Heavenly Hydrangeas!

It certainly is time to break out these dishes!  Why???

Because this is what my hydrangea bushes look like.  This one is on the lower terrace, but the ones in the cutting garden look just this glorious.  

So I set a table just in front of this beauty for dinner with Mr. Pressed Pants.

It was a lovely evening and I kept the dinner and the table very simple.

Even with that beautiful hydrangea bush I still wanted to add some of these incredible blooms to the table.

The dinner plates are by Nature's Home and the pattern is Hailey Sky.

This blue handled flatware is so old, I can't remember where it came from.  The woven chargers and napkin rings are from World Market, but you can find them many places.  

These large blue stems are also old. 

I used these Emile Henry butter dishes from William-Sonoma as salt and pepper dishes.  These are the only serving pieces I added.

As the night deepened, we saw the season's first fire flies. 

Here's the view from the upper terrace.  The deer have had a buffet in that flower bed, but thankfully, they have left the hydrangeas alone! 

Here's the secret to droop-proof blooms:  Alum.  Yep, the stuff you use for canning and can find in the spice aisle of almost every grocery store.  Go to the garden in the morning, and take a bucket of water.  Then just as you cut the stem, dunk it about an inch in water and then into the jar of alum.  The alum will clump around the stem.  Wait just a couple of seconds and then put it into the water bucket.  If you re-cut to arrange the stems, do this again. 

Here's what to look for.

You'll have firm, beautiful blooms that will last and last and last.  I hope your hydrangea bushes are as prolific as mine are this year.  The last two years were very disappointing.  Now, I hope that they keep on blooming all summer.  I just can't get enough of them.

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Hydrangeas Just Make Me Happy!

Mother Nature decided that my hydrangeas would not be providing very many blooms this year, but fortunately, they are easy to find in grocery stores and farmer's markets.  There's nothing like cutting your own, but with a little planning, I'll still be having hydrangeas.

This table celebrates the hydrangea and is full of color.

These plates are made by Nature's Home, and the pattern is called Hailey Sky.

The glassware is an large, old blue stem for water and an inexpensive swirled glass for wine.

I sort of promised myself that I would not buy another straw placemat, since I have so many, but this color was so perfect for this plate, right?  The flatware is very old and I've no idea where it came from.

These little Emile Henry pots make fun salt and pepper servers. 

This French urn was an easy decision to hold the flowers.  The French blue color is lovely, isn't it?

I would have loved darker blue hydrangeas, but these are the darkest that Trader Joe had today.  I added lime green hosta leaves to pull out the green in the plates.

Then, for a little extra comfort for lingering conversations, I brought out some French grain sack pillows.

Can you tell that this table sits in the round part of the deck?  It is off of the living room and overlooks the lake.  It's our favorite place to dine outdoors. 

See where the round part meets the straight railings?

We sometimes put extra tables out here if we have more than a dozen people dining outside.  

Pretty as they are, I just know that those hydrangeas will be put on the railing during dinner so we can see each other.  I'm never insulted by rearranging the centerpiece because, after all, we're there to enjoy each other, not the flowers.  Well.....mostly!!!

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A Salute to Mr. Pressed Pants

It would have been a shame for my husband, Mr. Pressed Pants, to spend Father's Day alone, so I moved heaven and earth to return to Atlanta by Sunday.  I've been away for soooooo long, getting my mother into the perfect (I hope!) assisted living facility, selling her house, etc, etc, etc.  You get the picture.  So, between church and golf on Sunday, I served a lovely lunch on our lower terrace.  I pulled things together Saturday, very late, and did a quick set-up after church.  

I've done fishing tables for Father's Day for the last couple of years.  You can see them here and here.  So, this year, I went with a nautical theme and he seemed to appreciate it.  Here's a simple rattan charger from World Market, with a blue and white stripped dinner plate from Portugal.  I love the depth of the cobalt blue in this plate.  I got it at Homegoods, and the small plate was from The Christmas Store.

Nothing elaborate here, but fun and colorful.

Napkins are from Homegoods, used over a white caterer's cloth.  I must admit that my homemade rope napkin ring is a little lame.  I was sure I had white rope to make this knot, but all I could find is this sort of yellowed twine.  Oh well, I only had a nano-second to plan!  Then I used this very old red handled flatware.  

The salt and pepper are in these tiny Emile Henry pots I found at Williams-Sonoma years ago.

Both of these glassware styles have been around so long that I have no idea where they came from.

These rope handled coffee mugs worked well for this table, too.  We did take a minute for coffee and Mr. PP's favorite dessert, cherry cheesecake.  

The star of the table is this wooden sailboat from Homegoods.  I had planned to fill it with white hydrangeas, but unless they had them for sale at an I-75 rest stop, it wasn't going to happen....and it didn't!

I also wanted to bring navy throw pillows out to add some color and some comfort to the chairs, but that didn't happen either.  You'll have to imagine them, ok?

I DID, however, have the perfect bottle of wine.  It was a recommendation from Whole Foods.  It's a white wine from Portugal and it was crisp and yummy.  That's the extent of my wine description for today.

And had a pretty label!

After golf and a gin and tonic at the club, we came home and admired the lake from here and finished the bottle of wine.

I took a picture of this while I was shooting the table, but when we actually came back for drinks, I pulled out these.........

clipper etched glasses.  No worries that they weren't really wine glasses.  We're flexible that way!

Here's the view of the lower terrace from the pool level.

The flower beds are beginning to fill in.  I'm not going to have many hydrangeas this year.  We had a late frost and I wasn't home to cover them.  Boy, that's a disappointment!

A dip in the pool and bed!  It was 94 degrees and I was done!

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Just One Print

It's Blue and White Day at the lovely Pink Pagoda!

I had an unusual request the other day from a potential design client.  She called and wanted to see my home and bring her sister, too. "OK.  Please come over.  I'm delighted."  Then, I thought, why not make it a lunch date?  I had a feeling they would be fun guests and so I called to amend the invitation.  Well, it was not a hard sell and they were on their way.  I didn't want to make it about the table, but rather, I wanted to keep the table chic but secondary to the interior design.

I decided to keep the look very, very simple with all neutrals and one fun, sassy print.  Doesn't everyone love chevron?

No time to go to the floral wholesalers, so I simply picked up a blue hydrangea at Kroger when I zipped in for the groceries.  I thought the straw runner added some wonderful texture.

Then a round straw placemat and a whitewashed wooden charger kept it cool.

A Pottery Barn dinner plate and salad plate stacked on top of that, and, to pick up the blue in the hydrangeas, I chose these French blue bowls.  The star of the show was these blue and white linen chevron napkins.  I let them do the shouting.

Even the flatware was understatated but interesting.

I played with the placement of the napkins and liked them best when they were placed between the plates for contrast.

No wine at this lunch, so the one glass had hold it's own.

The salt and pepper shakers were in this French cow holder.  You can read about how I fell for this guy here.  I still love, love, love him.

And the butter was in these tiny, individual Emile Henrie dishes.

Well, the sister was as cute and charming as she is, and I'm hired to re-decorate her master bedroom.  I hope this is the start of a beautiful relationship!

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