A Blue and Yellow Birthday

One of my dearest friends recently celebrated a birthday and some of us took this opportunity to show her some love. This lunch was the result of this group effort.  It was held at our mutual friend, Anne's, beautiful home.

I agreed to do the flowers, and when I arrived, this beautiful table is what I saw!  Our honoree is a blue and white lover, so Anne pulled out this wonderful Blue Danube china, and set it on this Ralph Lauren tablecloth.  Waterford and vintage crystal added to the glamor.  Notice how, placing the china on a blue placemat makes all this pattern work perfectly!

Here's my centerpiece!  I have soooo many blue and white pots of all sizes and shapes, so I brought them filled with all sorts of bright yellow spring flowers.  Easy and pretty!

This worked so well and felt so fresh.

There were primroses,

tulips, daffodils, and gerbera daisies,

in a real mix of pots, including this one flow blue gravy boat.

The star is, of course, the daffodil. 

We even slipped one tete-a-tete daffodil into each silver napkin ring.

Anne added these precious little gifts for each person.  They are made from little left-over bits of clay from a potter.  Mine was this pink smile, and I have it on my kitchen window sill.  It brings a warm feeling to me every morning as I check the temperature and make coffee. 

Beth's was a tiny bunny, as she is a bunny lover!

One end of the table had these beautiful silver and crystal salt and pepper shakers,

And the other had these chubby little bluebirds.

Isn't this a beautiful table?

And isn't this a beautiful meal?  These are all Judy's favorites.  I wish I had a picture to show you of the delicious pound cake with blueberries that Beth made for dessert! 

It's my policy not to photograph my friends for my blog, but I wish you could see and know the incredible woman we celebrated here.  I have this birthday crown for all my friends to wear as we party with them, and it never sat on a more deserving head.  She is so caring, so spiritual, creative, funny, gorgeous, interesting, and just about perfect.  I am so fortunate to be her good friend, and I want her to know how loved she is.  My wish for you is that you all have such a friend.

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

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Coral and Turquoise On the Coral and Turquoise Terrace!

Since this isn't a terribly hot evening, we're having a couple of neighbors over for a simple cook-out.  I couldn't wait to use these pieces which I've had for years with our new cushions and tablecloth on the stone terrace. 

Even the flowers are re-runs from an event earlier in the week. 

I added a piece of white coral, some sea shells, and a bit of sea glass to make the centerpiece a bit more interesting.  Then I snuggled a votive with an orange candle into the mix.

Then I added these little china starfish.

I started without the orange placemats, but the plates were lost on all of that pattern.  That's ok, since, even though the cloth is outdoor fabric, I probably won't have to wash it now.  :-)  

Here's the placesetting I settled on. 

These dishes are from a wonderful store that has closed in Atlanta called The Plantation Shop.  They are made by Murval and are very heavy, which is good for outdoors.  I thought the bamboo flatware would be a good choice to go with them.

I think I bought these embroidered napkins at the same time at The Plantation Shop.  I'm wondering why I bought eight napkins and only 4 placesettings of the dishes.  Maybe that's all they had, but I sure wish I had 4 more.  The coral shaped napkin rings were from Pottery Barn, I think.

I really don't remember where I got these coral stemmed plastic glasses.  Aren't they cute?   I have no problem mixing "real" dishes with plastic, or melamine, or even paper.  Many would faint at the idea, but I say, that unless you are entertaining royalty, the mix is interesting and fun.

Since I had these cute little bowls to match, I decided to serve gazpacho as a first course.  It's perfect for a summer night, and soooo easy.  I was at the Alpharetta Farmers' Market this morning and all of the produce I needed for it was so beautiful.  It was a no brainer. 

Serving soup also meant I got to use these spoons from World Market.  I got some other serving pieces like this, too, but I was already bordering on coral overkill!

Something tells me that I'll be using this frequently this summer, as it is the perfect combo for our new outdoor colors.  You can see a post I did about them here.

See that dock at the lake at the bottom of the lawn?  I bet the men will be down there fishing before dark.  Janet and I will be reading my new copy of Annie Falk's Hamptons Entertaining.  It's so inspiring that I think I might plan another dinner party for tomorrow!

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