White, Birch, and Antlers

Sometimes, a table just comes from nowhere.  Many times, I sort of "percolate" a design and think and gather and play with options.  Today, this started with a quick errand that inspired me to set this table. 

Sort of woodland, sort of winter, and sort of serene.

These latex birch placemats were left over at Pier One from their holiday line.  I never saw them at Christmas time, but spied them in the clearance area last week.  I mean clearance!  They were originally $5.95 but were 90% off.  Yep!  Fifty-nine cents.  I sure wish they had more than four.

With the wood grain of the placemats, I decided to add wood grain plates.  These came from Boxwoods in Atlanta, my favorite table-top store.  (Maybe my favorite all-around store.)

I thought I'd pick up the grey in the placemats with these ikat napkins from Pottery Barn.  I never saw them in the regular store, but found them at the outlet.  I used them to separate the dinner plate from the salad plate. 

Then, for some more grey, I chose this twig flatware that Michael Aram designs for MadHouse.  Beautiful! 

I tried several different combinations of stemware, but settled on my trusty Waterford.  I like  rustic/elegant, high/low combinations.

Whole Foods was on my errand list anyway, and their flowers are often so interesting.  This week was a bonanza of glorious spring blooms.  I don't even remember putting these in my cart, I was so fast.  I had this white washed birch vase that seemed perfect, so into it they went.  I'm not too good arranging flowers without oasis to stick them into, but these soft stems do not want to be jammed into oasis, so this arrangement is sort of sketchy!  I did add some river birch twigs from the yard to give it a little more interest.

Just look at these feather edged Dutch tulips!

And I truly wish you could smell these fabulous hyacinths.  Heavenly!

Without a runner, this arrangement seemed sort of lonely and puny, so I grabbed these silvered antlers from the living room to extend the interest. 

They helped, didn't they? 

Then I remembered these silver antler candleholders that I've never even used yet.

They are a little small for these white faux bois candles, but even if the proportions are a bit off, I think they worked just fine. 

A Waterford crystal wine coaster seemed to be the best choice, since I have the Waterford stems on the table already. 

Because it's so cold out, I knew we'd be drinking coffee after dinner, so I sat the cream pitcher, sugar bowl, and a small custard dish with sweetener onto a fluted tin plate.  Grey and white again, get it? 

I can't wait to sit at this table, smelling these spring blooms, while we await the "snow event" here in Georgia.  We've been hearing about snow for days. It's ok.  We'll light the fire and cozy up reading tonight.  I need to finish my book for book club by Tuesday!!!

Joining:

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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

Is Ikat the new Buffalo Check?

Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda writes one of my very favorite blogs, and the best posts of all come on Mondays when she posts Blue and White Mondays.  She's had a great idea to start a Blue and White Linky Party.  I'm offering this post that I did quite some time ago, and it remains my favorite Blue and White post.  Thanks, Jennifer for all of your great posts and for the chance to participate!

On the whole, I'm not crazy about the trend toward global influences in decor.  At least not the multicolored fabrics that look sort of bohemian to me.  But....and it's a big but (no jokes here, please) I love, love, love single colored ikats.  They conduct themselves like a buffalo check.  That is, they give a pattern, but it's one that mixes with lots of other fabrics and patterns.  Add a stripe, a check, a polka dot, a toile, a solid...it all works!

 So, when I saw this good-sized remnant at Old Time Pottery for $5.00 per yard, I snapped it right up.  There's enough here to make a tablecloth and to cover some pillows for our tv room.

I just think this is so interesting.  Except for the photographer's shadow, that is.

With just this new tablecloth, and some inexpensive new dinner plates from Target, I've given these very classic and unremarkable pieces an entirely new look. 

Well, maybe I should apologize to these Portuguese chargers for calling them unremarkable.  I really do like them a lot!

These melamine dinner plates in a similar ikat pattern are next.  See how the ikats mix?  Target has quite a collection of melamine blue and white pieces, but I limited myself to just four of these plates, because I have so much blue and white already.

The salad plate is from Bed, Bath and Beyond and made by Strawberry Lane.  I bought a bunch of this pattern of dishes when Mr. Pressed Pants proceeded me in a corporate move and needed dishes.  They needed to be inexpensive, very durable, and blue and white to match the way I planned to remodel the kitchen in our newly purchased house.  These worked!

These bowls were from this batch of dishes.  I used them for a delicious gazpacho that we bought at the Farmer's Market in Alpharetta.

The flatware is available anywhere.

This urn is from our older daughter's wedding and I filled it with blue hydrangeas.  I think this table would look better with white hydrangeas, but those are done in my yard, and the blue ones are peaking now.

Heavenly!

The little white French butter keeper looked pretty cute.

 Well, what do you think?  Do you like the new look for these old favorites?

Maybe after dinner, we'll do a little fishing.  Or, at least Mr. Pressed Pants, will.  I find fishing a bit boring.  I'll be reading instead.  I just picked up Mary Kay Andrew's new book and I'm ready to start it.

We have some new residents living here.  The babies are just past the yellow fluff stage.  We love that the mom and dad come back each year....together....good moral fiber!