Aqua Flutterings

Welcome to the Tablescaper. Please visit our gracious host Susan at Tablescape Thursday to see many beautiful tablescapes: http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Bright aquas and greens welcome you to the kitchen! The sunshine is streaming in. A sheer aqua table square set catty corner to a sheer green gingham runner - both from Century 21.

This was the debut of my fluttering bird plates, a Christmas gift from my good friend and fellow dish-a-holic Kim, purchased at Anthropologie. Can you imagine that she bought me dishes?!?! LOL -I think these were a must have because of the teacups!

The funny thing was, as I started to put them out, I couldn't imagine what I was going to use them with. I seemed to have managed. Glorious shades of aqua on the pedestal cake stand. Fun Mexican glasses, a Homegoods purchase.

The Anthropologie cake plates came in 3 color schemes - a blue center, with gold border.

A white center, with blue and green border. A green center with gold border. The dinner plates with a green border and white center purchased ages ago were the perfect match. A close up of one of our fluttering friends perched upon a tea cup.

Green print napkins were a great find in the marked down section of Home Goods, by my favorite April Cornell - the print even has a little bird on it! The aqua hurricanes are from Villeroy and Boch, the pitcher from Home Goods and I can't remember where the flatware is from. A little dragon fly friend. Beaded napkin rings of aqua and green from Century 21. When I set a tablescape like this, I will want to enjoy it for while and really use it. We're a busy family of 5 and leaving the table "set" is impractical. Of course my kitchen cabinets are already bulging with sets of dishes, so where to go with the current tablescape dishes? I purchased this pot stand which I don't use for pots. Instead when I change out my dishes, the pot stand holds the current tablescape, the extra place settings (I have service for 12 with almost all of my dishes) and the serving pieces. It makes them handy and attractive.

Will the rain ever stop?

It's June

almost summer

school is just about out

Will the rain ever stop?

I had been holding onto my youngest daughter's rain boots, eventhough she had long outgrown them. I thought they would make a fun "rainy day" tablescape! I just put a drinking glass in the boot to hold the water for the tulips. The watering can was from a florist arrngement years ago. The candle rings were from Christmas Tree.

Wisteria

The blossoms invite
the color and vine entwine
the fragrance explodes
...wisteria....

-Tablecloth by April Cornell

Patriotic Dinner Party

Welcome to my second Tablescape Thursday. My last post featured my Memorial Day Barbecue on my back patio. This past Friday night I hosted a dinner party honoring a new bride and groom in the family. We were blessed to attend the beautiful wedding of one of Mr. Scaper's cousins. The bride and groom delayed their honeymoon for a family christening and the groom's brother and family were visiting from Georgia. Our dinner enabled us to get to know the lovely bride and visit with cousins we rarely get to see. Those of you that entertain regularly and not just set beautiful tablescapes, know that it's a lot of work. Work that I love and enjoy, but none the less... So, I continued with the patriotic scape I started with on Memorial Day. I brought it inside and kicked it up a notch or two. After all, we're right in between Memorial Day and Independence Day!

I moved the round table in the living room back against the French doors and used it as a serving spot for hors d'oeuvres. I used my dessert plates from Christmas Tree as hors d'oeuvres plates. I pulled out my little forks with blue distressed glass.

For hors d'oeuvres I did something I've always wanted to do. My good friend and fellow dish-a-holic Kim suggested serving shrimp cocktail hanging over the edge of shot glasses with cocktail sauce in the center. My local dollar store had tall slim cobalt blue shot glasses and so the concept took shape. I put a tiny lettuce leaf in the bottom and topped with cocktail sauce. In the future, I'll probably use 2 or 3 lettuce leaves so the cocktail sauce isn't so far down the glass. Then I hooked the three shrimp around the glass. Here's a side view of an indvidual glass. We also had bacon wrapped dates and stuffed mushrooms. I used Barbara's recipe. She's my good friend and fellow dish-a-holic's. Her secret ingredient is that you place a thin slice of pepperoni in the bottom of the mushroom before you stuff it. It gives the mushroom an extra little bite, but since the pepperoni is thin, it's just a little spark. I rounded out the hors d'oeuvres with a platter of cheese and crackers. I also had roasted red pepper hummus with raw carrots and pita chips for dipping.

Now onto dinner. On the little star plates I served a green salad with cranberries, toasted almond slices, goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.

The next course was penne pasta with a homemade marinara sauce. I love my star plates and bowls. I got them years ago at Home Goods. They are American Atelier at Home, Tall Ships. Unfortunately I could only get 8 dinner dishes, but I did get 12 soup/pasta bowls. This was a dinner party for 13 and I wanted to make my star plates work so I alternated the star dinner plates with my solid red plates.

And now time to peal the onion. The first layer was blue and red star plates - Target dollar section purchases. They were perfect for a little taste of salad.

The next layer were my American Atelier at Home Tall Ships star bowls in which I served the pasta.

The next layer was either the American Atelier at Home Tall Ships star dinner plates OR...

...the solid red plates. The solid red plates were a long ago Christmas Tree store purchase.

The final layer was a cobalt blue glass charger purchased from Walmart.

For my backyard barbecue I used my Gibson blue handled flatware. In my continued effort to kick up the barbecue look to a sit down dinner, I used my Fontana by Towle sterling that I inherited from my mother-in-law. Since I was serving steak, I used my blue handled Laguinole steak knives. I brought my huge hurricanes from Christmas Tree Store, that I had already decorated in a patriotic theme, inside to the dining room table.I added four little cobalt blue vases filled with red carnations. Knowing my love of blue, my youngest daughter bought me a little blue vase for Christmas. While working out this tablescape, I purchased 3 more little vases from the Dollar Store to complete the look.

I added Uncle Sam hat place card holders to give it a fun but a touch more formal look. I put the napkins with napkin ring in the cobalt blue glasses. It added a bit of flair and with 13 at the table, I needed every inch of flat table space possible.

I think both the solid red dinner plates and...

the star dinner plates look terrific. The layering look is probably better with the solid red, but the individual star dinner plate is quite elegant.

Down the middle of the table I ran both red and blue gauze/burlap runners I purchased from Villeroy and Boch. They framed the middle of the table for the hurricanes and small vases.

One last view.

Just a quick shot of the mantel with it's patriotic flair!

Please view other inspirational tablescapes on Tablescape Thursday sponsored by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Simply click on the pink tablescape above to view the others. A special thanks to Susan for her very detailed Metamorphosis Monday that indicated how she enlarged her photos. My oldest daughter and Tecnological Advisor worked her way through the detailed instructions and enabled my post to have such beautiful photos. Thank you Susan.