Spring Cleaning

Sometimes, no inspiration is a blessing.  

With no creative 'get-up-and-go', I have instead done some spring cleaning and sorting.  

The kitchen was awash with china that had been on top of the cupboards.  Ideally it would be in the cupboards, but there's no more room.

 Looks a bit precarious, some of that, but it was all well balanced! 

No china was harmed in the taking of this photograph!

I then had fun laying it all out to inspect.

Johnson Brothers 'Greydawn' - with two different styles of handle. 

 I love this because  it reminds me of helping with the cricket teas when I was young.  My Mum did them for a long while (her tuna and tomato sandwiches were legendary in the cricketing circuit, I believe) and then when I was about ten, and my sister eleven, we took over (but only for the second eleven!)  

On Saturday morning we'd go to the baker's and buy the bread and big boxes of assorted cakes.  There would always be some French Fancies in amongst the cakes, and we'd secretly pray that the players would not eat these, so that we might get a chance when the clearing up was being done.  But needless to say, the French Fancies always got eaten, and this left me with an (almost) insatiable appetite for them! 

(Almost, because years later at university, a friend and I decided to have what we loosely termed a picnic (as we were going to eat it on the lawn in front of our halls of residence) one miserable weekend day when most people had gone home. We went to the local shop and bought what they had that we fancied - a tin of pineapple slices, a tin of rice pudding, a bar of chocolate and a box of French Fancies.  The ensuing 'picnic' made both of feel quite ill and put me off French Fancies for years!)

A 'Gainsborough Pink' jug by Johnson Brothers and a 'Rosedawn' one (I think) plus more 'Greydawn' and a Grindley 'Peach Petal' dessert set that would be perfect for tinned pineapple and rice pudding!

These are Johnson Brothers too - I don't specifically look for it, but it sort of finds me.  They are a bit chipped, but lovely for a bowl of homemade soup (or Heinz Tomato).

This is 'Rosedawn' too, but prettily decorated instead of plain.

In amongst the china were a few old pressed glass vases and this lovely jug...

And then this set of French canisters which I got from a car boot sale last year...

 

As well as a nice old Colman's Mustard tin...

A chintz butter dish (Royal Winton) and a dish (James Kent)...

A Japanes honey pot, which I got in France last year...

And finally, a sweet little lidded pot, which is German.

It's all gone back on top of the cupboard now, but with a promise to get it all out for some slap-up tea parties this summer!