My Aynsley China Collection

Before I was born, my parents struggled to find a name they both loved. Then one day, while driving, my mom saw a billboard for Aynsley China. She fell in love with the name, but sadly, no one in my parents' families liked it. Despite looking like a little china doll when I was born, I remained nameless for a week. My parents were still in love with the name and thought it fit me perfectly, so after seven days, I became Ainsley. (Don't worry; my extended family loves my name now. And personally, I think it's pretty great, too.)

Seeing as I was named after a china, I began collecting it at a young age. My collection is one of my most cherished things. I love that I have pieces from different places, with different stories. Today, I thought I'd share some of those with you. (To see more of my collection, click here.)

Two Novembers ago, I was in Portland visiting one of my best friends. While we were exploring downtown, we stumbled upon an antique shop. Whenever I see one, I always go in just to check if they have any Aynsley china. This place had a cabinet of teacups, and as chance would have it, I found two!

My senior year of high school, my dad and two of my friends demoed our kitchen floor. When they started, they found out the jackhammer was a lot stronger than they thought. It started shaking the teacups in my bedroom, one of which fell off and broke. For Christmas that year, my dad gave me a special gift - a replacement teacup that is now the most unique one in my collection.

During the summer of 2004, my family visited England. Outside of Windsor Castle, there was a store selling different types of china. We decided to take a look and that's where we found this set. I absolutely fell in love with it!

This is one of my favorite pieces! My mom found this, brand new, in a surprising place - Marshalls! It was years ago and something I'd never be able to find there now.

Once I had the teapot set, I started branching out in my collection, moving away from just teacups and saucers. I decided to try my hand at eBay, just in case there was some pieces being sold. As it so happened, I found this vase and sugar bowl, in matching patterns, from two different sellers!

There's an antique store in downtown Naperville that I cannot wait to go to. I'm hoping to find some new pieces to add to my collection.