Last week, in preparation for my first houseguest since moving back home to Atlanta, I took myself on a mini shopping spree at a local housewares boutique called Heliotrope. First thing, I found what I came for. Diffuser of fragrance reminiscent of Tuscan herbs? Check. White ceramic pitcher to use as vase in guest bathroom? Check. Set of silicone coasters? Check. Thrilled to find what I wanted, I nevertheless couldn't yet leave the adorable and treasure-rich shop. So I browsed.

And browsed. And coveted. The apple of my eye? All things Charley Harper. A Modernist and self-proclaimed "minimal realist," Harper is a favorite of design aficionados, beloved especially for his streamlined wildlife prints. At Heliotrope, his images appear not only on puzzles and calendars, but also on all manner of tableware: cocktail napkins, plates, dishtowels, and some particularly precious salt and pepper shakers.

My favorite motif in the collection is the red cardinal, with its fans of wings against a white background, pictured here on the appetizer plates. The colors would work for Christmas table settings, but the look would work any other time of year, too.

For those of us who live the luxe life, we can afford to buy separate sets of dishes for different occasions, not to mention afford the space to store them all. Howeve, most of us are resigned to one set of dishes that has to work for everything from every day dine and dash to an occasional fancy fall feast. If we're lucky, maybe we have two sets.

However, with Nora Fleming's collection of dishware, you can have dishes that will match every occasion, whether it's a Spring brunch or a Holiday dinner. The dishes are all a basic white with a simple dotted pattern around the rim. The beauty, however, comes with "Minis," which are tiny colorful, ceramic adornments that attach to each plate. These accessories are what take a special Valetine's Dinner with an "XOXO" imprinted heart to a fun birthday fete with wrapped gifts. The plates and bowl range in price from $12.50 to $60 each, and the Minis are $12.50 per piece.

As the holidays approach, we'll certainly be doing our fair share of entertaining, whether it's a casual get together of friends on a Saturday afternoon watching football, a simple cocktail party, or a full-blown sit down dinner. In any case, you're going to need the right stuff to set your table (and I don't mean a tablescape) -- linens, plates, cups, and flatware.

We'll cover your indoor tailgating another day, but if you are throwing a luxurious sit-down dinner party, Neiman Marcus has some fabulous ideas for setting your table. They've gotten together with four top designers who have picked things to set tables in their particular style. There's master of knits and resort-wear St. John, Valentino, Jay Strongwater, and my personal favorite, Nanette Lepore, who sets the table with rich crumpled linens and Baroque-inspired dinnerware.

Is your maid on vacation this week? Well, don't worry about dirty dishes, especially if they're these "Dirty Dishes," a set of tableware that are just too cute not to mention.

Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley designed the Dirty Dishes line exclusively for New York dish boutique, Fishs Eddy. The dinnerware features whimsical lingerie-clad ladies lounging around the edges of white dinner plates, bowls, saucers, and cups. But even with the name Cynthia Rowley attached to them, the dishes are reasonbly priced, with dinner plates and bowls only $22 each.

Durthy Dishes are available online from Cynthia Rowley or Fishs Eddy.

Hey, we don't doubt that you are the consummate host or hostess at your party - greeting guests at the door with a cocktail, cooking, serving, clearing plates, chatting, and all done with utter grace. However, there might be times when you want to kick back for one second (just one, mind you), and let someone else do the work. Or some thing, that is.

These Rolling Serving Dishes from Fines' Makers (out of Israel) might help for that one second you have to retreat to the powder room. Sure, they don't serve themselves, but they sure will keep your guests entertained as they "take on and pass ti on." Besides, they're so adorably sleek and chic.

There is absolutely nothing un-chic about the packaging for a pint of Haagen Dazs (Ben & Jerry's, though might be a little much), but if you want to bring the pint to the table and scoop right in front of your guests, these little ice cream serving containers are perfect. They come in either silver plating or mango wood and fit a standard pint size container for ice cream or sorbet.

The containers are available from Vivre for $95.

[via: CribCandy]

Pop Ink is a design company that has created this adorable set of "Fashion Plate" dinnerware. Each set has four different saturated color designs and are molded into heavy-duty 10" Melamine plastic plates. The plates are dishwasher safe, though not microwavable. In addition to the fashion plates, Pop Ink has sets called Lovesick and Wallpaper.

The set of four is $40 and is available from Elsewares. 

That broad, thin slice of New York-style pizza is always flopping all over the place, and on the plate, well, it's so big that it hangs off the sides. What to do? Use the Slice plate!

Right. It's a pretty cool plate, though I doubt that you'd ever really use it at home, for who bakes giant New York-style pies in their home kitchen? And when you order delivery, do you really ever break out dishes you have to wash? It might be cute to use as a serving dish for miniature pizzas, maybe.

Visiting the site, Atypyk, where this plate is available, I didn't find any further description of this plate shaped like a slice of pizza, other than it costs $8.03USD (Euro=9.00).

I don't know if there is anything in the grocer's freezer actually called a "TV dinner" anymore, but basically every weeknight for me is a tv dinner, whether I've cooked it myself, had it delivered from the local Indian restaurant, or *ahem* heated something up in the microwave oven. I'm always plopping down on the couch in front of the TV.

This serving tray is perfect for making a TV dinner, well, a TV dinner. The tray is made of veneer and the plates and small sauce dishes are porcelain. It comes with chopsticks, so I guess Chinese take-out is considered the new "TV dinner."

The tray is designed by Soop-Group, and the products are available from a list of "Stockists" in England and France on their website.

I'm not exactly sure how this porcelain butter container does it, but it allows you to keep butter at room temperature safely for a month. That means you can wake up every morning and easily spread fresh butter on your muffins.

The bowl side holds up to one tick of butter, and with a small amount of water in the bottom of the other "basin" side, it creates an airtight seal when you insert the top. After you're all done, it's dishwasher safe.

The butter keeper is $10.95 from the Vermont Country Store.

It's no doubt that the problem of obesity has to be addressed from multiple angles, and education sure seems to be a good place to put some emphasis. Nutriplates are designed with the intent of educating the diner about portion sizes, caloric intake, and fitness levels. Each plate has a different "theme," this one with calorie information on various sources of protein. Other plates have fruits, vegetables, grains, and even physical activities.

 

Coffee or tea? These handle-less mugs are deisgned by Karin Eriksson or Sweden. The ceramic transfers are all unique (each on eis handmade), and are descriptions of either a tea or coffee varietal. Having no handles means you can wrap your hands around the mug and keep them warm.

Each mug is $28, and is available at Rare Device.

What do you get if you throw Gordon Ramsay into a pot with Royal Doulton China? Yep, a Gordon Ramsay branded set of china and glassware.

They are available in 'chic white' with a sot ripple design with prices starting from £10. Now Royal Doulton has a fine website that lists loads of china and even offers prices to ship to Canada and The United States. What it doesn't have at the moment is any details of this new Ramsay range. Where I did find it listed was at a company called China Etc whose website can, very usefully, show prices in US, Canadian and Australian dollars plus Euros.