Red Transferware = Love

Last weekend I headed off to Maine to see some of my very favorite folks and spend the day syphoning  inspiration from one of my most creative pals Kate from Scissors, Spatula’s & Sneakers.  I had started a “scrapbook” to chronicle some of the fun moments of my 2012 travel.  Now, I am not at all a scrapper but all the pretty papers and adornments really call to me.  My pal is a huge scrapper and really does amazing things so I decided her house would be a great place to try to figure out how to put together the free form pages I had started.  I really just cut 6” x 8” pages and decided to stick some of my favorite photos that representing each trip…nothing complicated just a fun memory book.

So we had a wonderful afternoon catching up & gluing things on paper...fun!

On my way home as I often do I took the “road less travelled” (aka Route 1) and headed south to see what new amusement I could find along the way.

Columbary House
1286 US Route 1, Cape Neddick ME

Well, in Cape Neddick Maine my car just happened to pull into a parking lot for Columbary House Antiques.  Now, I have passed by this place I can’t even tell you how many times and have never noticed it.  I have no idea why I not only noticed it but decided to stop on Sunday, it was literally a last minute decision to take the turn (luckily there was no one behind me on the road) but let me tell you I am so glad I did!

How great is this to re-purpose old windows?  I'm thinking this would be so great
on the built-in's in my bathroom.

Red transfer ware is in my heart but wow I love this display of blue

As I mentioned in my Plan B Rowley post from last spring (see it here) I am always on the lookout for Colonial Burslem Woods Red transfer ware.  This was my great-grandmother’s everyday china pattern.  I grew up eating many, many yummy meals on it and still all these years later love it.  She made the absolute best homemade donuts…and let me tell you fresh fried homemade donuts is the absolute best scent to wake up to!  My brother could polish off a dozen in one sitting when we were kids.

Some of my red transfer ware pieces

Anyway back to Columbary House, there are 2 buildings – the front and more serious antiques house and the back building that has wonderful vintage items of all sorts.  It was in the back building that I made my real score.

And these babies were just waiting for me to find them on the bottom shelf below the wrap desk...luckily eagle eye
spotted them right away

So excited!  It’s not often I see my pattern and even less frequent I see it priced affordably!

There are 2 styles of Burslem Woods Colonial pattern one that is a lighter weight china and one that is more of a hotel/restaurant china heavy weight.

Most of my collection is the lighter weight...notice the serving bowl though....it's the heavy weight :-(

Early on when buying I made a mistake in not paying attention and picking up the heavier weight when I really prefer the lighter weight.  So, now that I’m paying attention it seems the lighter weight is so much harder to find and particularly hard to find without chips or crazing!

While both of these pieces are Woods Burslem they are not both Colonial pattern,...that's ok I'm good with a
little mixing and matching until I find a Colonial sugar bowl

Needless to say, this was a perfect start to my 2013..I’m hoping it’s a sign that this is going to be a wonderful year with unexpected beautiful things where I least expect them


Linking back with Mod Mix Monday, Savvy Southern Style, The Charm of Home, Jennifer Rizzo, Between Naps on the Porch