Fiesta!!

I have a love affair with dishes.

 I would love to collect all kinds of dishes, but I tend to limit it to Fiestaware.

 It is a little bid crazy--my love of Fiestaware.

 It started with My Great grandma's house as a little girl.

She had this cabinet where she kept all her dishes. There they were in all their bright, multicolored glory.

 I think my Grandma Bates's house to me always represented home and safety. We never lived nearby growing up. We were always the out-of-town grandchildren.

Grandma Bates's house is where people gathered.

You'd walk in and she always started feeding you.

She always said she had nothing to eat--but things would start coming out of the refrigerator.

 Lunch meat first, then the home-made noodles that she made the other day, the homemade rolls, and she did have a few pies lying around somewhere.

Then there was always some special treat in the cookie jar for the children.

The children of course my siblings, my cousins, my mom, her siblings, her cousins. My Grandma and her siblings. We were all children at Grandma Bates's house.

My whole life she always lived alone (minus a two year journey to her daughter's house--which resulted in her moving back home alone)--yet she always cooked and cooked and cooked.

I live alone and I only cook when I have to take food somewhere or if I think someone may come over. Maybe she was just always welcomed people into her home.

So my great-grandma died a few days shy of my thirtieth birthday. Most everyone wanted the cookie jar, I wanted the Fiestaware(it was original but chipped--the value was in my heart).

all was auctioned off to strangers

A few years before that I started buying Fiesta ware.

Usually serving piece seconds at a pottery outlet.

Then I started getting serving pieces for holidays from my family.

Then when I bought my house-my Mom started buying me place settings.

Then my sister and friend did too. The collection grew.

In the last few years, I have stopped buying much, mostly because I have more than my little house will hold.

Yet, I want more.

I tend to be pretty conservative and pretty country cottage in my decorating style.

So the Fiestaware to me is my little bit spicy

.I think it is my personality coming out--I want to be a little bit sassier than I am.

I guess there are worst ways to express this than through dishes.