Life isms: Dishes

The best investment you can make for yourself in starting out your kitchen is to buy one set of white dishes. White cereal bowls, pasta bowls, large plates, salad plates, and coffee mugs. Buy a set for 8. I have found Crate & Barrel to be the best place to buy this initial investment. They tend to be more plain and go well with anything. Plus they tend to have the best price and the dishes hold up really well.

Now that you have this "basis" you can then add elements of color to your set via a colorful serving platter, a vintage plate, a vintage tea cup, etc.

I love the idea of having certain "stand alone" pieces for special occasions. While at Goodwill one day (and please do frequent your goodwills...this is where you can find some true gems for cheap to add to your white basis) i found an adorable small plate with a painted cupcake on it. I am planning on using this plate for each person's bday to make their day that much more special.

Creating rituals with special pieces just makes that piece all the more treasured. With that said don't "save" certain pieces for certain occasions. Yes I'm using that cupcake plate only for bdays but I am not saving my crystal china for a rainy day. No. I use my crystal bowl daily to put grapes in or fruit in and when I open my fridge and see this shiny piece of crystal holding fruit it makes my day. Use your pieces in ways that make you happy. Drink out of your vintage floral tea cup and saucer. I know its more practical to drink your tea out of a coffee mug but drinking it out of a floral tea cup just makes it that much more special.

That is what I want for ya'll. I want ya'll to see the special in the mundane and to make your days a bit more enjoyable even if it does sound a bit outlandish to have crystal in your fridge. Trust me the sight of it will make your heart sing!

Life isms

I have decided to make a series of posts for my children. I will title them "Life isms" so that one day they can find them and get a small morsel of my thoughts on the mundane. Tips, advice, and wisdom on such topics like picking out dishes, when to see a doc, how to know if a boy is really into you...you know life stuff.

All too often I go about my day thinking of these things and thinking I really need to tell my kids about these things but honestly life just gets in the way. I start picking kids up from school and before I know it my conundrum about which vintage dish will match my collection gets thrown to the wayside in exchange for how quickly I can get dinner on the table.

And so it is. A series of posts born to help my children navigate the muddy waters called life.

Menu Monday

I am about to run to the store and stock up on groceries for the week. The meteorologists have once again scared us about a winter storm coming our way tonight and to be prepared to be snowed in yet again. This is the 5th time we have been snowed in this year. Seriously! and you would think that the schools would cancel or delay start times for the kiddos. Uh...no. They expect us parents to slip and slide our ways into the school carpool lanes with our knuckles white and our hands numb for holding onto the steering wheel for dear life all in the name of getting our kids to school on time. ugh.

So, off to the store I am to stockpile on toilet paper, paper towels, baby wipes, canned goods and whatever else one might need to be snowed in with the exception of taking kids to school and developing arthritis in my hands from white knuckle driving conditions.

Monday: feeling uninspired. can I just pick something up while at the store and call it good?
Tuesday: taco tuesday
Wednesday: chili
Thursday: spanish mac
Friday: tuna sammies (It's Lent for us so no meat on Fridays)
Saturday: take out or go out woo-hoo!
Sunday: Sunday dinner at my mom's

Lol, rofl, ha!, ;-) :-) !!!!!

Am I creating havoc to the internet/bloggy world by the overuse of short abbreviations such as those in the title???
I am known for my overuse of exclamation points, smilie faces, lol's because I really feel the need to get my point across. Maybe its because I'm Italian and you can't see me moving my hands around or talking really loud. So I resort to the ever so over used abbreviations.
I never gave it any thought that perhaps it could be annoying to some readers. I never realized that maybe my constant use of these things could some how downplay my writing?

Why am I even talking about this? Well, I actually read in someone's blog of her abhorrence of lol and related isms. This made me realize that perhaps my indulgence could be someone else's abhorrence.

I do apologize for my overuse of said offenses but may I say I don't think I can quit using them anytime soon. Not unless I find a way of blogging so that you can "see" and "hear" me get my loud point across. But honestly I don't think you would want to see me in my jammies, sitting on me bed, with no make up on and my hair toppled on top of my head. ha! (See I just had to get a "ha!" in lol!)