I love this thread and hearing about everyone's china! I love blue and white and have: several different brands of Asiatic Pheasant (all English) in different blues, Johnson Brothers Indies, and Masons Fruit Basket Blue (This is what I use for everyday -- these blues) I have scads of Spode plates as well (in both Blue Room and Blue Italian) and use some as everyday dishes and some as company dishes -- I do have platers and bowls and covered vegetable bowls to go with the Blue Room/Blue Italian as well as blue and white turkey plates by Wedgwood and Myott. My Christmas dishes are Royal Doulton Tartan and I hand carried them home from England -- 8 plates, cups and saucers for $12 -- what was I thinking -- why I didn't get 16 or 24 at that price I don't know! Over the years I have accumulated 12 plates, cups and saucers. I also bought some Lennox Holiday salad plates which look good with the Tartan and gives me Christmas dessert/salad plates. I have my grandmother's china -- Noritake marcasite and it's a cream with gold trim -- I really like it and feel like it sets an elegant table. I also have some Famille Rose patterns which I mix and match -- Spode Famille Rose, Wedgwood Cuckoo and Aynsley Pembroke -- not the new Pembroke but the old one from the turn of the century. I have enough for 8 in those patterns and also have a tea pot, sugar and creamer (in the new Pembroke) so I can use the set for tea. And then I have Noritake Duluth which is a 1920's pattern which is a really pretty delicate pattern with a blue band and pink roses. (I use that one the least and have moved it down to the basement -- I can access it but it isn't filling up my china cabinets LOL!) My "wedding china" was Wedgwood Runnymeade -- which I still adore but my daughter admired it and wanted it and so it was our gift to her for her wedding -- we had 4 place settings and when the three of us went to England we bought 4 more -- and hand carried it home! I adore china and am always being enticed by a new pattern. I use my dishes a lot for we like to have company and it's fun to use different dishes to set a table. I also have my mother's wedding silver-plate, my husband's grandmother's sterling, a set of sterling that we bought for $25 at an auction (everyone saw "stainless" on the knife blade and thought that was what it was!). My crystal was Waterford Kylemore and I still adore it

I want to ask, where do you buy the glass? Local or mail order? I really want to try glass mosaics but have not found the glass local, so I ordered some "broken glass scraps" mail order, they came in the mail today, and I'm happy with them but the shipping cost more then the glass! The "scraps" are bigger then I expected, I'm going to see if they sell smaller scraps, so I can get more variety. PJ

Even china that is "microwave safe" can show crazing after repeated use. We put our Gien dishes into the microwave but the crazing is starting to show so I hauled out some old glass plates and we're using those now. Or paper. Before I bought any china that I thought I would use in the micro, I'd buy a piece, put some water in it and test it. Zap it on high for 1 minute and see if the piece feels hot. If it does, it will be ok but have a shorter life. The cooler china stays, the longer it will live. All dishes are made from some type of clay. Stoneware -- anything that looks brown/beige when chipped -- has a high mineral content -- which means metal particles that heat up in the wave. Porcelain and china have less, but always good to test first. Re: Crate & Barrel. I bought a set of dishes there 5 years ago and they still have the same ones. I can still add any pieces. Some of their stuff is trendy; some is staple. Not everything goes away. I personally like to buy dishes in house sales or auctions. That way you don't pay "retail" whether you shop at Crate or Penneys. Waay cheaper. Added a link to an extensive list of tableware sources on Atticmag; some basic; some discount; some simply droolworthy Here is a link that might be useful: Tableware Sources

I'm in the sterling in the DW camp. I have done so for 44 years and am missing no patina and have no marks or loosened handles on the knives. As for mixing stainless and sterling, most of my sterling knives have stainless blades. I DO try not to put stainless and sterling in the same basket in the DW. And I always air dry...perhaps the lack of extra heat in the drying cycle has helped. Also, I chose Dansk stainless when I got married 44 years ago, and I am very happy with how it has held up. I bought a couple of new place settings 5 years ago at the Dansk outlet in New Orleans, and it's hard to tell the new from the old. Our first everyday china was Shenango restaurant ware. It held up beautifully but was really heavy. I gave it to youngest son when he left after college and got his own apartment. I've replaced it with Fiestaware which is almost as heavy, but I love the retro feel of it. In case you think I'm a total slacker when it comes to taking care of nice things, I DO handwash my grandmother's Haviland. I'm sure its gold rim would never last in the DW. My parents were so poor after WWII with no money for extras, so my grandma's silver became the everyday silver. My mom used to let me dig in the sandbox with her sterling serving spoons! I still have them, they're in great shape, and they do go in the DW but no longer in the sandbox.