Ahhhh, more animal plates!

So, I think it is clear that I am gaga for adorable animal things.

West Elm is at it again with these cute little animal plates - not the Dapper Animal plates that I love - but something equally as adorable.

Meet the Painted Animal Plates - how cute are these?

Some other adorable animal stuff of late:

Sir/Madam Fauna Grand 2-sided mugs (West Elm) - they are on-sale right now and all are not currently available, much to my chagrin.

Wild Wanderer Planter (Anthropologie) - I got the Giraffe one - it is ADORABLE!

Narwhals (CB2) - I got the small and large - LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  And, can't beat the price.

Wheee! Animals!

Be still my heart... More Dapper Animal Plates!!!

Hello sparkles!  It's been a while.  But I still love sparkles.

At work today, I was talking with a coworker about animals and other cute things - it was a slow Friday afternoon.  I remarked that I saw a little tan fox scurry across the road on my way home from work earlier in the week.  Then we talked about a chipmunk (or squirrel) I saw last week on the side of the road near the golf course either eating a rat (are chipmunks/squirrels carnivorous?) or holding a baby in its mouth.  Then she shared with me a link to a super cute fuzzy Shar Pei dog named Tonkey - so cute.  Then I shared with her Theo & Beau.  The somehow I mentioned my first round of dapper animal plates, and how the Husband chuckles each time I pull a plate for breakfast not knowing which I will pull.  I love them all, but definitely have my favorites.  Then a second round came out, and of course we got them.  Then a third round came out around the holidays, and sadly, we didn't get them.

So, the Husband and I spent the late afternoon together sipping some iced tea from Philz and walking around University Avenue in Palo Alto.  One of my favorite spots is our local West Elm store.  We sauntered in to take a little look.  As we were making our way through the store, the Husband points out a new dapper animal plate!  And, lo and behold, there are 6 new plates.  SIX!!!!!  And, of course we got them: Moose, Bear, Puffin, Wood Pecker, Lynx, and Llama.

Was my chat with my co-worker foreshadowing our dapper animal encounter later in the day?  I don't know.  I don't care.  I love our newest Dapper Animal additions!  YEAY!

Not generally a fan of Fine China...

Hello there fellow sparkle lovers...  A quick little post for this evening since I haven't posted in a while.

I got married a year ago last weekend, and when the husband and I did our registries, we knew instantly that we weren't "Fine China" people - I mean, we live in a small apartment, have very little storage, and don't have a place in our lives for plates that we would use at most once per year, and have to store the other 364 days.  So, we opted instead to register for nice every-day plates - a huge upgrade from the old plates my family used when I was a kid that I inherited, and the Corelle plates the husband had in his bachelor pad (unbreakable). 

We really like the plates (dinner plates, salad plates, and bowls) that we got - Noritake Colorwave collection.  So far they seem sturdy, they look nice, and we've mixed in some other dishes that go with these but aren't too matchy-matchy.

We picked up some little bowls "Potter's Workshop Bowls" from
West Elm that are super cute (and were super on sale) that are similar to these but more turquoise in color.

We also added in the "Dapper Animal Plates" from West Elm and as much as the husband doesn't want to admit it, he loves them.  I've written about them and other adorable animal tableware here.

Begrudgingly, the husband told me about the new matching mugs that go with the plates.  I LOVE them, but after seeing them in person, they aren't quite big enough, and I also already have mugs that I love (from Anthropologie - Monogram Mugs).  However, if we had a bigger kitchen, I'd surely get these adorable mugs.  I'm certain of that.

This past weekend, we had a leisurely Saturday afternoon bike ride to a local Farmers' Market, a nice lunch, and a stroll through our local West Elm.  I always like looking at things in that store - the furniture is so lovely, their lighting is so pretty, love their tableware, and I just really like looking around at the pretty stuff I would love to own.

And, on this stroll I became a fan of Fine China.  I am seriously salivating over this China.  Had these been on the market when we made our wedding registry, they most definitely would have been on it.  I covet these.  I want these.  I love these!!!  The Guilded Dapper Animal collection (plates and mugs and gold-rimmed plain plates) is everything I love - animal stuff, gold, cuteness.  I don't do "tablescapes" but I would tablescape the shit out of these!  If I see these on sale, I'm sure I will find a place to store them until I get my dream kitchen with plenty of storage.

Eating with animals!

It really is no surprise that I fall in love with cute animal stuff.  For some reason, I'm just attracted to it - I can't really explain why, but I've always loved cute animal stuff.  When I was a kid, I had a gigantic collection of stuffed animals.  My mom devised a way to store them - we hung a hammock from the ceiling in my room over my bed and put my animals in it.  If we hadn't devised this storage solution, there would have been no place for me to sleep on my bed.  I distinctly remember when we had to clean out my stuffed animal collection to get rid of some old ones to make room for new ones.  I remember one time that I agreed to get rid of a few animals, I woke up in the middle of the night and was crying because I didn't want to get rid of any.  I snuck into the closet and took back the ones I thought I could part with.

I saw these plates at West Elm some time ago, and absolutely wanted to buy them, but my Husband, the voice of reason, asked, "Do we really need them?"  Of course we didn't really need them, but they are so cute!  I really wanted them, but refrained from buying them.  Until... they went on sale for $6 each.  And.... we have four of them now to mix in with our regular plates.  Husband actually really likes them too.  There is something so whimsical and cute about these.

When I pulled them up to include here, I see that there are four new versions of them now...  Love the bunny and badger and rooster and blue jay!   Uh oh, I may need a set of these too.

These cute owl mugs, also from West Elm would make a happy addition to the animal collection.  I love the metallic gold one - super cute!

If ceramic plates aren't your thing, West Elm has these darling melamine plates (and serving trays too)!

Anthropologie also has some absolutely adorable animal stuff too!

Love these animal plates - there 10 designs to pick from, including a parrot, butterflies, a monkey, a lion, a cheetah, a little girl, an owl, lady bugs, a bunny (my fave), and a humming bird.

These little dessert plates are absolutely adorable.  There are several designs to pick from too - giraffe (my fave), lady bugs, red birds, owl, bee, chameleon, humming birds,  and a praying mantis.  I love the slightly different shapes of each of these plates, and the varying borders for each.  Imagine getting one of each of these - love love love!

And, these canape plates are super cute!  Not every one of these is an animal, but there are several in the collection - dog, horse, love birds, narwhal (one of my faves), octopus, bee, unicorn (one of my faves), and zebra.

I can't possibly use all of these plates, but, hey, a girl can dream, right?

Finally, I saw these foxy juice glasses the other day in the Paper Source catalog.  I love getting this catalog and looking at all of the cute little things they have.  But, these glasses really stood out.  They have tea towels, aprons, and a variety of other adorable fox things to go along with these glasses.

If you are in need of any little animal tchotchkes, Kikkerland, has a TON of amazingly fun, cute, and inexpensive things.  I picked up this little hedgehog toothbrush cover over the weekend.  I could spend lots of time and money ordering from this site.

And, hey - eating with animals is way more fun than eating with a boring white plate.