What's in the china cabinet, anyway?

I'm still recovering from our new carpet experience of last week. The carpet is great -- but it's not so fun moving everything back in place. One of the last things I reassembled was our china cabinet. Of course it had to be completely unloaded for the carpet installation. That was actually GOOD because I had the opportunity to really look at the stuff inside and do some rearranging.

As I was doing that, I realized that not many people know about our china cabinet. It didn't start out this color. When we were living in our 1923 house many years ago, one of our neighbors was Ruth Christian, an older lady who was well-known for her beautiful lithophane creations. When the time came for Ruth to move to a nursing home, her family helped her sell some of her household items plus many of her porcelain pieces.

Spouse and I were newly married and didn't have a china cabinet but we liked the one we saw sitting in the corner of Ruth's dining room. It didn't matter to us that it was PEA GREEN! We bought it and Spouse undertook the difficult job of refinishing it. He had it professionally stripped, at which point we discovered that it was constructed of mahogany, then Spouse set about the tedious job of refinishing it. It's a beautiful piece with a lot of character. It reminds me of the years we spent in our first home.

Being next door neighbors with a lithophane artist, we were fortunate to acquire several of her other porcelain pieces over the years. This Christmas tea set is one of my favorites. It sits in our china cabinet year-round.

We also have several beautiful dessert plates, tiny cups and saucers, and bowls. I think Ruth considered some of these pieces "seconds" for one reason or another, but I think they're all beautiful.

We also have this gorgeous porcelain raccoon. This photo doesn't do it justice -- it's a stunning piece with great detail.

There were many other items in our china cabinet, but these are a few of my favorites. The china cabinet itself and all of these pieces represent a connection to our past. I feel fortunate to have them with us!