Tag: Kitchen

Really, I’d given up on ever finding a spice rack that I like. Over the past few years, I’ve checked out every kitchen shop, and flipped through endless pages on eBay. I was after something with a vintage feel, but kept coming up with dingy, rusty, or country.

That is, until Lewis and I popped into this little kitchen boutique in Portland, Maine. It was Sunday, the day we were supposed to fly home, we had already checked out of our hotel, and we were looking for something dry to do in the pouring rain. That is where I spotted this great little spice rack. It is terrific. The shiny chrome wires give it a retro-diner feel. Just the right balance of clean and vintage-y. I didn’t buy it; I’m completely broke right now, plus we would have had to transport it home. So I snapped a picture of it with my cell phone. I’m sure stores just love it when people do that, but hey, what’s a girl to do? As it turns out, I can get this spice rack from Amazon. It isn’t cheap, so it’ll have to wait a while.

These beauties arrived on my front porch earlier this week. They are salad plates in the Iridescent Moonglow pattern by Federal Glass. I’ve never seen the salad plates before, I didn’t even think they existed because I have never seen a guide that referred to them. So, boy was I excited when I spotted these on eBay. The seller stated that they were 7 1/2″ plates. I almost doubted her, but I bid on them anyway, figuring even if she was wrong, I still need a couple more dinner plates. When I saw the box, I knew it wasn’t big enough to hold dinner plates.

I have a special love of these; there is a story. When I was little, my grandparents had a cabin in the woods. It was about a half hour’s drive from where they lived (and now about a half hour for me, too, the other direction). This was not meant to be a residence, but a little getaway for them, and friends and family. My grandfather was the ultimate scavenger, and built this cabin with mostly found objects, and with the skills he and friends had. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really built to stand the test of time, and is now in a serious state of disrepair. It makes my mom sad. She loved it there when she was growing up.

But back to the plates. The kitchen had a hodgepodge of plates, cups, utensils, etc. that had been left by different people over the years, and there were a small handfull of pieces of this pattern; two or three dinner plates, six vegetable bowls, three or four cereal bowls, and several saucers, but no teacups. Well, I just loved these when I was little (and still do). I named them rainbow plates because of the way the iridescent colors shifted when you tilt the plates. I always insisted on eating from a my rainbow plates.I’ve since added to the cabin’s odd pieces, and now have quite a collection. I’d ultimately like to have service for twelve. Minus the teacups and saucers. I don’t need those. I only have the ones I do because they came with a set I got at the local antiques barn. Now I just need to make room in the cupboard.