The Changing of the China Cabinet

It's that time of the year - the leaves are turning color and floating down from the trees, the nights are chillier, there is fresh snow on the mountains and the china cabinets are ready to go from summer to Autumn. I like the planning for what to use next in the china cabinets.  Thinking of all the dishes and the adventures we went on while gathering them, mostly at yard sales and thrift shops - and some gifts from sweet friends.

 Turkey soup tureen that I made in ceramics class in California almost 30 years ago now.  A bunch of us would go to a ceramics shop in Eureka, CA each Thursday evening, and after a good time choosing our items and painting them, we had to leave them to be fired so we could take them home the next week.  After ceramics we always stopped at a local cafe for a bite to eat.

 Dining room table is full of the outgoing summer dishes on one end - the incoming autumn dishes on the other.  I like to get everything out and then plan how to use it.

 Now reverse - autumn on near end - summer fading fast on far end.  I adore soup tureens - small individual pumpkins or medium sized cabbage tureens.

 This was the summer china cabinet - full  of chickens and sunflowers

Vegetable shaped dishes are some of my favorites - corn and carrot bowls make great serving pieces.  The little turkey bowls were purchased one spring, on sale at a thrift store.  I knew that if I waited until Autumn they would be long gone.

A sweet little yellow bird pitcher among the acorns and leaves.  He can go from spring, to summer to Autumn.  There's always a place for a little yellow bird.

 Here comes Autumn!!  Leaf bowls are perfect for a nice warm soup on a blustery day.

Cabbage soup tureen and cabbage salt and pepper - perfect match - but purchased a year apart. Aren't cabbages the cutest things?

 Another turkey soup tureen - a gift from Don a couple years ago.  Mr. Turkey majestically sits atop an autumn basket, with a ceramic ladle to match

 Individual pumpkin soup tureens and a fairy dancing about with the last of the summer flowers.

Three section serving dish is a favorite - great for olives and pickles.

Leaf pates - let's pile them high with Autumn dessert treats.

How about some cookies?

Or some slices of banana bread?

Or an apple pie - they all look so tempting.

 Gnomes are all about in the Autumn, this one has picked out the perfect pumpkin, and I think he is waiting for trick or treat later this month.

 I have so many wonderful Autumn dishes that this year I had to use another cupboard to display the all.  This cabinet usually holds different colors of Depression Glass - they have all been packed away to make room for Autumn, except for the green pitchers on the top.

Warm spiced apple cider is just the thing for a chilly Autumn afternoon - served up in a pretty pitcher.

 Only three new items this year, two pair of salt and pepper shakers and a pumpkin teapot.  A hot cup of tea sounds good right now - and maybe I can reach up to the photos above and snitch a cookie.

 I love pumpkins of all sorts - this one is medium size and can be used for candy, or as a serving dish, or a small soup tureen for an intimate dinner.

One can never have too many mini pumpkin soup tureens - let's make personal servings of pumpkin custard, baked in the tureens.

Green stemware for Autumn, along with friendly scarecrow plates

 Individual pumpkin soup tureens and a pumpkin pitcher

Little flower fairies frolic among the autumn cups, with a sunflower tiered serving platter and some birds.  

Celery salt and pepper shakers share a shelf with more vegetable shaped dishes - a large beet and a tiny beet, along with two pear shaped bowls.  There are so many clever dishes around, and I love them all.

 This cute squirrel will serve up treats as soon as he finishes eating his acorn.  Maybe if he gets enough acorns he'll leave the cookies for the rest of us.

 And the pumpkin teapot is ready for an afternoon cup of tea.  The scarecrow is waiting to serve up your tea.

I have some pumpkin spice tea that would be delicious served in the new pumpkin shaped teapot.  What is your favorite tea in the Autumn?  Do you serve it with honey?  Or cream?

I found this sunny set of a pitcher and cream and sugar at a small shop in British Columbia last summer.  Everything was marked 50% off - oh the treasures we found there.

I have quite a few Autumn salt and pepper shakers, I think there might be enough now to put one set between each two place settings.  Cabbage, celery, corn, pumpkins and acorns Now I am thinking that clever individual butter plates might be a good idea - well, there is a good reason to go shopping - not that I really need a reason.

And here is this year's china cabinet - now let's go back a couple years and see how the dishes and china cabinet have changed.

 Last year - 2016.

And the first year we had the new china cabinet - before I spent a summer painting it white.  My dream has always been to have a white dining room set - we purchased a round white table at a sale at our grandson Ben's school about 4 years ago, and I had been looking for just the perfect white china cabinet to go with the white table.  Not finding it in white, we found this wooden one and figured it would make the perfect white china cabinet.

And it did!  I love my white dining room!!!

And now let's get busy and plan the holiday baking and menus.  What are your favorite things to cook during the Autumn holidays?

Mosaic Monday
Tuesday's Treasures