A Toile Tale: August 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Zinnias in the Meadow

I love to go the the farmer's market and let my imagination run wild. The produce inspires me to make dishes that I've never tried, the cheeses inspire me to give a cocktail party, and the flowers inspire me to dig out dishes I've not used in a long while. That's what I've done here.

I brought home a large bunch of multi-hued pink zinnias and added them to some hydrangeas I had in the garden. Then I threw in a few miscellaneous blooms and called it a day.

This cachepot is made by Spode and was a birthday gift from a girlfriend. I won't say which birthday!!!!

I love, love, love this old table. I use it in my studio to hold my sewing machine most of the time. Here, I've placed it in the meadow just on the edge of the woods.

I don't know what it was originally used for, but it is made of ONE board! It certainly has seen some kind of heavy use.

I noticed how beautifully the sun was hitting the meadow, so I brought everything outdoors to enjoy this beautiful, lazy day.

No neutrals here! I went for vibrant pink and green to compliment the hot pink zinnias.

I bought these plates on One King's Lane. I've loved them ever since the postman delivered them. I wish I had more than four.

Here's the mark on the back. I don't know anything about them other than this. I guess "Pescador" means "Fisherman".

I bought the bow-back chairs from our breakfast room out to the meadow. Then I added some pillows for comfort. They are covered with a green french grain sack material. They usually reside on the sofa in our keeping room.

These napkins are from the Palm line of linens and these knots are from Old Time Pottery. I've seen them in lots of high end shops. The flatware is old and I can't remember just where I got it. Everything went on these bright leaf green placemats, which added a real punch to the table.

The glassware is a mix of high/low for sure. The green stems are from the Dollar Store, and the other are very old etched cranberry glass. I have no hesitation to use them together. I'm just glad that they all made it back into the house without incident.

The salt and pepper shakers are as old as our marriage. They are made by Imperial Glass.

I swear it was a few degrees cooler here in the grasses.

This wasn't terribly far from the house, but it felt like sort of a break with reality!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps on the Porch

Dishing It and Digging It (Sun.)

Rustic and Refined

Share Your Style (Wed.)

No Minimalist Here

The Scoop (Mon.)

Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Inspire Me Tuesday

A Stroll Thru Life

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Home Sweet Home (Fri.)

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

French Country Home

Foodie Friday

Designs By Gollum

Wow Us Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Monday Funday

All Things Heart and Home

Make It Pretty Monday

The Dedicated House

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Share It One More Time (Sat.)

designthusiasm.com

Share Your Style (Thurs.)

21 Rosemary Lane

The Creative Exchange (Thurs.)

The Happy Scraps

Zinnias in the Meadow

I brought home a large bunch of multi-hued pink zinnias and added them to some hydrangeas I had in the garden. Then I threw in a few miscellaneous blooms and called it a day.

This cachepot is made by Spode and was a birthday gift from a girlfriend. I won't say which birthday!!!!

I love, love, love this old table. I use it in my studio to hold my sewing machine most of the time. Here, I've placed it in the meadow just on the edge of the woods.

I don't know what it was originally used for, but it is made of ONE board! It certainly has seen some kind of heavy use.

I noticed how beautifully the sun was hitting the meadow, so I brought everything outdoors to enjoy this beautiful, lazy day.

No neutrals here! I went for vibrant pink and green to compliment the hot pink zinnias.

I bought these plates on One King's Lane. I've loved them ever since the postman delivered them. I wish I had more than four.

Here's the mark on the back. I don't know anything about them other than this. I guess "Pescador" means "Fisherman".

The salt and pepper shakers are as old as our marriage. They are made by Imperial Glass.

I swear it was a few degrees cooler here in the grasses.

This wasn't terribly far from the house, but it felt like sort of a break with reality!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps on the Porch

Dishing It and Digging It (Sun.)

Rustic and Refined

Share Your Style (Wed.)

No Minimalist Here

The Scoop (Mon.)

Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Inspire Me Tuesday

A Stroll Thru Life

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Home Sweet Home (Fri.)

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

French Country Home

Foodie Friday

Designs By Gollum

Wow Us Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Monday Funday

All Things Heart and Home

Make It Pretty Monday

The Dedicated House

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Share It One More Time (Sat.)

designthusiasm.com

Share Your Style (Thurs.)

21 Rosemary Lane

The Creative Exchange (Thurs.)

The Happy Scraps

Friday, August 5, 2016

Alfresco Dining - Two Tables with Coral

When Chloe Crabtree from Create and Decorate invited me to be a part of her Alfresco Dining blog hop, I was flattered, excited, and inspired. Now that it is time to post, I've decided to feature two tables I have done that both have turquoise in them, one soft and subtle, and one much more vibrant and busy. Take a look:

On this first table, I started with these napkins embroidered with turquoise coral, and kept the colors quite soft and costal.

The table was set down on our lower terrace, surrounded by greenery, flowers, and stonework.

The whitewashed charger from World Market reminded me of driftwood. I added a turquoise scalloped dinner plate from Target, and used antique mismatched flatware.

The napkin was softly folded and laid on the plate with a small fisherman's float used as a placecard. I found them at Pottery Barn last summer.

A real shell serves as a small bread and butter plate.

These stems are etched with costal images and the turquoise tumbler is a Martha Stewart item used as a stemless wine glass.

The centerpiece is simply a pottery dish filled with sand and shell, with some beautiful sea glass.

These sea urchin salt and pepper shakers fit the bill perfectly!

A few stripped pillows made the very ordinary chairs more interesting and more comfortable.

Are you ready to move to the upper terrace and see something a little more exciting? Bring your drink......

Here's the location. It's poolside, and we love to eat here and hear the sound of the waterfall and the frogs.

This coral patterned fabric and cushions are from Ballard Designs. They are such an improvement over the cushions we had previously.

Since this tablecloth (which is indoor-outdoor fabric) is so busy, the orange placemat helps to set the plate apart. The dinner plates are from a store in Atlanta that has gone out of business. They are made by Marval. I chose bamboo handled flatware to keep the tropical feel.

Yes! These ARE the same napkins in a different color. These napkin rings look like coral and came from Pottery Barn.

These stems are so fun. Do you see the coral in the stem?

I used these matching bowls for a cold corn and crab soup.

And I love the soup spoons I found at World Market.

The centerpiece started with a bunch of bright orange Gerbera daisies and a piece of white coral. I added an orange glass votive, and shells.

And these wonderful porcelain starfish.

There is a lot going on here, but because the colors are kept to basically two colors, it works.

One more place that I used a coral design was in these salad servers. Now I think I'm done buying coral items. Enough!

Thank you again, Chloe for the opportunity to join this lovely group of bloggers for your Alfresco blog hop. Be sure to visit all of these posts for a wide variety of outdoor dining. There are five new posts each day all this week. You'll see sunflowers, daisies, classic design, contemporary, funky, elegant, and lots of surprises.

www.celebrateanddecorate.com