A Tribute to the Dogwood Festival

Many, many people in Atlanta look forward to the Dogwood Festival each year.  It was held this past weekend, and it was full of music, art, food and celebrated the lovely dogwood trees we are so privileged to have here in this beautiful city.  I put together this table as a tribute to the many volunteers that it takes to hold this event.

We have lots of dogwood here, both as specimens and many wild ones in the woods.  They made beautiful fillers for these old blue Ball jars.  I kept the white linen cloth and the burlap runners that I had on the table for "Bunnies and Burlap" (here).

I posted a very similar table to this before, when the dogwood was blooming.  It was probably my favorite table ever.  You can see it here.

I love the colors of taupe, turquoise and white together.  Can you see the faux bois design on the salad plate?

The light wood on the flatware seemed just right with the burlap, and I used these white linen napkins with turquoise linen flower napkin rings.

I put bread sticks in these glass lined, birch covered votives.

The glassware was plain Tiffany stems with turquoise glass tumblers made by Martha Stewart.

I love this easy, easy centerpiece.

These birch-like candles never even got lit, as it is staying light so much later these days.

I knew we are headed for a full week of rain, so I grabbed my clippers and cut a huge bunch of limbs for this granite bucket by the front door.  Is it too much to mix the dogwood and the forsythia?  Oh, who cares?  I'm so into spring!

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Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Dogwood Days

I'm recycling this post done with nests to join Cuisine Kathleen's  linky party featuring birds, eggs, and nests!  Be sure to see her many posts and inspiration from lots of bloggers.

 

Our dogwood trees have been so beautiful, especially the specimen down on our lower terrace.  I've wanted to do a table featuring the dogwood, and I almost waited too late!  The petals are starting to fall and they are definitely past their peak.  

The table is serene with a narrow color spectrum of taupe and white with just a tiny hint of pale robin's egg blue.  Sort of an anti-bunny table!!!  You can see the sideboard decorated for spring in the background.  I posted a tutorial  last year on how I put it together here.

These great place mats were the basis for the color selections.  They are a very light weight, loosely woven linen with this embroidery in each corner.  I found them at Boxwoods in Atlanta, and I'm expecting I'll use them often.

The glassware is a high/low mix that I love.  The wine glasses are from Tiffany's basic line, and the tumblers are from Martha Stewart's line for Macy's from several years ago. The pale, pale aqua color lends just a touch of color.  They are very thin, so I've already broken a couple of them.

I'm using these white faux bois plates again. My last post with them can be seen here.  They look like the cross section of a log.

I added a small bird's nest from Michael's with an aqua speckled faux egg and a fresh dogwood blossom.

The bread and butter plate is a very thin wood grained plate and I added individual butter spreaders that have twig handles.

This light colored, wood handled flatware seemed appropriate for the light colored table.

This  taupe and white checked linen napkin was placed between the plates to give them a bit of contrast.  We brought them back from a street market in Aix in Provence.

These little velvet birds were placed at each place just because I love them so much and I thought they "went with" the eggs and nests.

As you can see, the dogwood was almost past it's prime.  We had a rain the other night and that seemed to give them a case of the spots!

But, when you back off a bit and look at them en masse, they look pretty good.

This birch bark vase seemed to pull the natural elements together.  I couldn't help adding this tiny metal nest with turquoise robin eggs.

It echos this nest on each plate.

The salt and pepper shakers sort of sit in a nest, too.

This seems like a serene table where one might enjoy a refined meal with grown-up conversation with your sophisticated friends, right?  Well, that probably won't be the case here.  Not that I don't have any sophisticated friends, but they aren't coming over tonight, and the conversation will probably be about finding a new yardman and having the driveway resurfaced!

That's ok.  We need to get on top of spring clean-up and repairs sooner rather than later.  May I have your list of dependable repairmen?

Let's eat!

Wish you could be joining us!

The birdies on the window bench are coming!

I'm a little late, but I'm posting here:

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Tablescape Thursday

Good News and Bad News

Well, as much as I love, love, love spring, it surely brings good news and bad news.  Here's an image of the good news.....a beautiful dogwood tree that grows at the top of our pond and waterfall on the lower terrace of our back yard.

 

And the bad news.......THE POLLEN!!!!  I took these photos last week and the pollen count was over 9,000!!!  Yep nine thousand!  BTW, anything above 1,000 is considered "very high".  That means grains of pollen per cubit feet of air.

I know....blah....blah....blah.  Grains, cubits, etc.  What is means is this: a mess. A yellow, pervasive, incessant mess.  This glass top on one of our outdoor tables had been wiped down completely two days before.  And here you see the results of two days of pollen. 

This phenomenon leads several of the Seven Dwarfs to inhabit the body of someone who lives in this home.  (Not me, not me!) Sneezy and Grumpy have possessed Mr. Pressed Pants. We can stand on our deck and watch clouds of yellow pollen swirl across the backyard.  The answer is rain.  So when can we see some?

Happy Earth Day 2011!

To mark Earth Day 2011, I thought I'd post what Mother Nature has sent us so far this spring.  Actually, these pictures were taken about a week ago and things have really changed in that length of time.  Here's the front gates of our home.  Our real forsythia is long done here in Atlanta, but the forsythia on the wreaths remain....at least till next week.

We plant pansies in the fall and they bloom all winter long.  Here are a few remaining with the daffodils by the entrance.

 
 

These will soon be ripped out and replaced with impatiens for the summer.

I just planted this viburnum last year and it is at least making an effort to bloom, bless it's heart!

Here's the view from the back of the house looking down to the lake.  This dogwood specimen is beautiful, but the woods are full of wild dogwood, too. 

Most of the azaleas are these George Tabor variety.  They are my favorite.  The blooms are bigger than the average azalea and they cut for arranging very well. 

These are just sitting in the back turn around waiting to go to the garden. This is Mr. Pressed Pants favorite plant, so I pick them up as soon as I see yellow hibiscus in the garden center each spring. I wish they would winter for me.  I've tried and tried, but I have to replace them each year.  I don't mind since he loves them so much. 

I must say they really have a showy blossom.

Here's another view looking over the railing of the circular white deck down toward the lake.

The woods are full of native azaleas and wild dogwood.

This dogwood is so much fuller and whiter this week.

I've spent several years filling this terrace bed with perennials.  It is so rewarding to see these return.  Not everything has come back, but I'm making progress.  My goal is to not have to put any annual color into these beds, but as you can see, I'm a ways away from that.

The back pond has since been cleaned and the stones reset.  I love the lamb's ear in the bed here.

The lenten roses were awesome this year.  We have lots of these.  I wish I could figure out a good way to cut them and use them for floral arrangements.  Their little heads just droop too much.

This front fountain is just beginning to fill in.  The daffodils are done, but the hosta which surrounds it, are just poking up.  Time to get out there with the deer repellent.  Now!!!

The boxwood topiaries that I had in these cement pots didn't make it through the winter.  I replaced them with standards of gardenias. 

The flowers do show up and.....

they smell divine!

I'm working toward removing all of the nandina and small plantings in the front and making it just fern beds.  These guys want to join the party again this year!

Thanks for visiting and saluting Earth Day with me.  I hope your little corner of the earth is blessing you with similar treasures.  If not, be patient, they're coming!