Waterford Crystal

I finally received the beautiful Waterford Crystal that I ordered at the Waterford Crystal Factory in Waterford, Ireland. If you missed that post you can read about our visit to the factory here.

My husband told me to choose anything I wanted from the showroom as my birthday gift! That was like letting someone with a sweet tooth loose in a candy store! I circled the very large Waterford factory showroom so many times and handled so many objects that I was getting an anxiety attack, as I couldn't decide! A vase? A pitcher? Candlesticks? No...look...beautiful champagne toasting glasses!

I already owned three pieces of Waterford -- a bud vase that was a gift, years ago, from my brother and sister-in-law, a bell that my husband gave me for Christmas also many years ago, and an 8 inch cross that my husband gave to me this past Easter.

So I finally decided on this beautiful nine inch bowl in the "Grainne" pattern. It was heavy and deep, and I liked the very deep star pattern cuts. After just being on the factory tour, and witnessing the amount of work it takes to make one bowl, from the glass blowing to the cutting and engraving, I had a great appreciation for its craftsmanship, and I knew this was someday going to become a family heirloom.

Then, as we wereabout to make our purchase, we saw this special pair toasting flutes on display!

They are twelve inches tall, and their pattern is called "Celtic Spirit." This pattern is only available for sale in Ireland as a factory exclusive. We fell in love with them and decided to purchase them as our gift to each other for our 34 wedding anniversary this fall. From now on we will have these special glasses to toast all our happy occasions!

Because we were purchasing both the bowl and the flutes, plus a small gift each for our daughter and daughter-in-law, we decided to ship all items to our home as we qualified for free shipping, and as a promotion for visiting the factory this small hospitality party dish was available for a fraction of the original cost, and by this point we agreeably acquiesced!

I'm thrilled to have these beautiful objects and will always cherish them, not only for their beauty and my husband's generosity, but also as wonderful mementos of our visit to Ireland.

To order Waterford Crystal, as well as other beautiful collectibles from Ireland, you can go to Cashs of Ireland web site, and also order their free catalog.

EDIT: I'm trying something new -- I'll try to comment back in my comment section instead of sending individual e-mails, or answering your questions on your blog posts. I see a lot of blogger doing this recently, so I guess it is blogger courtesy and protocol to do it this way? Please let me know what you prefer! Thanks!