Thinking Outside the Round Box

Lynn Martin
May 14, 2014
3 min read

I have always had a knack for repurposing, before it was chic and cool. Sometimes though, when I encounter folks that can’t “see” my unique ideas, I get a bit…uhm…well…flustered.

It’s a character flaw in me, not them.

I admit it.

When I was 8 years old, my daddy built me a playhouse in our backyard beside my brother’s sandbox. I had a little sofa, table/chairs, my mother’s baby crib and a whole “kitchen” setup. My dishes were hand-me-downs from my Granddaddy’s trips to the auction and my Great Grandmother Iowa (pronounced “I-oh-uh”). I had dark green sandwich glass juice glasses. Real silver plate silverware. Homer Laughlin china with gold rims.

Boy doggie I thought I was fancy!

I also had a few other pieces from my great grandmother. A simple cobalt blue and apple green hand stamped variety. Most of the pieces don’t even carry a maker’s mark on the bottom. Years later I happened upon 2 matching plates that did!

They are Marcrest Swiss Alpine Chalet decorated by the Stetson Co.

But I digress.

Being an avid collector of the patterns I had in my little playhouse, I began adding to my Swiss Alpine Chalet pieces. I have found platters, dinner plates, a cream & sugar, and a butter dish lid.

Oh the butter dish lid! Loved it. But a lid without a base is a smidge useless.

The matching saucers were too small. The dinner plates too large. I perused auction houses, antique stores and flea markets for 20 years in search of the butter dish bottom.

Recently I decided it was time to give up on the dream of the matching butter dish bottom and think outside my round box I was stuck in because I wanted to use my beautiful butter dish to house the slices of delightful rolled butter I was now purchasing.

So, the quest for a base began again.

I asked potters I met at craft fairs and markets. One kind gentleman looked at me most quizzically when I asked for a round butter dish.

His reply was, “Ma’am, butter comes in rectangles. Why would you need a round dish?”

“Well, you see…” I started. I wanted to tell him of the fresh grass fed rolled butter and my antique butter dish lid that was inspired by my Great Grandmother and my days playing house as an 8 year old.

But I realized something. He couldn’t think outside of his rectangle box.

All my explanations would be in vain.

So I simply said, “Thanks.” And moved on.

A few months later, on a little antique and lunch excursion with my hubby, I saw a little blue Pfaltzgraff plate out of the corner of my eye. I stepped closer and thought it was pretty. And maybe about the right size for my butter dish.

But the best part…it was marked at only $.25! Twenty-five pennies! What did I have to lose, right?