The Importance of a Happy Hodge-Podge

Just like the rest of my house, my collection of dishes has been thrown together over time with very little thought other than "ooh, I like that!" It ends up feeling like a bit of a hodge-podge at times, but when I look at them like this it just seems to work. It's a hodge-podge, but it's a happy hodge-podge. Every one of them is important to me, and it makes me happy just to look at them, and I'll tell you why:

These are the dishes that we use every day. They're at the very center of every meal we share, and that makes them Important. We've had them since we got married, and I still love them.

This is just one piece from a set of serving dishes I received from my grandmother when she had to sell her house for something smaller. She'd had them since her wedding in 1939, and that makes them Important.


I don't remember if my mother received china for her wedding. But I do know this is the china we kids grew up with. It came out every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and most of it survived 8 children and 30-something moving vans. The pattern is not one that I would have chosen, but it still comes out at my house on special occasions, because my dad bought it for my mom when they were newly married and he was overseas, and that makes it Important.

I saw these little cups and saucers at Goodwill a few years ago. There was a big set of them, and I was so tempted to buy the whole thing I loved them so much. But I already owned enough teacups and my kitchen didn't really have space for any more, so I allowed myself to buy just 4 cups and saucers. A few weeks later I spotted the same cups in my dear friend Cortney's house - she had seen them at Goodwill, too, and bought a few for herself! That sort of synchronicity between friends is what makes these dishes Important.

This cup is one of two given to me by another friend who was downsizing her things just before she left for a year and a half in Amsterdam. It reminds me of her, and it reminds me of traveling, and it reminds me of new experiences and being brave, and that makes it Important.

And this one was handmade by my mom when she decided to learn pottery. It makes me think of her, and learning new things, and it's pretty, and that makes it Important.

Of the rest of them, some might have similar stories that I don't know about since I bought them second-hand. Some of them are reminders that plastic can be pretty. One of them is my egg-dish, which I just love because ... well, because I do. And that makes it Important, too.

How about you? What's the story of your favorite dish or set of dishes?