Everything Tastes Better on Pretty Dishes

I have a food-related obsession: my collection of Butterfly Meadow dishes from Lenox. It started simply enough. Brett and I needed to have some dishes that were microwave and dishwasher safe. We were tired of the cheap plates that I bought as a freshman in college (half of them were broken or missing by then anyway), and we didn't want to continue using my grandmother's china every day.

When I first started looking I was still trying to find relatively cheap dishes, but they all looked. . .cheap--go figure. When I saw the Butterfly Meadow dishes, I fell in love with them at first sight. I figured we might as well get something we really like if we were going to be using them for the next 20 or more years. Right about the time that I decided to go ahead and splurge on these dishes, Brett's parents, knowing of our search, gave Brett their full set of Villeroy and Boch red Fasan china. Brett grew up using these dishes and loves them, especially the square bowls. I really like these dishes as well and am very grateful to have them, but I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to pick out my own pattern--something that reflected me. Truth be known, I don't think that Brett would have been entirely happy having to eat on the Butterfly Meadow dishes every day. A little too girly for him.

At first I bought two lunch plates with the intention that when I was making a small meal for myself or for myself and a friend I could use them. Then I wanted to bring that up to four plates, in case I had more friends (ha!). Then I figured I might as well buy one of each of the six different designs. Now that I had the six lunch plates I thought I should get one dinner plate that I could use as a serving plate. I went ahead and got two dinner plates because they are the perfect size for a cake plate. By now, I was using the dishes every chance I could get and figured I might as well just get all six designs in the dinner plates. Now, a few years later, I have 10 or more of the lunch plates, dinner plates, party plates, fruit bowls, pasta bowls, mugs, and saucers - plus 4 rice bowls and some serving pieces. Brett wants to know, is there no end in sight??

Apparently not. This week I just added a set of four coasters--perfect little "plates" for a mini snack (my obsession with "mini" will save for another day), and four adorable dessert bowls in a slightly different style than my original pattern with accents of pink, yellow, green, and blue.

Why do I continue adding to my already large collection? Because everything tastes better on pretty plates. And every time I pull those dishes out to use them (which is every day, of course), it puts a smile on my face.