Resurrected

When Mike and I got married we were the 'lucky' recipients of a partial set of old antique china that had belonged to my great-great grandmother on my dad's side of the family. I am not exactly the most sentimental woman there is, and the last thing I really needed in the world of apartment living was a bin of cracked, incomplete china. Still, I am also extremely susceptible to feelings of guilt and so I have lugged that bin from home to home for the past eleven years.

Several weeks ago the water heater leaked all over the floor of the laundry/storage room and in the process of hauling everything out I decided that I was going to Do Something about those dishes. Some of them are being sent off to family members who are perhaps a little more sentimental than I am. A few plates took up residence above my kitchen cupboards. The sugar bowl became a jewelry holder.

And then there was this mystery object. To give you an idea of size, it is about 3 1/2 inches high (without the lid) and 6 inches in diameter. Too big to be a soup bowl. The sugar bowl was already accounted for. Too small to be a serving dish. What was it?

Did you guess butter dish? Yeah, neither did I until after a serious internet search turned up a few similar objects that had that tell-tale disk with a hole in the center. It seems that you fill the bottom with ice, set that disk on top of the ice and then put your butter in. It stands to reason then that the tiny 2 inch round dishes that I found are actually butter pat dishes, not salt dishes as I previously thought.

Of course, I don't need a butter dish, certainly not one this big (I guess they used a lot of butter in those days). But I DID need a little planter.

A few rocks in the bottom, set the disk on the rocks...

Fill with dirt and a plant, make a mess.

Voila! An old piece of useless china, resurrected into a pretty and useful little planter. Oh happy day! Getting rid of guilt AND repurposing something all in one shot? Win-win.