China Blue

This may sound odd, but I really didn't realize my love affair with the combination of navy blue and white until I reorganized my closet a few weeks ago and found these colors took up a large chunk of my wardrobe.

They're great for summer, with their nautical feel, but also so timeless. I think I resisted blue in my decor for a long time because when I was a kid we got wall-to-wall blue carpet put in our house (this was during the country cutesy phase of the early 90s) and we were all sick of it by the time we finally moved ;)

But the love for blue seems to be seeping back into my life, and I really dont mind :) I find that I am really drawn to old blue and white china, and had collected a few cups and saucers a while back with a blue and white pattern (English countryside patterns, of course!) Not only would they be cheaper to acquire than an 'official' set of dishes, but they'd have more personality.

Yesterday though I had a sort of epiphany about china! You see, I often complain about the mysterious mountain of dishes that pile up in my sink. How do they get there? How on earth do three people, one under 4 foot tall, use so many dishes? It was ridiculous. I also broke yet another of the dishes in the set we got when we were married (nearly 7 years ago) and that left us with only 3 dishes in the set. So. I had an idea. I would collect old vintage plates, the more mismatched the better, and I'd use them as our everyday ware.

I'm a firm believer that everything tastes better in pretty dishes (hence, the start of my own ceramics line! lol!) and I realized that when you use a dish that has to be hand washed...you wash it after one meal, set it on the rack to dry, and then its ready to use for the next meal. No languishing in the sink or dishwasher waiting for the next wash cycle. Perhaps this is genius?

I bought the dishes shown above at the antique mall for $5 a dish (out of all the blue and white china I saw, they were of course on the more expensive side...but I couldnt live without those sail boats. The back says its a harbor scene of Bristol, England.) Then I needed something fancy to serve on them for their inaugural meal.

I knew the perfect thing! Recently Shayla had made this post about brown butter strawberry banana bread and I knew I had to have some too. The bread with its pretty red strawberries on the blue and white china were quite patriotic, don't you think? :)

It's perfect with a little blue and white china cup filled with coffee or tea or even milk. Because, even though it really didn't need the help, it all was marvelous on a pretty dish....