A few days ago David helped Mother / Martha / “Martie” move into a garden home (oh, the stories. THE STORIES.), and when he made it back to our house Sunday afternoon, he walked in the front door with a special treat.

GIN!

Oh, I kid. Kiddy McKidderson Kid.

Because do you know what’s really inside that box?

CHINA!

I know that might not seem very exciting to a lot of people, but let me tell you: I am such a fan of pretty dishes. Apparently I inherited the loves-pretty-dishes gene from my mama, and I have been crazy about china since I was in high school. It makes me laugh that I can be so sentimental about, you know, PLATES, but I totally am. I remember all the dishes my mama has ever owned, and if I ever happen to run across a full set of the everyday pattern that she used when I was a little girl, I’ll probably cry just a little bit.

Now I feel like I should go hide. Perhaps I’ve overshared.

Anyway.

Since Martha’s new house doesn’t have quite as much storage space as her old one, she was very sweet to give me 12 place settings of a china pattern that David’s daddy bought when he was stationed overseas back in the 50s. I can’t even tell you how much I will treasure it. The pattern is Noritake LaSalle, and I LOVE IT. It’s so different than anything else I have – I think it’s delicate and retro and modern all at the same time.

By the way, I’m pretty sure that you’re officially a grown-up when you enthusiastically snap a picture of a covered vegetable bowl.

But DID YOU NOTICE THAT FUNKY HANDLE? ISN’T THAT THE GREATEST THING YOU’VE EVER SEEN?

It took me all of five minutes before I started trying to figure out how I could mix the new-to-me pattern with dishes I already have. My fine china is Lenox Eternal, and I love how it looks with the LaSalle salad plate. I think they’ll look sassy on top of some charger plates I bought a few years ago at Old Time Pottery – they were a whopping $1.50 a piece, I think.

Won’t they all be so purty together on Christmas day? Is it wrong that thinking about all the mix-and-match china makes me a smidge giddy? Do I need to go hide again?

Maybe I need to go hide again.

I love the cups and saucers, too – even if the cup will only hold about two tablespoons of coffee. Because those two tablespoons of coffee will look fab next to that kicky handle, now won’t they?

So what about y’all? Do you use your “good” dishes on Christmas day? Do you have a favorite Christmas pattern? Do you like to mix and match the dishes you have? Or do you save yourself the headache of having to wash a bunch of dishes and just break out the paper stuff instead?

When D and I bought our first house way back in ye olden days – also known as the late 90s – I was totally fascinated by the fact that I could paint the walls whatever colors I wanted. In fact, I remember calling my friend Bubba, a very gifted interior designer, and asking him if he could recommend a good yellow for the kitchen.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “There are a lot to choose from. I mean, think about it this way: you majored in English. Can you recommmend a good VERB?”

Oh, touche’, Bubba. Touche’.

And yes.

PROPELS.

It’s always been a personal favorite.

Anyway, Bubba totally came through for me and picked out paint for every room in the house. His tasteful palette of neutrals lasted for approximately six months, at which point I decided that I HAD TO HAVE a purple kitchen, and really, the front bedroom would be so much cuter if it had a few stripes. And maybe the guest room really needed to be a bright green. And maybe I should never be allowed in a paint store ever again because LOOK! ORANGE!

When we moved to Birmingham a couple of years later, I decided to go with muted colors since our house was brand new. I have no idea what one thing has to do with the other, by the way, but somehow I decided that a new house with muted colors meant that I was officially a grown-up. A Grown-Up, even. Responsible. Far too mature for bright colors. I was going to be content to sit on my beige couch in my beige living room and watch PBS or maybe even some “Murder, She Wrote” reruns if I was feeling kicky.

GROWN-UP.

So y’all know what happened. I made it two years with the muted colors before I painted my kitchen a gold so bright that I’m fairly certain I still have some residual corneal damage. And when I finally got tired of kitchen walls that basically required me to wear sunglasses whenever I wanted to, oh, cook some oatmeal, I re-painted the kitchen a lively green that didn’t really match anything else in my house. BUT IT MADE ME HAPPY.

I’ve fought the neutral / bold balance ever since we’ve been in our current house, because while I get the whole concept of subdued, understated decor – and while I love it in other people’s houses – nothing about me is really subdued. I mean, I don’t know if y’all have picked up on this, but I tend to ERR ON THE SIDE OF LOUD. And so back in the summer, I decided that since color is what energizes me and makes me smile when I walk in a room, I wanted more of it, dadgummit. That’s why I painted my kitchen cabinets green. And then whipped up some no-sew window treatments in a bright fabric.

(So. Now that I’ve established my love of color, maybe now I’ll move along to the actual point of this post.)

(Because do you know what I apparently resist almost as much as I resist neutrals?)

(BREVITY.)

Earlier this year I made my first attempt at turning Alex’s old playroom – which is adjacent to our kitchen and breakfast area – into an office for me. It was functional and had some fun stuff on the walls, but after I painted the cabinets and put up the window treatments, it looked a little blah. And so last week I was cleaning and moving some stuff around when I looked at the desk in that room and thought, I want to paint my desk turquoise.

My logical, rational side thought, That’s ridiculous. No grown woman has a turquoise desk.

And then my creative side thought, Hush it, logic.

I bought the desk at a thrift store a couple of years ago for ten dollars (TEN DOLLARS!), so it wasn’t such a valuable piece of furniture that I was worried about ruining it. It has a not-so-lovely piece of laminate on the top, but the body of the desk is real-live wood, so it’s sturdy and practical. Here’s a picture.

I decided that I was going to tackle it with spray paint because Thanksgiving was two days away and quite frankly I was in no mood to fool with paint brushes, so I went to the Walmarts and picked up two cans of spray paint. I decided on a color that was the closest thing I could find to a light-ish turquoise in a glossy finish, and six dollars later, I was ready to go.

And no kidding – within twenty minutes I was ALL DONE.

I painted the hardware because, well, it was easier that way and we’re talking about a ten dollar desk. I can always take off the hardware later and paint it some kind of metallic finish. Or not.

Clearly I am an artiste who is deeply committed to her craft.

I let the desk dry for about an hour, and then we brought it inside. I moved it to a different wall, and then I hung (read: TACKED) a whole bunch of my favorite colorful things around the desk. And then I was all done.

(I have no idea why I went with the angle on that last picture.)

(Perhaps I have unrealized dreams of becoming a beret-wearing photographer who specializes in images of painted thrift store furniture.)

Anyway, there you have it. The desk isn’t perfect, but it’s colorful. And it only cost me six whole dollars to give the office a little facelift.

Which certainly propels me to paint more stuff.