adventures in thrifting

Today was the perfect day for thrifting. It’s Monday, the kids are back in school, it’s raining and I have three big bags of donations to take to the thrift store. That’s the perfect time to put on my old jeans and a roomy sweater  and run out the door... no make-up, hair in a ponytail and slip-on vans on my feet. I was slumming it today, and so happy I got to visit my favorite local thrift stores.

One of my weaknesses is vintage English bone china. I'm always on the look-out... I LOVE to collect plates and dishes, and boy did I find some treasures today!!

These oval platters are actually quite small, which I love! The turkey platter is only about 9 inches wide and so cute, and easy to store! 

The green majolica platter with the bunnies is probably my favorite and will be so cute for Easter. It’ll also look great with some of my green cabbageware plates.

Here are some darling plates with hints of green. Even though I love English plates primarily, I can’t resist a beautiful Bavarian or Irish plate once in a while. The shamrock dish is so delicate to the touch. When I search for china, it has to have just the right feel to it, in terms of weight and material. 

These floral ones are mostly Bavarian, and I love the delicate flowers in the patterns. They're really fun to mix and match. I tend to categorize my plates in terms of color, design and pattern, that way they can work together as a collection.

I'm working on better storage for my plate collection, which is a challenge. I like to be organized, otherwise things tend to get get overlooked when you need them most. 

This Staffordshire bone china plate has the most unusual design that reminds me of Spirograph!

Here are a few other goodies I found today. The Danish map plate may be the start of a new collection. Wouldn’t it be fun to have several different European map plates arrange on an accent wall? And I absolutely couldn't resist these cobalt blue glass bowls. The color is so vibrant. 

Ceramic periwinkle blue fish plates? Why, yes! They’d be cute in a coastal inspired tablescape. These are dinner plate size.

Blue & white and red & white transferware plates are probably my faves, so when I found a whole pile of these in different sizes, I grabbed them and later was relieved that they all were quite a bargain.

But, I think my favorite deal of the day was this set of six floral red & white Anthropologie salad plates for $6. Yes, a dollar a plate, woo hoo! They’re gonna be so cute for Valentine’s day!  

ciao! fabiana