In My Mother's Kitchen

After my mother died and we went through her house I brought home a few bits and pieces from her kitchen that reminded me of our kitchen while I was growing up. She had moved from a house to a retirement community and she had a small kitchen there so there were only a few things left from those years. I remember this meat grinder. She made the most wonderful ground roast beef sandwiches in the 50’s and 60’s, probably with Miracle Whip and sweet pickle relish and maybe something else. I wish I had that recipe, I can still remember them. With five children including four growing boys, to save money my parents bought part of a cow every year and froze the meat in a deep freezer on the enclosed back porch. Mom would send me out there to get meat for dinner. I remember there would always be several wrapped meat packages waiting to be thawed and used.

I saved some of her recipes in her handwriting, I wish I had saved more. I remember these, I need to make them again sometime.

My memories of this large slotted spoon go way back. I can see Mom at the stove stirring things with it and straining various foods. I love using it.

This pie plate is another constant childhood memory. It is just marked USA on the bottom. My mother loved to make pies and pumpkin was a favorite, many memories of pumpkin pie and other pies in this dish at holiday dinners.

This serving bowl was in constant use at dinner time. For holiday dinners it often held some kind of Ambrosia salad, one of Mom’s favorites. It was made by Fostoria in the American pattern, the pattern was made between 1915 and 1982. This bowl was a wedding present to my mother in 1938.

It’s difficult to see all the frosted fruit on the outside of this bowl. I don’t remember it being used for food, I think she put flowers in it sometimes. It may have been a 1938 wedding present as well.

This is a large shallow bowl or tray. Every Easter it held plastic green grass and Easter eggs. It must be over 60 years old now.

Someone online recently helped me identify this large frosted shallow bowl. I had wondered about it for years. I think it was a wedding present to my mother in 1938. I am showing the bottom because the design is on the bottom. It isn’t marked so it was probably made in the United States using molds from Verlys in France. The pattern was created in France in 1935 and was called,  “Les Canards Sauvage”, (Wild Ducks). It has also been identified as kingfishers and koi. I remember Mom floating flowers in it sometimes and also a vague memory of some kind of floating dessert.

In my mother’s recipe file were a few recipes from her mother, my Nana. She would have been cooking after she was married in 1909 and in the 1920’s and 1930’s. She had a large family to cook for. I always wanted to try this one!

This is another recipe from my Nana, it took over 15 hours to make this one!

A photo of my mother in 1956, she was 40. We were living in Elsinore at the time and there were lots of pepper trees. Every time I see pepper trees, they remind me of Elsinore. I love having bits and pieces from my mother’s kitchen.

We Need some Brightness on the Tablescape!

I didn’t have an idea for a table setting for this week but I knew I wanted something bright. We need brightness right now! I wanted to use my yellow chargers so I started there. I realized that I don’t have any yellow tablecloths so I bought this yellow gingham tablecloth on Amazon last week and crossed my fingers that it would be a gold yellow instead of a lemon yellow and I got lucky. It is a perfect match for the chargers. I really struggled with the photos for this tablescape. My iPhone 11 camera really fought with the bright colors and bouncing light and I had to make some adjustments. The gold yellow color is washed out a bit in some photos and the color shades are not the same all the way through the photos. I am still not happy with some of the results but I decided to just move on.

Once I decided on the yellow chargers and the tablecloth I went through my dishes looking for something that matched. I wanted to do a table with just yellow and white so that really limited my choices. I don’t know where I found this small yellow gingham plate, I have had it for several years. It is marked EIT (English Ironstone Tableware) and English Ironstone, Made in England.

This larger ironstone plate (I didn’t have a dinner size plate that was the right color) came from Pier 1 several years ago, the pattern was called Chloe.

This is another Color Spectrum charger by Mikasa, the color is Sun Yellow. I have wanted to use this charger in a tablescape for a long time but this shade of gold yellow doesn’t match most of my lemon yellow dishes. I bought these chargers on Ebay a few at a time because I love the quality and the colors. I have them in several colors now.

I knew that the only yellow flatware set I have is lemon yellow and wouldn’t match these dishes so I looked through the photos of my flatware sets and suddenly saw this one. Bingo! I bought this inexpensive stainless and plastic bamboo flatware set several years ago when I first started tablescaping. I can’t remember where I found it, it is just marked Stainless, China but I see it is available online several places.

I can’t remember where I bought the yellow gingham napkins a few years ago but it is amazing that the color matches the tablecloth perfectly. The flowered napkins came from Sur La Table online, I bought them on sale a few years ago. I can’t believe how well they compliment the flowered plates. At the end of the season, Sur La Table often has good buys on napkins and other tablescaping bits and pieces. I have had the beaded flower napkin rings for a long time, I can’t remember where they came from. I tried a white napkin ring first but it just didn’t add much and I suddenly remembered these, problem solved!

The white place card holder can be written on as well with a special pen. Can’t remember where I bought them but it was probably Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel. It’s a nice simple place card holder, I have used it several times.

The clear goblet on the right is actually the pattern my mother chose for her wedding crystal in 1938. She couldn’t remember the name of the pattern or who made it and I searched for decades trying to identify it with no luck. Finally one day I was reading through old San Bernardino newspapers online doing some genealogical research looking for information about my grandparents and I stumbled on an article about a wedding shower for my mother that mentioned her gifts and the name of her crystal! This Rock Sharpe crystal goblet was made by Libbey and the pattern was called Ridgeway. I was able to complete the set buying them a few at a time on Ebay. The gold Poly/Carb goblet on the left was made by Le Cadeaux and the pattern is called Fleur. We found them at a gift shop on one of our trips up the coast last year but they were really expensive so we only bought a few of them. I had been looking for that color for a long time and after we got home, I found them much cheaper online so I bought a few more.

I started with a white lantern for the centerpiece but it was just too much white and not terribly exciting. I did a bee tablescape last year with this bee hive pattern but they didn’t have this matching cookie jar then. I found it at HomeGoods earlier this year. I was looking around the house for anything that was a gold yellow color and finally found this cookie jar. Not really my first choice for this table but it’s all I have that is that color! I would have liked to have added the matching salt and pepper and cream and sugar but they are stored in the attic and I ran out of time. I added a couple small birds to fill in a bit.

I put the bee hive cookie jar on a small white stand to add a bit more height.

I wanted a bright cheerful table. I think this one works!

To see 160+ tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

Please check out the March 2022 issue of Country Sampler magazine for a photo of one of my Spring tablescapes.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

This tablescape was featured at Across the Blvd., https://acrosstheblvd.com/ , and Follow the Yellow Brick Home, https://followtheyellowbrickhome.com/ Please visit these blogs, you will enjoy them!

Mother’s Magnolias Spring Tablescape

My mother was very sentimental about magnolias so I knew that eventually I would create a tablescape around them. And she loved roses too so I added them as well. I posted this tablescape a few years ago but I decided to post it again in memory of my mother.

I’ve had this pink tablecloth for several years, I bought it on Ebay I think. I bought the white tureen centerpiece at HomeGoods several years ago. I am always on the lookout for interesting objects that I can use as centerpieces but I have run out of room to store them unfortunately. The pink roses came from Amazon and the magnolia garland from Ebay as well. Someone had used the garland for a wedding and it was just what I was looking for.

I found lots of magnolia salad plates over the years but none that I really liked until I saw these. I watched them at Pier 1 when our store was open for a while until they finally went on sale, these are ironstone. I wish Pier 1’s online store had the kind of merchandise that the physical store had before they all closed.

This photo doesn’t show the correct color of this pink dinner plate. The photo with the small magnolia plate does show the correct color. I saw these plates on another blog and immediately checked HomeGoods (the source) for them with no luck. I had been looking for a basic pink dinner plate for a long time. I have most of the basic colors in dinner plates but I was missing pink. I finally found them at another HomeGoods a month later a few years ago. They were made in Portugal by Matceramica.

This charger was made by Mikasa and it is Color Spectrum in the color sage. I love these chargers, I have them in several colors. They are heavy and a basic design that can be used on any table setting. I bought them a few at a time on Ebay.

This photo shows the colors of the tablecloth and the dinner plate accurately . The small melamine magnolia plate was made by Cameron Designs in Atlanta, Georgia. We bought them in a gift shop on a trip to Savannah, Georgia a few years ago.

This sterling flatware was my mother’s, it was the pattern she registered for when she was married in 1938. I decided to use it on this table because I wanted something a bit more dressy. The flatware was made by Towle and the pattern was called Chased Diana. It was made between 1928 and 1996 but it is still available on the secondary market.

I bought these small pink rose place card holders a few years ago on Ebay. I love searching for vintage place card holders on Ebay, I have found some great ones over the years. These were called Georgian and according to the label, they are fine bone china. The mark on the bottom stands for Marks & Rosenfeld, a US giftware distributor in the 1950's and 1960's that commissioned their own range of ceramics and gift ware.

The pink magnolia napkins are by Kate Spade, I found them a few years ago on Ebay. The magnolia napkin rings are Countess fine bone china and they were made in England. I found them on Ebay too. When I am looking for special themed place card holders and napkin rings I check Amazon first and then Ebay. Then I do a google search for whatever I am looking for because I often find things that way that I wouldn’t find any other way.

The colors in this photo are more accurate than in some of the other photos.

These short sage green glass goblets were made by Noritake and the pattern is called Sweet Swirl in light green. They were made between 1985 and 2005, I bought them on Ebay a few at a time as I saw them. I looked for tall pink goblets for a couple of years and suddenly World Market had them a few years ago. They sold out quickly so others must have been looking for them too.

One of the reasons my mother was so sentimental about magnolias is this house on Magnolia Avenue in San Bernardino. My grandfather had it built in 1915 and my mother was born in the house the next year. It is still there and it was recently completely remodeled and then sold.

The other reason my mother loved magnolias is this house on Magnolia Avenue in Orange. We lived in this house when my twin brother and I were born in the early 50’s, joining my three older brothers.

This is Mom holding us on the front porch. After my mother moved into a retirement community she had a small magnolia tree planted outside her windows so she could see it every day. (Someone reading the blog tells me that Mom’s dress has a magnolia pattern!)

My mother would have loved seeing this table.

To see 220+ other tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

Bits and Pieces from My Mother's House

After my mother died, we emptied her house and we each took a few bits and pieces. She had a list of who got what and she put our names on the bottom of special things too so it all went really fast and it was easy. This blog talks about a random group of things but that’s what our houses are filled with. This print was always on the wall when I was growing up. There were actually two different prints but the other one was in poor shape so I didn’t save it except for the frame. (I later bought a replacement for that print on Ebay and used the original frame on that one.) I have always loved this print, it is so colorful. The original frame for this print was imitation bamboo but it was in bad shape so I had the print reframed. This print is actually the cover for a 1940’s ship wine list, the S. S. Lurine owned by Matson Lines. The ship was built in 1932 and traveled between California and Hawaii. The artist was Frank McIntosh, he was born in 1901 and died in 1985. He did many designs like this for cruise ship menus. I don’t know where Mom got the prints, I wish I knew. It’s partly why I am writing these blog posts, so my kids will know the stories.

When I was growing up this was always a lamp in the house. At some point, Mom took the lamp parts off and it became a vase again. I think she bought it in the 1950’s somewhere maybe in Vista or Elsinore where we were living then. It doesn’t have any markings on the bottom. I think it came from China as an import for purchase in the United States.

I have always been fascinated by the dragon design on this side, and looking so closely at the vase for the first time, I see what looks like a butterfly on the bottom!

I turned it around to take a photo of the back and suddenly I saw the bird design, I have never seen that before! I thought this side was just a random design. I never looked that closely at it. Looks kind of like a flying chicken but I’m not sure. If anyone knows further, let me know!

As a child, I remember this hanging on the wall. I’m not sure where it came from. It was stained with age and so I treated it carefully with Biz and reframed it. It hangs on the wall just inside the front door and I think of my mother every time I see it. She loved people and she had many friends who she kept in touch with all her life.

As a child I remember this print hanging on the wall too, it came from my Nana. In one corner it says, Moden Z 1841. After my Great-Grandfather died in 1880 in Indiana, my Great-Grandmother took her two small daughters and moved to her brother’s in Kansas to learn how to make hats. I think this fashion print probably was hers because it shows different bonnet designs. It is very old and fragile. I had it reframed because the original frame was falling apart.

One of my regular chores while I was growing up was setting the table every night. There were seven of us, my mother was a stickler for proper etiquette, and I learned early on how to set a table correctly. At some point she bought these aluminum napkin rings, one for each of us I think. I wonder if any of the boys still have theirs.

This sterling bell came from my Nana, it was used to summon the maid I think (when they still had a maid, before the Depression). Sometimes when I was sick my mother would let me keep it next to my bed so I could ring it if I needed her. I love the delicate flower design on it and it still has a wonderful tone. I cherish all these bits and pieces from my childhood and the memories they recall.