A new use for an old thing

A few weeks ago, my oldest niece was working on a plate wall for her kitchen and asked if I might have some extra small plates she could use to help her fill in a few spots. Did I have a few extra plates? Um, yes. So I sent her this photo to show her what I quickly gathered from a shelf in the kitchen, and she said she had room for only three, so she chose the chintz one at top left and then the first two on the second row. As I was looking at those plates, which included one smaller dessert plate, it dawned on me that I had been looking for a saucer to use as an underplate with a giant breakfast cup I got at an antique mall last year.

First, I tried this small blue plate from the grouping I’d offered my niece. While the roses and the blue were a good match, it just wasn’t quite large enough.

Then it dawned on me that I should try this blue dessert plate that I found in Wisconsin years ago. I love the pattern and the blue, but that lime-green swirl just never quite seemed to go with anything else I owned, but I think it suits this cup just fine. So now I have a new home for a Christmas cactus a friend gave me that I’m trying to keep alive, and it was delightful to be able to “shop my home,” as they say, for new ways to use some old things!