Three Months Til the Wedding - Let's Talk Silver!!!

Oh Boy - We've got less than Three Months to The Big Day!!!

The invitations have gone out, we've put a deposit on the flowers, the cake has been selected, and the food for the reception has been planned.

Now, what are we going to use to eat all this cool stuff?  I'm glad you asked!

First off, let me tell you that I have a shameful secret.

When we were stationed at FT Huachuca, I went to a tea at the General's house.  She had the most beautiful vintage silverplate cake forks...
And thus, an obsession was born.


It started simply.  (It had to - Sierra Vista AZ only had a couple of antique stores.)
I bought 6  vintage Reed and Barton round soup spoons, polished them to a mirror-like sheen, sighed happily and went to look for more...
It turns out that you can find vintage silver plate at antique stores, junk shops, thrift shops, yard sales.  Then I discovered eBay.  I apparently have a good eye.   And I never spent a lot of money on my habit. 


Bargains are part of the thrill of  the hunt.


I love my families' silver.  
After I married Larry, my mom gave he her silver tea set that my dad bought for her in Germany.  Then she gave me her mom's Lady Hamilton flatware set in the original chest.
My mother-in-law came to visit us in Maryland and casually handed Larry a ziplock bag full of silver.  He handed it to me and I nearly fainted when I realized that it was Margarets' sterling silver flatware from her wedding!!!  A couple of years later she gave us some of Great Aunt Nellie's set which amazingly, I had been picking up odds and ends of already.
And my grandmother had a silver-lidded vanity jar and matching silver mirror that always sat on her dresser.  My dad told me when I was in my 40's that they had originally been my mom's and that mom let me play with the mirror in the bathtub when I was a baby.  Granny was horrified and took them away from my mom and took them home with her!  He gave them to me at Christmas the next year and I treasure them.
I feel so close to my family when I am polishing these heirlooms.

So Mary and I sat down a couple of months ago and did a little inventory.

Meadowbrook

We started with her set called Meadowbrook.  My mom and I found a set of butter spreaders in this pattern the last time we ever went shopping together.  I'd been picking up the odd fork or spoon here and there until Mary said that it was her favorite pattern.  I went a little crazy.  Mary could almost open a restaurant....
We moved on to grandma's Lady Hamilton.  We had a reception for Shayne and Jess after they got married in Las Vegas.  I may have gone a little overboard in collecting this too...

Lady Hamilton

Which led us to the huge set of Ramona that I bought when I went to Bouchville the first time with my friend Sue.

Ramona

And I fell in love with this pattern, Memory, and got lots and lots of it...

Memory

After going thru lots more patterns we stopped at two hundred and twenty 3 piece place settings....
that's not counting the cake forks or butter spreaders, or serving spoons and forks.  And that is without putting together odds and ends to make place settings or using the sterling or Great Aunt Nellie's' Distinction,

Great Aunt Nellie's Distinction

 or Shayne's First Love set,  which is the first pattern that I fell in love with.

First Love

Mary and I put the silver to be polished in plastic containers, and now I have my work cut out for me.

Who would think that there are nearly 1000 pieces of silverplate in those boxes???

And now you know my secret.

Mary was flabbergasted when she saw it all spread out.

No one in the family had any idea that I, like a magpie, had secreted so much of that pretty, shiny stuff.


Hey, some people collect shoes, purses, land, stocks and bonds.  


I like vintage silverplate.


Now, who wants to come and help polish???

It's the Little Things

I had a rough day on Saturday.  Audrey and I went to Potomac Mills because we saw that the JCPennies Outlet was again open!!


It turned out to be just a regular run of the mill JCPennies store.  I was bitterly disappointed. 


And the boycott of JCPennies continues.


So Auds and I made an emergency medicinal trip to IKEA, where I picked up a new comforter to soothe my sorrowing soul.  (And pretty pale pink sheets just because...)

Aren't they pretty??

Later that night while Larry and I were making up the bed with the pretty new pink sheets and pretty rosy comforter cover, Larry remarked "It's a good thing that I don't mind pink sheets."


 Hmm.. I don't know about you, but I'd be worried if he LIKED pink sheets....

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

I read in the recent AARP newsletter (yes, I'm old) that while overall the divorce rate is falling, the divorce rate among people aged 50+ is rising.  As a matter of fact, it's doubling.  

 We were told that Larry and I would end up like this...

I am an awful correspondent.  And that is a cardinal sin for a military wife.  We would meet people and then we'd leave or they would leave and I'd write a few times but I'd never keep up with it.  And Christmas cards!  Once we got to Maryland and I started working full-time and Larry kept traveling, I just gave up.  I have no excuse. Life just got in the way.


I miss the people that we knew in the past.  The friends we had.  The things we shared.


When we were at FT Polk we had a group of friends that we spent a lot of time with. Then as a unit we moved to FT Hood and got to spend even more time together.  But since Larry was in Military Intelligence and was attached to the Armored unit, when it came time for us to get stationed elsewhere we went one way and they went another. 


We've heard over the years about that core group - a divorce here, a separation there, another divorce, a tragic death.  But we were never really able to connect with them again.


Last night I was browsing thru Facebook when I saw a picture that a friends daughter had posted.  I looked at picture, then called Larry over.  Does so and so have a brother, I asked?  Is this his real name?  Larry said yes to both questions and we looked at the picture again.  Yes, this was a guy we had been stationed with, partied with, shared babysitting with, but the woman with him was not the wife we remembered.


I hadn't talked with the wife that I remembered in a couple of years, just a comment here and there on Facebook on hour cute her grandbabies are etc, so I have no idea  what happened or when it happened.


I am so sad.


I am sad that I never kept up with my friends.


I am sad that life happens like it does.


I am sad that statistics are so often true, that apparently people don't stay together, don't grow old together.


Stupid statistics.


Audrey said that I need to stop being sad.  That instead I need to high-five dad for still promising to love me tomorrow.  Will do.

Bringin' Sexy Back

Audrey and I were returning from a quick medicinal trip to IKEA and I was wondering outloud if the lifeguards would let me take my little hand weights into the pool.  

Auds:  I don't know....

Me:  Well, they let me wear my crocs in the pool.

Auds: Why do you wear crocs in the pool, mom???

Me:  The plastic grating on the bathroom floor hurts my feet so it is just easier to keep my crocs on.

Auds:  What about lake shoes??  That would be more elegant..

Me:  I wear a swimsuit with a skirt, Audrey.  I wear sunglasses that make me look like a blind James Earl Jones.  And lets not even talk about what my hair looks like.

Auds:  (musingly)  Yeah...Elegant...I guess that boat sailed awhile ago...

Have you ever listened to the words to Sexy Back?   Talk about your 50 Shades of Justin Timberlake.....

Oh Richard Gere....

Last Friday morning when I finished sobbing my way thru Richard Gere in "Shall We Dance", I reflected on my nearly 40 years of obsessive love for Richard Gere.

yep, Let's dance!!  Sorry Larry!!!

I"ve been watching him in movies (and crying thru a lot of them) for years.  I have to admit that he sure does die a lot in the movies...There is not ONE time that I watch Sommersby and don't desperately hope that they will find a loophole and he'll get to live in the end.  And he never finds that loophole and Larry says, "Why are you crying?" and then he says, "oh, Sommersby."


We have had our ups and downs thru the years, but I still love him...


Even tho' Spence's partner Gary Morey came over to my house and saw my poster of Rich on my 'fridge and told me that he went to school with him and he was a wussie four eyed freak.


Didn't change things...


Even tho' He and Cindy Crawford ran that embarrassing ad in the paper in London assuring everyone that they weren't gay.


Hey, everyone does things that they aren't proud of...


Even tho' he got all political and stuff and got banned from the Oscars....


It's a phase, I'm sure...


And even tho' he knocked up and married that weird lawyer from Law and Order and they bought that Bed and Breakfast and Restaurant in NY state that I was really excited about until I read all the questionable reviews...


At least he's still pretty....


So here's to Richard Gere.  Keep making those movies that make me cry and I will keep ignoring the fact that you have a personal life....

The Actual poster that Gary made fun of....

Oh Dear Lord

My prayer last night....


Oh Lord,
Please forgive me my sins and help me to be better.
Please watch over my husband and my children and our scattered families and keep them safe.
Please help me to be patient with my dad.
Please help me to forget what I saw on Facebook today.
Audrey says it will just cause hurt if I say anything.
Larry says that it has been causing trouble for years and it is time to let it go.
I ran a few smart-assed replies by my friend Sue and we snickered and agreed that it would be best not to say anything.
Thank You for sending me guardians who help me watch my mouth.
As You know, sometimes I just can't help myself.
Amen

Wait a Minute!

Last week I was driving around with Neve in the backseat.
Neve: "mimi. I need your cell phone!"
Me: "Why?"  (As I am handing it back to her.)
Neve: "I need to check my email."
Me: "Ok."

WAIT A MINUTE.....

She knows that I don't get the internet on my cell phone....

Neve's a busy girl.  She needs to keep up!!