salads are refreshing. And [...]

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