This year, right before Passover, I all of a sudden has a great need for some new vintage style dishes, which is very unlike me, as I've been using white Corelle-like dishes on my shabbat table for years, with a marbled pink glass first course plate which I was very happy with. Mind you both the dinner plate and the first course plate both cost 5 shekels ($1.25 each!) and I loved the idea of not having to worry about any precious China. But then the need for something new altogether arose, and miracle of miracles I found the pattern I was looking for, for sale in Israel, and half the price of the same item on Ali Express! (I now understand that apparently floral vintage style dishware is all the rage, and so the prices have been doubled in many cases, yikes! Always price check items using google images, also a great way to find where a certain item or something like it is sold.)
While I ordered the dishes the week leading up to Passover, DHL came through and they were delivered just in time to use them for the most important night of the year, the Passover Seder! I'll admit I wasn't sure if I'd made the right decision with the dishes as while not fine China they certainly were more pricey than something mid-range from Ikea for example. And they didn't quite have the vintage look I had hoped for, being whiter than in the photo on the store's website, but truthfully as is they are likely a better fit with the rest of my tableware. That said, when I went to set the table for the Passover Seder, on the Thursday before Passover, the plates did not look all that great on the table, something was missing and to my eye they looked too small, yikes! Keep on reading to the hear the end of the story.......
While I've never used chargers or placemats, I realized that would be a good solution if I had some (and I have since ordered both, can't wait!) and I just had to do SOMETHING, anything! Then the idea of using patterned paper, namely the scrapbook paper I'd purchased to use as wall paper in a dollhouse I'm working on (more on that another time!) to make placemats! Phew, just I only had two sheets of each pattern, so I decided to cut each sheet in half so that I could make 4 placemats that matched. After cutting off the corners I was so happy with the results, phew, and I've saved them for next year's Passover! (Since we use a clear thick plastic tablecloth over the precious family heirloom tablecloth, the paper is in perfect condition, and I have twelve of them.)
Truly you might think that given the size of the placemat the difference isn't so great, but visually the placemats saved the day, and made the table that much more festive during the entire week.
How To:
Cut square 12" x12" (30cm x 30cm) scrapbook paper (or anything really) in half so you have 2 triangles. Then do that with a piece of paper with a different pattern. Then using clear tape, tape the triangles together to make square, and then cut off the corners to make a more pleasing shape. And voila, placemats are born! Of course you could opt to do this with just one paper pattern, but there is something about the mix that just makes these more special.
I truly felt fortunate to have ordered this paper, and while the scale of the pattern does not work as wallpaper in my dollhouse, the paper found a fabulous purpose for itself!
