Remember, I saw that towel holder before you did!!! I wouldn't be too sure about that--I received a postcard from either Bloomingdale's or MA showroom announcing the new, soon-to-be available collection, which included the holder, well before it even hit the stores (or my counter!). Gave me a nice long time to lust!!! :-)

I love that cheese server!! I think you should get it. And I agree, it's more than just a serving piece, it's décor!

Melissa, I have a very old very HEAVY brass mortar & pestle that my great grandmother actually USED. My mother transported that thing across the Atlantic OCEAN! It sits in a corner of my kitchen now. I love it and I sure hope you get the one you want!!

Mine was actually my Mother's - a 2 1/2 ft. tall ceramic pig! The kind you'd expect to see outside a french bistro complete with chalkboard sign & chef's hat. Mother used to make him hats and write whimsical notes on the board. My daughter remembers helping Grandma make him a witches hat for Halloween.

It's funny because I used to think it was SO over the top, as were many of things she displayed in her house, but now that she's in a nursing home I cannot bear to part with the little guy. DH HATES him, but I'm hoping to find an inconspicuous place for him once the kitchen renew is complete. How do you "hide" a 2 1/2 ft tall ceramic pig???

To kayl: you get a bunch of other 2 1/2 feet tall ceramic animals, then he won't be so noticeable.

Rhome, heads-up! Your serving set-up sounds like it would transform into a lovely garden planter. If another dish or two happens to break and it is past the point of repair you could find pots that would fit in and transfer the whole thing outside. I love stuff like that. There's a whole forum on GW called "Garden Junk" that repurposes things and they have the BEST ideas. That is, if you're into that kind of thing!

Neesie, thanks for telling us about the Garden Junk forum. I'm not into that kind of stuff (the closest I've come is a few decorative pots), but I sooooo love the idea that there's a forum for it!!

Kayl, Hang towels to dry on the pig for a couple of months (you can tell the DH that towel pigs are de riguer nowadays and that you don't want to be behind the GW Joneses when you have a perfectly good pig. After it's been in the kitchen for a couple of months and he stops seeing it, you can put a santa hat or bunny ears or whatever on it.

LOL, Cat_mom! I was just teasing you! I got one of those cards too, but I'd seen the towel holder when I was looking up my Michael Aram salad tongs for someone who'd asked me about them. You, my dear, are the one who had the good taste to acquire it for your kitchen.

Here are some antique epergnes for you all to gasp over. They make the designer one look merely ugly by comparison.

The only reason I'm chiming in is because of the word "Bundt". Every time it's mentioned, what does it make you think of? Anyone else hear Toula Portakalos' relatives saying "It's a Bunnnntttt" (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)?

But that's the only reason. (That, and to tell Marcolo that the top of the refrigerator happens to be a great place to store those monstrous Tupperware cake keepers. Good thing we kept our old fridge and put it in the laundry room.) Because I don't have anything ridiculous in my kitchen or my house. It's all useful.

That is, unless you count this little dame.

Anyone want to come over for coffee with cream? Delightful image this presents. (I'm not so sure these are uncommon.)

I think this was a gift, and even then I'm sure the pricetag was not worth showing it here, but it was the best I could do. I did look in most of my cabinets and yes, there are several things I don't use (such as wedding presents of crystal bowls, silver plates, etc), which makes them ridiculous for my house but which someone else would easily find good use for. But I couldn't find anything ridiculous that was large or expensive. (Maybe I got rid of all those during the remodel. Maybe I'm just blind to them, in denial.)

For something like the cheese plate, if I can see it having some use on a semi-regular basis, I can talk myself into it pretty easily. Since you entertain a good bit, I have no doubt you'd get great mileage out of it. Not trying to talk you into it or anything. : )

I knew you were plllog, I just couldn't resist tweaking right back--LOL! Not only did I have the great taste to purchase one, but I had enough taste leftover to purchase the second one for mom!

Let's see how much restraint I show when they trot out his new stuff just before the fall/winter MA signing events at the local dept stores!!!! I'd better start saving my lunch money now.....!

When I'm sorely tempted, to feel more virtuous I remind myself that items of a certain sort are likely to show up at a garage sale 8 years later. (Go look right now at sales with predictable things that were "to die for" just a few years ago). Then, of course, I head off to the antique store to see if I can find something that Thomas Jefferson just couldn't live without.

Have so far been able to ignore the Federal era epergnes and Victorian condiment edifices, but I don't know if I can hold out much longer. I must admit that I have yielded to the occasional tea urn, though, to the detriment of my shelf space. And then there's that recent splurge at the auction house for 3 boxes of old transferware (blush!). Tea, anyone?

If my 3rd digital camera of 2010 had not just broken, I could take pix, grrrrrr....
I think one of my best/worst pieces is a display plate with a flamingo that says Florida, only the flamingo is 3D under a glass bubble of sorts. I do not know if it counts because I acquired it for someone else and then chickened out because I did not know if they'd get that it was so wonderfully kitsch as to make me smile or would they think I am passing off garage sale junk to them.
I do have several bundt pans and used to use them when they were not buried under boxes and boxes of reno materials and stuff from my old kitchen that will never fit here until we extend and renovate. My best recipe uses a bundt pan, but that too is buried in the mountains of stuff. I can't wait to excavate/renovate and live like a normal family again!

Jsweenc, sure that counts! She's actually a very cute example of the type. Too many are Holsteins and look cranky (cranky cows don't give good milk).

BTW, the appeal of the Bundt is to have a cake that doesn't need decorating. I have some cakes which bake fine in a tube pan, but the upper surface isn't lovely. You get to turn a Bundt over. :)

Cat_mom, this is under the NEW heading at Michael Aram:

It's glass. The vesselarian in me is tempted. :)

The cheese tray, however, doesn't move me. I think I need the birds.

Actually, the pomegranate bowl is the only one that tempts me from the latest group, and at that, only a bit. It's not ridiculous enough, I guess. :) Thoough it's a pretty cool bowl...

Ooooooooh! Dianalo, being decorative it's not really in the same category, but your plate sounds FABULOUS!! And certainly ridiculous enough to hold its own against that cranberry glass epergne!!

pllog, I think that first antique epergne you posted was in the Transformers movie.

I saw the newest items in the recent Bloomingdale's catalog/circular, too. The twig salad servers were the only things that held even the slightest appeal but didn't love them. Dodged that bullet! LOL

I love the silvered glass Wisteria Vine bowl/platters collection. Wasn't sure where I'd display one though, so haven't gotten one--yet! I love the "silver" metal trays w/ wisteria vine handles, too.

I have a hand-painted wine glass, made and given to me by a friend. It is painted with images that I believe are intended to represent my hobbies. But I'm really not sure because my friend is not a very good artist. The images, taken together, look like a weeping clown. What's more, it has my name on it, so I cannot donate it or post pictures of it to this forum. I use it every time I drink wine, in hopes that it will get broken.

But it's the thought that counts, right?

OK, I did my weight lifting and climbing exercises for today by getting this down...It really does weigh A LOT, and all the bowls try to jump out while it's being lifted down from on high. Anyway, I obviously described its decor incorrectly...Not Mexican tile like paintings at all, but maybe tacky Tuscan instead.

You can see how the bowls are shaped, so not possible to put in just anything to replace them. The garden idea is interesting. I can't picture it with this particular piece, so if you can, please help me understand, because I appreciate the suggestion and the idea intrigues me. What made me finally give in and take its picture was that I was afraid I'd given everyone a totally wrong impression of what it was. Under the bowls the metal, in the form of heavy black wire shape supports, forms a tick-tack-toe sort of configuration....So not much to support any different shaped dishes.

Very different from what I'd imagined. I don't know about adding drainage to the bowls, but I'm thinking you bought them in the first place because they'd be useful. Will they stand on their own? If so, you could stack them in a basket or bag or something for storage that would make it a lot easier to take them in and out. Use them for their intended purpose (I see condiments, crudites, dips, timbals, taco timbals (whatever they're called), etc.). Without the frame you could also tac-tac-toe them by spreading them out and putting olive boats or rests for spreaders and pickle forks, or whatever in between.

If that works, you could use the frame as an interesting growing form for plants. It would look interesting on the wall with a checkerboard of succulents. I'm not sure if herbs would like to cling to the wires or not, but that might be another possibility. Do bromiliads grow where you are? They might love it. Add some bark and you could grown any number of things with air roots.

I think I'd like using the bowls separated anyway, and the frame looks like it could be a lot of fun once plant ridden. :)

I do use them for the uses as you described, and it's kind of cool then...just not as often as the storage space it uses warrants. It's OK...Just had some aspects I didn't consider at the point of purchase.

The dish puzzle is actually kind of charming, but up on legs it makes you wonder if it might come after you if provoked.

Just had some aspects I didn't consider at the point of purchase.

So say all of us, who have ever purchased an entire set of Margarita glasses in a fit of bonhomie. A set of 12 in your cupboards will require you to relocate your entire living quarters to the garage.

Back to the original ridiculosity. I really like the cheese, stone, birdy server, and if you still love it, after all this conversation, and you can afford it, and you have a place to leave it out, and have (I am ducking down to dodge tomatoes, arrows and the like)a plastic cleaning bag to cover it when no one else is around, wait, art, wall art is always waiting for you, but you don't want to do the constant q tip cleaning this piece presents, (and you don't want to spend a cleaning lady or team's time patchki-ing with this piece)(patchky, as Marisa said in My Cousin V,----an industry term)---I like it but I am far from the arbiter of anything...No modesty, false or real, here. It is cool. But I won't be around and none of the other yea sayers will be around when you tire of it, or hear a stupid negative remark from a neanderthal,---So, our dear friend, Plllog, if you love it, and have given proper thought, one woman's vote is 80-90, go for it.

Upon reading, no Marisa did not say anything of the kind. She just charmingly used, 'industry term'.

Good catch on the cleaning issues, Westsider40. And now that I look back at the item in original question...Do you really want lifeless birds presiding over your cheese? Something a little gruesome about the fake or stuffed creatures to me... You can get some other kind of stone piece without them, I'm guessing.

B-b-b-but the birds are what make it (potentially) charming! Okay, potentially a Hitchcockian nightmare.

See, there are the two me's. The restrained, elegant, contemporary me who loathes anything ungepatchke and needing to be patchkied with. No bead lines, dentil moldings and carved acanthus leaves in my kitchen, no matter how pretty they might look in someone else's.

Then there's brocaded baroque girl, who I swear must be a past life me or more logical equivalent, who ties herself in knots ordering tiles for the kitchen by the one and two, and who thinks if one color/pattern is good, twenty are better. A good friend of mine came in (and it is getting finished and I promise there will be better pictures) and asked me to explain why it worked. Because it does even though the words "tasteful restraint" came nowhere near the design.

I have looked at any number of Proper cheese trays. And look at that Aram one with the pomegranates that is ornate while still being restrained!

So...I ordered the birds. Since the stone is different on each one, I won't know for sure until it arrives. If it's not wonderful I have no qualms taking it back. And the cake stand too. Total impulse oh-okay-I'll-take-that-too shouldn't shop when tired and defenseless type purchase. Very good sale price, though. We'll see what we see. I think they're going to look exceptionally good in my dining room (probably). Or awful. But there's always that take them back get-out-of-your-own-danged-foolishness-free card.

Rhome, I'm with you on the fake creatures thing, but I'm fine with "inspired by nature". I've never seen birds that look anything like these. If they look real to any of you, that's all right. To me, they're fantasy birds. Fantasy birds don't poop.

Marcolo, I'm ROTFLMAO about the margarita glasses. I still have room in my cabinets (though stuff that may need to go in some of them is still scattered around), but none in the stemware cabinets I just had installed at great expense. Mind you, this isn't a drink oriented household so they only get used every so often.......

I had a wonderful response written complete with a few photos but gardenweb ate it. That's the second one it ate tonight so I think I'll go take a shower and go to bed.
Dust with a cheap throw away paint brush. They're soft but they work great.

Marcolo, I'm absolutely smitten by your phrasing-- "in a fit of bonhomie" is a wonderful phrase. Absolutely poetic!

I feel a fit coming on...Help me...I need to get up!

Tea anyone? In a historic cup? I'll be Mum...

I never had countertop for a ridiculous item. However, now that I do all I want is a ridiculous ole biscuite box or a ridiculous ole ladies or man's glove box to put my scrubers in behind the faucet on the counter.

Marcolo, turn 1/2 of them upside down. Saves space.
Yeah, some of us made the same silly mistake.

And the margarita tastes just as good in an Ikea sippy cup.

My dd was at IKEA sometime last year. Called to ask if I needed anything. Yes, wine glasses--we only had 2. She came home with a dozen of these things that actually will hold 3 full cups of liquid and swore they were the only ones they had...So I'm thinking I have a full set of margarita glasses, too. They are currently taking up one of the other shelves above the oven, keeping the serving set company. ;-) I decided that if we never used them they could each become mini gift baskets.

ROTFL!!!! All this time Rhome has been holding out on us. We all know about her different woods, her baking center, her tile, her prep sink, her rangetop, her coolers, her organization principles, and kitchen seating, and never, ever, have I seen (or have I just missed it?), before this thread, any mention whatsoever of the kitchen necessity she has been dropping little hints and references to just now.

It actually sounds like a must have, and like something I pretty much do have in my new kitchen, but didn't realize that it was a known feature: The oversized ridiculous company tableware cabinet!

I figure it can combine with the fantasy oversized vessel display cabinet? Maybe in the closed portion at the bottom. :-)

"See, there are the two me's. The restrained, elegant, contemporary me who loathes anything ungepatchke and needing to be patchkied with. No bead lines, dentil moldings and carved acanthus leaves in my kitchen, no matter how pretty they might look in someone else's. "

Ah......now I know what's wrong with me. Plain and flat. Quick swipe with the dishcloth. Done. And then I see something that would make the most fantastic paper towel holder. And it will only take up two feet of counter space and cost equivalent $$ of 2.5 feet of prospective backsplash tile. And I probably won't like it any better than the three paper towel holders I already have.

Oh, Pinch, it's wonderful! The price might be ridiculous, and it may be dubious functionally, but it looks great!

How would it hold the towels?

Pinch me, without the towels on that, and perhaps I am just one sick puppy, but it sorta reminds me of a guillotine. I subconciously grabbed my throat when I first saw that. ;^)

Please tell us where the towels go, so I can stop looking at it as a medieval death contraption that also conveniently holds a paper towel roll--though having a dual purpose.... Hmmm.

*thinking thinking*

Is that an old mercantile store paper cutter?

I think you could modify that paper towel holder to hold a dozen margarita glasses, mounted sideways on their stems, open bowls facing you, all in staggered rows. The effect might be something like a Roman ballista aimed at your bar guests, but this way you could achieve easy drink service and effective crowd control at the same time.

ROTFL

"Is that an old mercantile store paper cutter? "

florantha, you are so smart! We must shop the same places. (How did you get those table cloths away from the relatives?) For the rest of you.....There's space for a dowel to hold the paper. It's 12 inches wide. Just right for paper towels! But it would take up a lot of real estate on my counter.

That looks like a balance beam, but could work as a perch for the cheese server birds, lol.

Bad news. :( That's the problem when you're looking at a sample. Marcolo was right. The cheese server came with a long wedge shaped lower piece (not too different from the sample) and a V shaped, notched piece on top, instead of a roundish one. In other words, neither section big enough to put a cheese on!! The impulse buy cake pedestal looks as fabulous in my dining room as expected, but, as I said, Marcolo was right. Those birds are attacking the dome to get at the cake. So much so that the dome can't be set onto the platform. It can be kind of slid on to rest cockeyed so that the front edge is to the very edge of the stone, and the rear edge is a goodly half inch away. But since even in this offset position the dome can't be put on and off from above, the only thing that can be put on it is a cookie or two. And the point of a dome is to cover a pretty, delicate confection.

Sigh. It was a fine idea while it lasted. Back to the ugly plastic cake safe.

Well, you could go with the sculptural theme, and just use the cake stand to display earthworms.

LOL!! No, they're going back. I suppose it could be interesting because we don't have any native earthworms. I don't think I've even seen an invasive one except at my elementary school.

There are special order wormies.

ROTFLOL!!!! Rhome, you can get composting worms here (and fishing worms), no problem. And we do have some native long worms. The unamended soil is petroleum rich clay right here, however. You can cut it and bake it and use it for building without adding any the straw--straw is better, but you could. I'd guess it's too dense for worms. I've only seen one longworm here, too, and that was in topsoil. :)

Bugs, then. Flying insects.

Perhaps that's the solution. A piece of moldy cake swarming with flies, menaced by the delicate porcelain birds. Think how droll.

Then I'd surmount the whole thing with a gigantic porcelain sculpture of a pouncing hawk, talons out, swooping in on the little birds. Really, the perfect holiday vignette.

The birds are solid, strong metal.

Sorry.

No moldy cake and nasty bugs here either.

If you build it in MA, post a picture!

kayl:
I think your pig may have run away from home! He's very happy (and loved) here!
{{!gwi}}

I got this cute little froggie thing at Marshall's. It holds my keys on a shelf so that I never lose them (which I do anyway).

I thought it was pretty cute and I love frogs. And it's bold next to my red walls. It's pretty ridiculous, especially for a 26 yo man.

ROTFL!! Jcoxmd, that pig does look proud!!

Krycek, your frog is wonderfully ridiculous!! And very homey. I mean, you could use one of those plastic baseball helmet ice cream cups or a Heineken bottle with the top cut off and polished, but it takes a creative mind to go past the expected. The green does indeed pop against your red wall and the whole frogginess of it prevents thoughts of Christmas. And how could someone reach into the lilypad for keys and not smile? :)

jsweenc, I had to come back and visit your cow. she's so cute! and the new pig! Love it!

Oh, BTW, I am bidding on an old knife holder.....Why do I need that? Because my mother had one. It goes with the tablecloths. I NEED it. My eBay bucks came today. Because.

And I didn't buy the paper towel holder. Still want it. Still think it will take up too much space.