According to German legend, a delicate little blossom was almost forgotten when God was naming all the flowers. “Forget me not, O Lord,” cried the little flower. God decreed, “That shall be your name.” How charming!
Wikipedia describes another tale that explains the pretty shade of blue. As the Creator was assigning colors to the flowers, he heard a soft whisper, “Forget me not.” The only color left was a little bit of blue which was given to the small flower. As the story goes, the flower was delighted and so are we as we admire this lovely midcentury pattern created in its honor by Myott & Sons of England.
I first saw this pattern at Elma’s Copper Awning in Mebane. In a previous post, I mentioned that she and Scott bought this set of china for me at an auction as part of our bartering arrangement. I immediately fell in love with the creamy color, the swirl around the rim and the color of the delicate flowers. With these features, it’s perfect for mixing and matching with some of the other vintage patterns at Southern Vintage Table.
Let’s start with the dinner plate. Here are several different looks this charming pattern can create with other lovely vintage patterns!
Whether on the outside as the dinner plate, or inside as the salad, the “Forget-me-not” pattern is sweet!
Southern Vintage Table is also fortunate to have serving pieces in this lovely pattern. With such a beautiful color and pattern, Forget-Me-Not on your table will help make your gala affair unforgettable!
No doubt, I love vintage china, glassware and linens – the patterns, colors, and beauty all inspire me. But there’s another category of tableware from the vintage table to rediscover and admire – silver-plated dishes, flatware and accessories. Whether elegant, casual or shabby chic, the gleam of silver adds sophistication and richness to the table.
One cool feature of silver is the gradient from really tarnished to really shiny. I love shiny silver but I also appreciate the rich patina of the darker, tarnished pieces. This metallic range of colors translates into versatility and style!
The first silver I started collecting for Southern Vintage Table was flatware. I remember finding several in a bin at the thrift store and making that decision to bring silver flatware into the inventory. I knew it would take some time to build up a collection for a large gathering. Fork by fork and spoon by spoon, we now have beautiful, gleaming collection of vintage silver flatware patterns. How delightful that each guest may personally enjoy the beauty of silver with every bite!
Along the way, we also have collected beautiful serving trays, pitchers, bowls and platters. I did not have time this week to research the history and makers of these lovely pieces but plan to feature them in an upcoming article.
Want just a few accent pieces? We have a little bit of a lot – bud vases, small trays, goblets, candle holders – even a vintage hairbrush.
Our silver-plate collection at Southern Vintage Table also includes a large wine cooler, ice bucket and serving utensils. As you plan your next gathering consider adding touches of this precious metal to your table. Whether a little darkened with tarnish or gleaming with sheen, vintage silver will dazzle your guests! Be sure to check out more pieces on our Pinterest Board!
I came across another beautiful set of china that fits perfectly with the vintage china collection at Southern Vintage Table. This vintage set belonged to Grandmother Belle and, according to her daughter in law, was used on special occasions. I can imagine how delighted Belle must have been when she set her table for her guests with her fine china! This pattern is by Grace China and called Formal Garden. Discontinued in 1939, it was made in pre-war Japan which means it’s at least 75 years old!
This pattern is truly beautiful, but I think the sweet floral design stands out even more when mixed with other vintage patterns. Here’s a collection of place settings featuring the Formal Garden dinner plate with a medley of salad plates. Some patterns are contemporaries with Formal Garden and others were manufactured decades later. Such historical richness in a place setting!
Here are a few photos with the soup/salad bowl and the dessert plate. Charming!
Another gorgeous vintage china pattern in our vintage china collection ready for you to share with your guests! Contact Southern Vintage Table for more information about our event packages with our lovely, vintage wares. We look forward to hearing from you!
We love vintage glassware! The feel, the look and the history embodied in a tumbler or goblet speaks to us. So when a client asked if Southern Vintage Table had one hundred small clear vintage goblets for the toast at her wedding, we told her, “not yet, but we will!” With this request from Rebekah an extra element of fun had been added to our vintage adventures. Every thrift store and antique shop we have visited in the past month has been very focused as we search for the perfect collection of small vintage goblets. Here are just a few we have found so far.
Wexford by Anchor Hocking
Love the embossed cherries!
Beautiful shape
Big Top Peanut Butter came in these!
Love the etchings on these delicate glasses!
Beautiful pair of vintage etched goblets
Not sure if these are vintage but the shape is perfect for the toast!
Be sure to notice the different stems on these vintage goblets.
Classy Park Lane pattern
Notice the foot on this goblet
Elegant!
Vintage trio
This vintage Jenkins pattern is pre 1920!
We are almost there, Rebekah, with your one hundred small clear vintage goblets and we must admit, we’lll probably still be looking way beyond that count. We definitely will be ready come September!
If you have an upcoming wedding, please contact Southern Vintage Table. We have an extensive inventory of vintage china, silverware, glassware and linens, and if we don’t have exactly what you want, we’ll do our best to find it!
Never-ending challenges for practically all of us are organization and storage. Our quandary at Southern Vintage Table, and maybe yours as well, is how to store our inventory safely and keep it visible. We have lots of stuff – china, linens, flatware, serving dishes, frames, vases, silver accessories, baskets, suitcases, candle holders, etc. Lots and lots of stuff. How do we keep it all safe, visible and organized? Here are three quick tips that have helped us and might be useful for you, too!
Tip 1:Decide your organization scheme.
Should you sort by type, style, color, pattern or size? Many times it’s a combination For example, we sort teacups by color and napkins by color and size. For dinner plates, we sort first by style then by color.
Tip 2: Store in a clear container.
To economize, we were storing a lot of things in boxes. We labeled the boxes but it still was hard to remember what was inside, especially if it was stacked underneath another box. We decided to invest in clear containers with the lid attached. Now we can see the items through the plastic and these bins stack onto of each other neatly and safely.
Colored Placemats
Tip 3: Cocoon delicates with bubble wrap and then cling wrap it!
If you have delicate china or glassware the major consideration is how to store safely yet visible. This vintage Blue Willow teapot was in a cardboard box covered with brown paper because we didn’t want it to break. Unfortunately, we also couldn’t remember what box it was in. As the adage goes, “out of sight, out of mind” but, in this case, we didn’t want to forget we had it. Now it’s on the shelf with a cocoon of protection – a layer of bubble wrap, sealed with plastic wrap.
What’s cool about using this combination is that the bubble wrap gives it cushioning and the plastic wrap acts like tape to keep it all snuggly closed. And, when you stack one on top of the other on the shelf, they cling to each other which prevents slippage. I also like that when I go to unwrap, all I have to do is to cut away the plastic wrap which separates quickly and easily from the bubble wrap. With tape, I usually have to cut the tape which also cuts the bubble wrap, making it difficult to reuse.
Pre Wrap
Plastic Wrap
Cocoon with bubble wrap and plastic wrap
Stacked, visible and protected!
These three practices have helped us keep track of our inventory at Southern Vintage Table. Keep us in mind as you plan your next dinner or party – we are ready and organized!
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Since I opened Southern Vintage Table, I have been heartened by the excitement of my friends and family for the concept of this business. Folks love the idea of finding, collecting and bringing together the collage of vintage china and tableware patterns! Many have also generously gifted me with their personal family treasures and I have loved hearing about their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. In this post, I want to honor the family dinner table pasts of four women – Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna and Lillian.
Mildred, who recently passed away, lived in the NC mountains all her life. She and her husband of nearly 70 years dearly loved each other and their family. Her son and my brother-in-law, gave me her set of amber Whitehall glasses by Colony Glass. I do love this vintage amber pattern but I mostly love that they were once part of the Webb family’s happy dinner table for so many years.
Mildred’s vintage amber Whitehall tumblers
I got a call one day from Nancy that she was cleaning out cabinets and had some things she wanted to share with me. Along with the vintage glass, silver items and decorative aluminum trays, she had a set of 12 gorgeous vintage placemats made by her husband’s Grandmother Björk. Nancy remembered that Grandmother Björk loved to crochet and even when she was almost blind, she was still sewing and edging linens. With their delicate, perfect design and their classic ivory color, I can easily envision Grandmother Björk carefully stitching these to use at her family dinners.
Beautiful hand stitched vintage placemats
My friend, Priscilla, sent me a message that she wanted me to come over for a visit. She showed me all around her happy home and I reveled at the beautiful nature displays. (She and her husband both taught science.) Our tour ended in a room where she had stacked items she thought I could use with my business. Among the many treasures were two boxes of vintage silverware and one was from Edna, her husband’s mother. Edna, the wife of an agriculture professor and the mother of two PhD boys, loved to cook fresh vegetables from her garden. Everything about this visit filled my heart with gratitude, especially this lovely vintage silverware that Edna lovingly set around her family dinner table.
Edna’s lovely silverware came in the most charming box!
This week Carrie of Fernrock Farm and I made a business call to the Chapel Hill Carriage House. It turned out that the owner’s daughter was once a student of mine and I knew her sons as well. At the end of the tour of her beautiful grounds, Brenda asked me if I would like to have her grandmother’s china. She explained that it had been boxed up for years and she really wanted to share it with someone who would love using it as much her grandmother did. Her grandmother, Lillian, lived in Arlington near Boston and enjoyed serving big dinners to her family. Of course, I was both honored and thrilled!
Lillian’s beautiful china from Gilchrist Department Store
The delicate blue and red roses against the cream background give this pattern that perfect vintage look. Although I couldn’t find the name of Lillian’s china, it does say on the back that it was “made expressly for Gilchrist – Boston”. Gilchrist, I discovered, was a major department store in Boston that opened its doors in the mid 1800s and closed them in the mid 1970s. Now, Southern Vintage China is the caretaker of Lillian’s lovely set of china, which probably dates from the 1920s-30s.
Classic vintage china with delicate roses on a cream background – love the two-handled cups!
One final story about this week’s gifts. When I was visiting Priscilla, I met Becky, a friend of theirs who regularly goes on mission trips to tear down houses that need rebuilding. After Priscilla introduced us and told her about my business, Becky shared that she recently had been to her 90-year-old father’s home and had picked up a set of glasses that were now in the trunk of her car. The glasses, she explained, had once come packaged with tea and then she offered them to me. Wow – aren’t they incredible? They will be featured in an upcoming blog!
Buy some tea, get some tea glasses!
Sets of glasses, linens, silverware, china and more – all shared by the families of Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna, Lillian and Becky’s mother. How does one show her appreciation for such beautiful gifts? SimpIy and sincerely, I thank you.
Each time we set the table at Southern Vintage Table, we honor these women and many others who loved their families and the special time they spent around their family dinner table. Namaste.
PS – My to-do-list continues from weeks’ past. Something more interesting than ironing napkins and cleaning silverware always comes up! Thank goodness…
One lesson I am learning as the small business owner of Southern Vintage Table is to set goals for my week ahead and create a schedule. This practice keeps me focused, busy and positive! Here’s what I am working on for this week- and probably into next week, too.
1. Write a blog and keep it real. (Working on this goal right now.) Publish Monday. Get an idea board for future blog topics.
2. Produce and order a photo book with Carrie from Fernrock Farm in collaboration with Merry Hill Farm. Deliver to Lynne at Merry Hill on Friday for Saturday’s appointments.
Here’s a screen shot of our first draft
3. Finalize special pricing packages for Merry Hill clients. Print copies and get vintage china vignette ready for Friday delivery.
4. Visit nursery with Carrie to pick up indoor sedums to plant in china teacups for Merry Hill vignette and future clients. Drill holes in teacups and plant sedums.
Here’s a teacup that had a a chip but was too beautiful not to use on the table. So, it now has hens and biddies!
5. Visit the NC State Fair Fine Dining exhibit. (Yes, they have a competition for table decorating but there is a lottery for entrants. Unfortunately, I didn’t not get selected but I’m going to do a little research and be ready for next year! I’m working on an idea that uses one of the vintage trumpets I won at the auction as a center piece.)
6. Plan with Carrie our next marketing strategy (wedding planners and caterers?) and set appointments.
7. Take photos of recent china pattern purchases for inventory book and for upcoming blog. (I picked up a beautiful pattern from the 1930s that I can’t wait to share!)
Sneak peek – this beautiful vintage china pattern is from the 1930s.
8. Measure and take photos of lace toppers for inventory book and upcoming blog.
9. Paint and distress recently purchased frames. Buy blackboard, have it cut and mounted in each. Take photos and inventory.
10. Clean recently purchased silverware. Take inventory. (I may try a new technique for cleaning off tarnish that uses baking soda, aluminum foil and boiling water.)
Beautiful pattern! Can’t wait to reveal the sheen of the silver underneath that tarnish!
11. Iron and sort vintage napkins.
12. Stop by a couple of thrift stores on my way to visit my mom. (Love this part of my job!)
LOTS to do, but after years of teaching, planning and grading papers, I LOVE that my work schedule includes trips to the state fair, a nursery and a few thrift stores! Work is fun and fun is work!
After months of planning, their wedding day was here. Julie and Wayne were ready to share this special life event with family and friends and Southern Vintage Table was delighted to be a part of their celebration.
Jami and I arrived early to get the tables ready. The weather was cool and overcast – and though sunny weather would have been nice – it was going to be the perfect wedding day!
With pink and blue vintage dinner plates and vintage stainless steel tableware from Southern Vintage Table along with beautiful flowers from Fernrock Farm, the tables were ready for the wedding guests.
After the barbecue and chicken dinner, guests were treated with wedding pies! With a vintage lacy overlay and a welcoming sign, the dessert table was adorned with an eclectic mix of vintage dessert plates and teacups. So lovely!
Southern Vintage Table will be delighted to help make your wedding day special for you! Congratulations and best wishes, Julie and Wayne!
Turn tarnished and dull into clean and bright with chalk paint!
Many good things come to and out of thrift stores. The causes many of them support are so worthy, from local hospices to homes for the less fortunate to schools. The shoppers benefit from the low prices, the donators know their goods will bring funds to help others and the stuff finds a new purpose in someone’s home. Can you tell I love thrift stores?
One creative event a local thrift store recently sponsored was a parking lot yard sale. Folks in the community could “rent” a space for $20, bring their stuff to sell and, at the close of the morning, the remaining things get donated to the thrift store. Definitely a win-win setup!
I decided to go late to this sale in the hopes of finding the extra-special good deals, right before the trucks come through the parking lot to pick up the unsold items. When I got there I found one lady who was packing up. She told me to look for anything I’d like to have and she’d give me a good price. Yes, I thought, just how I planned! I found some very tarnished silver-plated and brass items and some assorted glassware and piled up my stuff. I’m thinking it’s going to be maybe $20. She looked at the pile. “How about $5?” Wow!
I started cleaning as soon as I got home. The glass dishes went into the dishwasher and I began to wash the metal items. The silver-plated utensils and small dish shined up nicely with a little polish but the brass was hopeless.
Here’s a shot of the brass things on the bottom of the bucket they came in. Yuck!
That was when I decided to see if anyone had painted brass with chalk paint – bam. There it was – a once-brass-now-painted-white deer looking so clean and crisp with a coat of chalk paint.
I started painting. I had already mixed up some chalk paint with a recipe I found on the Internet. Mix 2 1/2 tablespoons Plaster of Paris with 1 1/2 tablespoons of water until there are no lumps. Add 8 oz of matte paint with primer and mix till smooth. That’s it!
Both of these came from Home Depot. The paint is an 8 oz sample bottle that cost less than $3!Mixed and ready to use.Tried to polish this tray but this was as good as it was going to get. Time to paint!This stand needed updating!Wooden and blah…
I painted all of these in one night. The next day I added a light coat of wax, buffed them up and voila!
I painted all of these in one night!
Oh yeah, I also painted a brown briefcase and a frame. Don’t they look terrific?In a previous blog, I touted Annie Sloan paint and I still believe she’s got a great product. But, it’s very pricey. With my slim budget, this is a great alternative. So, support a thrift store and find something that’s interesting – wood, brass or even silver-plated. Mix up a batch of chalk paint and transform it!
Southern Vintage Table is also fortunate to have serving pieces in this lovely pattern. With such a beautiful color and pattern, Forget-Me-Not on your table will help make your gala affair unforgettable!
