When we registered for wedding gifts, we had a terrible time finding silverware. We checked all the usual suspects, and then started elaborate online searches – finally locating the perfect set at a store that doesn’t even exist in the midwest. Dave’s folks kindly bought them for us, and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed their exactly-right aesthetic: simple, with just a subtle touch of curve and shaping, substantial without being bulky or awkward. Understated elegance.
Our dishes…well, we couldn’t find anything that fit our undefinable aesthetic. So we decided that we were just fine with a classy set of stoneware from our local IKEA for a mere $30. (After all, who doesn’t need an excuse to stop by for some Swedish meatballs with ligonberry sauce?)
And now, I am unutterably grateful we did not register for fine china.
Our current cabinets sport those handy little pegs to adjust shelf height. But said pegs don’t lodge tightly in their assigned holes, and invariably a front one slips out without our knowledge. The next one starts working itself free, and then I happen to exhale while setting dishes on the shelf, and the whole thing falls apart. Yesterday, I set a stack of three bowls just a millimeter off on an already full shelf – and the entire thing collapsed in a hail of stoneware dishes.
I screamed, the dog panicked, and the final body count was something like five bowls beyond all hope of return to this life.
Time for some Swedish meatballs.
For some reason, I misread the title of this post as “Massacre of the Bowels.” That would have been much worse, no?
At first I wanted a nice set of dishes, but we stuck with Greg’s parents old set of Corelle, and boy does that stuff hold up! Our hodgepodge of silverware worked great until we gradually lost most of our spoons. We were down to about four when I finally broke down and got some more.
Of course, we love Grandma and Grandpa’s set of silver they gave us as a wedding present, and use it on special occasions!
Jennifer and I registered for plain white simple ‘China’ from Crate and Barrel when we got married. After 15 years and at least 10 moves they are still the same ones we use every day. Though being dropped many times we have had very few casualties.