McGregor Inn Motel Final Stretch Discount

8/30/10 THROUGH 9/6/10

The last week of the season is a great time to visit Saratoga Springs. The crowds are lighter and the rates are lower. McGregor Inn Motel is offering $99.00 per night during The Final Stretch week! 2 night minimum on the weekend only. We're just 7 miles from Saratoga Race Course so call 1-518-587-1394 now to reserve your room or email mcgregorinnmotel@earthlink.net for more information.

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Beefsteak Tomatoes?? NOT

Who doesn't like garden tomatoes? I LOVE them but have struggled to get the right plant for the job. I have flower beds, not vegetable gardens. Other than flowers, tomatoes are the only thing I'm interested in growing myself. I don't need many, I'm only one person and I'm not going to stock my freezer with stewed tomatoes. All I need is a veggie omelette, a BLT now and then and some wedges. Nothing fancy. You may have guessed but those are not MY tomatoes. These were stolen from Jimmy's Backyard Garden (thanks Jimmy).

My biggest obstacle for a long time was remembering to buy the plants before it was too late. I've gotten past that one. My first attempt gave excellent quality but low quantity. That's fine, the few tomatoes I got were big and tasty. Last year my 2 plants were placed in a different bed and they did flourish. I had quantity but the sun was practically non existent and they rotted on the vine before they could turn red. Not my fault right?


Here we are, summer 2010. This year I'm going to get it right. Plants in right on schedule, plenty of sun and my own organic compost. They are doing so well with many flowers. I'm going to have way more tomatoes than I can possibly eat!

CHERRY TOMATOES! How the heck did I manage to grow those? The plant spike definitely did not say cherry tomato, it DID say beefsteak. They are tasty and excellent in my salad and omelette. How many do you think I'll need to make my BLT (that I'm sure I'll be forced to eat with a knife and fork)? Oh well, summer 2011 isn't that far away.

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Is your thumb green or do you have the dark hand of death? Tell me about your gardening successes and failures whether flowers, vegetables or fruit.

Happy Gardening!

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How Time Flies!

It's been awhile since my last post and today's post has absolutely nothing to do with dishes or doodads. When I started this blog I thought writing once or twice a week would be no problem but then life decided otherwise. My blogging detour started with the remodeling of the living room. I'm being generous calling it remodeling since we did not buy new furniture. Fresh paint, new carpet and curtains, furniture moved from other rooms and a fresh popcorn ceiling. If you've ever had the pleasure of buying a home that had popcorn on the ceiling and you decided to get rid of it, you know it's not all that easy. After much to-do trying to rid ourselves of this ghastly treatment without re-sheet rocking, we decided it was best to keep it. I won't bother you with the steps we took to rid ourselves of this bumpy stuff but each was time consuming, messy and intensive hard labor and none of it would have resulted in the totally smooth fresh sheetrock that I craved. Bottom line, if you're thinking about adding popcorn make sure it's something you'll be able to live with for a long time.

Next came the warm weather and with it came all of the raking, trimming, cleaning, composting (who's idea was that!), planting, watering and mowing otherwise known as yard work. I can safely say that Upstate New York was thrilled to have spring arrive so early but our time schedule was not at all ready. We had much more online work to get done before the warm weather duties took over. No worries there, the warm weather was not going to stay, winter would be back. Wrong! Things started blooming early and more online time was taken away. Now we are shoulder deep in black raspberry picking. They are a full month early this year.

In 3 weeks the Saratoga Race Course 2010 meet will start. No, we are not big gamblers but as the owners of a small motel, we do look forward to the season. While most refer to this time of year as racing season, here at home we call it doughnut season. For 6 weeks we have fresh doughnuts daily. Yummy of course but very bad for our waistlines. It will be nice to see those regulars and catch up on events from the year gone by and of course we look forward to meeting new people too. So, if you're coming to Saratoga for horse racing or a concert at SPAC and would like a CLEAN, moderately priced place to lay your head at night, please check the McGregor Inn Motel.

What's keeping you busy this summer?

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Vintage American Dinnerware Part 1 - Taylor Smith & Taylor

Vintage American dinnerware is one of my favorite things! There are so many patterns, shapes, colors and decals to choose and these dishes can still be found at very reasonable prices. Full sets are easily found in almost any antique shop and replacement pieces are abundant in online shop inventories. My favorite era would have to be the dishes of the 1930's and 40's with the mid century modern pieces of the 50's and 60's running a very tight race for second place.

Companies like Taylor Smith & Taylor, Salem China Company, W. S. George and Paden City Pottery are just a few of the dinnerware makers operating during that time. TST's most popular line was Lu-Ray Pastels. These dishes were glazed with pink, blue, green, gray and yellow. LuRay was manufactured from the late 1930's into the early 1960's and some great shapes can be found like the Sharon pink covered casserole shown here. Pastel dinnerware can really brighten your table and it's really fun to mix the colors when using dinnerware patterns like Lu-Ray and Fiesta. Not to mention that you can mix some glassware patterns with it as well. We were working on Lu-Ray and Hazel Atlas Coral Ovide in the same day and they looked pretty nice together. Just for fun, here's a shot of them. Pretty cool right?

One of the great things about vintage American dinnerware is that you can change your pattern without too much expense if you're bored. We use a white china with a pretty robin's egg blue trim. It is unmarked but I find pieces on a regular basis at local garage sales. I always ask about maker and every seller over 60 years old has said it is Syracuse China bought from an outlet store that's been closed for longer than they can remember. I've never found the pattern name or even an assigned number like the big R site uses but I'll keep looking.

We'd love it if you'd comment and let us know which makers and patterns are your favorites, even if they are not vintage or American dinnerware. Do you use your dishes or are they for display only?

Happy Searching!

Glass and Pottery Co-Op March Newsletter

Greetings from The Glass and Pottery Co-Op!

Spring is a time for new growth, fresh starts and remodeling! As our site grows we too must refresh our look from time to time. We work hard to make our pages inviting to the eye and have changed our front page to show the best of our products at first glance. Our dealers' featured items are now front and center and we've moved our new additions links to the right side navigation. As always, our category tree remains to the left. We hope this helps you navigate more easily.

Spring is a great time for you to think about sprucing up your dinnerware patterns too. Get rid of your late winter doldrums with a Cheery Chintz pattern by Erphila Dorset. Perhaps daisies or roses are better suited to your taste like this Franciscan dinnerware. Patterns with floral bouquets are lovely and here is just a sample of our vintage American dinnerware by Leigh Potters. Elegant patterns by Dresdan are also in stock. These are just a few ideas and we have a large inventory to browse.

Are you ready to shake off the cold and start visiting again? We have a selection of tea cups and saucers that will impress your best friends at your next afternoon tea party. It's always fun to mix and match during these informal gatherings. And speaking of cups, did you know that just a little bit of oxy clean in water will remove the stains from your favorite mugs in a very short time? This works especially well on stoneware. Try it, so easy.

Happy Spring!

The Glass and Pottery Co-Op

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New Arrivals 2/18/10 Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne and Noritake Maywood

Dishes and Doodads has added some nice items to the inventory this week. Vintage American dinnerware and some beautiful Noritake porcelain pieces are in the New Arrivals section!

We've added Yorktown dinner plates, luncheon plates and a cream and sugar bowl set to our Pfaltzgraff inventory. We also stock Heirloom and Heirtage, both popular patterns. These pieces are all made in the USA. If you collect Pfaltzgraff, you're aware that the company is no longer producing it's dinnerware in the States. The USA marked stoneware dishes are of better quality than the newer product.

We've added 2 lovely pieces of Noritake Maywood #5154. The large serving platter is 16 1/4 by 12 inches, perfect for serving a roast during a family dinner. Also added is a gorgeous covered vegetable bowl. Maywood has a pretty pattern of roses and blue ribbon with gold trim. Very elegant!

Which Pfaltzgraff patterns are your favorites? Do you prefer the older stoneware or buy brand new? What about Noritake? So many patterns, which one do you have in your china cabinet? Please use the comment section to let us know what you're trying to add to your dinnerware pieces.

Happy Shopping!

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Collecting Enamelware and Graniteware For Your Vintage Kitchen

Graniteware or enamelware is a great thing to start collecting. It is both functional and decorative and much of it is easily found at affordable prices. Vintage granite ware and enamelware make great displays in any kitchen, whether it's colorful utensils hung from racks or berry buckets, mixing bowls and stock pots lining the shelves.

In a previous post we talked about collecting tea cups and today we'll talk about enamelware and graniteware. Let's figure out what the difference is between the two, why two terms for what seem to be the same thing? When we asked a shop owner this question several years ago he said that solid color pieces were enamelware and those colorful patterned pieces, like the blue and white swirl for example, were graniteware. Sounds logical doesn't it? Since then we have learned that there really is no difference. The simple fact is that enamelware and graniteware are both made by fusing enamel to metal to help prevent the deterioration of said metal. We will no longer stress about whether to call pieces graniteware or enamelware, though we do admit that graniteware does seem to be used to describe most of the gray colored pieces we see online.

We do not collect graniteware but we do collect other people's things (go figure)! We cleaned out a farm house years ago and acquired a large amount of graniteware. Lids, berry buckets, kettles, pans and some things we that we didn't know what they were (like the insert above). Most of it has been sold and we believe they are vintage. Some we use, like the huge pans that are under the large potted plants, the white berry bucket with red trim and wood handle is used to hold cooking utensils, and the heavy blue cast iron kettles, one of which is about 24 inches in diameter that we just don't know what to do with since they would be heavy to ship. If you're buying for decorative purposes you a may not care if the piece is old or new, only that it's colorful. We pick up pieces here and there, like the red dipper set and some red and white swirl bowls that were just plain pretty. Vintage pieces tend to be heavier and show signs of use like chips in the enamel.

Please comment and tell us what graniteware pieces you are searching for or your view on the difference between graniteware and enamelware. Do you collect all shapes, sizes and colors or one specific item like coffee pots?

Happy Collecting!

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