I have always loved beautiful plates. Older plates and odd ones picked up at flea markets and little bric-a-brac shops.

When we lived in Gonubie, East London , there was a little antique and collectible shop on Main Road called Talisman.

It was a quaint little shop filled with meticulously and lovingly restored treasures.

The walls were covered with beautiful plates of all designs,shapes and sizes. Time always stood still for me as I scoured the walls looking for that special plate of the day …

Now living in Johannesburg, I still have my collection of plates on the wall. Only now, I have a smaller town house which means that I gleefully have extra plates in storage.

When I recently painted one of my feature walls Plascon’s Green Gold, I had enough spare plates in my cupboard to replace the pinks shades with green. No sweat at all!

While on holiday in Germany in 2002, I was in my element wandering through the little German flea markets and salivating with plate-lust at the sight of the many gilt treasures, many from the former East Germany.

My poor husband carried the loot home to South Africa in his back pack. Six kilograms of bubble wrapped beauties spent six hours trundling around Frankfurt airport!

Some of the plates were gifted to other plate-ophiles while my chosen few were put in a safe-cupboard waiting for just the right spot to be displayed.

Well, they say 10 is a perfect number. Ten years of trial and error and never quite finding the right combination or spot left my specials on the shelf.

Until the day I decided to paint my lounge a bright red. In a split second, it all came together. I calmly walked to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, took out the plates,  positioned them on the wall and that – as they say- was that.

All good things come to those who collect plates. Every plate has its day etcetera .