With Christmas less than a week away, I've decided on a table setting for the dinner we will have Christmas Eve. Celebrating Christmas Eve with a formal dinner is a tradition that my parents started when I was child, and which Greg and I have happily continued. Christmas Eve dinners are merry and cozy, bright with glitter and glam!
I really enjoy setting tables. It lets me bring a fleeting bit of beauty or joy, sometimes of whimsy or laughter to family and friends.
I couldn't resist going to the 43rd Annual Collectible Glass Show held in Marietta, GA last weekend! It's a tablescaper's dream weekend — to see, touch and buy beautiful glassware in myriad colors and styles. You can find pieces from the early 1900's through the 1970's, some unique, some fairly common. Let's begin!
Art glass and elegant glass
Summer is in full swing and it's HOT outside — and probably will be getting hotter right through August! In the garden, flowers are blooming in deep, vivid colors, the ones we would call hot. Reds, oranges, purples, fuchsias and bright gold/yellows. Green leaves have deepened, saturated with color.
Inspiration for a table setting can come from just about anywhere. I had been sitting on the deck in the shade of the trees, enjoying the flowers in the containers (seen here) and watching the wrens busily bringing morsels of food to their chicks.
It was obvious — I should bring the garden to the table!
I don't think I told you, but at the end of April I broke a couple of bones in my hand and in my elbow. My husband is suggesting -- only half in jest! -- that I be wrapped in bubble wrap for awhile. Actually I just need to pay more attention when carrying things around two large and very enthusiastic labs, who want to be in on the action -- whatever it is!
Of course that was prime gardening season, which I missed out on. So for Mother's Day Miss J took me to the nursery to select flowers and annuals which she then planted in containers for me. We bought small-sized plants, knowing half the fun is watching them fill out and grow.
Come along on a short tour of container gardening!
I want to invite you in to have a look at our new master bath! You may recall that we renovated our kitchen last fall/winter. What I didn't mention is that we gutted the master bath at the same time. I know! How crazy is that? We did it to save on labor costs by bringing the various trades to the house fewer times. (At least in theory... with renovations that lasted from the end of October through the beginning of April, it's hard to tell.)
To start at the beginning, we built our house 22 years ago. We loved our bath from the start. It was spacious and boasted two vanities and a closet for each of us. Our house was semi-custom, in that we were able to modify some aspects of the house including placement of walls and expansion of the back of the house with changes in the roofline. We also specified the flooring and cabinet choices.
Nonetheless, 22 years can take quite a toll on rooms as heavily used as bathrooms and kitchens. The bath had reached the point where it was no longer functioning, and we were using the guest bath instead. So a complete renovation was in order, and we thought long and hard about the features we wanted.
Now onto the photos! We chose large porcelain tiles that mimic marble for the floor. What you can't see is that the floor is heated! The bath is above the garage and was unbearably cold in the winter, even with the portable heaters we dragged in each year. We replaced the wall-to-wall mirrors with smaller, prettier ones, and flanked them with sconces.
We are so proud of our daughter! Miss J graduated from the University of North Georgia on May 3 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
We had been planning to host a celebration with her friends and family. She wanted her guests to feel at ease and decided that a party at our house would be perfect. Of course we agreed, but we wanted it to be an evening to remember!
Lots of folks have weekend-long Memorial Day celebrations, but that hasn't been our style. We have occasionally been invited to a large party at friends' houses, and we've even hosted a small intimate party at the lake. But generally speaking we have a pretty low-key Memorial Day.
Are you a fan of Game of Thrones? I hadn't paid attention to it for the first few years, then got caught up in it when I was laid up with a broken ankle and went into general TV binge watching! I think the story and characters are engrossing, with multiple twists and turns in the plot lines. I have not read the books, so each episode is new and surprising. And I love, love the music!
With sunlight streaming into the house I wanted to set a spring tablescape that would mirror the view outside our windows — azaleas bursting in bloom...
...and birds building nests.
Well, I couldn't contain my excitement any longer! After 18 long weeks of renovation chaos, we have a finished kitchen! Well, almost...there's still a relatively small punch list of things for the contractors to do. But it's a working kitchen that I can't wait to share with you!
I'm often asked where I get ideas for tablescapes and vignettes. Of course sometimes I start with a plan. There's a holiday coming up or perhaps a change of seasons. Or I've just found something fabulous that I want to showcase. This week I hadn't thought of anything particular.
But then I was looking through my 'bucket list' and came across the Sandhill Crane migration. Every year in late winter/early spring over 600,000 sandhill cranes converge in the Platte River valley flyway to refuel for the journey to their subarctic
nesting grounds. This is something I've got to experience!
While musing about a trip to the Platte River, I realized I hadn't done a tablescape featuring Kutani Crane dishes. I had found inspiration! And better yet, I had plates!
I was very excited planning this table! It is the first St. Patrick's Day table I've set since we traveled through Ireland last May. So I've included a few shots from our trip to set the stage.
Ireland is incredibly green, in shades from yellow-green through dark spruce. Miss J is admiring the view from Newgrange — even in the rain, the greens are vibrant!
Sleet, high winds and — thunder. What a day! Glad there was nowhere I had to go!
February 5 begins a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. Lunar New Year celebrations start on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month of the Chinese calendar and last for about 23 days. As a result, it comes on a different date each year. I particularly enjoy celebrations during the long winter months. They provide something to look forward to and moments of bright color to brighten what can be quite dreary days.
Every season has its beauty. On this cold, blustery day, I decided to embrace January's by setting a glittery table of silver and white.
We are in Week 11 of our kitchen and master bath renovation. It has turned the whole house upside down and inside out. We've retreated to the lower level that we finished a little over six years ago. The game room/garden room where I've been designing tablescapes is the only room in the house which has escaped the chaos.
