Once In A Blue Moon Dinner

Tonight, to celebrate the "Blue Moon", we ate a late dinner out in the cutting garden.  A blue moon is a rare phenomenon when there are two full moons in one calendar month.  Mr. Pressed Pants and I were married on a blue moon evening, so we always celebrate whenever this occurs.  After tonight, there won't be another blue moon until 2018!

 

Come on into the garden with me.

Of course, the table must be blue tonight!

This is pretty simple, but it is just the two of us and it's a very casual meal.

I put a white burlap tablecloth from Ballards over the collapsible table that I keep in the potting shed.  Then I layered this blue and white cloth from Crate and Barrel over that.  The rattan chargers are from World Market, and the blue handled flatware is too old to have a provenance.  These hand painted plates are made by Mesa in Porgugal and I love the way they echo the checks in the tablecloth.

These clear goblets came from Bed, Bath, and Beyond years ago, and I used these footed blue goblets as wine glasses.  They are not at all precious, and pretty sturdy, so I don't hesitate to take them to the garden.

These blue and white barley twist candlesticks are also from Portugal.

Here's what the white roses from Whole Foods looked like when I took them out to the potting shed.

I cut some hosta and some ferns and tucked them in and it made a world of difference.

Here's the arrangement on the table.

This French pot is the perfect size.  I use it a lot.

The "matching" bowl will hold salad tonight to go with pasta primavera.  The stripes are a counterpoint to the checks.

A simple white napkin from the Palm restaurant line of linens separates the charger from the plate.

Here's the tray that brought the dishes out from the house.  Isn't it pretty?  I gave it to my mom years ago, but when we sold her house and she went to an assisted living facility in June, I took it back.  I knew I would love using it.  

It was a beautiful evening.

The effort to get the stuff back and forth is worth it.  Every meal in the garden seems to make a memory.

The light wasn't the best to photograph, but you get the idea.

Here's a different angle, over the paddock area and down the driveway to the road.

I keep several sets of pillows in the potting shed and these blue and white ikat ones were perfect for this dinner.

The potting shed is one of the reasons I fell in love with this house.  You can take a tour of it here.

I can't pass up an opprtunity to style a surface!

The Limelight hydrangeas are white this year.  They have been more green in past years.

Can you see that we need to paint the board that was replaced early this spring?

The fence could use a date with a paint brush, too.

We're now awaiting the appearance of the moon tonight.  I naively thought that it would be blue, but our meteorologist says not necessarily.  We'll see!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

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Between Naps on the Porch

Share Your Style

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No Minimalist Here

Show and Tell Friday

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My Romantic Home

The Scoop

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Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Inspire Me Tuesday

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A Stroll Thru Life

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Table It

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Rustic and Refined

Home Sweet Home

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The Charm of Home

Sheltered Nest Friday

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French Country Home

Wow Us Wednesday

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Savvy Southern Style

Make It Pretty Monday

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The Dedicated House

Fridays Unfold

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www.nancherrow.com 

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Pink Majolica Breakfast

I had been thinking about doing a post with these dishes for a while.  I especially wanted to use them during berry season.  I have been collecting pieces of this for a long time.  These are large dessert plates, or maybe small luncheon plates.  At any rate, they are just the right size for breakfast and that's how I used them here.

Whole Foods had these gerbera daisies and I thought they looked so much like the flowers on the plate.  (I bought berries that looked like the ones on the plate, too!)  I put them in this small square pot from the floral wholesaler.  I think it was about all of four dollars.  I bought a couple extra for gifts, I thought they were so cute.

Here's the way the table looked, but disregard how it clashes with the rug.  With a round table, the rug is going to show, ya know!  I started with this plain green cloth from Crate and Barrel.

Just look at the detail on this plate.  Isn't it so sweet?  It has a large "F.G." carved into the bottom and the words "Hand Painted, Portugal" in script stamped on it.  Does anyone know anything further about this?  It resembles majolica.  I've found pieces lots of different places, but nobody seems to know what it is.

I found these mugs that aren't quite the same, but they go together pretty well.  They are marked "the haldon group" on the bottom.  The inside is a beautiful, soft shell pink.  These have a blue ribbon, while the plates have pink, and the basket weave is a little larger and creamier than the plates. 

My vintage LuRay china had the perfect size little berry bowl to go with this.

And, of course, this pink flatware was my choice for utensils.  Pretty and dishwasher safe!

I love these scalloped linen napkins and I used an acrylic frosted green napkin ring.

My sweet friend, Jan, gave me these glasses years ago.  They make me smile just to see them in the cupboard, because they remind me of what a good friend I have.  There is nothing like treasures from a treasured friend!

So here's the simple table.  Just a plate for a sweet roll and a bowl for berries.  I can't believe I couldn't even remember to photograph the berries.  I guess that I lost my focus around food again!

The sweetener is in a little ceramic box that my mom gave me a while back, and I chose these jadite pieces for the cream and sugar. 

And, oh yea.....look what I found in a little shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  A juice pitcher!  Score!!! I was really doing my happy dance, that's for sure.

Can you see the inside of the mugs?

These little guys lasted days and days.  Don't you love it when that happens?

Here's an invitation to visit these blog parties in which I'm participating this week:

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On the Porch

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home on Friday

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

http://frenchcountrycottage,.blogspot.com/

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/

Inspiration Friday at At The Pickret Fence

http://www.atthepicketfence.com/

Fridays Unfold at Stuff and Nonsense

http://www.stuff-and-nonsense.net/

Seasonal Sunday at The Tablescaper

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

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!