GIVEAWAY time!

Growing up, my mom had tons of blue and white porcelain all over the house.  It was everywhere.  I think, as a tween, you're obligated to dislike your parent's taste so I was right on track to forming my own opinions early on.

Let me stress, though, that I really didn't get it. What was the allure of blue and white porcelain? It's so traditional. And why did she always brake for a new piece? 

Somewhere in the last few years I started shifting my attention from how great my grandmother's taste was to how great my own mom's taste is.  Was I actually beginning to like this stuff now?  Don't tell anyone, but I think so...

And then I hit 30. Something changed and I stopped resisting. I started 'getting' the allure of good porcelain.

Last week, the day before my 30th birthday, mom took me to our favorite spot (yeah yeah, I know, we talk about Middle Kingdom a lot) and helped me pick out my first piece for my home.  A lovely rite of passage.  I didn't actually get a piece of the blue and white variety (they couldn't find the price and have to call me with a quote), but …

What I did get is an awesome gift for YOU, dear readers.  For my birthday, I'm giving you a present! And hopefully once we give this thing away to a lucky winner, we'll stop with the obsessive posts on their porcelains.

As much as we'd love to gift you a ginger jar the size of a small child, we decided it might not be practical to ship (or on our pocketbooks).

So we're offering you a Middle Kingdom porcelain bowl from the Red Chamber series in the lavender colorway with a yellow inside.

They come in the yummiest colors, and this lavender color is perfect for spring. I can envision this piece as a vessel for a tall white orchid (or even the fuchsia ones) with some fuzzy green moss on top.

And no wonder they come in yummy colors, just look at Bo and Allison Jia's home published in Washington Spaces a few years back.  DELISH.

[photos by Morgan Howarth]

Here's how to win.

1 - Join our blog! (click "Join this site" on the right-hand side of the page)

2 - For extra credit, leave a comment on this post telling us what you would do with your MK vase.

3 - For extra, extra credit, 'like us' on Facebook.  

4 - For extra credit for those who already like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog, leave us a comment telling us the one decor item you couldn't live without. 


We'll announce the winner next Monday, so you have a whole week to spread the word. 

Good luck and "may the odds be ever in your favor"!


-Bethany and Nancy

Middle Kingdom Porcelain

Bethany and I are huge fans of Middle Kingdom Porcelain.  We both have many pieces, from serving pieces to beautiful vases, all works of art.

Our friends, Alison and Bo Jia, started this company in 1998. Their distribution center is near our home, so we are fortunate to stop in from time to time to see what is new, and get our dose of  LOVELY.   Now that we know their signature shape and style, we see their pieces in many of the boutiques and museums that we frequent, and they have their porcelains all over the world.


                       There's the Scholar series which features delicate hand painted animals:

The Red Chamber Series, of brilliant colored vessels:

                                      The Hermit series of functional porcelain serving pieces with handwritten symbols on the rims:

They also carry blue and white porcelains of all shapes and sizes.

                                        Here are the MK porcelains around my house:

In the kitchen

in the Office

in the Living Room

Have you seen these in your town or metro area?

Check them out on Facebook, too!

~Nancy

Meeting Eddie Ross

One of the bloggers I identified with very early on in my blogging career was/is Lauren Liess from Pure Style Home.  Besides having an awesome eye for design in a really down to earth way, Lauren is a local, she's my age and she often talked about how much she loved her grandmothers' style.  Somewhere along the lines I realized she was speaking my language.

Lauren would often mention her friends Eddie and Jaithan and I came to realize Eddie was a staple on Martha Stewart's show and for his work styling many of the pics in the glossies that we look at every day.

[their previous home featured in Lonny]

While in San Francisco for work last week, mom wrote to tell me she signed us up to go to the DC Flea Market, which would have been cool enough in and of itself.  But we were also going to walk thru the booths alongside Eddie Ross to learn a few things about thrifting and styling.  I was super pumped!

[Pay close attention to how GORG these two dudes are.  Envious of their effortless style!!]

Already feeling their welcoming vibe from the correspondance with Eddie's cofounder and partner, Jaithan, our sentiments were amplified after our tour around the Dulles Expo Center while Eddie opened our eyes to things we hadn't really thought of.

What we learned:

1- Even sets (of china, glasses, napkins, etc) are never something to worry about or a cause for passing up something you love. You will almost always be able to find the missing parts at another round up, on eBay or Replacements.com.

2 - To remove stains from linens, try Laundress non-chlorine bleach.

3 - Take inspiration from the things you find along the way.  Maybe you love some Transferware plates but don't have a need for them.  Take their color combo as inspiration for a tablescape… cranberry and green or brown and mulberry make great color combos.

4 - The seamstress at the local dry-cleaners will make a fabbo tablecloth for a lot cheaper than your upholsterer.

5 - If you stick to buying what you love versus what you think you should get, you'll never go wrong.

6 - Always talk to the vendors about their stuff.  They have been collecting for a long time and will be able to pass along the history of your 'find'.

7 - Mother-of-pearl goes with just about anything.  Snatch up any pieces you find that you love and you'll always have a place on the table for them.  MOP and horn can be cleaned with good ole' mineral oil.  But no harsh detergents or it will crack.

8 -  If you can't remove stains from linens or to revamp a tired look, dye it with RIT dye.

9 - "Barkeeper's Friend" is great for rust stains on linen and cleaning just about everything!

10 - Traditional serverware has many non-traditional uses.  For instance, use a funky, curved banana dish for holding linens in a powder room.  All sorts of linens, from cocktail napkins to hand towels, make for great guest bathroom towels, when having a gathering.  Load up a basket and have your guest s use individual hand towels instead of a communal towel.  

11 - If you spot a must-have table cloth in the wrong size or color, it can always double as upholstery fabric for a headboard or pillow.  

12 - Don't be discouraged by the price of something.  Especially if it's a set.  If you break it down, a set of 10 glasses may be $100, but you are getting each glass for $10 and if it's a collectible or part of something you already have, it's a great price.  Collections are built over time, not all at once.  It's OK to pick a pricier item to scoop up along the way.

13 - Mix your antiques and flea market finds with current, relevant pieces.  Pick up a few yards of ikat or chevron fabric to make a tablecloth and add your polished silver collection and funky old plates.  If you intermix your vintage finds with newer things it will tend towards eclectic and collected-over-time versus grandma's attic.

One of my favorite quotes of the day had to be when Eddie shared that Jaithan often says there is an old grandmother deep down inside him waiting to be let out!   Hence his magnetism towards doilies and fine silver.  

[Eddie, Nancy, Bethany, Jaithan]

[Eddie talking about Flow Blue china]

[Enlightening us on fine linens]

The Big DC Flea was chock full of goodies.  

They are hilarial, I tell you, and so real.  Eddie spoke to all budgets and all tastes, making everything super approachable and never once sounded highfalutin.  Mom and I are so interested in learning - we are like little sponges.  And as creative as we think our little selves are sometimes, when you learn from someone with the real-deal Holyfield chops in design and styling, you are left feeling better for having known them.  


If you have the chance to meet up with Eddie and Jaithan next time they run through your town, do it to it! 


-Bethany

BTDubs - why is my mom so cute??