Fine Finds: Pillows and Bone China!

As hard as I strive to become a conscientious consumer (buying fewer things of better quality), I still find myself at the mercy of pretty things sometimes.

Which brings me to some recent finds!  I was mentioning to Janet at The Gardeners Cottage in an email today that I try to use three criteria when I buy unnecessary but lovely things:  

Is is classic?  Is it beautiful?   Will I love it in 5 years?

This system really helps me to curb my aesthetic appetite and I now bring home a lot fewer trends, fewer "good buys" and much less nice but useless junk.  But sometimes, my heart just covets.  I am really trying to re-train the "reward center" in my brain which thinks that it constantly needs more stuff (and/or chocolate).

On that note, unable to harness my covetousness, here are some new finds I have recently acquired:

The opening photo shows a delightful green pillow I purchased from a fellow Calgarian who sells her pretty pillows on Etsy.  Her Lilybeth Goodies shop is full of goodies indeed, her prices are second-to-none, and she's a really sweet lady too! I have already ordered a second pillow in this pattern...a little pre-Christmas gift from me to me.  

My next find was this wee set of fine bone china, from my favorite antique store:

It is not a full set, but rather an incomplete four-piece place setting!  The set is by Royal Doulton and it is cream-coloured with a platinum edge.  There are four dinner plates, four salad plates, and four bread-and-butter plates. I am missing the tea cups and saucers (which I might try to find on eBay).  The pattern is called "Romance Carolyn H5090", if you happen to have some laying around your attic!

I really like the set and since I'm not too concerned about matchy-match with my china, I truly don't mind.  I plan to buy a new set of everyday white dishes soon so all my mismatched pieces will have a proper foundation (my current set is pale blue and white).  I would love to have a full set of very fine bone china some day, but who can justify the expense?  Many people put good china on their wedding registry, which is a very fine reason to get married, in my opinion!  David, are you reading this?

Next, in an odd twist of fate, I happened to be shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore (a grocery chain here which carries really great affordable housewares) yesterday and found these white porcelain bowls, edged in silver dots:

I think they look swell with my new dishes and let me serve a soup or pasta course and still use my new plates!  Talk about serendipity!

What do you think?  Hope you like my finds!