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