transferware collecting

I love transferware! 
I think I inherited my love of dishes from my mother. I remember many trips with my mom to put a few dollars down on china she had on layaway. I remember her saving her pennies to buy the next place setting or a butter dish or tea cups, etc. I often wondered in a fire which would she grab first... me or her dishes??? For my twelfth birthday, my mom started me on my own collection which I wasn't too excited about at first (but now LOVE! - thanks mom!)

A few years ago, I found some dishes that I fell in love with...

I promptly bought up as many as I could afford...which I think was about four plates. I took them home and admired them. My first dish that I bought myself that didn't come in a box with a set of four place settings for under $50. I was very, very pleasantly surprised a few days later when my mom stopped by unannounced...with a large bag and said, "I saw some dishes that reminded me of you and thought you might like them"...guess what?  They were MY dishes!

A lovely surprise from my mother...thanks again, mom! Like my mother before me, I saved pennies and was able to purchase more and I now have a lovely 12 place setting...although only 8 bowls...I'm still looking...

We did the same thing again with these dishes...

I loved these as well...and they mix and match well with the previous set for really large gatherings.

Since then I have picked up a few odd pieces here and there, mostly brown...

I love scenes that remind me of 19th century England, my favourite time and place in history...

I love all the details and try to imagine the stories that go with them...

Some of these were part of a large stack I picked up at an antique shop in the Annapolis Valley for $20... I love all the deals available in Nova Scotia ~ BC did not have so many vintage things available and so reasonably priced!

This one I picked up for a pound at a charity shop in Manning Tree, England...

 I do have a few pieces that are NOT brown...

I have three blue plates, like this one, one medium and two small, that I inherited from my great aunt. I also have a medium sized red platter that my husband bought at one of our favourite window shopping stores in Halifax...

My husband has been in school for the past six years, switching careers to do what he loves...

Our budget has been very tight, but he still surprises me with little gifts once in awhile...he's my inspiration to follow my dreams...as soon as I figure out what they are!

And I also have one small green plate...

I love Anne of Green Gables and was SO excited to finally go to Prince Edward Island (I now live so close I can go there multiple times each summer!) While on the island, I've been looking for a cute souvenir that isn't too "tacky tourist" AND is within my very small budget (it costs a few pennies to go there with the price of gas and the $42  toll bridge). Sadly, I have been unable to find anything I really love. But, while visiting family in BC last summer I saw this little plate in an antique shop for $2 and picked it up, a little transferware plate...made in England...bought in BC...to help me remember my trips to PEI...so many of my loves in one plate!

That's it for now...although my husband has just graduated with his Master's... hopefully a good job will be secured soon...antiquing season begins in less than three months! After six years of tight budgeting, I am REALLY ready to start collecting!