sillygoosegirl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sillygoosegirl) wrote2006-10-23 03:30 pm
sillygoosegirl) wrote2006-10-23 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
Geneve by Bohemia Crystal
The first Thanksgiving after Josh and I started dating, we visited my parents in Oregon for the holiday. While we were there, we ended up visiting a Goodwill store, as we like to do, and Josh found a champagne flute that he absolutely fell in love with. It was higher quality than most of the $1 stems one finds at Goodwill, and had a lovely sound and a gold rim. He looked and looked because he wanted a pair of them, but it was the only one in the store. He bought it anyway, and we enjoyed drinking cream soda out of it for the month of December.
While I was home for Christmas the following month, and shopping at a different Goodwill store, I found myself browsing in housewares and discovered another lovely champagne flute with a lovely sound and a gold rim. I wasn't sure it would be an exact match, but it was $2, so I had to buy it and find out. Sure enough, when we got back to school and I unpacked it, it was a perfect match. We used the glasses dorm BBQs, at movie nights, and just whenever for our juice or soda, and each stored our own by the sink in our respective dorm rooms.
During that semester, they became very special to us, and as I was packing up my dorm room preparing to move into an apartment with Josh for the summer, I left it out for last so I could be sure to pack it up nice and safe. You can guess where this story is going, can't you? Well, I was just about done packing, and was taking a break to brush my hair when I knocked my glass off the counter and it shattered on the floor. Everyone tried to tell me that it was just a glass, and not to think of it as an omen for my upcoming move in with Josh (our first time living together!), but I was inconsolable. I spent a week in Oregon visiting my parents before the start of the summer, and we went to every second hand store in the city looking for a replacement. I also went to every store I could think of where I might be able to buy a replacement new.
My mother gave me a hard time, telling me that it wasn't like these were the wine glasses we'd used in our wedding (turns out my mother accidentally broke one of the wine glasses my sister and brother-in-law used in their wedding, so this really must have been deja vu for my mom). I didn't appreciate that and explained to her that we weren't married but if we ever did get married these were exactly the wine glasses we'd want to use at our wedding! And now we couldn't because one of them was broken!
Well, we didn't find a replacement that week, or even that year, even though I wrote up a detailed description with drawing so my mother and sister could continue watching for it (they shop at second hand stores a lot, and my sister was super understanding). Josh and I bought ourselves several pairs of champagne flutes, but none of them were quite right. A year passed and we got engaged, and I remembered the conversation with my mom, and started searching in ernest for the glasses again. Eventually, I found an auction on ebay for two of the flutes and one matching wine glass. I called up Josh and told him that we could finally get married because I'd found "our wine glasses". Unfortunately, however, the gold rims on all three glasses off ebay were damaged from having been run through a dishwasher, but we figured they would be better than nothing. Then a year later, still before the wedding, my mom called to tell me that she'd found 4 more of them that were in good shape, and I stopped my search entirely... only to discover a week before the wedding that the additional glasses she'd found were not more of the flutes, but more of the wine glasses! I was disappointed, but at that point, what could I do?
We used the flutes in our wedding as planned, even though one of them was not in the best shape and brought them home from my mother's house (where they'd spent our engagement--2 years--in storage staying safe), and started using them again. After our 1st anniversary, I started thinking it was time to search again for flutes with unblemished gold rims, and this time I discovered that replacements.com carries a lot of stemware, and I painstakingly searched through their database until I found our pattern: Geneve by Bohemia Crystal. We'd always felt that the flutes were of great quality, but I was excited to learn that they came from the Czeck Republic, which is in my opinion where all the best crystal comes from (though I do freely admit that I hold this opinion because I traveled to the Czeck Republic as a little girl).
Once I had the pattern name and maker, finding pieces because a little less challenging. Occasionally pieces come up on ebay auctions for cheap, and I'm going to keep my eyes open for flutes and wine glasses to form a complete place setting for 12 (we have 4 wine glasses and 3 flutes in our china cabinet already and Josh likes to pull them out when we have guests). So far, I've purchased a box of 6 wine glasses in new condition and in the original box (how cool is that), and a matching decanter too. I'm going to give them to Josh for Christmas; I think he will like them a lot.
Also, I found a pair of the flutes (which seem to be less common unfortunately), which each have a pair of roses on them and the words "Happy Anniversary". I purchased those and will save them to give to Josh on our second anniversary in 8 months. And incidentally, I just love that I can buy anniversary gifts this early, on so many levels! I hope that having this pair which are different will help keep the special-ness of these being "our glasses." We said that we would make a fancy dinner out part of our anniversary tradition, so I think I will have to make sure to bring these along and see if I can pull some strings to get our waitress where ever we go to serve us our drinks in them. Though I suppose it is a smidge early for planning those sorts of little details. It's going to be hard to keep these lovelies to myself for 8 months though, that's for sure!
Then I found and attempted to purchase a set of 6 more flutes, but 5 arrived broken. Got a full refund.
Then I purchased 6 of the 8 oz goblets for $16.51.
While I was home for Christmas the following month, and shopping at a different Goodwill store, I found myself browsing in housewares and discovered another lovely champagne flute with a lovely sound and a gold rim. I wasn't sure it would be an exact match, but it was $2, so I had to buy it and find out. Sure enough, when we got back to school and I unpacked it, it was a perfect match. We used the glasses dorm BBQs, at movie nights, and just whenever for our juice or soda, and each stored our own by the sink in our respective dorm rooms.
During that semester, they became very special to us, and as I was packing up my dorm room preparing to move into an apartment with Josh for the summer, I left it out for last so I could be sure to pack it up nice and safe. You can guess where this story is going, can't you? Well, I was just about done packing, and was taking a break to brush my hair when I knocked my glass off the counter and it shattered on the floor. Everyone tried to tell me that it was just a glass, and not to think of it as an omen for my upcoming move in with Josh (our first time living together!), but I was inconsolable. I spent a week in Oregon visiting my parents before the start of the summer, and we went to every second hand store in the city looking for a replacement. I also went to every store I could think of where I might be able to buy a replacement new.
My mother gave me a hard time, telling me that it wasn't like these were the wine glasses we'd used in our wedding (turns out my mother accidentally broke one of the wine glasses my sister and brother-in-law used in their wedding, so this really must have been deja vu for my mom). I didn't appreciate that and explained to her that we weren't married but if we ever did get married these were exactly the wine glasses we'd want to use at our wedding! And now we couldn't because one of them was broken!
Well, we didn't find a replacement that week, or even that year, even though I wrote up a detailed description with drawing so my mother and sister could continue watching for it (they shop at second hand stores a lot, and my sister was super understanding). Josh and I bought ourselves several pairs of champagne flutes, but none of them were quite right. A year passed and we got engaged, and I remembered the conversation with my mom, and started searching in ernest for the glasses again. Eventually, I found an auction on ebay for two of the flutes and one matching wine glass. I called up Josh and told him that we could finally get married because I'd found "our wine glasses". Unfortunately, however, the gold rims on all three glasses off ebay were damaged from having been run through a dishwasher, but we figured they would be better than nothing. Then a year later, still before the wedding, my mom called to tell me that she'd found 4 more of them that were in good shape, and I stopped my search entirely... only to discover a week before the wedding that the additional glasses she'd found were not more of the flutes, but more of the wine glasses! I was disappointed, but at that point, what could I do?
We used the flutes in our wedding as planned, even though one of them was not in the best shape and brought them home from my mother's house (where they'd spent our engagement--2 years--in storage staying safe), and started using them again. After our 1st anniversary, I started thinking it was time to search again for flutes with unblemished gold rims, and this time I discovered that replacements.com carries a lot of stemware, and I painstakingly searched through their database until I found our pattern: Geneve by Bohemia Crystal. We'd always felt that the flutes were of great quality, but I was excited to learn that they came from the Czeck Republic, which is in my opinion where all the best crystal comes from (though I do freely admit that I hold this opinion because I traveled to the Czeck Republic as a little girl).
Once I had the pattern name and maker, finding pieces because a little less challenging. Occasionally pieces come up on ebay auctions for cheap, and I'm going to keep my eyes open for flutes and wine glasses to form a complete place setting for 12 (we have 4 wine glasses and 3 flutes in our china cabinet already and Josh likes to pull them out when we have guests). So far, I've purchased a box of 6 wine glasses in new condition and in the original box (how cool is that), and a matching decanter too. I'm going to give them to Josh for Christmas; I think he will like them a lot.
Also, I found a pair of the flutes (which seem to be less common unfortunately), which each have a pair of roses on them and the words "Happy Anniversary". I purchased those and will save them to give to Josh on our second anniversary in 8 months. And incidentally, I just love that I can buy anniversary gifts this early, on so many levels! I hope that having this pair which are different will help keep the special-ness of these being "our glasses." We said that we would make a fancy dinner out part of our anniversary tradition, so I think I will have to make sure to bring these along and see if I can pull some strings to get our waitress where ever we go to serve us our drinks in them. Though I suppose it is a smidge early for planning those sorts of little details. It's going to be hard to keep these lovelies to myself for 8 months though, that's for sure!
Then I found and attempted to purchase a set of 6 more flutes, but 5 arrived broken. Got a full refund.
Then I purchased 6 of the 8 oz goblets for $16.51.