I’m an expert on the lost art of napkin folding! One summer I worked as the ‘hostess/cashier’ at a fancy hotel restaurant. One of my jobs was to fold all the napkins. The breakfast/lunch napkins were folded like a pocket and held the silverware. The evening napkins a Tiered Lily. Mid summer the restaurant underwent a whirlwind renovation, and the napkin styles got changed! The morning napkin was a Cardinal’s Hat (I loved folding these) and the evening napkin was a Standing Fan. I always have a cloth napkin at my place setting, but the men-folk are Neanderthals, and eschew napkins.

April - I have a built in dresser for glassware and China. It’s in our dining area. Everyday pieces are in drawers in the kitchen.

I don’t know that book- I will look it up. My blue willow is not expensive - the mason wear is worth more but some people don’t like patterned China so I think values are quite low.

A few nighttime pics for you.

Yes! I have a "contemporary" china set with matching sleek silverware and glassware. It is a huge set with many pieces, and they can all be machine-washed. They live  in this piece of Ikea furniture, - what I think of as a "contemporary hutch." This all works well with our apartment. I use them whenever we are entertaining, even for a small group of guests. I also use them quite a bit when it's just the three of us. They are easily accessible (just behind the dining-room table), and make dinner time a bit more special. I think it sets a good example for my son to learn and appreciate the value of family time. Also, I am not happy with our everyday china, as it is mismatched and worn-looking, hoping to replace it soon. 

Another awesome story featuring Blue Willow is A Bargain for Frances.

Sloper - Desert Rose is what my parents have in their kitchen (because the dining room is crammed with two full sets of china plus random pieces painted by spinster aunts in the late Victorian era.)

My mother - now 85 - asks me regularly how much of it I want her to leave to me and I feel badly that none of it is my taste.

RC - I LOVE lost arts such as napkin folding.

Bella - nice! Would you consider letting go the everyday dishes and using the ones you love all the time?

Yes - I inherited a formal dinner set from my Mum who adored her ornate Wedgewood set. My Mum specifically requested in her will that I get this dinner set, I think because when I was a child, I loved the sugar bowl, and she would let me gently play with it. I have the complete set - platters, vegetable tureens, coffee and tea pots, coffee and teacups and it all survived intact. You name it, I likely have it. DH was quite firm when I brought all of this into our house, that I was restricted about what else of my parents I could keep. I love having this special reminder of my parents which is visible in display cabinets in my kitchen. I like the pattern which is a floral combined with mythical griffins (Wedgewood Collumbia pattern).

I mainly use the serving dishes and have a plain white Wedgewood dinner set that I mix and match with it. Mum's dinner set is beautiful, but so formal, softening it down with the plain white makes it more practical. I don't dare put Mum's dinner set in the dishwasher, I know how much she would disapprove of that! I love it because my Mum loved it. My niece loves good china, so I know if my son is not interested, I can give it to her as she would treasure it.

Bijou, It is indeed a beautiful dinner set.

I have Wedgewood Signet Platinum ... in typical 'me' fashion, it is the most minimalistic "pattern" of all time lol!

Omg. A Bargain for Frances! LOVED this book as a child. I need to find it.

RL, IKR? I felt exactly like Frances - all snobby about plastic tea sets.

My woodworker grandpa built me a tiny china cupboard to house a porcelain tea set my grandmother bought at a yard sale. Most of it was a floral but there was one Blue Willow teapot and I felt I had arrived.

Especially since Neighbor Girl only had plastic.

Here are some of my decor china items.

Yes Bargain for Frances!!

Another fun thread started by April..thank you.
I still have my china tea set from when I was young. My Grandpa made me a little display cabinet too that I use in my sewing room.
This is my Grandmothers china that I have. I am using it in my sewing room too.

IP - I feel like I recognize that pattern! What is it?

It is Noritake YBRY . I do not know the significance of that title.

April - thanks for the Desert Rose shout out! I think it goes quite well with the little 1920’s Spanish style house we live in. Sometimes I’ll see an old movie where they are using it, or another of the Franciscan patterns.

Yes - another fun thread!!!

I have good china that is special occasion only but now I am considering using it more often after reading everyone’s posts. I would need to have it more accessible as right now it is in those china keepers with protectors between each layer, and in a very awkward place.

OTOH we are now using our deceased friend’s china for our everyday dishes. We do put them in the dishwasher. It helps that there is no metal on them. They’re okay, not my favorite, but our old everyday plates were worn so I thought why not. In the future I may purchase something else more to my liking.

I was in love with this pattern of my mother's as a child. I have a small box full in the basement and probably, in my 70s, ought to get it out and use it, though I'm not less clumsy.
Homer Laughlin eggshell georgian

Very late to this! I love china! I have the set my mother and father got when they got married. As others mentioned it’s not microwave safe, but we have always thrown it in the dishwasher - it’s only dishes.

Inspired by you all, yesterday I decided to rethink where I have some of my pieces. My kitchen has a row of tiny glass cupboards way up high (like, WAY up high) and they are empty. Each small door has multiple small glass panes, making it quite difficult to see what's behind them.

Figured I would move a teapot I love into one of them and see if it was visible. Climbed a ladder and discovered that the previous owners of this house had left a gorgeous, heavy, Csens crystal bowl behind. We've been here five years now.

Two or three years into our last house, I discovered a Hermes belt at the rear of a high shelf in the master closet. It pays to check every nook and cranny.

April, how lucky you are! All I found in our house was an old painted over wallpaper

Oh good lord, no. I’m trying to rehome two sets of old china I inherited — blue willow and another old blue pattern. They were well used and loved by previous generations but they’re not our style, and they are not practical.

I just gave away the set we got when we got married — Mikasa “Pure Red.” They’re lovely but we’ve lost a bunch of pieces to breakage and some were chipped and looking sad. With a new kitchen on the horizon, it’s time for a new set of dishes, utensils, and glassware!

Blue willow! Lots of fans here; maybe post it on this thread.

We keep the stuff we use daily or near-daily in the kitchen cabinets, but the older stuff is in the linen closets, which have been repurposed as makeshift butler's pantry type deals for overflow dishes and small appliances. Hubby plans to install pullout shelves as one of his next carpentry projects. ETA: LOL don't judge me for my messiness!!