Mary K.'s Profile

I would probably try it once... I've gotten dive bombed by enough cicadas that I am feeling a little desensitizing to them now.

I have the same furniture in my bedroom. It may be IKEA, but I do really love that Hemnes!

There is an awesome burger place in Nashville that does a lamb burger with boursin and arugula. I can't even think about it, it's so good.

I was thinking the same thing as the above commenter about a counter-top dishwasher. Some of my friends in Chicago had one fairly inelegantly jammed in a corner on a microwave cart, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too inconceivable to get a carpenter to build it into a cabinet space if you don't want to have to look at it. But keeping it on the counter probably wouldn't kill too much more space than a drying rack would.

I moved into a place without a dishwasher about a year and a half ago, and I thought I wold hate it, but it turns out that hand-washing kind of therapeutic.

I am stoked about that slipcover site - and surprised that they have so many options! And okay, the slipcover for the Lilberg chair in my bedroom costs more than the chair actually did, but I can't even begin to use a sewing machine.

Mountaineering convention. Dolly Parton convention. Log flume riding convention. That sort of thing.

I've actually been seriously jiving to go to Dollywood, but I think I'll maybe stay in Knoxville...

It's hard to answer this without knowing how many place settings you need in total, and it seems like a lot of people are assuming that you are including table linens and flatware in your price range...

Your post gives me the impression that you want to spend no more that $150 on just china, though, so I won't try to factor in the rest of the stuff. But let's say you want 12 place settings:

Here's a full service set for 6 at only $60. Which would put you at around $120 (depending on your local tax rate, maybe $135 after tax... ). This set includes a platter and a bowl, which at least will get you started on service pieces (the downside is that they do not sell their service pieces separately, but whiteware is fairly easy to match to other brands.) So you'd have about $15 to spend on another bowl... and will probably have a lot of pieces you won't use...

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=318779&CategoryID=30818&LinkType=PDPZ1

I used to work as a bridal registry consultant, and I will tell you that I NEVER would have recommended these to someone because you are really getting what you pay for.... But it's a good deal if you need a lot of dishes on a tight budget.

If you only really need dinner plates for your holiday service, and don't need too many, I would recommend getting as many as you need of Hotel Collection's bone china whiteware:

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=397141&CategoryID=30856#fn=BRAND%3DHotel%20Collection%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D2

Bone china is really strong and will last a lot longer than stoneware or really cheap porcelain. And because whiteware is so versatile, you can dress it up with coordinating patterns eventually.

Keep in mind, too, that Macy's will give you an extra 20% off on the first day you open a new credit account, so it makes sense to try to get them on a day when you get a new card and they are also having a %15 use your card discount (because then you get both discounts). Not to advertise for them, or anything, since I don't work there anymore, but a good deal is a good deal if you can make it work. So I think you could end up getting 12 dinner plates for about $115 after the additional discounts. Then you'd have to figure service pieces, but you can probably find some festive pieces at a thrift store or a clearance sale. There are a lot of vintage dealers on Etsy who have really good pricing, too, so it's worth a shot to check there for some unique service pieces.

I am in the same boat as you, but I planning to do buffet style service and make my family of 14 eat out of my cookware. Because I'm extremely classy. ;)