Little Gray Bunny

What's sweeter than a little gray bunny?  When I saw this guy at Homegoods, I knew he would have to  hop into my cart and come home with me.  

The weather has broken in Atlanta, and I wanted to spend this warm morning outside with Mr. Pressed Pants.  It was a bit brisk, but we enjoyed our breakfast, especially knowing that pollen season would soon be upon us.

Oh, yeah!  Can you tell spring is here.  For real.  

I started with this gray and white striped fabric to pick up the gray in the bunny plate, then I used this latex cabbage leaf under the charger.  After all, bunnies hide in the cabbage patch, don't they?

Then a faux-zinc grey charger, a white scalloped plate from Z-Gallerie, then the bunny salad plate.  The charger is made from an inexpensive plastic one from Hobby Lobby which is sprayed with a primer, then chalkboard paint.  Then you smear a piece of chalk all over and lightly wipe off.  Voila!  

This grass green cotton napkin is gathered in a ring featuring Little Gray Bunny's cousin, Little Pewter Bunny.

The green handled flatware is from World Market.

And these glasses are from Ikea. A dollar each!  Yep!

Even the coffee cup makes me smile.

The flowers are Lenten Roses, or hellebores from our yard.  

I put them in a metal cabbage basket. (More places for Little Gray Bunny to hide.)

This will hold our almond croissants from Trader Joes.  Have you tried them?  The best!  The easiest!  You just put the frozen croissants on a cookie sheet when you go to bed and don't even cover them, then when you get up in the morning, you bake them.  Try it!

The salt and peppers are peas in a pod from Michaels, which got to come to the party simply because of their color.

This pewter sugar and creamer set was a wedding present, an oldie but goodie, for sure.

This is an unexpected color combination for spring, but I think this guy would NOT want to go with pink or yellow.  Just gray and green, right?

I wish you could see how plump the blooms are on the dogwood tree.  They will probably start opening in a day or two, and the trees will leaf out.  Then the pollen starts and we sneeze and clean and sneeze and clean.  

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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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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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Old China and Warm Chatter

Sometimes you just need a day to catch up .  My dear friend and I have recently been on similar pathways but they haven't seemed to converge.  We both experienced a loss of someone in our immediate families in the last couple of months, and while we tried to be there for each other, we just never seemed to be able to get together to privately share.  So, today, we set aside the day to lunch and get caught up.  

I wanted to make her feel extra loved, so I tried to set a table that was just a little special.  It recently feels a bit like spring, so I tried for a fresh, crisp table.  I started with this organdy embroidered cloth layered over a white linen cloth and set at a small table in our breakfast room.

Isn't this a pretty cloth?

Then I chose this old china that has a maidenhair fern pattern on it.  I often use it for St. Patrick's Day because it reminds me of shamrocks.  It's made in England by John Haddock and Sons, but I don't know the pattern name.

It was a simple, but pretty table, using green handled flatware from World Market.

The napkins were a grass green cotton, layered with a fine, white, hand-embroidered linen one, then I settled on a simple white wicker napkin ring.

These water goblets might be the deal of the century.  They are a knock-off of some exquisite William Yeoward fern-patterned ones at about one twentieth of the price.  Our daughter chose the real things for her wedding crystal, and they have become so expensive that I declared her collection complete.  Then I found these and I scooped some up for her and added a few for me.  Hope she isn't reading this, as I'm planning to surprise her with these for her anniversary.

This delicate green swirl glass was picked up at Scott's Antique Mart years ago.

This china came with lots of extra pieces and I couldn't resist using these tiny little butter pat plates .

For the asparagus soup, I layered a green depression glass plate, a white paper doily, and a small soup tureen.

This white azalea in a white urn, topped with bright green moss reigned in place of flowers.

It fed my need for spring! 

This little salt and pepper holder came from Pierre Deux years ago.  Don't you miss that beautiful store.

The Waterford cream and sugar rested in another piece of the china.

I make it a policy not to photograph my friends when I blog about a get-together, but I wish you could begin to know the beauty that my guest brought to this table.

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