Fading Hydrangeas

Our hydrangeas are fading from the brilliant blue they were this summer to this smoky blue and lavender.  They were the inspiration for the table I set for dinner last night.  I put them in a galvanized container that I have sprayed with bleach to make it look more like old zinc.

I featured the lavender with cream and grey on a round tablecloth of cream burlap. 

Only a few minutes after I set the table, but before I photographed it, Mr. Pressed Pants called to ask me to join him at his business dinner.  I never turn down an offer like that, so I put on some lipstick and flew out the door, leaving the table as it sat.  I was not two miles from home, when the heavens opened and when I got home, I had a soaked table with an inch of rain in the glasses.

I pulled things inside to dry off and reset the table this morning as soon as it was light outside.  Doesn't the early light make things look interesting?

Here's the simple placesetting.

I did a quick stack of charger, dinner plate and salad plate.

I made these for several people for Christmas this year.  They are just inexpensive plastic chargers primed with spray paint, sprayed with grey paint, then rubbed with chalk and "erased".  Directions were several places in blogland.  Don't they look like lead?  This one is still a bit wet!

The white scalloped dinner plates are from Z Gallerie.

These beautiful old salad plates are Bavarian.

The flatware is from Neiman Marcus many years ago.

The crisp, lavender dinner napkin is from a restaurant overstock website.

Pottery Barn sold these chicken wire napkin rings this spring.  I couldn't resist!!!

This soft lavender glassware is so pretty.  I wish I knew how to photograph glassware well.  The stem has beautiful details on it like Juliska, but it was very inexpensive and I think I found them at T. J. Maxx years ago.

Then I chose these French seed pots to go with them as wine cups.

My mother gave me these individual pewter salt and pepper shaker many, many years ago for Christmas.

And I've had this pewter cruet set for many years.  It was a wedding gift.

This cute guy is a rather recent purchase.  I couldn't decide on using him, or the individual pewter salt and peppers.  I ended up photographing the table with both sitting on it!  Oh, well.  Dinner could have been well seasoned!

The wine coaster is actually a candle holder, but I love the look of it as a wine holder.

As you can see, we might not have had dinner at home last night, but we did manage to drink the wine.

Not an intricate tablescape, but restful.

The pots behind the table are filling in nicely.  Well, at least two of the three are!

So guess what?  This became a rather fancy breakfast table for Cheerios and fruit!  No, we didn't finish the wine with breakfast, but it was a nice way to start the day.

We should do this more often.

I'll be posting this with Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Some Things Are More Important Than Blogging

If it seems to you followers that I'm missing a blog this week, I have the best reason!  I have been visited by my two "Fabulous Friends".  One from L. A. and one from Dallas.  That sounds fabulous already, doesn't it? 

Pinterest

We've had three days of love and laughter that will feed my memory bank for a long, long time. 

Years have gone by since we were all three together, but we have stayed current on what's happening in each other's lives, not through "gossip", but genuinely sharing and caring. 

These women are smart, remarkable mothers and there's nothing I appreciate more.  I knew their children when they were very small and it's so much fun to learn how each has evolved into adulthood.  They have maneuvered through days of smooth sailing as well as days of stormy seas, but their dedication to their families and loved ones has always been steadfast.



We did a lot of shopping and eating.  And then we took some time for an educational and sobering tour of the Martin Luther King Center. 




But through it all, we talked and talked and talked.  We shared our losses, our hopes, our plans for the future and gave each other hope and advise.

Real friends can lift you up and ground you at the same time.

 

I am so grateful for their visit and the support I feel from these women.

Come back soon, girls!!!!!!!!!!!

Father's Day and Fish Plates

I'm reposting the table I set last year for Father's Day.  We're eating out at Mr. Pressed Pant's favorite restaurant tonight, so there's no table to photograph.  My love and respect for this man will never change!

There are not enough words to tell you what a great father my husband is.  We have raised two beautiful daughters and they would be the first to tell you how great a dad he is.  I wish they could have been here today, but it was just the two of us for a lovely dinner at home.  

I set the table on the lower terrace since it was such a beautiful night.  We have had two bad storms this week, so things are a bit messy outside, but it still felt nice.

For a masculine look, I chose our Portmerion fish plates.  It is the "Complete Angeler" pattern.  Our dinner was grilled sea bass, so this was sort of ironic.  These usually hang on the French plate rack in our bar room. 

There are six different fish designs on these dinner plates and different ones on each salad plate.  I used them with wicker chargers on a dark brown tablecloth.

Aren't they pretty?

I love the ferns painted on the edges.

The bright apple green linen napkin shows up nicely on the brown cloth.  I tucked a bobber into the wicker napkin ring just for whimsy. 

These apple green wine glasses are some of my favorites.  The water glasses are Bobby Flay's from Kohl's.

In place of a bread and butter plate, I used a wooden bowl for the rolls.

Faux bois salt and pepper shakers.

Since there were ferns on the dishes, I used them in the flower arrangement.  These are just two sleeves of spider mums from the grocery store and the rest of the material came from the yard.

You can't see it very well on the table, but I used this beautiful antique wooden bowl as a container....with a plastic liner, of course.

Here it is peeking out a bit.

This is the only serving piece I bought to go with this pattern.  It's a small covered casserole.  Aren't the colors great?

One woven coaster was used for the wine, and one for the water bottle.  Here's to you Mr. Pressed Pants.  I salute the father that you are and the way you love all of your girls!

See this and lots of other tablescapes on Susan's Tablescape Thursday blogparty at:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Is Ikat the new Buffalo Check?

Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda writes one of my very favorite blogs, and the best posts of all come on Mondays when she posts Blue and White Mondays.  She's had a great idea to start a Blue and White Linky Party.  I'm offering this post that I did quite some time ago, and it remains my favorite Blue and White post.  Thanks, Jennifer for all of your great posts and for the chance to participate!

On the whole, I'm not crazy about the trend toward global influences in decor.  At least not the multicolored fabrics that look sort of bohemian to me.  But....and it's a big but (no jokes here, please) I love, love, love single colored ikats.  They conduct themselves like a buffalo check.  That is, they give a pattern, but it's one that mixes with lots of other fabrics and patterns.  Add a stripe, a check, a polka dot, a toile, a solid...it all works!

 So, when I saw this good-sized remnant at Old Time Pottery for $5.00 per yard, I snapped it right up.  There's enough here to make a tablecloth and to cover some pillows for our tv room.

I just think this is so interesting.  Except for the photographer's shadow, that is.

With just this new tablecloth, and some inexpensive new dinner plates from Target, I've given these very classic and unremarkable pieces an entirely new look. 

Well, maybe I should apologize to these Portuguese chargers for calling them unremarkable.  I really do like them a lot!

These melamine dinner plates in a similar ikat pattern are next.  See how the ikats mix?  Target has quite a collection of melamine blue and white pieces, but I limited myself to just four of these plates, because I have so much blue and white already.

The salad plate is from Bed, Bath and Beyond and made by Strawberry Lane.  I bought a bunch of this pattern of dishes when Mr. Pressed Pants proceeded me in a corporate move and needed dishes.  They needed to be inexpensive, very durable, and blue and white to match the way I planned to remodel the kitchen in our newly purchased house.  These worked!

These bowls were from this batch of dishes.  I used them for a delicious gazpacho that we bought at the Farmer's Market in Alpharetta.

The flatware is available anywhere.

This urn is from our older daughter's wedding and I filled it with blue hydrangeas.  I think this table would look better with white hydrangeas, but those are done in my yard, and the blue ones are peaking now.

Heavenly!

The little white French butter keeper looked pretty cute.

 Well, what do you think?  Do you like the new look for these old favorites?

Maybe after dinner, we'll do a little fishing.  Or, at least Mr. Pressed Pants, will.  I find fishing a bit boring.  I'll be reading instead.  I just picked up Mary Kay Andrew's new book and I'm ready to start it.

We have some new residents living here.  The babies are just past the yellow fluff stage.  We love that the mom and dad come back each year....together....good moral fiber!