I have been writing about Melangell Antiques since they opened. They are located at 1133 Pottstown Pike, West Chester, PA 19380 in West Goshen Township.
This business is in an old estate hunting lodge. A rather famous one to local history buffs. Also known as “Wrangley Lodge”, in an amazing century-plus old Arts and Crafts style designed by Charles Barton Keen as part of the original Greystone Estate. This is special to me because one of my very close friends and honorary other mothers is his granddaughter.
And those who know me know I love a good adaptive reuse, and some of my favorite antique stores have been in restored old houses! (You know like another favorite business down in Chadds Ford, Brandywine View Antiques.)
Anyway, I stopped in this past weekend because I knew that the store had some strands of vintage mercury glass garland, which I use on my trees.
Once again, when I walked in the door, I marveled at the sheer beauty of the place. And it’s not just what the business owner sells, it’s the restoration. This place really has been transformed. It’s a beautiful serene space. The building glows inside and out. No not literally, it’s just a feeling you get when you go inside and it’s lovely.
And what I also realized this weekend is they’ve never been honored or commended publicly by West Goshen Township or any of those supervisors there for what they have done. This is an adaptive reuse business that works in a historic asset.
I guess West Goshen doesn’t do historic preservation awards? Do they even celebrate local small businesses or are they only about Target and Chick Fil A? I mean, I like both stores, but they need to celebrate their small businesses too.
I also decided to research the name. Melangell is Welsh and was the name of a Saint. That I already knew, but the rest of the history was fascinating. 
The name Melangell has its origins deeply rooted in Welsh culture and language. In Welsh, mel translates to dear, while angell relates to angel. Combining these elements, the name Melangell signifies DearAngel. This name has a rich and intriguing history, closely tied to the story of Saint Melangell herself.
Saint Melangell was the patron saint of hares and rabbits. She was a Welsh hermit and abbess. She possibly lived in the 7th or 8th century, although the precise dates are uncertain. According to her hagiography, she was originally an Irish princess who fled an arranged marriage and became a consecrated virgin in the wilderness of the Kingdom of Powys.
According to legend, she was known for her devotion to nature and for providing sanctuary to a hunted hare (rabbit) , thus earning her saintly status. As time passed, the name Melangell became associated with this valiant, compassionate figure, and it found its place in Welsh folklore and traditions. The Shrine Church of Pennant Melangell is reported to be one of the most beautiful little churches in the UK.
Anyway, this store is filled with wonderful treasures if you’re looking for a gift or something for your home or something for the holidays. Art, antiques, and fun. The place is just simply beautiful and I think we can all use a little more beauty in our lives and they definitely have Christmas magic.
It was a magical holiday extravaganza at Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm and I look forward to the magic at Life’s Patina Merchantile and Cafe in Historic Yellow Springs Village!
I do not know how Meg and her team do it but every year it’s a new magical experience and Meg always sprinkles some of the magic towards a nonprofit charity partner every sale. This is truly a love what’s local 🎄❤️
Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm has one more day of their 3 day event which is tomorrow, Sunday November 24th from 10 AM to 4 PM. 1750 N Valley Rd, Malvern, PA.
Life’s Patina Merchantile and Cate is located at 1657 Art School Rd, Chester Springs, PA. AKA the Jenny Lind House. They are open the following winter hours: Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 8am to 4pm and Saturday & Sunday: 9am to 3pm
When your friends are on a committee, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and Christmas is a favorite season, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and it benefits one of your favorite local nonprofits and helps seniors, you also become a sponsor.
So yes, I am personally on the sponsor list for the 2024 Surrey Holiday House Tour & Shop. Now I can’t be a big platinum sponsor, but I joined in where I could.
Surrey Services is a very special nonprofit to us in our house, so this is a pleasure all the way around.
Jim Devine Photography Photo
I am so excited for this year‘s tour and it’s Friday, December 6 and those tickets sell out fast that is not just hype. They literally fly out the door.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning October 2nd.
Again, tickets are live TOMORROW !
Start your countdown…⏰
Visit SurreyServices.org to purchase your tickets for our Holiday House Tour. Tickets are $95 per person and include a box lunch.
And the shops which are open to all? They are amazing! They have tons of vendors and my friend, Eddie Ross, who is also Volunteer Chair of this event, will be a vendor this year as well. If you have ever gone to his sales at his studio, I need to say no more, he has fabulous taste. And he loves Christmas as well! We share a love of old German kugel ornaments and glass icicle ornaments – as a matter of fact, he gave me these wonderful vintage glass icicle ornaments last year for Christmas that I can’t wait to put on the tree this year!
You KNOW you want to go!!! Come on now, let’s sell this event out and raise lots of money for Surrey. There are very few events I support at this point and this is one of them so I hope you will join all of us. It’s a wonderful day!
We went today to the Sales by Helen sale in Kennett Square on 640 N. Walnut Rd. We got there late – there were things I wanted that were garden related but it was just too hot to move earlier.
I think it was like a horde of locusts descended upon the sale because the place was pretty stripped when we got there, which was fine because I don’t need anything REALLY, but I did want to see the property which was AMAZING!
The house is not a 19th or 18th or even early 20th century Chester County farmhouse. It was built in 1973 and the barn was built in 1998. (Here is listing while it exists.)
I marvel at this crazy beautiful property because it was built in exacting detail to look old and to be utterly Chester County. Not a McMansion of plastic or bad stucco, but a stunningly beautiful place. It looks old, yet it’s perfectly modern and turn key. You could move right in.
I got a basket full of red napkins for Christmas, mostly Ralph Lauren. And a couple of bars of expensive craft soap in their wrappers, a porriger, a wee Santa and an old tiny china doll for the Christmas tree….for $10!
But again, the best part was seeing this spectacular property on conserved land. Just shows what can be built. Imagine if developers trampling Chester County had actual talent and imagination? We might get more of this and fewer McUglies.
This weekend is, at long last, the spring barn sale at Life’s Patina in Malvern!
SPRING BARN SALE DATES: Friday, April 26th: 10am to 7pm Saturday, April 27th: 10am to 5pm Sunday, April 28th: 10am to 4pm
I previewed it yesterday, and it was amazing!
1750 N. Valley Road, Malvern, PA
Remember that this is literally a barn sale, so wear appropriate footwear because you will be crossing a field to get to the barn.
Part of the proceeds from this springs sale goes to one of my favorite local nonprofits Surrey Services.
Also, if you want to make a Chester county day of it, Life’s Patina has their Café and Mercantile in historic Yellow Springs Village. And starting Saturday, the Yellow Springs Art Show opens.
So what does that mean? It means you can start at Life’s Patina barn sale and then go to Yellow springs Village and taking the art show starting Saturday and have lunch in the café or coffee! The café, located in the historic Jenny Lind house is located at 1657 Art School Rd., Chester Springs PA. And the Mercantile is also full of amazing things for your home.
Today St. David’s Church in Wayne, PA did a pop-up version of their annual fair. Flea market, books, clothes, kids toys, and more.
It was just fun. It was a beautiful day. A lot of people were out. Apparently they were lined up to get in before it even opened at 9 AM. The church raised a lot of money for their outreach.
I didn’t get tons of stuff but I found a few treasures!
I just love older colored glass. That vase is of indeterminate age, but hand blown which I love. A pair of never used April Cornell pillow shams for $6 and antique hand towels for $2 each.
A handmade pottery wren house for the garden. And some books. Including a very special one, that my friend Eddie Ross wrote and gifted to me today out of some treasures he found….and he personalized and signed it.
I also found a little garden sign.
But in this crazy and often unpleasant world in which we live, today was just a nice day. Happy people having a fun time shopping and volunteering and kids also having fun.
In life, we all need more days like this. Actual community in action.
Lampshades. Yes, lampshades. A very important detail in my opinion, just like choosing the right lamp.
Above is one of my favorite lamps. My husband can actually take it or leave it but I love it. I actually bought it for $30 without the shade, but newly rewired at the very first clover market ever a bunch of years ago and it was rewired.
Idealite, Inc., electric lamp base. Clear. Blown pattern incorporates stars, swags and tassels. Embossed under the base: “PAT. NO. 95524.” Possibly made by L. E. Smith Glass Company.
No, I don’t think my lamp is particularly valuable, I just like it and I think it’s cool that I was able to rewire it because I think it’s better looking than a lot of lamps I see today. Like many other details in a home, sometimes a rewired and modernized lamp is awesome.
I have actually used three or four different shades on this one lamp. I had not been thrilled with the one I had on the lamp most recently . It was almost right but not quite. Maybe it’s a woman thing and it’s kind of like not exactly having the right pair of shoes to go with an outfit or purse. It just has to be right.
So I was looking at a Facebook memory of a lampshade with pine cones and chickadees I bought from a woman in Maine who makes the most wonderful lampshades. Her name is Barbara Gail Lewis. Her business is found on Etsy and is called Barbara Gail’s Lamps.
Barbara is really an artist. And this lamp shade is so fun. I hunted for years a few years ago to find someone that made these pierced and cut and hand colored shades. I think it’s a real art form, and there used to be this lovely lady up in Adamstown, PA at Black Angus Antiques back in the day who made them, but I think she’s long since retired and the last time I went up there no one did lampshades like this.
To an extent, these handcrafted shades are an anachronism to modern designers. And they’re not in general “fashion” for home design and that’s fine. I don’t need to be trendy I just know what I like. And I have liked these lampshades since I was a kid because my mother has some, some of my friends’ mothers had them and grandparents had them. It’s kind of like a handmade patchwork quilt and to me it gives a sense of home.
So when I first bought the shade with the pine cones and the chickadees, I bought the wrong size. Because if you don’t learn how to measure properly for a lampshade, you’re screwed. From another business I buy lampshades from, Lamps Plus, here is a little video explaining how to measure for a new lampshade:
Anyway, I bought this lampshade originally for an old stoneware jug my mother had made into a lamp years ago. But the first lampshade I bought I didn’t measure correctly, and I needed a slightly larger one. So I hung onto the smaller shade and I’m glad I did because all of a sudden today I realized it would be perfect on this clear glass lamp.
I love these pierced and hand cut lamp shades. Sometimes they are just cut and other times they are multi dimensional and also hand colored like the ones that I have that are the chickadees and the pinecones. During the day when your lamp is off, it just looks like a pierced and cut lampshade. Here is another one I have for a converted oil lamp, another favorite lamp style of mine:
So I really do like converted oil lamps lamps. But I only convert lamps that have cracked collars or can’t be used as an oil lamp. I remember when Martha Stewart had converting oil lamps on her early TV series and in her magazine . Literally season 2 of the original series in 1995. It made finding antique oil lamps a very expensive proposition when they had been very reasonable in price. And then everywhere you turned, you had people turning usable oil lamps into electric lamps badly.
It was one of the Martha crazes back then I didn’t really like. As a matter of fact, it made me dislike her series and magazine, because half of the things I liked, she liked as well, and then she made a cost prohibitive for the rest of us. Yes, I know it’s the whole literal theory of supply and demand. Martha Stewart has always been good at supply and demand, and actually a lot of what many of us find sentimental.
So for years, I couldn’t either find oil lamps I wanted to use with liquid paraffin in them, or that were slightly damaged to convert to a regular lamp. You see I don’t believe in converting the ones that work in their original capacity to electricity. But everything is cyclical even in home decor, and now you can find some really great lamps and still get the shades made.
The lamp above is a great example. Over 12 years I found that brass lamp at the East Goshen Yard Sale when you used to go to peoples driveways and not to the township building or the park. It was from a farm on Hershey’s Mill Road set up off the road where I think it’s slated for some kind of residential development at this point, sadly. Or it was presented as such a couple of years ago. I wrote about the house:
Now I paid $12 for the lamp. The brass was In wonderful condition but it was unusable as an oil lamp due to a crack in the collar and a little one at the bottom. So it would make a perfect table lamp. I took it to Home Lighting of Frazer. They did a great job wiring the lamp, but they were super slow and really expensive. Because I spent so much on the wiring I had to hunt to find a reasonably priced vintage shade because I didn’t think a new shade would work for this lamp. I found one on eBay and it was hard sided and it’s historical buildings I believe of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Vintage lampshades can be the bomb. Usually they are, like lots of things, better made. I find them all over locally. Dishfunctional, Surrey Consignment Shop, St. David’s Fair, Frazer Antiques, Clover Market, estate sales and even Goodwill. Also eBay and Etsy. And sometimes even the Smithfield Barn.
First of all, I will observe that I do not think Historic Harriton House had a large visitor turnout for their “Harriton History Open House”. Mostly the only photos you see are adults playing dress up.
And about that dress up and ummm the fact that Harriton House is categorized as a Historic House Museum. One would HOPE that meant not playing house with precious antiques? Apparently not.
Look at the two photos immediately above. I do not even remember when I took above left. Please note photo on right which is a screenshot from a PUBLIC social media posted Sunday. If you zoom in on my photo (left), it says “DO NOT SIT”, nor are you supposed to monkey about with the petite antique side table. But photo on right, shows adults at the direction of Mrs. Puddle Duck the current executive disaster, err I mean director, frolicking on the antiques??? Are they even allowed to do that as far as their insurers are concerned?
But wait, there is more….
Below on left this time is a screenshot of a publicly posted social media photo posted Sunday as in yesterday. On the right is another one of years ago (I have taken hundreds of photos of Harriton and the fair, and notice the RED RIBBONS on the chairs? That means what class? Oh yes, DON’T SIT ON THE ANTIQUES IN THE HOUSE MUSEUM, correct? I mean can’t that person play their recorder or fife or whatever standing up?
Now then there is the kitchen. I was allowed to play with some dressed up kiddos circa 1976 or so, which although after 1973 when it went national, was an utterly different era. But today? Walter Staib uses the kitchen as a focal point in his PBS television A Taste of History series , but I bet he has some ultra bullet proof insurance to do so? But yesterday? It was dress up shlubs in the kitchen, so was there even special event insurance? Was Lower Merion Township ok with this after the executive disaster, err director’s first jam après the palace coup at Harriton replacing the man who literally made Harriton House what it became through 46 plus years of devotion, knowledge, and brutally hard work at times? As I heard it told there may have been a little fire in the colonial beehive oven because someone didn’t know how to use it and lumpy baking disasters? Below is a screenshot from January 2023 that shows the singed spot rather well doesn’t it? I mean I know that beehive door cover thingy had been rebuilt and was quite lovely before, right?
So yes, I did look up the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form from 1973. This house is locally, state, and federally recognized. It’s also in a category of a historic house museum which mean randos playing reenactment dress up kind of should not be lounging on the furniture, nor should the furniture be moved around a great deal. That is only preservation common sense, isn’t it? And doesn’t the 2022 IRS Form 990 value the antiques at over $500K? Also they probably kind of like shouldn’t touch historical documents up in the office area on the second floor unless you are wearing those museum grade cotton protective gloves either, right?
I would send you to the Harriton House website, but it has been pending a make over as per their words since 2023. I mean how hard is it to launch a website these days? Not very, but hey what do I know, right? I mean if you can’t launch a new website in colonial garb, Benjamin Franklin might be rolling in his grave or something, perhaps? Gosh am I being sarcastic? Sorry…but not really. It’s just how I feel about WHY they still don’t seem to have an updated website that functions well.
So what does the executive disaster, err director actually do all day? Does she come to Harriton every day? Look, I get as the now not so new girl (well it has been two years) she wants to make her own mark “storming the castle”, and I have no problem with living history days but Harriton House is like a giant ball of antiques, some probably close to irreplaceable, so if she only used her brain for more than dress up opportunities?
I have been struggling with how I now feel about Harriton House since they shoved the former executive director out not so long after his wife died. He was planning on retiring, but it’s always felt like some on that Harriton Association board just knee capped him and we can have that opinion, right? I mean how many days was he given to clear out 46+ years?
Part of the issues Harriton House faces is it’s definitely hard to be a small non-profit in the current environment. But it also means that the board of the Harriton Association has to be more hands on, and they need a change in leadership. The person at the helm should step down. I am also allowed that opinion. They have created the air of insular. With the former executive director there was more interaction and co-mingling with other non-profits. That is necessary for survival. The financials at the end of 2022 according to the IRS Form 990 don’t paint a pretty picture. What will 2023 say? I saw losses from beginning of year to end of year, increased expenses and salaries and for what? Also not to be petty, but 2020 was COVID right? They had HIGHER contributions than 2022 and line item 22 wasn’t showing a loss at end of year, either….so let’s see that means what exactly? That they can’t blame COVID or the former executive director?
I think Harriton House is continuing to slide down. And that is truly heart breaking and a goddamn waste of so many decades of honest hard work. And playing dress up and play acting on the literal antiques of a historic house museum is just bullshit. Also have they found a suitable tenant for the rental property attached to the historic house yet? That has been empty since when? September, 2023? That’s a significant amount of time to lose rent on the best rental property they have isn’t it?
At the very bottom, I will show you photos of the Harriton House I love. Hopefully it finds it’s way back there. But it won’t happen with the current executive disaster, err director and it won’t happen if the current chair of the Harriton Association doesn’t have the grace to step aside for other leadership.
Have a great week ahead. Avoid historic preservation disasters like randos playing dress up and frolicking among the antiques etc.
Apparently according to the New York Times if you have bookshelves with books in them, you have “Bookshelf Weath” – it’s some TikTok interior design craze, apparently. I don’t really TikTok and books? We love books here. They aren’t in our lives merely for interior design cuteness.
When it comes to aesthetic trends, social media loves a catchy name.
Cottagecore. Dark academia. Eclectic grandpa.
Now there’s a new entry to the canon: bookshelf wealth.
On TikTok and other digital platforms, there has lately been much ado about people who own a great number of books and — this is critical — have managed to stage them in a pleasing manner.
If you’ve ever seen a Nancy Meyers movie, the look might ring a bell. Warm and welcoming. Polished, but not stuffy. A bronze lamp here. A vintage vase there (with fresh-cut flowers, of course). Perhaps there is a cozy seating area near the floor-to-ceiling display, with an overstuffed couch topped with tasteful throw pillows.
Kailee Blalock, an interior designer in San Diego, posted a video to TikTok last month that sought to define bookshelf wealth and school viewers in achieving the aesthetic in their own homes.
We have “bookshelf wealth” because we come from families of readers, and we are readers. Our books are here not because they look cute, but because they mean something. I don’t know how you can have a house without bookshelves or books, truthfully. I guess there are that many people that don’t read books anymore they just have them for decoration?
And I have had people come into our home and look at the bookshelves and ask if we’ve read the books, which to me is the weirdest question ever, because why would you have a book if you weren’t going to read it?
And please ignore the tiny pixies on the shelves. They are going away today. 🤣
Now a pro tip: those rolling racks that you use for underneath dorm room beds that aren’t up on risers for storage are great locations for extra books. In my case it’s where my extra gardening and cookbooks go.
But I digress….
I’m telling you this “trend” totally cracks me up because it was like that book trend a few years ago that also showed up somewhere on social media of people carving /cutting books, and like making sculptures out of the pages which to me was like so sacrilegious because again, I love books.
And I love fairs like the Saint David’s Church Fair every October because you can get some amazing books in the second hand book tent! And that fair probably has the best used book selection you will see at any flea market setting.
They used to have books at Harriton Fair in Bryn Mawr, but the current Executive Director in her eternal wisdom of behaving like an idiot, got rid of them at the fair starting in 2023 I think. Ironically, because I volunteered for that fair for so many years, I know for a fact that was one of the biggest moneymakers.
Also, most libraries will have used book sales at some point in the year. Two of my favorites, historically have been when the Tredyffrin library and Ludington library in Bryn Mawr put out the used books for sale sign.
For buying used books in general, it’s always fun to go into a used bookstore, there used to be one years ago at Bryn Mawr College called The Owl that was fabulous. And here in Chester County we have Baldwin’s Book Barn, and if you’ve never been, it’s an adventure and it’s awesome. You can also find a great selection of vintage and used books at garage sales and secondhand shops even Goodwill. And online through ThriftBooks and Abe’s Books etc.
Yes, can you tell I love books? But I have them because I read them or I read them or they mean something. They’re not just decorations on a shelf.
Yes, these are cookies I baked this year, and they are on a beautiful vintage white milk glass cake stand that I got at the Smithfield Barn a few years ago!
Christmas is a magical time and season for me. I love decorating and I bake, so it is always something I look forward to.
When we are growing up, we are in the midst of our parents’ traditions. Then we start to develop our own traditions which a lot of the time have their base in family traditions.
My mother and great aunts and grandmothers always baked Christmas cookies….so I continue that. Now there are some of the old school cookies that I have not mastered like pizzelles or true shortbread, but I have my own cookies that I make, including a new one for 2023: white chocolate peppermint meringue cookies. The base recipe which I doubled and changed came from the A Cook’s Tour of Shreveport Louisiana by the Junior League there which I will also share. (And this is a fabulous and out of print cookbook, but you can find it on eBay and Etsy.)
So here’s my recipe based on theirs:
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips (mini sized if you can find them.)
3/4 cup crushed candy canes or other peppermint candy
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
Preheat oven to 300°F
Chill beater attachments for mixer and metal mixing bowl about an hour ahead of time.
Beat egg whites, salt, cream of tarter, and extracts until soft peaks form.
Add sugar gradually until incorporated and stiff peaks form.
Fold in white chocolate chips, crushed peppermint candy, and nuts.
Drop by teaspoons about an inch or so apart. I bake these on parchment paper.
Bake each batch at 300° for 25 minutes. You will know they are done because they get puffy and they even may crack slightly on top.
I moved them, parchment paper and all to the cooling racks. I just slide them over from the cookie sheet that way when they cool they just come right off the parchment paper and I put fresh paper on the cookie sheet for the next batch also in between batches, I keep the cookie mixture chilled in the refrigerator.
My adaptation makes about 4 dozen meringues.
I also have a couple of recipes I was gifted. First was my childhood friend David’s grandmother’s pound cake recipe which I have made that is awesome. I was so excited when he gave me this recipe.
Another recipe I was gifted yesterday and will make it:
And then there is this shortbread recipe that someone found dropped in a grocery store and posted that I will try that I hope makes it back to it’s owner:
Now, one of the things that I learned from all my great aunts, both my grandmothers, and my own mother is when you’re having people over you get out the plates. No plastic glasses no paper cups no paper plates. Do it old school. It didn’t used to be old school, but now it is old school, because so many people who think plastic and paper are fine, and I’m not quite sure what they are saving their china plates and glasses for. China and glassware are meant to be used, and you can’t take it with you, so you might as well get it out of the cupboard and dust it off!
Funny I remember during Covid checking out this program by a “lifestyle expert“ only she used paper plates, plastic glasses, paper napkins. And this was a tutorial in instructing people how to entertain. Not a little kids party, but adults.
If you are going to set a table, then set a table. And you’re not doing it so the pictures look fabulous on social media, you’re doing it because you love it and you want to show your guests you care about them. Paper and plastic just don’t have the same appeal. And they never will no matter how a “lifestyle expert“ tries to tart it up along with a board for everything. Entertaining isn’t about social constipation. It’s about making things lovely for yourself and your guests so everybody enjoys themselves. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just put in the effort.
And if you don’t think you have the right things, check out a garage sale, a church sale, a holiday flea market. There are dishes and linens everywhere and you can pick them up for pennies on the dollar in most places, especially china because apparently it’s like “brown wood”. Sorry, not sorry while I like some accessories from West Elm, I will never be your West Elm child with art bought at Home Goods.
Yes, I am a crazy worshipper of old things. Especially at Christmas. I remember once in a past life, I had an almost sister-in-law at one time that did not put out holiday meals on pretty platters and things, it was all tinfoil containers and brown plates and paper napkins. How can you take the time to decorate a beautiful Christmas tree like she did and then the dining room table looked like an outdoor BBQ picnic table minus a fly swatter? But then, again, these were the people whose favorite blood sport was criticizing other people who weren’t there, so I guess it all fit?
And yes, do I dread unpacking everything and then having to pack it all up at times? Yes of course since I am not Martha Stewart with a Martha squad to clean up and set up….but then, when my dishes come out of their protective bags and the glasses come out of their storage containers and I iron the linens, it makes it all worth it. Kind of like the Christmas decorations.
My traditions for my female friends from high school, and a few others is a ladies tea. And it’s an excuse to dress up the table and I love it. It’s no politics, no world problems no local issues, it’s just Christmas.
One of my favorite flea market finds.
And yes, I actually do serve tea because years ago I acquired a slew of Spode Christmas tea cups and saucers at the flea market for next to nothing. And then this year at the Saint David’s Fair, I acquired the tea service that goes with the cups….again for next to nothing.
For Christmas plates I have vintage American China that I got a few years ago at the Smithfield Barn that has a very simple Christmas tree design on white plates that I love. They are not super valuable and they aren’t porcelain. They’re more like old hotel grade China, so they’re a little sturdier. But I love them and they’re festive.
And for hors d’oeuvres and nibbles and desserts I use those plates that people used to hang on their walls and now they are like bargain basement – the vintage Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates. A few years ago, I contacted the company to make sure I could actually use them to eat off of because there are some plates that are purely decorative. And the company wrote me back and said yes you can, so I do. And I literally see them now for a couple dollars a plate. Some of them are a little more expensive on eBay and Etsy especially if they are particular collector years, but plates are meant to be used. Above, I pulled two screenshots off of eBay to give you an idea of the plates.
I also like the clear glass, vintage dessert and salad plates that you can find all sorts of places that have the etching underneath the surface of the plate. They’re very simple, but they’re very pretty and they can go in the dishwasher. I know the ones I have are depression glass. Some were gifted to me, others I have found at church, rummage, sales and flea markets. Again very inexpensive if you find them in person a little more if you see them on eBay and Etsy but they have to be shipped.
Anyway, I hope all of my readers have a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the recipes and enjoy the time you spend with others this holiday season.
Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t remember where all of the pixies came from, but the two little angels are Italian and they came from Melangell Antiques on Old Pottstown Pike in West Chester.
