A Toile Tale: porcelain starfish

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