Tablescape Times Three: Replacements

Showing posts with label Replacements. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Birthday at Replacements

I have mentioned several times in this blog about my husband's being a “keeper”. Never was this more evident, than when he surprised me with the idea of taking me to Replacements in North Carolina for my birthday this year. What a gift!

We actually left for North Carolina on my birthday and stopped in Charlotte for a couple of days, before traveling to McLeansville, where Replacements is located. To all of you lucky people who get to live in Charlotte, let me say that I am jealous with a capital “J”!

What an incredible city.

We stayed downtown, which was full of beautiful buildings and tree-lined streets.

The Green, a park with huge art installations, is a great place for families and visitors to enjoy. It is across the street from the some of the downtown museums.

I loved the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, especially the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibit. Next door is The Mint Museum, which is dedicated to crafts and design.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is, also, downtown. I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I did, but it really is a fun place to visit with lots of hands-on exhibits for the young and old alike.

One of the former racers, Ned Jarrett, was there the day we were. He was giving an informal talk and signing autographs.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Replacements (if there are any who are not!), it is the holy grail of replacement pieces for your china, crystal, silver and collectibles. It was begun officially in 1981 by Bob Page, although he had been collecting and helping friends find replacements pieces for years. I have been ordering from the company for a very long time, even before they had an online website. The first occasion I had to discover its existence was reading a small ad in the “Southern Living” magazine. I was thrilled to know that there was such a place and have been so happy with my dealings with them throughout the years.

We arrived at the showroom early on a Monday morning and were met by a friendly greeter. I chose not to take the very informative tour, because I wanted time to look around on my own.

The first gorgeous things that we saw were pieces of silver – silver, silver and more silver.

An Unger sterling silver dresser set.

My heart skipped at least a couple of beats as I wandered through the beautiful old display cabinets filled with unique serving pieces of flatware, stunning tea and coffee services, and every other kinds of sterling tableware that you can imagine (or cannot begin to imagine!!). Everything was for sale!!

I caught a brief glimpse of the famous “Wall of China”, before workmen covered up the doorway to work on the floor in that room. The wall of china holds 500 patterns of china side by side.

The room also contains crystal and flatware patterns.

Some of the different items for sale in the showroom

One of the display tables decorated for July 4^th.

The showroom displays some of the china that is for sale. Of course, they cannot put everything out at once, so if you go, be sure to take a list of what you want to buy!

After looking at everything for sale, we moved on to the Replacements Museum, which is located at the rear of the showroom. Here you will find pieces from Bob Page’s personal collection.

Some of the many pieces of Chintzware in the collection

Royal Copenhagen’s “Flora Danica”, supposedly the most expensive china in the world.

A display of how Lenox china is made

I had read that Bob Page had a collection of crystal clarets, but nothing prepared me for how many there were!

Some of the clarets

Here is the largest soup tureen that I have ever seen. It is so large that it has two openings for soup ladles, one on each end.

My favorite part of the Museum was the display of Wedgwood. I have been collecting and admiring Wedgwood Jasperware for a long time, but I have never before seen any shoes with Jasperware heels! The buttery leather sandals were gorgeous by themselves, but who would think of making the heels from Jasperware? I would love to meet the woman who owned these – I think that I could definitely be her friend!

Another wonderful part of Replacements is the overstock room. I found some unbelievable bargains in there. Shopping in that one section is well worth the cost of the trip!

After visiting some of the other rooms with wares for sale, I finally produced the list of wishes that I had brought with me. This photo shows the wonderful, Peggy, who helped me with everything. She could not have been nicer and I found out that her mother-in-law originally had been from the town in which I live!

Everything on the list was produced and sometimes I was encouraged to look at several of the same pieces that I wanted, so that I could choose the best of the bunch. After everything was bought and wrapped, my sweet husband surprised me, again, by buying 6 forks in a very old pattern that I have been slowly collecting. I will show them to you in a future blog.

What a birthday this one was, but you know the best gift of all? Having a husband who understands my passion for these beautiful old things – priceless!!!

Diane

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Ode to Avocado Green

When I was a young engaged bride-to-be, the “in” colors were Avocado Green and Harvest Gold (I will bet that some of you had those colors in your homes, too!). Before the wedding, my mother and I made a visit to the local jewelry store, which was the place in our small town to select all of the tableware. I have written about this trip in another blog and I confessed that I am still happy with all of the choices that I made that day. The Tablescape Times Three pattern for July is the one that I selected for my informal china, Royal Doulton’s “Samarra”.

Another confession that I must make is that I never actually used this beautiful china for informal meals. I realized quickly that it was too nice to use all of the time, so my mother gave me a set of white ironstone that my husband and I used for every day.

For my table setting this month, I decided to use almost all avocado green tableware to pay homage to that fabulous color.

I set a brunch table for four.

“Samarra” dinner plates were placed on top of ecru cotton placemats.

I added matching salad plates.

On top, I placed avocado Bia ramekins, which were a recent purchase from Tuesday Morning. These are the perfect size to use as fruit cups, before the entree is presented.

Coffee or tea can be poured into the “Samarra” teacups. Our family usually prefers hot coffee or iced tea, but we do entertain guests occasionally who want hot tea or cold coffee!

To serve the coffee, I set out my coffee pot, creamer and covered sugar. When I married, I did not receive the creamer and sugar as wedding gifts. However, many years later, my two children gave them to me one Christmas. They found them on Replacements and I was thrilled, since the pattern had been discontinued by then. The coffee pot is an even later addition to the collection, but I purchased it from Replacements, also.

The avocado green footed glasses are Fostoria in the “Mesa” pattern. These glasses were chosen at the same time as the china.

I managed to find avocado napkins and napkin rings and used them together.

The flowers on my grandmother’s “Presentation” silverplate flatware mimic the delicate flowers on the china.

I did decide at the last minute that I should add a little bit of additional color, so that the table would not resemble the Jolly Green Giant. I cut a few of my miniature roses and put them in silverplate creamers from Two’s Company.

I had fun creating this table. It brought back so many memories – I only wish that I taken the time to find photos of those extremely stylish Harvest Gold appliances that I had in my first two houses!!

Diane

Sunday, April 17, 2011

How to Do Easter on the Cheap (When Easter arrives so soon after the April 18th tax deadline!)

The title of this blog is somewhat “tongue-in-cheek”, but I really did set out to create a great holiday table with just a little bit of money.

I can get totally carried away with beautiful, expensive things, but beauty can be bought cheaply, too.

I began my quest a couple of months ago looking for inexpensive purchases for my Easter tablescape. I wanted to set a table for the eight members of my family, so I had to be creative. My one not-so-cheap item is the beautiful Ralph Lauren tablecloth. However, white tablecloths can be found in any price range in those wonderful stores like TJ Maxx, Marshall’s or Tuesday Morning. I already had this one, so I did not try to find a less expensive one, just for the blog.

Now, let’s look at these great bargains! I found these egg-shaped placemats at Bed Bath and Beyond for only $1.99 apiece.

A discontinued J C Penney pink plate went on top of the placemat. These large plates were found on Replacements for $7.99 each. They work really well as chargers for most regular dinner plates, too.

Four of the Clay Art “Sunflower” plates were purchased at T J Maxx for almost nothing, but I did have to pay around $6.50 each for the other four. I bought them on Amazon.com from one of their online stores.

The robin’s egg blue napkins were found at Marshall’s. They were packaged four to a set for $4.99 and I actually found two matching sets!

I bought the cute napkin rings from Kohl’s for a sale price of $1.60 each. They were very similar to some that I had found at Dillard’s for $5.00 apiece. Quite a savings for eight of them!

I used white flatware from Walmart. It comes as a 20 piece set for $14.97. I bought two sets and used everything, except for the soup spoons. That means I got 40 pieces for $30.00 - less than a dollar each. What a deal!

The musical Rabbit was a previous Cracker Barrel find, but was not expensive, even then. He plays, “Here Come Peter Cottontail”. Of course!

He is placed on a glass pedestal cake plate. This is one of three that I found at TJ Maxx. They are different sizes and can be stacked in a tier. This is the middle size one of the three. I cannot remember exactly what I paid for them, but I think the largest one was $7.99. This one was probably around $6.00.

Egg shaped place card holders and the little bunny dish were bought at Michael’s. I cannot find the ticket for them, but they were quite inexpensive.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny salt and pepper shakers have been around my house for years. They were not just inexpensive, they were cheap! However, our family still enjoys seeing them every Easter.

I have had the Schott-Zwiesel water goblets (they can, also, be used for red wine) for many years. However, they do fit into the theme of the table, because I purchased them at an outlet store, when I did buy them!

The cut glass ice bucket was the least expensive of all – a gift from my mother-in-law!

My favorite recent purchases are the Kaldun & Bogle egg cup/votive holders and pitcher. I found them on sale at One Kings Lane. The pitcher was only $19.00.

The egg cups were two for $7.99. I think they look much more expensive than $4.00 apiece!

The glittery eggs inside were a Pier I buy – 12 for $9.95.

I think I did pretty well in creating an inexpensive table for eight guests – with all of the money that I saved, maybe, I can afford to feed everyone!!

Now, let the Bunny Parade begin…