I am going to take a little break from my regular posts to share something that makes me really happy, vintage dishware! I bought my first set of vintage dishes at Goodwill on Fairview & University about four years ago. When I saw them, I didn’t know why but I just had to have them so in the cart they went, and shortly after they went up on the wall in my old dining room. Those same four plates now hang above the window in my kitchen in our new house and I still love them to this day. 

For the past four months I have been hitting up thrift stores (mostly with my friend Brooke but sometimes on my own, too) on a very regular basis on the hunt for cool and unique mid-century items for our new house. And now that I have the space, my love for vintage dishes has blossomed into a pretty nice collection if I do say so myself. At first, I just bought things that I thought were pretty and looked mid-century in style. Now, I’ve started researching the various designs so I know more about the manufacturers and what they’re worth. And while none of the items in my collection will make me rich, they are all worth far more than I paid for them. 

My basic rules for buying dishes are as follows:
1) I have to love the design & colors

2) They must be a really good price (i.e. $1 or less for a plate is a good price)

3) They must be in good vintage condition without chips, etc.

4) I am ok buying only one of a pattern or an odd number because I can always add items as I find them.

So, with that, here are the pieces/styles that have fit all of my criteria. **please note, I am NOT a product photographer, I am a people photographer, so these photos are just for fun and are not perfect Thanks for understanding!

First up, my original set of four dinner plates. These are made by International Ironstone in Salem, England. They are the “Whimsy” pattern. I have only had these four plates until last week, when three small bowls joined my collection!

Next, we have Taylor-Smith-Taylor’s Versatile TST 117 pattern. I first discovered a coffee pot/teapot in this style while at a Goodwill in Rochester. It was in mint condition and I was immediately in love (the pink and turquoise combo got me). Then, I hit up Savers right down the street and found SIX matching teacups with saucers in great shape!!  I was so excited to buy these babies. Now, last week when I was at Savers in Bloomington, I found eight dinner plates, three small bowls, and a gorgeous serving platter in this pattern! I was SO excited. Finding these items one by one at different stores is such a high!

Next, I have another set of Taylor-Smith-Taylor plates in “Modern Star”. I love anything and everything starburst and so does Gene’o (these are his favorite). So far I have five of these dinner plates but I’m sure I’ll find more pieces to add to this line.

This pattern is the Taylor-Smith-Taylor Fortune design. I found my first set of dessert plates in this pattern at Goodwill a few months ago and fell in love with the color combo.  I added to my collection last week when I stumbled across three small bowls with this same pattern.

Here is another Taylor-Smith-Taylor design, this one is called Windmere.  I bought these from the Mall of St. Paul Antique Store earlier this summer before I got smart and realized that I could find these at thrift stores for a much better price, so I broke my rule number 2 above (but in fairness, I didn’t have that rule yet!). In general, I never buy things from Antique stores anymore. Way too expensive for this thrifty girl! (Plus I like the thrill of the hunt).

I also have a set of bone china made by Johnson Brothers in England. The pattern is a blue wheat “Snow White”.  This has a different feel to it than the TST plates. It is more delicate and very pretty. I have a TON of this (probably 12 or more dinner plates, salad plates, and dessert plates). I was lucky to find this entire set at Goodwill and you won’t even believe what a deal I got.

I bought this little baby at Arc’s Value village in St. Paul last week. The shape and colors drew me to it and I was pretty certain it was mid-century, but the brand was not marked so I wasn’t sure.  When I got home, I researched it and it is in fact mid-century, from the early 1960s, made by, you guessed it, Taylor-Smith-Taylor. No wonder I gravitated towards it. At .50 it was a steal and I’m very happy it’s mine!

I picked up this “lonely only” dinner plate in the North Star pattern. From what I’ve gathered, this is a fairly common pattern so I will be looking for more items to join him!

I must have not been feeling well because I almost passed on buying these four vintage teacups in mint condition! I haven’t found the pattern name or maker yet, but they could be TST, I’m not sure. I love the pattern and the shape of the handles!

I also have a full set of dishes in the Blue Heaven pattern by Royal China. I love this classic mid-century design. I initially found four salad plates in this pattern a few weeks ago, but then I scored a full set of dinner plates, tea cups & saucers, and some small bowls yesterday during Valu Village’s Columbus Day Sale. I got a major deal on these!

As for glasses, I have been collecting these blue goblets. I don’t know anything about them but I just liked them. I have 12 of them now in mint condition. They look so good with all of the plate sets and will look wonderful when I set my Thanksgiving table this year. (and yes, that Is a tail of a cat in the background, my fluffy black cat named Renzie to be exact).

I also picked up these fun coral and gold starburst juice cups/cocktail glasses at Goodwill in Hastings. The paint was a little worn but they were still cute and the price was right!

And here is probably the best for last. This entire Mid-Centruy starburst pattern coffee/teapot collection complete with pot, sugar dish, creamer, two cups and two saucers/plates in an amoeba shape. LOVE these!! I scored this entire set at Arc’s Value Village in Richfield.  They are made in Japan by Arita. I have not found out much about them but I think these could actually be worth something!

So there you have it. My vintage dishware collection that I could stare at for hours. I love the fact that all of my sets are interchangeable and will add a lot of interest and character to my dining room table during dinner parties. And, while I LOVE all of these patterns, I have a list of others that I am keeping my eye out for. Someday, I will share my mid-century hutch that I store and display all of these in! Also stay tuned for an update on more of my thrifting adventures and photos of my other vintage love: Pyrex!

How about you? What is your favorite thing to hunt for when you’re thrifting? What is the best treasure you’ve found? What places around the cities (or greater MN) do you like to hit up? Please, do tell!!

Earlier this week, my uncle and godfather Joseph passed away after a long battle with cancer.  I was honored last year when my Aunt Susan asked me to take some photos of them at their home in Plain, WI.  I am so glad our family will always have these photos!

I will be out of the office for the rest of the week to attend his funeral and will return calls and emails when I return. Thank you for thinking of my family during this difficult time!

This is what my living room has looked like for a few weeks! A sea of boxes with no furniture

We’ve had a great first three weeks in our new home, despite finding out about a few more unforeseen issues and BOTH of our central air units breaking this week (yes, the week that it’s been in the 90’s every day!). But in general, it’s been great and we’ve been going full steam ahead with unpacking, organizing, and getting estimates for our various big projects. We even purchased a few fun furniture items which we’ll share with you soon! My cats are in heaven because they think these big empty rooms are all for them. They have never had so much space!

Oh, and see that 18 pane custom built curved window? That’s the reason we bought the house. And it’s going to cost some major coin to restore it due to lack of maintenance from the previous owners. But it is going to be STUNNING when it’s done! Can’t wait to blog about that process.

Not only have we been settling into the house, we’ve also had several fun shoots and a wedding that we will be sharing with you all soon! Hope you all are staying cool!

Yep, we bought a house! If you’re reading this then it means that everything went smoothly and we are the proud new owners of a house in Mendota Heights! It was built in 1960, is in a wonderful neighborhood, and will give us all of the space we could ever dream of!   We’ll update soon with more info and photos…and more about the loooonnng process we went through to get this gem of a house! We have big plans for our new home and we’ll be blogging about our projects along the way. We’re big DIY’ers so we look forward to sharing the various things we’re working on. For now, enjoy this cell phone pic of us in our new yard

In April, we sold our little house in St. Paul to move on to bigger and better things. Mostly, we sold it because we wanted to be in a more family friendly, safer neighborhood and have more space to run Kage out of the house. Our long term goal is to have all of our client consultations and proofing sessions right in our house so our clients get a sense of who we are right when they meet us.

So, during November and December of last year, we tackled all of those house projects that they say will make your house more sellable. We redid the floors, painted several rooms, got new carpet, upgraded some of the appliances and did a huge declutter. We went on the market in mid-January. After a couple of price drops, we had a purchase agreement by mid-March, and we closed in late April. After a few panicked moments (our house didn’t appraise for the amount we had agreed on AND we still didn’t have a house to move into) we packed up our boxes and said goodbye to the little house we lived in for over five years. It was our first house together and we did a lot of projects there. Here are some photos I snapped for the real estate listing. I like the living room photo because two of my kitties are on the chair in the back right.

We put SO much work into this kitchen! I wish I had before pictures to show you how it looked before we moved in. We did a remodel on a budget, so we repainted all of the existing cabinets (they were an awful builders grade golden oak), added IKEA hardware and faucet, and bought most of our appliances on craigslist for a steal. Seriously, that is a BOSCH stainless steal inside and out diswasher and we paid a small fraction of what it retailed for. Craigslist rocks.

We put a lot of work into this house but it never really was our “style”. I am a mid-century modern junky so living in a house built in 2003 just wasn’t working for me. Plus, we outgrew it. It was time to sell.

We did loose money on this house (a lot of money actually). So in the title of this blog post “Selling a house in a buyer’s market sucks” refers to that point. But other than that, our process was really not all that bad. We were only on the market for about two months which is great right now. We’re banking on the fact that we will make up for the loss on the next house we buy. At least we’re hoping that’s the case.

So now we are temporarily living in a rental house while we house hunt, and it’s working out great. We are living well below our means and kind of enjoying not having any big house projects to work on for the time being. We are aggressively house hunting and we HOPEFULLY will have an update about a new home in the very near future!!