I collect junk jewelry pins. Not real gold or real jewel stones, just pretty pins. I want to display them. I finally thought of a way. I'll buy a picture frame, cover the cardboard with black velvet, and then pin the pins to the velvet.

Lily - Brilliant - or as Martha would say, it's a good thing - LOL.

Way to go, Lily! You have turned something beautiful and sentimental and useless into something beautiful and sentimental and useful!

Yay! Hope you feel good everytime you see it.

When I first started de-cluttering things we never used, I realised a lot of it was because I'd thought of them as too "good" to use. Here I was prepared to give away a Bohemian crystal water set, while we were using jam jars for juice.
I was offering someone my handmade quilt that I'd never used, while in my picnic basket I had a tatty old rug.
It's probably a natural transition time, from having kids and wanting to protect our good things from the rough and tumble of everyday life. But now that our kids have grown, I figure I'm not going to waste my nice things by *not* using them.
If it's anything the kids will want when we're gone, well, they can have it now, and if they don't want it, well, why not eat our porridge out of the Royal Daulton bowls?
And why not use the crystal decanter for an oil jug?
That's my new motto, If I don't use it or love it, out it goes to someone else. But if I love it, find a use for it, and get rid of the one I don't love.
Anyone else use their good things for mundane uses?

Then this morning, I went on the Martha Stewart website for the first time ever, (I can't even remember why I went there now)
Well the organizing tip of the day is to turn a dish into a magnetic pin holder, by gluing a magnet to the base. AHA!

OK, this is funny.

I was *in* the Martha Stewart offices today, and they are set up for a small sewing class for employees. I spotted, on the table, some stainless-steel pin dishes w/ big magnets on the bottom, and thought, I have to have one of these!

So I googled "magnetic pin dish" and found that very how-to you're talking about!!

I think I'd like to have one in stainless.

Oh, and kudos to you for taking that dish back out of the giveaway.

We are entitled to have things just because we love them. And I'm glad you found some way to use it.

(I hope the magnet won't mess up its appeal for you)

My maternal grandmother used her best china every day. It meant that it was all worn out by the time she passed away, but she loved the set, and it knew she loved it.

We have a "best china" set from hubby's parents. It stays in the cabinet and we have never used it, simply because it's so hard to reach. I'd hate to break it just getting it down. When we remodel, we are going to make the good china more accessible.

I can understand the feeling that something is" too good to use." I don't know how I absorbed that strange idea! But I also am getting to the point where I question that voice echoing in the back of my head. Why not use the good stuff? I'm worth it! I'm starting to believe that. Maybe that's the difference.

I'm a big fan of using your good things, lily. You do have to take care of them a little more than you do the modern stuff, but sometimes I think that the pleasure of handling the better things makes cleaning up a reward. Well, almost!
My mother has never used anything but her good sterling flatware, which she and my father got as wedding presents in 1945. I grew up with only silver on the table, she still uses it every day, and it looks beautiful. Mother always said we had to use the silver because she couldn't afford to buy things we already had. The big secret is, if you take care of it correctly, it's hardly any trouble, and the more you use it, the less you have to polish it. I am so grateful to her for teaching me how to take care of silver and china, and I love having dinner parties and using all the best things, and everybody at the table seems to love using it, too. I think it's a gift you give your friends...and I really love to set the table with plain white china from Crate and Barrel, and big white ironed damask napkins, and my great-grandmother's silver, which is simple and a little worn, and a combination of good crystal and plain modern glasses.
I'm babbling now, I realize, but it is the use and care you give your things that gives them patina and soul.

Talley Sue, don't you love those moments when things like that just *happen*? Hmmm. I like the sound of those stainless steel pin dishes, and more my style than this little dish I love. I'm normally not *into* crinoline ladies sitting on swings with their lovers, so have no idea why this little dish appeals to me so much. Love it as I may, I'm glad it'll be in the drawer of my sewing desk LOL. I am so picky!
Maryliz, when my parents recently downsized from our old family home to a small unit, they were going to give away all their good stuff because they had no room for it with their old worn everyday things. Mum just never even thought that she'd be "allowed" to use her good things for herself, instead of for guests only.
We managed to persuade them to keep and actually use their "good" things for everyday now. The crunch came with a set of beautiful towels that had been given to her, but she'd never used. She said she and Dad had so many old ones still to wear out, and she'd been saving these for a "special" occasion, because they were sooo lovely.
So she offered them to me, saying, "When are Dad and I ever going to use them now? That's when I took her by the cheeks, stuck my nose up against hers, and said in ominous tones. "Mum, are you ready for this. This is a very daring and adventurous suggestion I'm going to make. When are you going to use them? TONIGHT!"
She suddenly saw the light and burst out laughing and said, "Aren't we silly old things? We're over 80 and here I am worried about wearing out my good things".
Yes, the towels were hung in their bathroom that same day, and she was like a newly wed, setting up their unit, with the good stuff she's had for years but only ever used for "good". She reckoned then that every day she and Dad could spend together after 80 was a "good" day.
I decided then and there to not even wait till I was 80, but to start right now.
Bronwynsmom, Can I please come to dinner at your house?

My dishes are 1940's Moderntone. The double handled soup bowls just don't fit how we live, so I keep them in my sewing area to hold bobbins, safety pins, etc. I'm going to drill holes in some of the others and use them for small houseplants over my kitchen sink. I just need to pick up the drill bit. Those, I'll use with the saucers, since those don't fit how we live either.

My mom always used silverplate on a daily basis, but we never had a dishwasher. I just am not willing to hand wash the daily dishes.

My mom always put away towels for good. I told her that I was really going to enjoy using them after she died. She hauled them all out and started using them at least 15 years ago. Guess I'm going to have to buy myself some towels after all.

Gloria

Gloria and Lily, I love how you inspired your mothers to use the good things. I know that because many of our parents lived through the Depression, they had in the backs of their minds the fear that this was it, and there might never be any more. I think our mothers thought it was their job to conserve, and that anything else was self-indulgent. Our fathers worried that their ability to provide might be threatened.
My mother was always very careful about money, as she was a widow who worked from a very young age, but she also understood that having lovely things and using them all the time meant that you never needed to buy any more, because good things last, and grow more beautiful with time.
AND you don't need to fill up the back of the closet or the top of the china cabinet with them if they are what you use. Hmmmm....

My Grandmother was very pretty and petite, she loved "girly" things. On Birthdays and Christmas, I gave her lacy negligees and blouses and bottles of Chanel. After she died, we found all my gifts in a dresser drawer. She was "saving them for good" but she ran out of time.

I am a butterfly gardener and always wanted the Lenox China, Butterfly Meadow. I could never justify buying it since I already have my everyday dishes and a set of china that I use for company. But I finally told my husband I really loved it and for our anniversary he bought me a starter set, then added more for Christmas. I use it on weekends and when we have family over but not a big dinner. It just makes me smile every weekend to use it and brightens my day. I have even bought cloth napkins to use to match the colors of each plate. Everytime I see another piece on sale at Marshalls or Belks I try to get it. Love it, love it!

Here is Mrs Boston's favorite china. Lovely!

Maria

Here is a link that might be useful: Lenox China, Butterfly Meadow

Oohhaahhhh.. That is soooo lovely. And see? automatically my mind starts going, want want want pant pant pant want it want it want it. Ok, I'm looking, drooling, admiring, and leaving it alone. LOL

Just give us some more details Mrs. Boston, to satisfy my cravings.. Are each of the cloth napkins you use a different colour? Describe the colours for us? No wonder it makes you smile. It is simply beautiful.
Glad you posted the link Maria.
See? why do they make "stuff" that is so beautiful? Hooray for MR. Boston for wanting to make you smile too, Mrs. Boston.

What a wonderful husband you have, Mrs. Boston!

I, too, am using the "good" stuff I had acquired over the years and tons of old dishes, crystal, etc., that I found at my mom's when she moved to a nursing home. She always kept it beautifully displayed or packed away to use on special occasions, but those occasions were few and far between - I never saw most of the stuff before! When she sees it being used at my house now she is pleased as punch!

Sherry

Maria, thanks for posting the link. I never thought to do that. Each dinner plate is different as are the sandwich plates and mugs. Cups and saucers do not come with the basic set, the mugs do instead. I like them better anyway, less to load in the dishwasher. I bought the rice bowls to use as soup/cereal bowls cause they are nice and deep. They are all alike in butterfly design, as are the dipping bowls (small squarish shape). I use them for fruit, which we have nearly every night for dinner. I also have the big platter and serving bowl, salt and pepper shaker, creamer and sugar bowl. I just found the little loaf dish at Belk's and I will probably use it for cranberry sauce or such at the holidays. There is a bread platter but didn't catch it on sale the last time I saw it.

They do have matching napkins, placemats. However the only place I could find them was at Dillard's and they were so expensive. So instead, I bought the tablecloth, white with butterflies, to use for bigger dinners. (I found extra pieces at Marshalls so I now have a service of 8, basic set is for 6.) I found white placemats, bordered in green that I use just for us. At the time I couldn't find a matching green for the napkins, which would have worked since there is green on each plate. So I decided to mix up the colors. The napkins are either coral, a marve color pink, or a lavendar, medium blue or yellow. I recently also found the napkin rings at Marshalls and they have the same leaf pattern with ladybugs on them that the dipping dishes do.

This past Christmas DH gave me the dessert plates. A set of 4 has a yellow plate, pink, green, and blue one. Each with a different butterfly in the middle. I see now they have the bowls to match and the mugs.

Yes, DH is a sweetie. Especially when it comes to my butterflies. I bring in the eggs, caterpillars and raise them to chrysalis stage and release them when they emerge.

Besides, it makes it easy for him to shop for me. Anything butterly-ish makes me happy. Jewerly, clothes, dishes, gardening. HA!

Mrs. Boston. Thaaankyou (sighing with pleasure).
When you set up your table, it must be the prettiest in the world. I read your descriptive post twice, just for the sheer *sybaritic* pleasure of it. (always wanted to use that word LOL).