I thought I would create an occasional blog feature called "Out of the Closet" to showcase some cool housewares I own that otherwise never see the light of day. My mother has a closet where she stores tacky hostess gifts she has received, just in case they need to be recycled for an unforeseen gift-giving emergency. It's actually the hallway linen closet, but we have always referred to it as the "gift closet." I have carried over this tradition to my own apartment, where I have a gift closet that stores my rarely-worn business suits, and all of my cool housewares that I don't have room to display. I will readily admit that I have a problem with stuff. I like it. I buy it. I stockpile things just in case they might be discontinued some day. As a result, my gift closet overfloweth. On occasion, I thin out the gift closet by letting friends go shopping (for free) in there. It's one way I can justify my hoarding... More than once, when a friend has been over at my apartment and admired something in my kitchen, I have been able to walk over to the gift closet and dig up an extra to give away. "Oh, you like my [Alessi Pisellino Q-tip holder/Benriner mandoline/Guzzini sugar doser/Messermeister serrated vegetable peeler]? Good thing I bought a few extras!"The first things I wanted to feature from the gift closet are these eight-inch gnome dessert plates made by Kiss That Frog. I bought them at Sur La Table last year, and I fell in love with them the first time I saw them. They were a little expensive (well, especially for something I didn't actually need), so I told myself that I would buy them if they ever went on sale. Charlene, the Sur La Table sales associate who I had become friendly with during my frequent trips to the store, actively tried to talk me out of buying them. She was always sensible like that, trying to reason with me that a set of plates featuring gnomes is completely gratuitous (obviously, the associates at Sur La Table don't work on commission). But when the plates went on clearance, I could not help myself. I mean look at those faces! One of the gnomes is holding a lollipop and eating a cupcake! How could anyone resist?!...
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