The Webkinz site is down, and I don’t mind telling you it is messing up my morning. I have to keep working on Goober’s Atomic Adventure! Time’s a-wastin’! I have work to do on level 9!
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This is my last week writing for Milk and Cookies at Work It Mom; my last post will be on Wednesday. I’ve been writing there once a week for well over 5 years, so this is a big change. Probably there will be an increase in the number of shopping posts I do here: I’m now completely in the habit of thinking, “Oooo, this would make a good post!” as I’m shopping. I also might be moving some of the posts from there to here; this might be a little irritating to those of you who already read them there. I will put something like “Originally posted at Work It Mom” at the top of each such post so you don’t get halfway through feeling that weird “didn’t I read something just like this?” feeling, but it still might be a little irritating.
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Speaking of shopping, my mom and I were at a consignment store yesterday and found a stack of lunch plates in the Franciscan Ware Madeira pattern, which was my parents’ casual wedding china. My mom says it was a daring choice: DARK china! and with cartoony flowers! Very mod.
It was quite freaky to see the pattern again all of a sudden. My parents switched to an all-white china when I was in college, so the Madeira is what I remember from my whole childhood.
One of the nice things about going the mix-and-match route with my own dishes is that it is perfectly awesome and workable to incorporate a lunch plate from my childhood. I picked one up to see the price, and it was $6.00, which seemed fine for a 1960s plate. (The 1960s is when my parents registered for china, not when my childhood was—in case you are suddenly thinking, “Wait, what?”) Then I noticed it was $6.00 for ALL SEVEN. SOLD, sir! I put one in the cupboard and the others down in the basement as spares and to think what to do with them. It would almost have been better if the plates were being sold individually—although, then how would I have decided how many to buy?
Another neat thing: my parents got rid of their Madeira here, where we still live. So THEORETICALLY, these plates could be THE SAME ONES they had!
I love the dishes! So much so, I Googled them, as they’d nicely complement my own dark dishes. I must say you got yourself one heck of a bargain! Use them in health and happiness.
My parents had that EXACT SAME every day china!! I remember it being extremely heavy. And very DARK. We had this super heavy green glassware to go with it. You had to take a sledgehammer to it to break it.
So funny to think we were eating off the same kinds of plates when we were kids!
I LOVE this. We had glasses, too—kind of on pedestals, right? We didn’t use those much, I don’t think, but we owned them.
The glasses we used weren’t from that same set — they were big, thick glass tumblers — but I know we had some of the ones that went with the dishes and I do think they were stemmed! My parents also switched to white china after retiring the Madeira!!
My parents ALSO had that china, though they switched to white when I was in elementary school. They gave me the Madeira (still in perfect condition—it’s seriously indestructible) when I moved into my first single-girl apartment, and I used it for a few years. Talk about memories!
Oh, how fun! And how interesting that both our parents switched to white after that!
I love those dishes! I love anything that’s dark green.
And I was wondering if there was something up with the Milk & Cookies posts, since I couldn’t find the link on the sidebar the last time I was looking. (I couldn’t remember the Work-it Mom site name) I really enjoy those posts, since shopping/browsing is not my thing at all.
What a great find! I also have the mix and match dish thing going on-I think it is fun to have some variety.
I passed all the other levels in a couple of days as soon as they introduced the new Goober game, but I’ve been stuck at level nine for ages. I like a challenge, but this one is really hard!
I really enjoy your milk and cookies posts, so I’m glad you’re still going to do them here!
SAME HERE. I don’t know how many HUNDREDS of times I have done it now, and I don’t even get particularly CLOSE!
Yeah, I’ve lost count how many times I’ve attempted it, and several times I’ve gotten down to only two radiation tiles left before I ran out of moves, it’s SO frustrating! Good luck, I hope we both pass it soon!
I love Franciscan ceramics. I have a set of Franciscan plates but in the Hacienda pattern, as well as a couple of platters in the most popular pattern (Starburst). Their factory was in Glendale, CA so it’s pretty easy to find their dishes in thrift shops here in Southern California. They had a lot of famous artists work for them as designers over the years and it really shows in a lot of their unique and sort of whimsical designs. Love that Madeira pattern as well. Great find!
I am also crazy about the Franciscan patterns. I absolutely LOVE the Starburst, but that is super hard to find up here. I am also a big fan of the Franciscan Oasis pattern, which is a bit easier to find and less expensive, so I have been collecting that!
I didn’t have that china as a kid, nor do I play the Webkins game (I think I’ve said before I kinda wish my kids would get into it) — BUT, every time you post about you and your Mom looking at china patterns while shopping together, I sincerely regret my decision to move away from home for college and never go back. I hope you’re reading this comment, Mom. :)
Aw, I love the Milk & Cookies posts. I remember when you started writing over there and canNOT believe it has been 5 years. Wowzer.
My parents had those, too, and we used them for most of my childhood. When I was about 23 and living on my own, I went to a yard sale and saw a whole set and bought them in a fit of nostalgia. The goblets were very “King Arthur and the knights of the round table.” I still have the set packed away somewhere.
I love that china pattern! I’d register for that now if it was still made.
Oooh! Those dishes are lovely! I have just recently decided to go with the mix-and-match route with my dishes. I don’t know why it took me so long to come around to it.
Several years ago I bought a necklace from an Etsy shop called The Broken Plate Pendant Company (https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBrokenPlate). My necklace was just a random one I saw that I liked, but she also does custom orders so you can send her a broken plate or heirloom or whatever and she’ll make a necklace or earrings or whatever out of it. Not sure if you’re that attached to the dishes ;) but it could be fun! Plus, dark green goes with everything!
Oooo, what a GREAT idea!!
I just so happen to be sitting in my parents’ living room, five feet away from a china cabinet filled with Madeira. They were married in the mid-70s, and this was their one and only wedding china, ONLY to be used on special occasions. I always found those plates to be too dark and unappealing to eat off of comfortably, yet every Thanksgiving out they come again, and my kids get the pleasure of drinking their milk out of those medieval goblets.