I would advise against the Pottery Barn Sausalito dishes

I bought dishes five years ago - when we renovated the kitchen.
Plain white, heavy and large, I bought dinner plates, sandwich plates, cereal bowls, pasta bowls and mugs. Eight of each.
The glaze on the mugs crazed after about a month. I told myself it was vintage-looking and that I'd probably pay money for it at Anthropologie.
Our flatware scratched the plates leaving long gray streaks all over them. I tried not to look at them without food. No amount of baking soda scrub removed the marks.
Four of the dinner plates cracked. I know not why, or how.
Even though they are labeled microwave safe, and even though we rarely microwave, we've noticed that the mugs get far too hot in the microwave.
The plates don't fit in the microwave.
Are you sensing the pattern here?
It was the first time I had ever gone and bought a matching set of dishes. I was so pleased with myself and now it seems I bought the wrong dishes. (Oh, and, they didn't fit in our cabinets - stay away from 12 inch dinner plates.)

Youngest and I were researching new plates on my laptop when we decided that new dishes would be a good Christmas present for K to give me - because I'm practical like that.

K took me shopping.



We bought dishes.



White dishes...and soup bowls and cereal bowls and mugs.

It wasn't easy choosing them. One set had bowls that were too small and one set had bowls that were too big. There were lots of mug choices, and lots of great stuff to look at...

Can I send a set of Heroes Of The Torah glassware to anyone?





After our dishes were all packed up we went across the street.



We saw buddhas -



and wonderful woolens -



and, um, crystals in sand in fish tanks.



I'd love to have crystals in sand in fish tanks but I'm thinking the execution of the crystals in sand in fish tanks is trickier than it looks. First of all, it's probably an antique fish tank or some damn thing and secondly, can you imagine it in my home? I mean, would it be like: look at my pet crystals! They do look well behaved though, don't they?




I love Jeanine Payer jewelry...and look! Bird feet!

Outside it was windy and the cold was creeping in.



We stopped to admire the windows and Christmas started to seep into me.