I'm late getting here, and was so shocked to hear of your DH's scare. So glad you got him to the hospital in good time and safely and he is doing better now. I can only imagine how scared you were! Gorgeous table and such a neat love story, I'm so glad you shared it with us--I just love "happy ever after" stories! ;o) Don't you have another set of painted chargers from your friend? I think I remember drooling over them last year and these are just gorgeous too. Using the clear plates is the perfect way to let the design show--very smart of you. Thanks for sharing your creations with us. I too love Pink roses. ;o) Luvs

A&AE, I have been following this discussion with great interest, because I am going to be decorating with some pieces in the future that are "Japonisme," which is Chinoiserie's cousin, lol! My mom lived in Japan for a year back in the mid 50's and brought back a ton of stuff. Some of it was made more for European tastes. Also, she lived in SF for three years after that and bought a lot of Japanese influenced things to go with what she brought back. I have inherited it all now. So I tend to love Asian influenced things but also I have a style that can be described as "sentimental" or as I call it, "cozy granny" because most of the stuff I like hasn't been in style since granny's day or even great great grandma. I've always liked antiques, but at my age, things that are considered antiques today are the MCM stuff I grew up with. When I was a kid back then, that was NOT the definition of antique! I like stuff from the late 1800's through Art Deco. I like Victorian, but couldn't live with most of it. Arts and crafts is one of my favorite styles and that definitely had an Asian influence. I don't know if Chinoiserie has ever been extremely popular, but right now I am up against a couple of trends which I think are also influencing how a younger generation might view Chinoiserie. One is gender, because my SO for whatever reason, is very strongly against floral things. My dad didn't like floral things all that much either, but he often just acquiesced to my mom and that was fairly typical I think of male/female relationships in the last century and maybe even the one before that. The home was the typical purvey of the "woman of the house" and Chinoiserie was popular with them. I think there is a great deal of sexism in considering certain colors and motif's "feminine" but it's out there and prevalent so there you go. My SO certainly suffers from that cultural conditioning. So now that men are taking a more active role in home-making (at least some men, my SO included) and marital relations are looked at more as a partnership, there's a lot more influence of taste that might be considered "masculine" in the home, from color palettes to art and furniture styles, like the "industrial" trend. Not to say that men don't like florals and women don't like gears, but I know in my decorating dilemmas, it is often gears vs flowers and we tend to compromise on styles and designs that are less extreme--abstracts, geometric stuff, etc. I'm not sure what will bring about a revival of the taste for Chinoiserie or even Victorian or antique anything. Folks are more transient nowdays and aren't as inclined to devote themselves to a set aesthetic in their homes. They want a flexible look. So I think individual pieces of Chinoiserie will always be popular, like art, dishes, fabrics and accent furniture. I think the total look will remain popular with only a few folks who can afford it. Because of the transience, I am afraid the days of those gorgeous Chinoiserie influence wallpapers are gone forever, at least in big common spaces in homes. While I love the look, even I myself would not go for it, because I would want to be able to more easily change out the look of a room from season to season or year to year. But I have little vignettes of Japonisme all around my current home. When I have some time, I may post some of them. Here's a quickie, just something I totally threw together. The framed pictures are very old calendar pics that my mom had from back in the 50's in SF. They are just there right now to fill up the space and hide the very ugly white back of the shelving units. They will go on the wall eventually, and my mom's collection of Japanese dolls will go in the unit when I get it properly set up and the glass doors installed.

I’m so happy to read this. I hope that your relationship will get to a place that works for both of you. I’m reminded of a friend who was also my piano teacher. She had a habit / skill of being very forthright yet unencumbered by emotion or rancor. She would say something like ”you look like he** today today, what’s wrong?” or something else that i could not have managed to say without feeling superuncomfortable and therefore heavily emotionally invested in. I’m sure that she offended some people but the ability to be coolly straightforward I think can headoff misunderstandings. She is russian and i wonder if this is culturally true for them?

“I am wondering why quite a few feel this should be the end of our friendship?” I am wondering the same thing. In fact, I am really surprised (in most cases) at the number of cold harsh reactions to this incident. A good friend for 20 years is a treasure, not a commodity to be easily tossed away. And true friends accept each other's 'quirkiness'. No one is perfect, nor would a true friend expect perfection. Sure, your feelings were hurt, that is very understandable. Of course you were disappointed that your gift wasn't as original as you thought it would be. I'm sure it was a big surprise to her to receive two such original gifts and she simply blurted that surprise out without thinking. I sincerely hope that venting here has helped you to feel better about it, and that there will be no hard feelings between y'all in the future. Rusty