A Blue and Yellow Birthday

One of my dearest friends recently celebrated a birthday and some of us took this opportunity to show her some love. This lunch was the result of this group effort.  It was held at our mutual friend, Anne's, beautiful home.

I agreed to do the flowers, and when I arrived, this beautiful table is what I saw!  Our honoree is a blue and white lover, so Anne pulled out this wonderful Blue Danube china, and set it on this Ralph Lauren tablecloth.  Waterford and vintage crystal added to the glamor.  Notice how, placing the china on a blue placemat makes all this pattern work perfectly!

Here's my centerpiece!  I have soooo many blue and white pots of all sizes and shapes, so I brought them filled with all sorts of bright yellow spring flowers.  Easy and pretty!

This worked so well and felt so fresh.

There were primroses,

tulips, daffodils, and gerbera daisies,

in a real mix of pots, including this one flow blue gravy boat.

The star is, of course, the daffodil. 

We even slipped one tete-a-tete daffodil into each silver napkin ring.

Anne added these precious little gifts for each person.  They are made from little left-over bits of clay from a potter.  Mine was this pink smile, and I have it on my kitchen window sill.  It brings a warm feeling to me every morning as I check the temperature and make coffee. 

Beth's was a tiny bunny, as she is a bunny lover!

One end of the table had these beautiful silver and crystal salt and pepper shakers,

And the other had these chubby little bluebirds.

Isn't this a beautiful table?

And isn't this a beautiful meal?  These are all Judy's favorites.  I wish I had a picture to show you of the delicious pound cake with blueberries that Beth made for dessert! 

It's my policy not to photograph my friends for my blog, but I wish you could see and know the incredible woman we celebrated here.  I have this birthday crown for all my friends to wear as we party with them, and it never sat on a more deserving head.  She is so caring, so spiritual, creative, funny, gorgeous, interesting, and just about perfect.  I am so fortunate to be her good friend, and I want her to know how loved she is.  My wish for you is that you all have such a friend.

The Iconic Iris

This Mikasa pattern, Garden Gallery, is one I use often in the springtime.  While the pattern is busy, the edges have a simple border, and that makes it good for combining with other patterns, or stacking, as I have here.

When our local Trader Jo's had these beautiful iris, I scooped them up to do this table.  I love Iris, but they are so short-lived once they are cut.  I love the flower, and I'm soon going shopping at my favorite source, M P Flower Garden, for some new iris plants.  I did a post on that here.

I set this in the breakfast room on a gloomy day.

I liked the wicker chargers with this, and these light lavender napkins added color to the stack. 

Pale purple stems, and clear Juliska stems seemed to do the trick for glassware.

This World Market flatware complimented the green on the plates.

The dinner plate has daffodils and some unidentifiable pink flower.  Pretty..... but I think the iris salad plate is the star.

In order to let the flowers shine, not the vase, I chose this white paste vase from France.  I can't believe that I haven't broken some of these flowers.

Perfect! 

This majolica salt and pepper dish picked out a little more green.

Nothing fancy here.

Did I tell you it was gloomy?????  I took this through the window.  As you can see, spring has surely sprung here in Georgia and it is soooo welcome.  Soon the pollen season will be over and the pressure washing season starts. 

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The Glorious Gibbs Gardens

gibbsgardens.com

Ahhhh, Yes!!!!!  Spring is finally here in Georgia!  Don't slam your computer shut if you live in the North and are STILL experiencing winter.  I promise.....spring is on it's way......really.

This incredible sight is at Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, Georgia, which is less than an hour north of me.  While beautiful at every season, spring brings 20 million daffodils.  YES!  20 million!  My sweet friend, Anne, and I took our first trip up there of the year.  We bought season's passes and have promised each other that we'll get there at least once a season. 

This is the sight you see as you pass over the bridge at the entrance.  This stream goes through the grounds and so many of the dazzling gardens are along there.

These have been planted by Jim Gibbs for thirty years, but just opened to the public last year.

I wish I could convey to you the joy these little guys bring me!

Can you stand it?

Other breathtaking signs of spring welcomed us, too.

This might be my favorite Camilla.

And look at these perky little faces.

So many places that I have lived grow these beautiful magnolia trees, but I rarely got to see them this full of blooms.  They always seemed to be nipped by a late frost.

But not this beauty! 

There's lots and lots more to see at Gibbs Gardens, but I'll save it for some later posts. 

This incredible Japanese Garden is the largest in the country.  It certainly deserves a post all of it's own.

But, for today, I'm going to let these iconic signs of spring be the star.

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Ready for Some Blue and White

 

Join me, as I repost this at a new linky party that the wonderful Jennifer at

The Pink Pagoda

is offering called the Blue and White Bash.  If you don't already follow her, you'll want to!

 

I know I've been MIA for a long time, but travel is done for a while, Mr. Pressed Pants is feeling better, and I'm feeling more like a member of the human race.  Between sickness and "stuff", we haven't entertained hardly at all since before Christmas.  But today I feel the urge to set a cheerful table and celebrate our good fortune.  (More later.)  Out came my favorite blue and white dishes to dance with three little pots of tete-a-tete daffodils.

I'll serve breakfast here tomorrow, but since I can't photograph that early, I set this up today.  As you can see, blue does not exactly complement my breakfast room furnishings, so it sits on the shelf most of the time. Since Mom is visiting and she's a blue and white girl, this is the time to give it a whirl.  

This little wood and wicker stand holds three terra cotta pots perfectly.  I added a ribbon of yellow and white gingham.

I further used yellow in the rick-rack edged napkin and the straw coaster.  That's enough.  Just a hint of sunshine here.  The dishes closely resemble Royal Copanhagen's Blue Fluted dinnerware, but they are much heavier and much less precious.  They are actually vintage and made by Shenago Pottery.  I've been collecting it for years. The blue flatware is so old that I can't remember where I got it.  I didn't get a good picture of the napkin rings.  They have a blue willow pattern on them.  I used a mixture of delft, blue willow, and transferware with these dishes.  They all like each other!!!!!  

Here's a close-up of the individual salt and pepper shakers taken frrom a post of a Labor Day table.  You can see it here.

The juice glasses are just a generic blue glass.  Maybe from Pier One???

I have not been able to find the matching saucers for the coffee cups, but I did find the plain blue line saucers, and they are working just fine.

Since I'm serving fruit, I am using these Delft handled fruit knives.  We won't need all six, but they look so nice in the holder that they all get to come to the party.

Don't you love them?

I'll serve milk in this sweet French reproduction milk bottle.  I found it at World Market at Christmas time and gifted myself with it!  It came in red, too, and I'm very proud of myself for not buying the red as well.  (yet)

Here's a special little treasure.  You have no doubt seen lots of old wooden boards that are carved with "bread".  There are also old wooden handled bread knives with "bread" carved into the handle.  This was designed to go with them, but for some reason, very few of them survived.  Probably because the little tiny transferware plate broke and they were thrown away.  I'm very careful with it, because I'd probably never find the right size plate to replace it.  The mother-of-pearl handled butter knife got to join us just because it has a white handle! 

Not far from us, there was a horrific tornado yesterday that did a huge amount of damage.  Some of our friends were impacted, but not physically hurt.  There was a death, and I'll hold that person's family and friends in my prayers.  Although the rest of the loss was material, I am aware that some of that "stuff" was precious and irreplaceable and I'm so sorry for anyone who has to put the pieces back together from this storm.  The flooding is now another issue and it can only add to the misery.  This awful situation has snapped me out of my inertia and reminded me that I should celebrate every day!

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