Sunday, December 30, 2012

Retrospective of 2012

It's become a tradition in the blogging world to do a retrospective of the past year's posts at the end of the year, so I'm sending you a wrap-up of 2012 in "Linda-Land".  As I review the offerings, I am reflecting on the precious people who have blessed us with their presence.  My mom always says that you get to know people best when they have their feet under your table.

JANUARY


My mom and I had a sweet breakfast using her favorite colors and vintage linens.  See it here.


I decided to do one more table with pine cones, this time using these vintage dishes from a garage sale.  See it here.

FEBRUARY


While my mother was still visiting, I tickled her with a chicken theme and then gave her the napkins to take home, since chickens are "her thing".  See it here.


I may have rushed spring a little with this one, but I did it to treat a committee of women who were working with me on an Easter event, and I wanted to have them "think spring".  See it here.

MARCH


In early March, I was thinking outdoors already, so I put together this faux bois themed table, but it was served in the dining room.  See it here.


My bridge buddies joined me for a St. Patrick's Day lunch.  As always, we had such a good time.  See it here.


This was a simple trayscape so that I could feature my friend's magnificent springtime garden.  See it here.


March in Georgia brings a beautiful display of wisteria and I set a polka-dot table to feature it.  See it here.


Did you know there was a National Tartan Day?  Well, if you follow some of us plaid lovers, you'd know.  I set this table to salute it.  See it here.

APRIL


This is my all-time favorite table.  Not just for 2012, but for anytime.  Nothing precious here, or even all that unique, but I just love the way it all came together.  I know it's not good to be prideful, but I'm giving myself a blue ribbon for this one.  See it here. 


These majolica plates were perfect for Easter breakfast.  See it here.


See our Easter dinner table here.


My last post for April was for Earth Day and I used some rather cute paper placemats with earthy items.  See it here.

MAY


I barely had my garden planted when it was time for my garden club to visit.  It was a fun pot luck and here's how I did the centerpiece.  See more here.


This bright fabric with birdcages on it inspired a table down on our lower terrace.  The beds were starting to fill in and it felt great to be dining outside.  See it here.


Another group we entertained in May was our wine club.  Here's the centerpiece I came up with.  See more here.


Before the pollen got too bad, I set a breakfast table that celebrated the apple blossems from our trees out by the paddock area. See it here.  


And, of course, for Memorial Day, I celebrated the Indianapolis 500 with this table.  See it here.

JUNE


In June, all the world took note of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee and here's a table that gives a nod to that event. OMG!  I never noticed until NOW that there's a fly on this napkin.  This is reality, folks!  Too bad Susan is not giving her blooper party this year!


Finding the perfect fabric sent me to setting this table with the Greenbrier as inspiration.  See more here.


Nothing like a red, white, and blue table for Flag Day.  See it here.


Just a simple table for when our neighbor joined us for dinner.  Here.

JULY

 
More fun fabric and a lucky find at Homegoods made this table serene and sort of out of the box for me.  See it here.


These table linens with ants all over them made dining in the garden authentic.  Here.


A simple breakfast tray with Asiatic Pheasant china and blue hydrangeas closed out July.  Here.

AUGUST


I wasn't home much in August, but I did manage to set this table to share with Mr. Pressed Pants the night before I left.  Here.


Then, we had a little French picnic as a tailgate one afternoon. Here. 


Back out in the garden, I used fern plates for a dinner for two.  Here.

SEPTEMBER


During a trip to visit our children, I photographed this canine-inspired table at Rebecca Smith's farm.  See it here.



And the same day, we switched up to table to Equestrian style.  Here.


And then, I introduced my fall tables with this very bright one.  See it here.

OCTOBER


Sunflowers and faux bois......this was a very enjoyable evening.  See it here.


And then our wine club was back here for Halloween.  See it here.

NOVEMBER


And then the bridge buddies were back for a fall luncheon.  Here.


My favorite brown and green toile plates were featured here.

NOVEMBER


Our Thanksgiving table was pretty casual.  You can see it here.

DECEMBER


Again, fabric was the inspiration for a table.  We had a very, very fun group of friends for this dinner party.  It was the last of our entertaining for the year, and what a way to go out!!!!  See more of it here.

If you followed this blog throughout the year, I am grateful.  If you left comments, I am really, really grateful!!!  I recognize that I am blessed to have the time and resources to play with dishes.  I'm not curing cancer or finding the answer to the economic downturn, but, believe me......I'm having fun.













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Friday, December 28, 2012

More Precious Than Fine Art

Here's the way our daughter's refrigerator looked over the Christmas holiday.  Don't you just love this?

Apparently, Alf (????????) lost an eye coming home on the bus, but he's still a handsome dude.

And, as with all valuable art, it's signed by the artist.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Magic 2012

I love this photo of our grandsons that I took on Christmas eve morning.  Oh, the joys of an ipod!
I even used this for my Christmas card photo with this caption:

mry crstms n hapy nu yr, luv, 
lnda n lary 

After all, Christmas is the time to spend quality time with those you hold dear, right?

I'm back in Atlanta after 3 weeks in the arms of my wonderful family.  I'm looking forward to resuming blogging and I'm enjoying catching up with all of your lovely posts that I have missed.

It is my wish that you all enjoyed those precious times as much as I did and are looking forward to the new year.




Friday, December 21, 2012

Winter Solstice



I wish you all a lovely day, celebrating the first day of winter, or Winter Solstice.  Isn't it nice to know that from now on, the days will begin to slowly get longer, and we'll be welcoming spring before long?  
I'm also glad that the end of the world did not occur, as I still have a lot of living to do!!!  And grandsons to see grow up!


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Pinecone Appetizer

Do you need a two-ingredient, FAST appetizer that salutes the season?  I made this over the weekend for a dinner with friends, and I've made it lots of times when I am taking an appetizer to someone's home because it travels so well.

Boy!  This photo sure looks unappetizing, but I promise you that it didn't really look like this.  I used a pimento cheese with jalapenos that I purchased ready-made at our Publix, and simply shaped it on a silver tray, roughly in the tapered shape of a pinecone.  You can use almost any cheese ball and re-shape it.  Then I simply stuck toasted whole almonds into the cheese, starting with the point and layered them all the way up to the top.

(Aw, man.  I really do apologize for these photos, but I was more interested in "gettin 'er done" late Saturday afternoon and the lighting was much less than ideal.)  Anyhow, I then added some real snippings of Leland Cypress, a ribbon, and a small ornament.  Pine would look better, but it was raining and the cyprus was just outside the door.  Just keeping it real, folks!
 
See more holiday ideas at the giant Christmas Wonderful link party hosted by these kind bloggers:

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Pine Cone Cloche Tutorial

It seems as though every time someone sees this cloche full of pine cones, they ask me, "How did you do that".  It's pretty simple, and if you don't mind spending some time in my garage with me, I'll show you how to do it. You can see a dinner party using this as the centerpiece here.

I put up an old card table in the garage to work with greens and decorations for the holidays.  You get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  With warts!  So, I start with a clean glass cloche that fits into this terra cotta saucer.

This is a reproduction of an old French saucer that I got at Boxwoods in Atlanta.  I like the profile of it.

Then I grab an appropriately sized pot that will hold the glass upright when turned upside down into it.

See?
(Can you believe how much junk we have?)


Ok.  Focus, Linda.  In this photo, the cloche sort of disappears and it looks like I just have stuff in the bottom of the zinc pot, it is actually sitting in the bottom of the cloche.  (Which is the top.....get it?)

Pick it up occasionally and check to see that the outside edges are attractive and show a variety of items.

Then, when the cloche is full......

I put a piece of styofoam on top that will fit inside of the saucer.

Then I put the saucer on top......

and flip!

Next step is to put some reindeer moss around the edge, hiding the styrofoam and closing the gap.  Sometimes, I use a stick to make sure the edges under the glass are covered.

I have some little pieces of lichen that I scatter around, to make it look a little more natural.

Add some fresh greens, berries, and a bow and there you have it! 
 
I'm linking up to a giant Christmas Wonderful party that these kind bloggers are hosting: