All Grown Up!!!

Life often sends you surprises and life in the blogging world is certainly no exception!  Can you imagine my delight when I read a comment left on a recent tablescape post from a fellow blogger who turned out to be a dear college friend of my daughter's?  Did you follow that run-on sentence?  I was thrilled with her compliment, thrilled with her outreach and thrilled with the re-connect.  But the best part of all is to see the beautiful home and the beautiful family (4 sons!) she has so lovingly created.  It seems my older daughter was so taken with my Veggie Luncheon post that she mentioned it on her Facebook page.  Carolyn read the shout-out and visited.  (Social networking.....blogging.......I feel sooooo hip!!!)  At any rate, this sweet face is all grown up and I'd just love the chance to have her visit my home again. Until then, we'll visit each others' blogs.

Won't you visit Carolyn, the Queen of Chaos at

http://sweetchaoshome.blogspot.com/

and tell her that Mrs. P sent you?

Veggie Luncheon

Mid-summer.....foodie friends.....a vegetarian guest.  Ahhaa!  I'll use these vegetable dishes that almost never get used. 

These inspired a green and white, all veggie tablescape.  They read "Made in Italy, La Primula SRL" on the bottom.  I think they came from Marshall's many years ago.

Here's the front door.  This photo is so crooked that it looks like you are entering a fun house.

I just hot glued seed packets onto a grapevine wreath and added a bow.

 

Here's the way the placesettings looked.  I decided that the table needed a shot of color, so I added some pink details.

These wicker chargers and white wicker patterned plates are getting a workout this summer.

And here's how the plates and the soup bowl stacked up. 

The bread and butter plates are from Walmart last fall.

Are you tired of these?  They are from our wedding gifts.

The flatware is from World Market and this pale pink linen napkin is wrapped with a kale leaf and tied with a narrow polka dot ribbon.

A close up, but fuzzy photo.

Then, for the dessert, I used these antique white cabbage plates.

I've been planning this centerpiece forever.  A Brussels sprout and asparagus topiary and tin cans filled with pink roses! 

Starting with a straight sided glass vase, I added Styrofoam and hot glued a sturdy branch into it.  Then I hot glued a Styrofoam ball to the top.

I stuck wooden skewers into about a million Brussels sprouts.  It took lots more than I thought it would.

Then I hot glued these to the ball.  I took two thick rubber bands and put them around the vase.  The top one held asparagus and the bottom one held leaves of kale. 

I looked and looked for some pretty cans of peas, but they all looked so commercial and new.  Thanks to the Graphics Fairy, I found these labels and covered empty tin cans instead.  Then I filled each with roses and added them to each side of the topiary.

These place card holders were such a hit.  They are nothing other than four green beans hot glued together and tied with a little ribbon.

Be sure to use beans that have a natural curve to the bottoms, but are fairly straight on the top.  I looked for some that had those curly little tendrils on them, just for added interest.

This little tea pot was just too perfect not to use, but it was so hot outside that nobody even wanted hot tea or coffee.  It was iced tea all the way!

How cute is this?  Strangely, it is from the wedding department at Michael's.  I guess they are doing a riff on two peas in a pod.

Here's one of those weird little happenings.  I didn't realize it until later that night when I opened it, but one of my guests brought a hostess gift of these cute napkins......with vegetables!!!  There's no way she could have known I was doing a vegetable themed table.  Whoowee!

I knew that this table would be a bit labor intensive at the last minute, so I planned to do nothing but work on the table in the morning.  These veggies just wouldn't stand up if I did them the day before.  So.......Whole Foods to the rescue.  I served a pineapple cucumber gazpacho as a first course, and then a simple Caprese salad with some of their great dinner rolls.  One of the guests insisted on bringing dessert and I was thrilled.  I had planned on simple vanilla cupcakes with two peas in a pod made from marzipan on top.  I was happy to save this time and enjoy her delicious chocolate peanut butter frozen treat. 

Note:

Mr. Pressed Pants and I used this table latter that day for dinner, but frankly, the kale was smelling a bit funky by then.  I'm glad I didn't try to make them up too far ahead of time. 

I'll be joining the following blog parties this week:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for Tablescape Thursday

http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/ for Tabletop Tuesday

http://savysouthernstyles.blogspot.com/ for Wow Us Wednesday

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/ for Centerpiece Wednesday

www.stuff-and-nonsense.net for Fridays Unfold

http://www.atthepicketfence.com/ for Inspiration Friday

http://designsbygollum/ for Foodie Friday

http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/ for Show and Tell Friday

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/  for Feathered Nest Friday

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/ for Home Sweet Home

The Ya Ya Room

When our youngest two grandsons visited a couple of weeks ago, I posted about finding a certain little boy's shorts hanging from the chandelier in this bedroom.  See it here.  When this was posted, I got a number of comments and emails asking to see the rest of this room, and the rest of the house.  I've been  a bit reluctant to show our home in great detail, but when I started getting phone calls asking for it, I decided to start featuring a room at a time.  So I'm starting with this guest room that I designed for a non-existent granddaughter.  We call it the Ya-Ya room. 

This was how the previous owners used it.

Deep colors, and heavy mahogany furniture.  I hate, hate, hate the look of overhead fans, even though they are necessary and wonderful in their practicality.  Out it went.  I put it in the potting shed.  You can see it here.

You can see that not only did we get rid of the popcorn ceiling, paint the whole room, replace the carpet, we also replaced the polished brass hardware with oil rubbed bronze.  We did this with the whole house, including the hinges on all of the doors.  I think this style of brass hardware really dated the house.  It was really good quality, but it had to go.

Here's my very favorite part of the room....this pink and white crystal chandelier.  Even the bulb has a cute little beaded cover.  I love this soooo much.  Listen.....it says "Ya-Ya"!!!!!!

I put twin beds in here.  It's always nice to have the option of twin beds for guests.  If you have a crowd, you can put compatible people in the same room, when you might not want to if they had to share a bed.  The carpet is an olefin that looks so much like sisal, that people can't believe it isn't sisal.  I couldn't go with real, since this is on the terrace level of the house, and has a cement subfloor.  The possible moisture problem is minimized with this product.  I've used in in several houses.

The sheets and shams are Yves De Lorme.  It is such great stuff!  Yes, I DO iron it, though.  When you do, it is so heavenly.  Soft but crisp.  Guests are worth it.  The beds are a tailored style of cherry and mahogany with just a tiny bit of gilt.  Very understated. 

The matelesse is a cute white polka-dot by Malabar.  I just keep hoping that guests won't put their suitcases on it.  Trust me, I always point out the luggage rack!  At the foot of each bed is a mohair throw that is so cuddly and soft.

Over each bed is an oil painting of a bunny in a deep burnished gold frame.  The plate is by Luneville, a French company.

In between the beds is this nightstand.  I found this white ironstone lamp years ago at a consignment shop in Indianapolis and put a white silk shade on it.  Every  guest room still needs an alarm clock, even though most people set their own cell phone alarms these days. The candle is lilly of the valley scented and is on a small green and white china butter pat, ans the little piece of lace was my grandmother's. 

On the floor under this nightstand is one of the few silk flower arrangements you'll find in our house.   I think these are exceptional quality and they are in a white porcelain urn from our older daughter's beautiful wedding.

Going around the room, next is this Victorian chest and mirror that I painted white and antiqued green.  It holds extra bedding and pillows and the drawers are lined with beautiful paper. 

This is actually three random pieces that I put together and unified with paint.  The top with the two small drawers, little shelves, and this great keysone was made to have a mirror hang off of it and tilt.  That mirror was missing, but I found one that is just hung on the wall.  These green hobnail lamps are from Martha Stewart's old mail order company and I replaced the paper shades with silk.  The porcelain dresser set is an antique.  I always have water in a guest room, too.  Oh, look here......it's another silk plant!  I guess I don't have as few as I thought.  This one is lilly of the valley.

Beside the dresser is this chaise lounge that has been in our family for years and years.  Between my mother and I, this has been recovered so many times that I can't count.  I have a great upholsterer that made these cute little flowers under the buttons.  I love this needlepoint pillow.  The one behind it has a bee skeep on it.

It matches some Osbourne and Little fabric that I used in our last house.

This pair of etchings are from Williamsburg and are hand colored.  They each represent the month of the birth of our daughters. 

This round table holds some very sentimental photos, a Limoges box, an antique plate, a metal candlestick, a paper mache rabbit and a lamp with a dimmer switch.  These sheer curtains are just off of the rack.  I'm still contemplating what I want to do.  I may just leave these plain, because I don't want any fabric to fight with this...........

beautiful organza overlay.  It is pretty great, isn't it?  The plaid is a pink and white silk.

The tub chair is another piece that has been recovered several times. 

The green and white pillow is hand painted and the needlepoint one is from a dear friend.

I'm sort of over this plaid, so I'm going to recover it in this fun fabric.  I think it will make this room look a little fresher.

The closet space is great on this room.  I use one side  for out of season clothing storage, and the other one is simply for guests.

I love this metal sconce and this photo of our family at the beach on Sanibel Island.

Don't you hate it when you're visiting someone and there's no trash can?  There's always those airline labels from your luggage at the very least.  I'm always surprised how much trash is in here from guests.  This is a good look at the carpet in this room.

Another special gift.  I have it hang on the doorknob.

Here's the inside of the closet.  Luggage rack, towels, ironing board, iron, padded hangers, and a plastic bag for dirty clothes.  I always bring these home from hotels so that our company can take their clothes home in them.  I also have a one-size-fits-all terry cloth robe and some washable slippers.  Another thing that I have in here and I'm surprised by how often it is used it this little fan.  Several people say they like the white noise of a fan.  Who knew?  At our house, you'll need it to drown out the noise of the crickets.

On a small wall over by the entrance are these two small antique French cartouches.  They are hand colored and matted in a gilt edged oval.

Isn't this exquisite?

And here's the other one, although a bit blurry.

Lastly, this hangs on the doorknob.  It tells me when this room is NOT ready for coffee.

The very, very best part of this room is the people who stay here.  We have moved so many times and have no family in town, so we miss so many people in our lives.  Nothing makes us happier than to fill this room with guests and spoil them a bit.  Would you like to make a reservation?

I'm posting on Metamorphis Monday at

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/