Blue on Blue Seascape Table Setting

Beautiful blues are have been on my mind for a long time.  I have been longing to walk along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and gather seashells and driftwood as I wander along.  Just holding my husbands hand while we walk and chatter as we go.  No schedules to follow,  nowhere to rush off to.  Just us,  talking and laughing as we go along our way.  The lovely aqua water of the Gulf changes it's hue as the sun travels across the sky on it's journey to yet another beautiful sunset.  We'll take a blanket and settle down on the sand as dusk is approaching.  Watching as the sun sinks lower on the horizon while shades of blue deepen at the waters edge and the suns ambient glow illuminates the surrounding clouds with red and golden orange streaks that are punctuated with the graceful silhouettes of a pair seagulls flying towards the sunset.    Someday I will walk those beaches again,  but not today.  Instead I can enjoy the beautiful changing colors of the water captured in a blue on blue seascape table setting.

Last year I fell in love with a tablescape that Alycia at Table Twenty-one post called (which you can see here )-> Ocean Blue - Starfish & Seashells  the tablescape was set outside where the beautiful natural light could play off of the Akcam starfish plates with all of the colors of the ocean.  As luck would have it I found the same plates at the HomeGoods Store earlier this summer.  Later I found some aqua dyed seashells in the clearance isle at the same HG Store. The table was set when the sun came up the other day and provided the changing colors of blue that I wanted to replicate.

I love the way the early morning sunshine gleams off of the glass plates and the way the shadows reflect the sun rays from above.

Tiny blue fish appear to be swimming in  crystal clear water in the wine glasses.












The tortoise shell like finish on the flatware glows in the morning light too.







Champagne napkins from Park design are sheathed by aqua organza that was an Ebay purchase several years ago.  Layered colors of blue, aqua, and white in the candles reflect the ever changing colors of the water on the Gulf Coast.  Faux sea glass table scatter has been colored aqua to help complete a beach like scene. 

The centerpiece is a seashell mermaid that resides in an old lantern,  

she is standing on a layer of sifted beach sand

Do you see my little helpers standing at the back of the living room chair watching as I am

Taking pictures today?

Two of the little ladies are named already.  The little dark ash blond on the left is Cindy and the pretty blond on the far right is Becky. Becky and Cindy were adopted from an Ebay vendor a couple of weeks ago.  The two dollies in the center were found living on their own at local thrift stores.  I brought them home and bathed them and dressed them in whatever I could find.  They were so happy to have a home and to be taken care of.  The only requirement they have is that I create pretty doll clothes for them to wear and to share them on Wednesdays like JoAnn at Scene Through My Eyes does on her Wednesday Wee Ones  posts and like Diane at Lavender Dreams does on her Wednesday posts.  I suspect that the dolls will be hanging out with my kitties watching me while I am sewing new outfits for them,  and maybe they will be watching while I am creating new tablescapes for the fall too!

Just a few more pictures of this tablescape morphing while I start to dis-assemble it.

After I removed the centerpiece,  picked up all of the table scatter,  placed the fish wine glasses into the sink to wash, and put the flatware back into it's storage container I pulled out my old Fiesta peacock flatware and the pretty aqua champagne glasses that we had used at Easter and played tablescaper for a bit longer.

 The fish netting over the grass cloth wallpaper with the bamboo table runner stands out nicely with all of the "other" stuff removed.  Just a few of the aqua dyed shells and the candles remain.  Much simpler!

The Players

Aqua diamond sparkle chargers bought off of Ebay.

Blue shell plates

Starfish plates

Starfish plates from HomeGoods.

Thrift store wine glasses,

Napkin rings from Marc's. Just $1.39 for a set of four.

I bought two sets.

And now for the winner of my Second Blogaversary Celebration Fall Linens give-away drawing.  Dear hubby had to do the honors of drawing the winner this year.  Low tech....  the names of all of the sweet people that visited and left a comment at my blog over the past two posts (one per follower) were written down on a square of note paper and placed in a hat 

 (that would be the straw hat that hubby wears at the beach when we are in Florida).  Dear hubby closed his eyes and pulled out.........(Drum roll please)...... Susie Holler's name!

Congratulations Susie!  I will need your address to send you your new Park Designs Indian Summer tablecloth and napkins.  Thank you to everyone who participated this year. 

Remember to thrift on ladies,  thrift on!

I will be sharing at:

Susan's Tablescape Thursday

Birthdays And Other Milestones - A Fiesta Tablescape

Every September we have our annual Virgo Birthday Celebration. Usually we combine this celebration with Labor Day and have a cookout.  This year one of my Virgo sons could not make it for Labor Day so we moved the party to my birthday weekend instead. This celebration was for more than celebrating our collective birthdays but a celebration of the week that I would retire,  the week that I would be earning my last paycheck and the week I would be receiving my first pension check.

I decided that a fiesta party would be a lot of fun and relatively easy to prepare for.  My husband prepared a pork loin on the rotisserie grill,  my DIL Zhenia made sweet potato pasta with a savory butter sage sauce with a touch of maple syrup.  I made corn and shrimp chowder, corn on the cob, home made sweet corn salsa and rolls with butter.  My son Richard was the photographer for the occasion.

The table was set with figural vegetable bowls and corn plates. Red pepper garlands ran down the length of the table.

We were serenaded by our little friend strumming the guitar (I think it's a guitar) on the table.

 

We did not get any pictures after the soup was served.  The rest of the afternoon and evening flew by.

The shelves behind the dining table were starting to look like fall decorated with pumpkins and leaves of red, yellow, and orange.

 The fall shelf elves have taken their place once again this year.

 And a Fall pixie fairy has decided to reside on the shelves to keep the elves company.

I decided to reset the table (for four instead of eight) with the serving platters and a few tweaks.  I added the candle holders and the red bowls instead of the figural vegetable bowls. The gold bubble glass water glasses were replaced with gold bubble glass wine glasses.

I have used the soup tureen as my centerpiece (bought at HG during my annual birthday shopping spree),   the soup tureen was also set in the middle of the table for our fiesta after removing the original centerpiece..

 The acorn bowl held our sweet potato pasta,  the maple leaf bowl was piled high with corn

 

 The butter was served in a figural corn butter dish,  we used the Sunny Day Park design S&P's.

I used my Vintage Franciscan October serving platter and my Susan Winget Patchwork Rooster serving platter.

 The napkins and the table runner are also from Park Designs.  A red pepper napkin ring was used for a casual look.

 He's so cute!

My new seat cushions from Goodwill (they tie in the back with satin ribbons).

 My friends at work had a nice birthday luncheon for me.  I wanted to share a few pictures of my cohorts. 

From left to right are Kathleen (avid thrifter and yard glass artist), Gloria (also an avid thrifter and a garage sale enthusiast),  I am sitting in the middle at the table,  Lynn (Lynn trained to do a lot of my duties in purchasing and processing steel) is standing behind me on the right, Sandy (my trainee for vendor claims), and Lorie (she is a thrifter too).    

Kathleen and Gloria- my shopping buddies!

All of the ladies got together and bought me a Goodwill gift card as a birthday present.  How great is that? And that brings me to the rest of the story.  I have been smitten with Tuscan decorating.  Not the wine bottle and grapes kind of Tuscan,  but the warmth of the colors and the style of the wood furniture and the wall art.  I took my gift card to three different Goodwill Stores and got all Tuscaned-up with wall art,  candle holders, lamps, and a whole crop of stuff.  You can see some of my birthday goodies on the shelves below.

 The horizontal plate rack and all of the candle holders you see here,  as well as the book stack and the red and gold sunflower plates.

 

 

     I assure you that there is much more.  I went shopping armed with two 35% off coupons and got lucky with several 50% off  purchases.  Yep I used the whole card up.  As I progress through the living room and dining room I will be posting pictures of my thrifty decor items.

Have a great weekend and of course - Thrift on ladies, thrift on!

I will be sharing at:

Susan's Tablescape Thursday.

Nita's Mod Mix Monday

Marty's Inspire me Tuesday

Kathryn's Make It Pretty Monday

Maria Elena's Tuesdays @ Our Home

Kristin's Table It Link Party

Dawn's History and Home Link Party

A Shamrock Spring Tablescape

Spring is here at last - kind of.

OK,  I know there are shamrocks on my plates and I know it is now spring but there are three good reasons for me to be showing the green again this week for a spring tablescape.  First:  I found my missing shamrock plates, second:  I won a beautiful set of shamrock green Fiesta plates at Missy Bowen's The Victorian Cottage  that I really want to use, and third: I wanted to use my Belleek Daffodil vase that also has shamrocks on it.

These are the beautiful Fiesta Plates that Missy sent me.

 

Don't they look lovely with the Bordello Pinheiro shamrock plates? They are one of my all time favorite Goodwill finds at only a dollar each (or it could have been fifty cents each)

This is my Belleek Daffodil vase from Goodwill.

Looks like spring to me!

The shamrock wine glasses are all Goodwill finds.

Thrifty floral candle holders from Marc's (my favorite close out store) for only $2.99. Can you see the cute little bees on the echinacea flowers? The lovely crocheted scarf came from the VOA store.

Checkers anyone?

My post from last week "Dining With Leprechauns" is being featured at Laura's Friday Favorites linky party.

Bunnies have been invading my house all week.  They are everywhere!  There are white bunnies, pink bunnies, yellow bunnies, bunnies with floppy ears, bunnies the tall ears, bunnies with babies (oh my goodness all of the babies),  bunnies in people clothes, bunnies that garden,  golly you name it and I got those kind of bunnies.

******************

Sue at  Housekaboodle   is having a Getting to Know You Party at Her Meet the Neighbors Linky Party.
There is a list of questions to help you introduce yourself to people in the blogging community that may not already know a lot about you.

These are my responses:

1. Morning person or night owl.?  Answer: Well that would depend on what you call morning.  Does waking up at two O'clock AM  to work on your blog constitute a very early morning person,  or a very late night owl person? Let's call it a very early morning person (unless I lay back down and catch a few more hours sleep).

2.  The doorbell rings and it's your neighbor.  Do you invite them in or pretend you are not home?  Answer:  Unless I had just stepped out of the shower and am attired only in a towel wrapped around my body,  I would let them in. I am always in the middle of a project and eager to get feedback on what I am doing.  My neighbor's are all sweethearts and I adore them and I place a high value on their opinions.


3. When out of sugar do you visit a neighbor or head to the market? Answer:  I can't imagine borrowing food from a neighbor.  Lawnmower yes, food no.

4. In home design, what is your go to color combination?  I am very drawn to a warm neutral setting.  I fell in love with kilim beige a few years ago when HGTV used that color in their Dream House giveaway.  My favorite color to use with this beige is sage green or a warm red.

5. Where do you live now and given the choice where would your dream home be? Answer:  I currently live in a lovely community in Medina County Ohio.  In my alternate universe I would love to live in North Carolina,  especially the Lake Lure area or near Henderson, NC.

6. What is your favorite social media and why?  Answer: Pinterest is my favorite go to when I have a little time to spend on indulging myself with an overload of ideas. I have so many different interests and Pinterest takes me anywhere my whimsical interests want to go.  Incidentally my current whimsy is fairy gardens - I am in love with fairy gardens.


7. What inspired you to start your blog?  Answer: The internet inspired me.  When my company closed it's Ohio operation and I lost my job several years ago I found out computers were not just for work anymore. I found a community of people with the same interests that I have.  I kind of stumbled onto tablescaping while I was looking for something on the Garden Web,  from there I saw a post where I found Susan's Between Naps On The Porch.  I have always been crazy over pretty plates and table settings and blogging gives me a way to share my ideas. 

8. Do your family or friends follow your blog?  My sweet sister-in-law JoAnn checks my blog every week and my good friend Gloria at work checks my blog out every week too. My son's say they visit every week! Bless their little hearts! Every once and a while one of our friends from my husbands Navy days will visit too.

I think that is enough about me!

I hope you can get over to Laura's "I'm not a Trophy Wife" to visit,  and to Sue's blog and visit some of the lovely homes that she features in her blog and to Missy's Blog - Missy has a gorgeous Chocolate Bunny Tablescape using a Fiestaware flamingo dinner plate, a chocolate lunch plate and a turquoise desert plate with a chocolate bunny on top this week....Really cute!!

Have a wonderful week.  Thrift on ladies, thrift on.

Candy

Linking To:

Friday Favorites Linky Party

Meet the Neighbors Linky Party

Make it Pretty Monday

Seasonal Sundays

History and Home Link Party

You're Gonna Love It Tuesday

Tablescape Thursday

 Share It One More Time Party