Gettingaclue: that’s the beauty of the Kitchenaid–you don’t need to scrape down the sides. I never do. Your mixer must need adjusting as MomCat says or maybe you have wrong bowl size.
My stainless was obtained with Betty Crocker coupons too. Good stuff. The new stuff in the same pattern doesn’t have the detailing that the old version does.
I still have a couple towels we received that still look brand new–and yes, we use them all the time. I’m constantly amazed.
Still love our “good” stainless steel cutlery. Our waffle iron keeps on producing crisp, golden waffles.
The wedding gift we use most often is a giant plastic salad bowl from Crate & Barrel. We use it as a pop corn bowl. We still have the china and crystal and use them on china and crystal occasions.
I still love my stainless flatware…Reed and Barton 1800. But I bought that for myself, before I married H.
What a fun thread! When we became empty nesters, I got rid of the chipped every day china we used (not from our wedding–original set long, long gone), I decided we would start using our ‘fine’ china that was on our registry and that I only pulled out for special occasions, every day. It’s Dansk and, really not “fine” but we love it. It’s been 9 months now and not one new chip or broken piece yet! Every day I appreciate that china–gives me a little lift.
Can’t really do the same for the crystal from our registry, which we love, but it has to be hand washed and, with the long, narrow stems, is easy to break. Those still only come out for special occasions but we appreciate having them.
We also have a bread knife that is used almost every day. Couldn’t have known it when we received it 28 years ago but it was a perfect gift. We also have some Armetale serving pieces we still use today. I guess the company were bought by Wilton at some point and the newer pieces I’ve bought since haven’t been the same quality.
We were given a very nice, 3 picture frame in which we promptly put wedding pictures – I’m on the left, dh on the right and together in the middle. It has moved with us and sits on a shelf in our bedroom. Something to be said about buying nice quality; no discoloring or rust of any kind after all these years. I really appreciate that 
The most special gift we received was a hand-crafted beautiful pewter wine goblet, engraved with a warm wish and the givers’ names (dh’s siblings) on the bottom. We used it at our wedding and at every appropriate occasion since (baby namings, bat mitzvahs) since and I would hope my kids will use it at their weddings.
I think I’m going to wander around the house today and see what else we still have from our wedding!
My sister got this really ugly plaque from her next door neighbors, an older couple. It had a dog hunting ducks, and was high gloss on an old piece of tree. I can’t being to tell you how much this wasn’t my sister’s style (or anyone else in the world). For some reason, it hangs in my mother’s bathroom.
My sister got a lot of unique things for her wedding, including two ski racks - she said her friends were tired of driving. In fact she got two of almost everything. It was rather comical.
I am not much of a fine china type, but asked for a Wedgewood stoneware pattern of dishes that I loved. We used it for 30+ years. My oldest daughter loved it and I recently supplemented it from ebay and then passed it on to her. My in-laws were living in Europe when we got married and my MIL brought me a whole set of Waterford glasses and some other miscellaneous pieces. I love it but have to say I rarely use it as I pack it away since we are in earthquake country. One of my favorite gifts when we got married was a set of dish towels that one of my H’s aunts hand embroidered. They are similar to some of the dishtowels you can now buy at Anthropologie, but nothing like that was available in 1980. I still have them but no longer use them as I would like to cut out the embroidered portions and make something with them.
Silver is really not difficult to take care of. Cover it with silver cloth, and it will take a long time to tarnish. Especially if you use it frequently. And definitely get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/CHEFS-Essentials-Electrolytic-Cleaning-Plate/dp/B001J488K0
The other thing is to get over the idea that it has to always look as if it just came from the store. 
Condo, thanks but it’s too late. I think I gave the candle holders away when I moved. Not sure what happened to the rest of the pieces, I think it was a round place and the dipping bowl.
One of my regular jobs as a kid was to polish Mom’s silverware. That cured me forever of the desire for silver.
@MomCat2 - I’ll dust that mixer off and look for that screw. OMG - not scrape down a bowl? How can all the batter be mixed evenly without being over beaten? I would imagine a thin layer would always cling to the bowl and not be mixed evenly. But I’ll try again.
So, I also did the round the house thing of what we still use and/or have (and love)…Steuben ginger jar vase, silver trays…a watercolor (a “good” piece and a swan vase. I began to collect steuben nd art after that. And from Mr. Ellebud’s family and soup tureen from the 1800s. His family came here in the 1600s and they bought and gave it to family. I would never use it, but gosh it is pretty. And it isn’t my style…at all.
Sadly, my sister gave us a wedding gift that I’ve never understood: It’s a Japanese Imari bowl. She and my BIL lived in Japan for many years so it makes sense from that perspective, but absolutely nothing in my house has any Asian tones other than this bowl.
But she’s my sister, and I love her, so I won’t get rid of the bowl.
@Bromfield2 I have Reed and Barton silverware too. We use it every single day, so it’s probably our most used gift. The good china gets used for holidays, dinner parties and sometimes just because.
One of my favorite gifts was a tiny tri-partite pottery vase. It’s great for weeds, herbs when they are in bloom, leftovers from bigger arrangements whatever. I also have a crystal vase from my best friend in architecture school. It has three chives blooms in it now.
We got a couple of pottery bowls we use for serving dishes regularly. I still use the dishtowels a felllow architect gave me. I only have one of a pair of Dansk cereal bowls. We don’t use the Margarita glasses often, but they are fun too own. We got a set of crystal wine glasses that flare out. Don’t like them at all. They only come out at parties.
We got a lot of placemats which we use pretty regularly. All worse for the wear I admit.
My cousin got us a king size cotton blanket which goes on the futon bed in the attic in the summer.
What we really don’t use is silver trays and weird silver containers with feet. They get tarnished very quickly and seem to be very hard to polish.
Editing to add that another poster reminded me that I also got a set of good knives as a wedding gift and “paid” a penny for them as well.
One can never have too many silver trays.
Really, the silver cleaning plate I linked to above works like a charm.
Want more silver trays? I’m going to donate my silver plate ones to my thrift store…where they will sit with at least ten others like them. We can’t sell them for $3. No one wants silver plate.
My sterling flatware is in a good silver box and I can’t remember the last time I polished it. It’s always shiny and ready to go.
It’s funny to see so many peolpe mention Royal Doulton.
My mom just gave me her Lenox " everyday" china as I have given my old old corelle to S1. She has a complete set of royal doulton Adrian with serving pieces that she and my dad actually brought home from a trip to London some 40 years ago. She also inherited a set of Lenox Tuxedo. We decided that the lenox should stay in the china closet, none of us would use it for everyday, but it was silly to keep storing the RD too. For what? She is going to use that for her everyday. I have a set of Lenox Charleston from when I got married. It is nicely displayed and rarely rarely used. It is very pretty, but otherwise a complete waste of $. We are not fine china people.
When we got married my everyday was Villeroy & Boch Basket. I loathed stoneware. I loathed brown colors…so Basket was a great selection. Every other of my sets of china are Limoges, Royal Dalton, Wedgewood…and others. They do share several similarities…they have gold or platinum on the plates (don’t use unless you will hand wash. BUT if you don’t use it everyday…you’re fine. Well, I keep telling myself that.
You can have my silver trays, consolation. They don’t fit my lifestyle.
My kids will be moving into their own apartments shortly and they can take any knickknack or whatever they want. This stuff doesn’t give me the joy it did when I was younger.
Pizzagirl, Good luck with your kids taking your “knickknacks” as young adults just out of college.
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@mom2collegekids, we still have the unidentified gift, and it has created a family tradition of giving things that cannot be identified. I gave my H a strawberry stemmer 2 years ago. He still has no idea!
So this “thing” is solid metal (brass?), extremely heavy, and sits flat on a surface. If you were to turn it over, you could hold the handle like a pistol, but the “barrel” end is solid, not hollow like a gun barrel. BUT, when you turn it back over to set it down, the base part of it is open - like a 2"X3" rectangle box that you could put something in. But what? It looks very old. H suspects it’s part of an old ship. The aunt and uncle are not foreign. H was never comfortable asking them what it is. But I think they fully expected us to ask about it! We were married over 25 years ago, but it looks much, much older!
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I can’t figure out what shape you’re describing. It has a flat bottom, but what is the shape “above the flat bottom”?
Are you describing something that isn’t very tall when it sits flat on a surface? Where is the handle located? What shape is the handle? (lol…I want to pm you my cell phone number so you can text me a pic.)
base part of it is open - like a 2"X3" rectangle boxbut the “barrel” end is solid,
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Is there a part that sticks out…like a gun barrel?
The base part on the underside? or on the top side?
When it’s upright, is the handle sticking up at an angle?
Are the gift-givers religious? If so, which religion?