It was "cheap" glass in 20's & 30's but it sure does last. I have salad bowls & other serving pieces I use all the time, get compliments on & it still looks like new, I do hand wash it tho. Most often seen colors are clear, amber or canary yellow,a lt. pink, a few patterns have a light blue & a green which is a light green unless you are talking about "Forest Green" which is Christmas green & I think there is an entire book about it, in a lot of the patterns. Same with "Ruby Red". Got my mom a ruby red salad bowl few years back, sure looks lovely on table at Christmas dinner with a salad in it. A few pieces have added metal such as Horseshoe on the sandwich plate I think. American is lovely & red hard to come by, even had punch bowl. My Aunt had many beautiful dinners I got to be at with all of her Fostoria (expensive), it sets a lovely table. Water glasses & pitcher down to dessert dishes this was in 1950's. Go to library & look at book on early glass & depression glass. Lots of lovely patterns,Hazel-Atlas, McKee, Indiana,Federal, Jeannette, Anchor-Hocking are some of the glass companies.Imperial,Cambridge, Findlay were expensive DG companies. Westmoreland is 1 of my favorites but was fancy glass of the time. There is between 60-100 patterns & few of them still arn't known who made them.

Hi kissthecook! Thanks for joining in the revelry! :) I am thoroughly intrigued by the open house idea and for the past 2 years, I have been trying to work up the guts to try it out! With a current guest list of over 100 (probably only 75 will show), the idea of staggering arrival times seems ideal. How much time do you allow for people to visit? Do you say something like 4pm-8pm, come when you like? Or do you "assign" arrival times to make sure the house isn't stuffed to the gills? I haven't done our invitations yet, but they will go out the same time as yours, so there's still an opportunity to change things up. I get the feeling, though, that "open houses" are much less common in SoCal, but I could be wrong. The only downside I can see is that we are planning on serving dinner-type food, not heavy hors d'oeuvres. The hot food items will be in chafing dishes, however, so do you think that could work? What is on everyone's menu? I am so loving your hot cocoa/chocolate giveaways. That's another thing I need to try--gifts in a jar: hot cocoa, brownie mix, cookie mixes, etc. One day I'll get to do these things! I would defnitely try out Alton's recipe before giving away, but I'm sure it's good. Here's another giveaway that's really a nice souvenir of the evening: I once went to a party where the host took a snapshot of everyone as they arrived. Sometime during the party, she (or her husband--I never figured it out) printed out these little pictures and put them in 2" x 2" frames. Then all of the sudden, they magically appeared on a tabletop tree! Each set of guests got to take theirs home with them when they left. Probably too much work for almost 100 people, but it might work really well for a smaller party. Another alternative is to take the pictures and send them in Thank You notes if you send those after the party. Lastly, I am extemely jealous of your old Victorian. They are gorgeous dressed up for the holidays! You just can't buy that charm, you know? Anyway, keep the ideas coming and I can't wait to hear how everything's going! It would be great to see pictures of the fruits of our labor at the end of the year (or beginning of the next), too!! :)

I can understand that some people think that registering is demanding and greedy. That's the way it is now. I have watched young women go on line and see what has been bought from their "checklist." And the check list is long. And there are many stores. One thing they do that is nice is they will pick places like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond so you have a range of prices. But my friend's daughter was furious when she got gifts that weren't on the list. My friend was horrified my her daughter's behavior but I have seen that before. If I were the groom to be I would run for the hills. In my day....I registered for only china & silverware and glassware. That's what my friends did. I had no idea if anyone bought it. I was at school.We opened our gifts after we were married. There were many more things like candy bowls and candle sticks and a hobnail sugar and creamer set. Whatever they bought I have til this day to remember them by. No taking things back. I was flabbergasted that people would think of such nice things to make or buy for me.And I wrote my very personalized thank you notes within the month. My mother made sure of that. She would have been embarrassed to get a phone call asking if I got the gift. Someone gave me a shower and I got practical gifts like cookbooks and some lingerie and fun gifts. Nowdays, I have friends who give elaborate engagement parties at expensive restaurants. You can't tell the engagement party from the wedding reception. There is competition between friends. No wonder these kids don't know how to save money. I have also seen kids take many of the gifts back and use the money for televisions and in my God-daughter's case, windows. How do you like that!! I was wide-eyed when she told me and her mom was mortified. It seemed so unfair to the people who took the time to buy what they thought she would like.Oh well.

Gracie, several companies made baskets. Mine's not clear, it's carnival glass. Do a websearch on your basket and I bet you will find the maker. Check Fenton, Wistoria and Hocking. I found out an interesting tidbit today while looking at my depression glass collection, reading books on it and then doing google searches. Up above I said it was a possibility that "Fostoria" could have made the basket. Well guess what? Fostoria is the original company and they DID make the baskets like that! The company was sold to the public I believe, and after 1983, L.E. Glass bought the American patterns of Fostoria and I think LE is still making the American collection. Now I want to find out exactly who made my basket. If it was Fostoria then it's very very old and worth more. If it's L.E., then the value is much lower. Back to researching! L.E. Smith = Fostoria!