Seaside Tablescape

Tablescape Thursday & Foodie Friday

I've never participated in Foodie Friday but I have stopped in to see some of the participants fun posts. SInce my post today about the shower includes a cute little custom cupcake I thought I would participate for the first time this week. Visit Designs by Gollum for more Foodie Friday posts.

On Sunday I hosted a bridal shower for my future daughter-in-law. I wanted everything to be perfect for her - and I think it was! The colors for the wedding in June will be orange and Spring green and I incorporated those colors into the shower. About 65 guests attended the shower at a local banquet facility. It's a beautiful place and I was thrilled with the party and the way the facility handled all the details. Now that the shower is over, on to wedding decoration planning! But first. let me show you the tables at the bridal shower.

The linen tablecloths were white and the napkins were orange. I bought a daisy shaped punch at Michael's and my husband helped out by punching out about 300 green and orange daisies to scatter on the tables!

Jen's wedding flowers are going to be Gerbera Daisies. I wanted to stay close to her theme, but not jump the gun and use the table and floral ideas she has so carefully planned for the reception, so I used white daisies for the seven centerpieces. I found darling silver wire baskets in square, round, oval, and oblong at JoAnne Fabric's. A few days before the shower I started with an oasis block lined with plastic. Then I bunched some green tulle around the oasis block to hide it from being seen through the wire basket. Then on Saturday afternoon I filled each basket with daisies, babies breath, frilly ferns, and some little tufts of green tulle. I was very pleased with the centerpieces and the variety of basket shapes made each one a little different.

Each table received two little green flower shaped dishes filled with pastel Cadbury chocolate eggs for the ladies to enjoy.

I thought about what I wanted to do about a cake for months! The lunch was served with vanilla ice cream. A lovely lady who made my daughters wedding cake 7 years ago made these darling vanilla cupcakes for the shower. She swirled white frosting on each cupcake ice cream cone style, then topped each with an orange colored white chocolate daisy. I placed one of the flower shaped green glass plates at each place setting and a cupcake on each plate. I used three different shaped plates and staggered them around each table. They looked adorable! The green petal plates and a candle were favors for the guests to take home.

Finally, I placed malted milk speckled bird eggs in cellophane bags tied with an orange ribbon at each place setting as an additional favor.

Please visit Susan at Between Naps On The Porch to find many more links to Tablescape posts.

Tablescape Thursday

Every month my husband and I lead a couples Bible Study. Each month a different couple in the group hosts the study at their home and we've made it a tradition to have dinner together first. Saturday, Valentine's Day, was our turn to host the Bible study. What a great evening to have a couple's party! We had a great evening together.

I used a red tablecloth with a 6" red velvet band all around and embroidered flowers at the corners. I bought it after Christmas. The flowers at the corners are probably small poinsettia's, but you really can't tell that when it's on the table. It looks totally appropriate for use all winter.

I dressed my table all in red, pink, and white. I started with heart shaped white lace doilies at each place setting. I used white china with pink floral trim, topped with a clear glass dinner plate and matching bread and butter plates. My napkins were pink printed with Valentine conversation hearts. I love these napkin rings. They look more like pearl bracelets.

Centerpiece: I started with an antique pedestal cake stand in pink milk glass. I added a cream colored angel, then wrapped and twirled some red heart foil garland around it. I scattered some pink foam hearts on the tablecloth around the centerpiece.

A couple of old fashioned valentines were held by glittering cherubs on two sides of the centerpiece. Crystal embellished candle sticks were placed on the other two sides. Pink votives in clear glass holders glowed at each place setting.

I placed my favorite pink goblets on rosy pink felt coasters...

Thank you for visiting my Tablescape Thursday post today - I hope your Valentine's Day was as lovely as mine! Be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps On The Porch to find links for many more wonderful Tablescape Thursday posts.

Holiday Tablescape Tuesday

In December my husband bought me some gorgeous new Christmas china! I was so excited to set the table with them on Christmas morning for dinner with our children and granddaughters. The dishes are white with a green holly and red berry border. I used a red tablecloth and green napkins. Then I placed small dark green velvet stockings on each napkin to slide the fork into. The red and green plaid fold at the top of the little stockings looked really cute with the tablecloth and napkins. I was thrilled to discover the identical holly border on my Christmas goblets! Also, I already had salt and pepper shakers and a cream and sugar which matched the china pattern perfectly. For a centerpiece, I used a large wooden box with a wooden handle, painted red. I placed a glass cylinder inside and inside that I placed a candle in a jeweled silver glass mosaic bowl. I still thought it looked a little plain so I encircled the glass cylinder with a thin green holly wreath. A similar holly garland wrapped its way around the handle of the red wooden box. I think pictures rarely look as pretty as the real thing and that is definitely the case in this picture. I thought the pictures I took on Christmas Day of the table were quite disappointing. The table actually did look gorgeous in red and green! The white china looked pretty with the white chairs and the linens.

Don't you just love setting a special table?!

Tablescape Tuesday is hosted by Susan at Between Naps On the Porch. Make your way there to see lots of wonderful tables!

A Rustic Vintage Table Scape

CeeKay has been visiting my husband and I for most of October. We've had a blast and we've had the opportunity to do a wide variety of things together. Last week we all drove to Mackinac Island in northern Michigan and we stopped on our way home for a couple of nights at our cottage. Now, even though the cottage is extremely rustic, we had great fun (much to the amusement of my husband) creating a table scape. We used whatever we could find, which included natural elements from the woods (since our cottage sits on 163 acres of wooded land) like leaves and logs from the wood pile, combined with an old screen door, vintage kitchen towels, an oil burning lamp, iron skillets, and letters from a vintage Scrabble game! I hope you enjoy seeing some pictures of the end result. At least we had fun and laughed as we created until about 2:00 a.m.! CeeKay has a Table Scape Tuesday post of her own using some different pictures of our efforts at the cottage. Please visit her too!

As you can see, we used iron skillets for our plates, a log and pine boughs for a centerpiece, and leaf and twine napkin rings.

Place cards were in order...what could be better than vintage wooden Scrabble letters to spell out our names?

Vintage aluminum cups for drinks, please!

A log from the wood pile, some pine branches, colored Autumn leaves, and pine cones made a fine centerpiece.

Looking through an old screen door we used as a backdrop, you can see the vintage towel and oil lamp.

You can see the old wood burning cook stove - yes, I cook on it even though we do have an electric model hidden away behind it! The wood burning stove also heats the cottage, even though we also have a furnace.

Thank you for visiting Mimi's Garden today! I hope you will visit again soon. Table scape Tuesday is hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Visit Susan to see many more wonderful entries.