Homer Laughlin China

I'll admit it...I have an addiction to china.  No, not the country, the plates, the cups, the saucers....THE TEAPOTS!  It's a tricky thing to love when space is limited.  So I have to get creative in how I store and display my favorite finds.
My addiction to beautiful china comes from my mother.  She also collects china, and has a beautiful china hutch, that once belonged to my Great Grandmother. 
My mother has been kind enough to store my full set of Bavarian China in the Blue Garland pattern for me.  I found the Bavarian China in an antique store in Williston for a very reasonable price.  My Uncle (who is an antique dealer on the side) has helped me find extra pieces here and there.

Because my china isn't here, I couldn't photograph it.  But I found this exact cup and saucer on Ebay, so I'll borrow the image to show you.   It is NOT microwavable because of the silver edges.  Found that out the hard way!

The other set my Mother stores for me is the china I inherited from my Grandmother.  It is a set of Royal Albert china in the Silver Birch pattern and is very pretty.  My Grandfather bought them for my Grandmother when he was stationed in Alaska during WWII.  When he returned on the train, he carried them on his lap the whole way so they wouldn't get damaged.  I have half of the set and my Aunt has the other half.  My Uncle has helped me collect other pieces of the set including the sugar and creamer. 

Again, I don't have the china here so pictures from the web will have to do.  See how colorful they are!  It's been said that the pattern contains the state flower of each Canadian Province.

I love the thrill of finding a good piece of china at a garage sales or thrift stores for 25 cents.  The following are all garage sale and thrift store finds!

Here is the little display that sits on my antique sewing cabinet. 

Sorry the pictures are so fuzzy, low light.  This is a Homer Laughlin Eggshell Georgian Pink.  This was a garage sale find.  It was in a box of dishes marked $5.00 but I explained I only wanted this particular little bowl and she was kind enough to let me have it for 25 cents!

This is another beautiful pattern from Homer Laughlin.

This is a serving bowl by Homer Laughlin.  I like both the blue boarder and the pink.  Would have a hard time choosing if I were having to pick out a whole set of china.

This is another serving bowl, but this one is unmarked.  Someone once told me that dishes in this pattern were grocery store premiums back in the 40's and 50's.  You received a dish each time you spent a certain amount of money or bought certain products.  I have a platter just like it that was my Great-Grandmothers that is also unmarked.  I'd like to learn more about grocery premiums but there isn't much out there on the web about them.

This one's kind of hard to see, but is also Homer Laughlin and sits on my high dresser chest.  (That's Foxy Loxy standing next to it.)  This platter has seen better days, but I still think it's pretty in a shabby chic sort of way. 

I've always liked this pattern Homer Laughlin Eggshell Georgian.  This isn't one of my cups and saucers, I found this photo on the web.  But I do so love it!

I wish I could remember which blog this picture was from!  I'm not positive but would say that these too are Homer Laughlin Eggshell Georgian. 

I think it would be fun to hang a collection of plates and platters above the bed in the bedroom.  I know that the idea is becoming quite cliche and can be found in just about every shabby chic book and magazine on the market, but it's a neat idea for display. 

Here's an example from the blog Love and Life at Leadora.  I would use flowered plates instead of just white ones, but the concept is the same.   By the way, I'm totally coveting that wrought-iron headboard.

I'd need about 5 more saucers to do it successfully, so this summer I will be keeping my eyes peeled for flowery saucers at the sales.