Blue Willow: An Official Obsession!

Hurrah! As one who is thankfully not prone to collecting all sorts of nonsense simply for the sake of "having" (I live in a 1,000-sf apartment, for god's sake), it feels indulgent and naughty to have just spent more than an hour perusing every Blue Willow item on ebay—54 full pages of crap.

Thankfully, I managed to skip bidding on the teacup and teapot earrings set, though I was damn close to nabbing the dish towel and even closer to grabbing the butter dish... but phew, I managed to maintain a modicum of restraint. Well, kind of. I did put in lowball bids for a set of four drinking glasses and another for a frosted glass tumbler.

But you bet your bottom blue dollar I put in serious auction bids for both a set of 8 dinner plates and a grouping of a cake plate, vegetable bowl, dinner plate, coffee cup saucer and dessert plate. I mean, how could I resist—especially when to my disdain, today, when I received my Walmart $10 gift card and was all ready to purchase a second set of 20 all nice and neat, suddenly, it's not only out of stock, but has disappeared from the webbie. The fucking nerve.

Fortunately, cool cats, there's fun to come. I did lay out $170 for a Buy It Now offering for a 47-piece assorted set in primo condition, which includes 12 dinner plates(!), 6 soup bowls, 5 medium-size plates, 7 medium-size bowls, 2 serving bowls, 6 saucers & 6 cups—and, get this, Tom—salt & pepper shakers and a sugar bowl with lid. Score!!! And because I used ebay's Bill It Later, I'll get 20% back on the purchase, which should reward me enough to buy the porcelain double light-switch plate for the kitchen. Oh, yeah! Insomnia is FUN!Above: MINE! Can you believe this bounty?!