We had a little holiday party over the weekend, and as many of you might have been following, my gingerbread rendition of Castle Black was to be a centerpiece. I fell behind in my architectural ambition with all of the other party prep and cooking; it’s currently 3 towers short of the frosting snow phase.
Then, the night of the party, disaster struck. From the kitchen we heard an almighty crash and breaking of glass that seemed to stretch on for an impossibly long time.
Some of the party guests had apparently blown the Horn of Winter, and the shelf holding ALL of my blog dishes came hurtling to the ground. A few things were miraculously unbroken (unbowed, unbent), but about 90% of the dishes were smashed to smithereens in about a 15′ radius. Most of what you’ve seen in the cookbook and on the blog is now gone, save the newer pewter, wood, and metal acquisitions. Most of the dishes were not that expensive, but I had A LOT of them, and had been stockpiling for over a year.
It’s a serious downer. I’m sure in the coming months I will turn to pick up just the right item, only to remember that it’s gone. After the holidays, I’ll start building up a collection again, and look into some much sturdier shelves…
*hugs*
Really sorry to hear it but I have an idea for a new part of the blog.
Myself and and sure many other visitors love to try and put as much effort into presenting our food as you do. Perhaps as you rebuild your collection you could share information when you have found a bargain and visitors could do the same? That way we could all help each other out.
Still sucks about your collection, I would be screaming blue murder in your position.
That’s a great idea! I’ll see about working up a new post with some ideas…
Sorry about the glass-tastrophe – I’ve tried many of your recipes just because the photos were so tempting!
When you’re ready to start rebuilding the collection, might I suggest the Freight House in Erving? It’s about 90 minutes out Route 2 from Boston, but well worth a day trip. Lots of vintage kitchenware, arranged by material, and they have a vegan-friendly lunch counter with a-MA-zing brownies :-)
I’m sorry to hear about your disaster. I hope the ‘guests’ were appropriately remorseful and full of offers to HELP replace some of your treasures or at least be on the lookout at flea markets and other venues for replacements that they could contribute towards.
If you have pictures of some of the damaged goods BEFORE they were damaged that you could post to give people ideas of what is needed that would help as well.
Oh noes! I’m so sorry. :( At least those dishes were immortalized in print, and now you have an excuse to go shopping. :)
If it helps, I was building a gingerbread rendition of The Twins (complete with bridge), and I managed to knock it off the counter while it was drying, effectively destroying it (with no one to blame but my own clumsiness). :(
Ouch!! You poor thing! All that hard work and effort! I hope next time goes much better!
Oh how heartbreaking! I’ve been scouring eBay, antiques stores and thrift shops for glass goblets that have the GoT look for my GoT dinners……I think maybe I’ll just buy a set of pewter goblets……….
I’m so sorry about your collection! I’ll definitely post if I see any deals!
That’s terrible!! Everything was so pretty!! *hug* As a long-time reader, first-time commenter, I am so, so, so sorry. <3
Once upon a time a little girl was off at camp and her builder mom decided to build new bookshelves for all the things and books on the little girl’s room. The girl’s Da was in the far off land of Poland. After building this beautiful set of shelves and putting up the books as well as some fragile items like snow globes, the mother , proud of her accomplishments, tucked herself into her bed. And then, as soon as she drifted to sleep she was awakened by a terrible crash! Still somewhat asleep, it took her a while to understand what had happened and to realize that the eerie music was the death knell of the musical snow globe. With tears in her eyes, she saw the carnage of three shelves on the floor. Moral of the story: do not ask for help in rebuilding from your mother (who is truly sorry that her curse was passed to the next generation.)
Argh!
I used to have a number of different painted ceramic dishes. . .loved them. Broke almost all of them in one giant klutz fest. (This morning I broke a favorite casserole.)
Oh no, how awful. A couple nice places to order medieval cookware that I know of are Old Hansa restaurant in Estonia – http://www.oldehansa.net/?lang=1 (I’ve seen some of their dishes used in the King’s Landing scenes on the TV show) and reproduction Birka and Gnezdaval ceramics at http://www.mirdrevnostei.ru/ . Btw, I’ve been sharing your book with friends in the Russian Viking re-enactment scene and everyone loves it. Best of luck putting your collection back together!
Sorry to hear about how your party was “crashed”. I bet you will be able to find dishes and feastware that’s even better! Have a Merry Christmas/Yule and Happy New Year!
Is it bad that I recognize some of those shards from previous pictures?
Not bad! At least they’re immortalized in the cookbook and blog… :)
I occasionally paint reproduction pottery because the commercial reproductions are out of my price range. Check out local paint-your-own pottery places in your area. The cost is the price of the bisque and the painting fee (about 6-8 dollars an hour) which includes the paints, glaze and firing. If you have any friendly SCA scribes in your area, they might be keen to try it out.
If there is anything you are specifically looking for, drop me a line.
You actually have a “Horn of Winter?” What does THAT do?
AHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!