A Toile Tale: carnations

Showing posts with label carnations. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Flamingo Frenzy

I know.....I've been missing. I have ignored my blog in favor of Instagram. It's a matter of time management. I won't totally walk away from A Toile Tale, but I'm posting less. I'm not entertaining less, however, so please follow me on Instagram at #ldpete2626.

I'm soooo not ready to give up summer entertaining. Will the rest of you bloggers please refrain from pushing fall????? This table is a perfect example. It's still hot, hot, hot here in Atlanta, so why pretend.

These plates inspired the table. They came from World Market last summer. I pulled the bold colors from them and set a screamingly bright table.

We needed the shade, so I chose the lower terrace.

Fiona the Flamingo made the perfect centerpiece. She's covered with pink feathers and has a little sister, too.

I found them at Lucy's Market in Buckhead. They are going to go to my daughter's pre-school class when I am done playing with them.

Here's the oasis ring that holds the pink carnations. It has plastic on the bottom which will protect your table, but once it's soaked in water, it will hold flowers for days, just like a brick of oasis.

I wrapped a varigated Apisdistra leaf and a small orchid on the ordinary water glass, and held them in place with a piece of rafia. The plain Tiffany wine glass was filled with Hogwash rose. (Several times!)

These salt and peppers came from The Christmas Tree Shop.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the gazpacho and the salad with mango and shrimp. I could do it all the day ahead, which is the way I like entertain.

These dessert plates came from Target years ago.

I used a flamingo margarita glass on a leaf to hold pineapple/coconut ice cream for dessert.

Caspari handtowels were joined in the guest bathroom by a blow-up flamingo filled with fresh carnations and orchids.

And a flotilla of them were in the pool. I must admit that the sound of the waterfall into the pool was a cooling sound on such a hot day. But the warm friendships felt good!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Grandma Would Love This

When Mr. Pressed Pants told me (sort of at the last minute) that he was not going to be home on Valentine's Day, we decided to have a dinner for two on Sunday. We never go out on February 14th anyway because of the crowds and the "prix fix" menus, etc. So surf and turf at home suited me just fine.

I had just arranged these flowers for a sick friend, so they became an impromptu centerpiece for just this one meal. Sort of "borrowing" up front! The more I think about this, the more I think it might be tacky. Oh, my! Well, they could sit on the counter, or they could sit on the dining room table, right?

I love this combination of colors.

Grandma's Haviland china matched them perfectly. I buy very few "sets" of dishes. I'm more of an impulse buyer of miscellaneous pieces which I use to mix and match. But this pattern was my Grandmother's and she gave me all of the many, many pieces for our wedding. The best part is that her name was Rose Ellie, and my name is Linda, and the pattern is called "Rosalinda". I just love that. I didn't use any of the serving pieces, cups and saucers, or even bread and butter plates. I kept it special, but not at all over the top.

The linens kept the dishes from being too precious. They are just a bright pink tablecloth and a scalloped linen placemat. No charger, and no fine silver. Just French reproduction flatware that reflects the cream colored dinner plates.

Then, I chose light pink linen napkins and tucked a bright pink carnation into the ring.

The napkin ring is made of ivory. It is old and I've collected these for years. They can't make these anymore, of course, since ivory is a protected resource. So they are becoming very hard to find, but that makes the hunt more fun.

These cranberry glass stems are another antique, or maybe just vintage element.

Not old, but fun, are these gold cherub candlesticks.

Some special things and some casual things.

I don't mean to be flippant about being apart on Valentine's Day, but our marriage can surely survive an early celebration and short notice of travel plans!

Joining:

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21 Rosemary Lane

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Valentine's a Deux

After a small dinner party for friends on Saturday, we had just the two of us for dinner on Valentine's Day itself.

It's been unusually cold here, so I set the table in the living room in front of the fire place. I've thought of doing this many times, but the reality is that it is just too hot most evenings.

These dishes by Cynthia Rowley were an easy choice. I bought them before Christmas, thinking they would be a great Christmas selection, but never used them. I love that they are gold rimmed and sort of formal, but I find them fresh and a bit whimsical as well.

Especially when you add the salad plate.

You can just see the small appetizer plate that I added and used for our shrimp cocktail. Here's the napkins that a guest sent us after a dinner party several years ago. I thought they were perfect for this table.

The glasses were a red vintage stem for wine......

and these white speckled water glasses.

This mis-matched silverplate flatware showed up again. Here's a disclosure: I substituted a steak knife for these beautiful knives before we sat down to eat. Mr. Pressed Pants cooked fillets on the grill and that would have been too much for these fragile old knives.

A red bread and butter plate and some glass confetti hearts added some spunk to the table.

These flowers made another appearance from the night before. Actually, many of these items were "re-runs". The dishes and linens were about the only things different, but they change the look of the table greatly.

A simple Waterford crystal wine coaster was used the night before, too.

This touch of silver was lovely in the firelight.

I used a plain white linen caterer's cloth with this special cloth over it. My mother made it for me years ago, and I've used it for many special events through the years, even engagement parties and bridesmaids luncheons for our daughters.

Here's a picture of the table in front of our fireplace. It's only a card table, but I brought in chairs from the dining room.

This one is taken from the upstairs hallway through the gate in the wall.

See it here?

This is taken from the same place, but a bit closer. Doesn't it look inviting?

We might do this more often.

Dinner with friends last night was great, but you can't beat an evening with just the one you love.

I meant to put this on the last post. It's our front door.

And this is the fountain in the front driveway circle.

There's something very romantic about this, and, of course, it gets even sweeter with a bit of tulle and a peony, right?

Joining:

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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Four Friends for the Fourth

How many of you had rain-outs for the Fourth? The weather teased us all weekend, and as you can see by this photo of our front door, it was gloomy, gloomy, and rainy as I planned for our small dinner party.

But, inside, it was cheerful and fun, especially after our guests arrived. I had fiddled with dishes, planning the table, but when it came time to set the table indoors, rather than out, I settled on an entirely different look.

I started with this placesetting, and took some of these photos......

then I remembered the star bread and butter plates and added them. Some of these pictures have them and some do not.

Here's the table and the fun chandelier decorations.

I've had these for years and never used them. I planned on hanging them from the dogwood tree as we dined outdoors, but this was a really easy and fun plan B.

This is a flower arrangement I have used many times. I wish it had photographed better. All you need is a container, a piece of oasis, and lots of flowers. Just trim and poke them in, starting with the rim of the container. And these carnations will last and last.

I chose this glassware, but I only had four of these vintage red ones, so I used two more blue glasses.

These old blue and white pottery candlesticks are so versatile.

I love these little individual salt and pepper shakers that have the iconic blue willow pattern.

Our dessert was served on these Old Glory plates. It was a red, white, and blue ice cream torte, and for some reason, a lot of it ended up on that white tablecloth!

What's fresher than a crisp red, white, and blue?

Add four good friends and great conversation and you've got an evening of wonderful memories.

I always carry the flowers or decorations into the powder rooms. Here, I just added a zinc vase of more carnations and some fun hand towels.

Here, I picked a few additional flowers from our cutting garden to bring in all three colors of the holiday.

Well, in this photo, it's dinner time, and the sun is out again. It was too wet and too late to make a move outside, but the sun was good news, since Mr. Pressed Pants had to grill our shrimp skewers. I hope every one of you had a good celebration on this very precious holiday. Happy Birthday, America!

Tablescape Thursday

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