Wine Club Evening

It's our month to host our wine club!!!  

Everyone brings an appetizer to share, which all went on the dining room table.  In the center of the table was an idea I've had for a long time.  I've stacked wooden wine crates, and placed them on a burlap runner.  I wanted to keep this earthy and rustic.

I included a couple of wine related books, corks, grapes, birch covered votives, and burlap wired ribbons.

Here it is from the other side.  I took these photos before I pulled the chairs away.

The floral wholesaler was pretty short on sunflowers and earthy colors.  Every other person there was shopping for soft, pastel colors for their Mothers' Day clients, and that's what they were stocked up on for the weekend.

To hold the flowers, I used an old wooden pedestal bowl with this interesting monogrammed badge.

 

I love this burlap ribbon I found.  It was a good way to introduce another texture and I scattered some of the blossoms here and there. 

I set the coffee and dessert up on the drop leaf table in the bar.  Centered there is an arrangement of oak leaf hydrangeas and regular mop head blue hydrangeas with a little pampas grass.

I used this two layer server for the mini desserts that I made and served in 4-oz.square plastic cups from Party City.  That little silver trophy cup holds demi-tasse spoons that are the perfect size for these little cups.

  I made four flavors of desserts: banana pudding, tiramasu, chocolate/peanutbutter, and key lime pie.  All of the recipes came from the internet, but when I make these again, I'll just use my regular recipes for these desserts.  The whole key to making these is to use disposable piping bags for each part that goes into each little cup. 

My other contribution to the evening was this marinated shrimp dish.

I worry about fish sitting out all evening, so I used a large, shallow bowl and filled it with crushed ice.

Then I lined the edge of it with hydrangea leaves......

and placed the shrimp dish on top.  Keeping it cold makes the food taste better, too.

These little booklets that I made for everyone held a sheet for each of the six wines with reviews, price, descriptions, and information on the vintners.  

Pottery Barn is selling these sets of 26 wine charms that look like typewriter keys.  I usually think that wine charms are sort of cheesey and I hate the way they clink on the stem.  I buckled and bought these for the convenience of the group and I think they're pretty cute.

As usual, few people took the time to fill these out.  Really.....I don't blame them......all you need to know is if you like it. 

These manila tags were tied around the neck of each bottle.

Each wine was well received, which pleased me.

What a nice night.  We sat outside on all three levels and laughed among the bull frogs until the rain drops chased us inside.  

I'm joining:

Let's Dish

Cuisine Kathleen

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps On the Porch

Marty's Tabletop Tuesday

A Stroll Thru Life

Bird Cage Fabric

Here's the table I set for dinner tonight.  We have been so busy and I have cooked so little lately, that I thought I would fix a nice dinner and set a pretty table for the two of us.

This cheerful fabric was the inspiration, and I knew I had lots of turquoise and pink to go with it.  I thought about doing a bird theme, but decided to just let these clear, pretty colors shine.

And this was the inspiration for the location.  This is on our lower stone terrace and the beds here are filling in so nicely.  Of course, like most of the country, we are ahead of the game seasonally, so I decided to use this space which we almost tend to forget about.

These dishes picked up the turquoise and the strong pink. The flower shaped plate is plastic and came from Target a couple of years ago.

This is the back of the china.  I picked it up many years ago at a consignment shop in Cleveland, Ohio and it has a ton of serving pieces.  I think I got a treasure here.

Our peonies are getting close to the end.  I wish I knew what variety these are, because I would love to plant more.  The pink has a touch of salmon in it and is almost shocking.  This is an old McCoy vase.

I was willing to let the peonies be the only flowers on the table, but then I spied these blue hydrangeas in the fabric.

I simply turned to my left and picked matching flowers to tuck into the napkins.  How often does that happen?

The glassware consists of Waterford Lismore stems for water, and turquoise Martha Stewart (for Macy's) tumblers that I was going to use for wine.

Mis-matched silverplate with a mother-of-pearl handled knife worked fine for flatware.

Just for a bit of earthiness, I added old oak barley twist wooden candlesticks.

It made such a fresh, pretty but unfussy table.

I forgot to take two chairs away before I was snapping pictures.

Here's the long view.

Here's the view taken from the upper terrace.

And this angle shows you a bit of the lake.  Those yellow things you see are kayaks on the dock.

As I was loading these photos, I remembered that I did a very similar table in this same area last spring when our peonies were at their peak.  Here's a picture of it.  These same colors were on this table, but have a very different feel.  You can see that whole post here.  If you go to that post, notice how much difference there is in the maturity of the flower beds this year compared to last.

Here's irony for you.  Last year, after I set that table, I heard the weather channel say that bad weather was heading in and I reluctantly brought the whole thing inside when it began to look threatening.  It turns out that it was a devastating tornado that went through the area and we could never have eaten outside without being blown to Kansas.  And today.....I had to bring everything inside again, as it began to rain about four p.m.  It just wasn't the same in the breakfast room, but we were dry and safe. My heart still goes out to those who suffered such terrible loss last year.  Many are still re-building and many lost so much more than material things.  How do you heal?

I'm joining

Savvy Southern Style for

Wow Us Wednesday

Between Naps On The Porch

Tablescape Thursday

Cuisine Kathleen

Let's Dish

Inspiration Friday

At The Picket Fence

Fridays Unfold

Stuff-and-Nonsense

Home Sweet Home

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Inspiration

Garden Club Party III

I'm making a few changes, but if this post looks familiar, most of these pictures were posted a few weeks ago when my garden club came.  Some things are done by now, and some things are blooming that weren't quite ready then, but there's not enough difference to re-shoot and re-post.  I'm excited to see everyone else's entries to Alison's Favorites On the First party at The Polohouse.  This month's theme is "Share Your Garden".  Thanks, Alison!  Your beautiful blog will always be one of my favorites.

Also at:

Jennifer Rizzo's

Garden Tour Linky Party

Here's my entry!!!

This week, my garden club came to my house for lunch.  I offered anyone who was interested to go into the cutting garden and see how it was coming for the season.  (I also asked for any suggestions they might have.)    I thought you might like to see what they saw on their tour.  Here's the pathway, with the stones newly cemented into place.  For over a year, we had the base of crushed granite and sand, but they were only placed on top.  Mr. Pressed Pants and I had a little difference of opinion on the next step, so we had a Mexican stand-off.

Getting a little closer.  Do you see the five knock-out roses on the outside of the fence?  No???  THAT'S BECAUSE THE DANG DEER HAVE EATEN THEM!!!!!  Yes they ate the roses.

I just love this rusty old gate.  We usually have to keep it closed with a bungee cord to keep the dang deer out.  Yep!  They actually open it with their noses and stroll in.  They are still known to jump the fence, but at least it is a bit of a deterrent. (You may notice that the term "dang deer" is used as one word around here.)

Ok, I'm done with my rant and now you are right inside the gate.  Notice that the hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.  Yea!  I love them.

Here's the sitting area without the cushions.  Because we irrigate the garden with overhead sprinklers, we keep the cushions in the potting shed so they don't stay wet.  We designed this sitting area to hold four chairs and a round table if we want to dine out here.  I keep the table in the potting shed.  

Now I have the cushions out.  I chose to use the blue ones today.  I seem to have a wardrobe of choices.  Do you remember the Ikat fabric on these pillows?  I used it for a tablecloth here.

Here's the other side.

I've used this zinc barrel for an end table here and planted succulents for it.  There is some difference of opinion in blogland whether this is a French laundry tub or English. Care to chime in?

This table is interesting and I've used succulents here too.  I hope they don't get too much water from the overhead sprinklers.  The rock is kept here because it seems I always need to weigh down a stack of napkins.

This is the orange part of the garden, and it's mostly annuals like zinnias and dalhias, so they are not too far along.

The begonias that line the walkway are doing pretty well, and the pink zinnia in the corner is very happy.  Hosta line the walkway on the other side.

This is the Wms. Sonoma fire pit that I gave Mr. Pressed Pants for Fathers' Day one year.  I don't plant too close to it, because thing would get trampled when adding logs, or roasting marshmallows.  :-) 

You can see the yellow hibiscus here, a hard color to find.  The peonies are across the pathway and they are much more vibrant than they photograph here.

The yellow roses are blooming their heads off and the lower plants are blue balloon flowers that have not quite bloomed.

This is my newest peony.  Isn't it pretty?

You can just see the pink bleeding heart here with yellow tickweed across the path.

No, we don't have to leave yet....I just wanted to show you the hosta and the way I've planted around the forsythia and bottle brush plants.

And in one shady corner, I've just recently added these ferns and planted white/green caladiums in front.  That little speck of lime green on the right is a lady's mantle that I've moved around for years and it is never happy anywhere I put it.  Any thoughts?

I did open the potting shed for anyone to take a peek.  

I clipped a few ferns and hosta and ligustrum for the wicker bottle holder.

You can get a complete tour of the potting shed here.

Are you warm?  Help yourself to some water and, as they say in the South, "sit a spell".

See this post at:

Seasonal Sundays

The Tablescaper