Dining Room

After a few years in storage in my parent's granary this dining room set I inherited is finally seeing the light of day.  There is a post about it somewhere back in 2011 I believe and I'm sure it's as captivating as they all are.  The story is that it belonged to my great-grandparents on my dad's side and the my aunt and uncle had it for years until they moved to townhouse that included furniture and doesn't really have a formal dining room anyway so they asked who in the family would like to have it.  I said I would like it even though we didn't have a spot for it at the moment.  I am a nostalgic type and I like mixing old and new items.  It includes a table, china cabinet and buffet. 

 

 

We finally got it all set up got the table cleared off.  It had become kind of a gathering spot for the crap we didn't know what to do with and pictures that needed to be hung and situated.  I want to assemble a nice centerpiece but Ben is in a "climb on the table" phase so nothing is safe.  He doesn't really play in here, fortunately, and I don't want to encourage him by placing interesting things on the table. 

Here is the buffet.  I imagine making some sort of seasonal display to correspond with the holidays.  As soon as gourds and mini pumpkins show up in the stores I will put those in that yellow bowl.  That frame is a picture of Ben in his Halloween costume last year.  That wall above the globe could use some sort of high impact wall hanging.  I am waiting to get somewhere to shop for that kind of thing, like Gordman's in Fargo since it is really cheap and has a lot of interesting things. 

 

Here is the china cabinet filled with Fiestaware and other fun dishes.  The plates on the top shelf are the fancy china I chose when we got married.  I was not going to get any since no one really uses it anymore, a lot of it can't go in the dishwasher, and there are already many sets of dishes in our families that will have to end up somewhere.  I liked this stuff, called Mediterra Menorca by Lenox, when I saw it at Macy's.  Here is a close up from Google images.   

 

 

It is not overly delicate and can be put in the dishwasher.  I decided to add it to the registry after finding a stack of the plates, which you see in the cabinet, at TJ Maxx.  I thought, "hey, I will just add it to the registry, see what we end up with, and keep buying it when it shows up at TJ Maxx!"  I should have known that being at TJ Maxx was an indication of what was to come.  We got a few pieces for the wedding, which I left room for on the shelf until I can retrieve it from its spot in a Rubbermaid tote in the hallway of my parent's house where it has been for the last six years.  Well, I never saw it at TJ Maxx again and it got discontinued.  So...oops...I should have used some wedding money right away to fill the set because now it is a strange assortment.  But I still think it is really pretty.  You can find it online, most reliably from my mom's favorite source for years, Replacements, ltd. 

We polished it with some Old English and that chore makes me feel like a servant in some fancy residence in the old days.  It really makes a difference though.  Next I plan on recovering the seats of the chairs but I don't want to commit to a pattern too soon.  I am not 100% in love with the paint color but I don't see us getting it changed in the near future.  Painting a split level house is not the easy DIY job that painting our old house was. 

As I mentioned last week, the first NDSU home game was last weekend.  I was worried about how Ben would handle it since he is a runner, doesn't like to sit still, will hardly eat anything in his own environment and tailgating was during the few hours that he usually sleeps in the afternoon.  We thought he would probably fall asleep in his stroller after a few laps around the lot and hoped he would be civilized during the game and distracted by all the action since Justin's seat is near the front.  We were ready to take turns chasing him around under the stands if we had to.  Well, everything went as bad as it could have.  He didn't fall asleep, refused to eat, was way overtired and completely lost it at the game and we had to leave at half time.  We aren't giving up yet but we aren't sure how to proceed.  Most likely, it won't be 90 degrees at the next tailgating so that should help.  Also the next games are a bit earlier and we arrived in Fargo on Saturday morning instead of Friday night so maybe less time in the car beforehand will help.  I don't know...it sure wasn't very fun.  At least it wasn't the most exciting game to miss.  I feel bad that I didn't take any pictures although it is for the better since I looked like a haggard and sweaty pregnant woman with my hair all over the place from the humidity.  I was looking back and I can't believe that the last time I was a carefree, beer swilling fan was in 2010.  Sigh, the years march on...one day in the future I will feel normal again.