Fiesta Time!

I am by no means a fanatic, but I've always loved Fiesta® dinnerware - dare I say love at first sight. I was first introduced to Fiestaware (which BTW, it's not really "Fiestaware"; it's just "Fiesta") when I worked at a housewares store in Berkeley, CA in the early 90s. All of the bright and cheery colors made a fabulous display. I ended up buying a service for 16: four in rose, four in white, four in yellow, and four in turquoise. Although I wanted a place setting in every color, the store where I worked sold Fiesta in either boxes of four, 5-piece place settings, or all open stock. Purchasing place settings via open stock was expensive...even back then. And since this was the pre-Internet stone age I couldn't exactly shop around. So, I settled on four colors that I liked.

Fast forward about 10 years later. When we moved from Seattle back to California, I opted not to take my Fiesta dinnerware with me. I reasoned that I could always buy it again. I know, it was a hard decision, but it was alot of dinnerware to pack and considering what what going on in my life at the time, it wasn't something I wanted to be bothered with. However, I did keep my serveware pieces because at the time those were harder to come by.

Fast forward another 9 years later. Today, I am looking at ten beautiful colors of Fiesta in my cupboards. I purchased ten place settings in ten different colors directly from the Homer Laughlin Company. Each place setting was boxed and sold individually. This time around I purchased the 4-piece place setting instead of the 5-piece place setting as I prefer the mug to the cup and saucer. They were running a special where you purchase four place settings and got the fifth one for free. How could I not? I got one place setting each of: tangerine, lemongrass, turquoise, plum, white, marigold, scarlet, chocolate, peacock, and the newest color, flamingo. Finally, I have my cupboard full of fiesta colors. As an added bonus, Fiesta dinnerware is made in the USA. The only snag - and in fairness it is always a possibility when shipping dinnerware or glassware - is that two of the mugs were damaged. I called the Homer Laughlin Company and they are sending replacement mugs at no charge.

I don't know if I'll be adding any more colors to my set or not. Collecting Fiesta dinnerware can be very addicting. I do need to replace my sugar and creamer set as well as my salt and pepper set. Maybe a new butter dish as the one I had broke years ago. And since I did purchase a 9x13 pan in scarlet, then maybe I need a 9x9 baking dish in lemongrass to go with it. ☺