Bloom Where You Are Planted

I hope every one had a good Independence Day weekend.
I hope your flowers are blooming,

and you are finding shade when you need it.

A Little Summer Decorating

Good morning Ladies. Did you all have a good weekend? I have been putting out a bit of the red, white and blue around here and thought I would share it with you. I got these white seed geraniums from our local nursery and they are doing pretty well here in the house. This is the first time I have heard of seed geraniums but I will be looking for them again next year, they are really hardy.
Here is a picture of John's handsome Father in this shadowbox that his cousin Peggy had made commemorating his service to our country in WW ll.

We usually go up north for the 4Th of July but this year we will be staying home because of John's work schedule. I'm disappointed but in these trying times when there is work available you count your blessings for having it so that is what I am trying to do. A little summer decorating always helps lift my spirits and hopefully it will yours too.

Hugs,

Sue

Wine Pairing at Buck's Run

Last night daughter-in-law Carrie and friends held a wine and food pairing event at Buck's Run.
It was a lovely night on the porch.

The ladies from Fabiano Bros. featured 4 different wines and explained how they accompanied each course. I wish I would have taken notes so I could share the names of the wine they presented, but alas the food and wine were so good that they could only be enjoyed in the moment. If more information becomes available I will provide it.

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This is the first course. Brie cheese, carmelized apples and pecans wrapped in a puff pastry went perfectly with the light white sipping wine.

Thank you Carrie, Melissa, Fabiano Brothers and Buck's Run for a beautiful early summer evening of friends, food and fun.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. I finally got my camera up and running again so hope to blog more again soon. I have missed you all.

Hugs,

Sue

~ Ruffels and Reading ~

What a beautiful morning it is here. I hope the sun is shining on you too this morning where ever you are. The flowers are so abundant here this spring that they beg to be harvested.
All the stalks on these iris are so loaded with blooms that they were falling over on to the sidewalk around the pool. John takes great pride in his pristine concrete so this morning I cut them back before their beautiful indigo stained his pride and joy.

Now his sidewalk is free of wandering flora and my sofa table is graced with armfuls of ruffled indigo iris.

One of these days I hope to get time to settle in and read the books that I picked up on the Island.

John Is Home ~ Thank You For All Your Prayers

Thanks everyone for all of your prayers. John is home now safe and sound. He had very minor damage to his heart so he should not have any further problems. We so appreciate all of your thoughtfulness.

Tonight we went and got plants for all the planters. Tomorrow I'm heading up north for a baby shower and John and Matt will do the planting. Thanks to Matt for the heavy lifting. John will be doing the supervising.

Have a good weekend and thank you again for all your kindness.

Hugs,

Sue

Prayers Please

We were supposed to be in Denver right now but at 4:30 am John woke me up and told me he was having chest pains and that he needed to go to the hospital. When we got there he was immediately diagnosed as having a heart attack. They took him right to the cardiac catherization lab and began a procedure to stop the attack. They were successful at opening the 100% clogged artery and put in a stint to keep it open. Thank God we did not get on that airplane. No telling what the outcome would have been if we did.

He will be in the hospital for another 3 days at least. They need to go back in and open another clogged artery but wanted to wait until he was over the initial attack to attempt it. So, probably on Monday they will to the other procedure.

He is resting comfortably now and when I left the hospital he had eaten dinner, wanted a snack, and was sitting up in a chair watching the Tiger's on TV.

Please join me in praying for his speedy recovery.

Hugs,

Sue

~ Roses and Bambo ~

Hi Ladies. How is everyone? It is a beautiful day her in southeast Michigan. I've been inside most of today unfortunately unpacking from up north, doing laundry and repacking to head to Denver for the Memorial Day weekend that we celebrate here in the US.

Above are the close ups of the piece in our foyer that Paintdiva1 requested to see in the comment section of the post below. Hope these help. It is hard to get a straight on picture because the hall way is so narrow. I can pull it out into the center of the room if you need a better view. Let me know.

Have a great weekend where ever you are my friends.

Hugs,

Sue

~ I found it ~

A few weeks ago I found this needlepoint pillow on the Internet and asked my needlepoint friend Sarah if she thought it would work to get 6 of them and convert them into chair covers for my kitchen chairs. She thought it would work and gave me a few suggestions on what fabrics would look good with the pillow tops to expand them to fit the chairs. I loved her suggestions. Then it dawned on me that I could not remember where I had seen the pillows.............So, the project was put on the back burner.

Well, today while surfing the web to find pants to fit me, which has become a huge pain, I stumbled upon the pillows. Of course, now I can't remember the fabric suggestions that Sarah gave me for coordinating, but at least I found the pillows. Any body have any suggestions?

Hope you are all having a great week.

Hugs,
Sue

Gathered Treasures

Shabby water stained print.
Tiny pots for mini violets.

A light weight silver pitcher.


Some greens for the picture.

A light weight arrangement for Jarvis to hold to greet guests.

Up close.

Fern fonds to form the base

of this arrangement for

the coffee table

in the great room.

Little moss pads

to put on silver plates and cover with cloches.

Now we need one more silver plate to finish it off.

It Has Been A Busy Spring

We ate way to much at Cindi's.
Just got back from Mackinac Island

with Dana and Angie

to celebrate Mother's Day.

We celebrated Taylor's First Communion.

Went to ride on Thomas The Train

with the boy's at the Henry Ford Museum

and spent time with my tree hugger friends. Isn't that tree in Mom & Dad's back yard huge???

I have been picking up fun things for the house along the way and will share some of them soon. Hope you are having a wonderful spring too.

Hugs,

Sue

~ Checking In ~

Hope everyone is well. We just got back from a quick anniversary trip to Florida and are headed up north tomorrow for family fun with the kids. Busy around here so not much time to visit or post.

Have a great weekend! Hopefully I will get back to joining in the blog parties and posting again next week.

Hugs,
Sue

~Candi & Cindi Uncoorked's Giveaway~

One of my BFF's and her darlin' daughter publish a monthly magazine in the Central Michigan area that has turned out to be quite a hit.
One of the monthly features of the magazine that is fabulously popular is their feature 'Candi & Cindi UnCoorked'. They prepare and style an amazing meal and sample several varieties of wine with it to come up with the perfect pairing of food and wine.

Candi & Cindi have started a blog that you can visit here to sign up to win the beautiful iridescent wine glasses in the picture above. They have several items left over from their photo shoots that they will be giving away in the future too. By signing up to follow the girl's as they get their blog site up an running you will have access to the giveaways and links to all the great recipes and wine pairing results that they feature in their magazine Mt. Pleasant Monthly.

Another feature that has everyone in the area searching for a copy of Mt. Pleasant Monthly is the home section. In this section they go inside one of the lovely homes in the area each month for an up close and personal look and the homes and the people that have created them.
Hopefully in the future they will feature these lovely homes on their blog site too. The picture above is a mural that Jan Alverado, a local artist, painted in Cindi's powder room.

Mt. Pleasant is a beautiful little college town, the home of Central Michigan University. It still has a thriving downtown community center where residents park their cars in front of the shops and spend part of their mornings and afternoons visiting with shop owners and other residents that they run into along the way as they shop for their needs, stop for coffee at one of the shops, or meet friends for lunch.
The streets lined with the huge old maple trees that hang over the boulevards are reminiscent of the lovely towns of Provence in southern France where the plane trees abound. The homes are lovingly cared for by their owners. A walk from home to downtown can take a long time as you visit with neighbors that you meet on your way.

Mt Pleasant Monthly captures all the charm and character that Mt. Pleasant has to offer. Candi & Cindi capture the kind of entertaining hospitality that takes place there in Candi & Cindi Uncoorked. On any given evening we get on the phone an invite a group of friends over and more often than note we end up at Cindi's where she miraculously pulls things from her cupboard and whips up a meal fit for kings. That is just one of the reasons that we call her the Queen.

Take a minute and skip over to Candi & Cindi's new blog, sign up to follow and leave them a comment to enter to win the beautiful wine glasses and welcome them to blogging. I'm sure once they get it all figured out they will delight you with their amazing talent and generosity.

~ The Winner Is Announced ~

Please join my in congratulating Celeste the winner of the Rosanna, Beach Cottage sets of dessert dishes.

You can visit her blog here.

Celeste generously features other bloggers giveaways on her blog. I thought it was sweet that someone as generous as she seems to be would win.

Thank you all for entering to win the Rosanna dessert sets. It has been a busy couple of weeks here so I haven't been around to visit all of you yet but I will and hopefully you will come back for more Life At Home. It has been my pleasure meeting so many new bloggers in this wonderful blogging community and I count every one of you as a friend.

Again, congratulations Cleste. Blessings to you and I hope you enjoy your new set of dessert dishes and that they bring you joy.

Hugs,
Sue

~ Tradition ~

Time is short around here like it probably is at your house today too. Yesterday I mentioned that if I got a minute I would include Nolan's high chair to my children's Easter tablescape post. Since I am short on time, here is our babies undecorated bunny high chair.
These sweet bunnies have entertained all of our grandchildren when they were babies. Never mind that this is the most uncomfortable, impractical high chair ever made, it is cute and family tradition! Part of the tradition includes the family member that has on the most flexible belt when babe' is hoisted into the chair takes it off and we use it to strap in said babe'. Ah, tradition.

While photographing the high chair this cookie jar caught my eye. Some of you have commented about these bunnies and when my friends were here last week we were discussing them. Well, here's the deal. When Sheryl got home she e-mailed me that Fitz & Floyd was having a sale and that they had the Old World Bunny candle sticks included in the sale.


Off I went to Fitz & Floyd's website to check it out.

Not only were the candle sticks on sale, but most of the entire line was still available at deep discount.

Here is the teapot that is perched atop of the dishes that are all clean and packed up, ready to be shipped of to the winner of my first Giveaway that you can still sign up for.

Gentleman bunny candle holder.

Lady candle holder.

The canape plate.

Blessings & Happy Easter my friends.

Hugs,

Sue

Children's Easter Fireside Tablescape

Happy Easter Tablescape Thursday. I have already visited a few of you and WOW this is going to be a good Tablescape Thursday. Make sure you get around to visit all the entries some time this week, they are really beautiful and will give you all kinds of ideas for your Easter Table.

Thanks again Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for giving us all the opportunity to share our Easter Tablescapes with each other and all of you.
We will be up north for Easter this year so my grandchildren will not be here. I set up this little fireside children's Easter breakfast table the way I would like to have it if my babies were going to be here for Easter morning.

Little egg shaped plates in different colors at each place setting so they can argue over who will get what color ;) Do yours do that? Blake will definitely want the green one.

Ruffled fruit dishes on a couple of the setting for the ones that will eat fruit. Riley will just want eggs and bread.

Taylor's favorite color is blue so she will most likely want to sit here.

Mrs. Bunny will make the final decision about who will sit where.

I really do wish they were here.

When they were here a few weeks ago they all got to see the decorations that I had out. I used a few of them for the centerpiece here.

This sparkly rabbit riding on the sheep is one of my favorite pieces.

Close up of the egg plate. I'm going to say this one will be Riley's pick.

This green one for Blake.

Blue for Taylor.

Yellow for blond little Aidan.

Mrs. Bunny is happy now.

This Welcome Spring egg always makes me smile.

Happy Easter to you, all my blogger friends. Tomorrow, if I get a minute, I will do a high chair set up for Nolan. I wouldn't want to leave him out and the bunny high chair that we have had all the babies endure is perfect for an Easter Tablescape even if it is the most uncomfortable high chair around ;)

Hugs,

Sue

Tablescape Thursday

Happy Tablescape Thursday Ladies.
The table is all set for a Birthday Celebration.

To set the table I used my dishes, flat ware, and accessories from Summer Hill, our old cottage in Harbor Springs.

This little tid bit plate is from the store I used to work at during the summers up there. I added it to the tablescape to coordinate with the butterfly napkin weights that I used on a couple of the napkins.

The mosaic bunny plate came from an arts and crafts show that they have annually at Nub's Nob in Harbor Springs. I thought it look kind of cute tucked into my faux hydrangea center piece. I can't wait till the flowers start blooming around here so I can use fresh blooms.

Here is a close up of the place setting.

This little candle stick with the sweet paper shade also came from Patricia Wood & Co., the shop I worked at.

It is a little faded but the detail on the back of the shade with the scalloped edge and hand sewn seam, ending in a bow, makes it worthy of preserving.

In the foyer I set up a little dessert table with the dishes that I'm giving away to let you get a peek at how they might look when put to use.

You can go to the tag on my side bar to sign up to win this dessert set by Rosanna Inc.

Thanks again Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. To join in or to visit the other Tablescaper's hop on over and take a look at her gorgeous site.

Hugs,

Sue

~ The First Life At Home Give-Away ~

Remember last week when I did a tablescape and mentioned the blue boxes in the corner. Well, here is what was inside those pretty boxes. While shopping last week for Blue Italian serving pieces at my new favorite discount store, Tuesday Mornings, I spotted these dishes. My first thought was my blogging friends and how these would make a good give-away so into the cart they went.

The round box contains a set of four mugs.

The tall box has a tall pitcher in it.

The square box holds a set of 4 dessert plates.

Aren't they sweet?

Each one is a different pattern.

I have wanted to have a give-away for a long time so when I spotted these Beach Cottage sets by Rosanna at Tuesday Mornings I decided the time was right. Hopefully you like what I picked for one of you. I must admit the temptation to keep them for myself. But, no......... these three sets are for one of my blogger friends ;)

To enter to win all three sets of Beach Cottage dishes sign up to follow Life At Home in the box at the top of my side bar so I can keep up with what you are blogging about, and leave a comment on this post. Spread the word to your blogging buddies and let me know that you have, and I will enter you twice to win. In two weeks, on April 15, the winner will be announced.

Thanks for reading Life At Home. I hope I have been able to spread some sunshine into your lives, I know all of you have brightened my days with your amazing blogs.

Good luck with the give-away and I hope you keep reading Life At Home.

Hugs,

Sue

~ April Food Day ~

Today many bloggers are joining together to get the word out that several of America's Food Banks are running out of resources.

In these days of economic turmoil any contribution to the cause by those who are able would be a blessing to those that may suddenly find themselves in need.

To learn more about how you can help you can go directly to the April Food Day site, to Feeding America's site, or donate directly to:

https://secure2.convio.net/a2h/site/Donation2?idb=1375441249&df_id=1560&1560.donat

Thank you for anything you can do to help out.

~ Blue Monday ~

Welcome to my first Blue Monday post. Thanks Sally for the invitation to participate. You can see other Blue Monday post by visiting Sally's site at Smilingsally. She invites everyone to join in or visit her Blue Monday participants.
I love to decorate with plates. So many of them are little pieces of art on their own.


This Asiatic Pheasant platter anchors an arrangement of other Asiatic Pheasant plates that crown the mirror in our powder room. This pattern is on of my favorites in the blue and white transfer genre. The cost of these beauties has sky rocketed since I first started collecting them many years ago, so the three that I have over my mirror are the extent of my collection.

These three, called Grecian, are English plates that I really like too.
Thanks for coming by and letting me join all you other Blue Monday blogger's.
Hugs,
Sue

Tablescape Thursday

Welcome to another Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch.
Finally, thanks to Pat at Back Porch Musings, the Royal Crownford Country Chintz dishes from Staffordshire, England that I got as a show gift in Chicago in the late '70's have some place mats to rest on and soft cotton napkins to match.

Pat tipped me off about the treasures to be found at Tuesday Morning's so on her recommendation I went to the one near us for the first time hoping to find some Blue Italian serving pieces. Well, they didn't have any but I did find enough other goodies to fill a cart. These mats and napkins were tucked in among the Easter items. I pulled out my color chips that I carry with me, and after some deliberation decided that they would work with the color of the dining room, and just might also be the perfect thing to use with my pitifull pink dishes that rarely see the light of day for lack of linen's to use with them.

So, what do you think? I think I just might like them.

See the pretty boxes in the corner on the chest in the background. Those were another find at Tuesday Morning's that I picked up for one of you! I can't wait to share all about them in an up coming post.

Thanks for coming by for Susan's Tablescape Thursday party. Join in or hop around visiting other Tablescaper's if you want to get creative with some of those beautiful dishes you have stashed in your cupboards or just want some pretty inspiration to get you going this morning.

Enjoy today and let me know what you think about the new linen if you feel like it. Talk to you soon my friends.

Hugs,

Sue

Met Monday ~ The Guest House Revisited ~

Welcome again to Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. Most of the regular visitors of Life At Home are familiar with the Guest House, but since many of you are new here I thought I would share again the project metamorphosis that Dana and I did on my parents Guest House.
This is the finished product of a year long project that started when my Father purchased a run down cottage that was located behind their house. At the time he really didn't know what he was going to do with the house, only that he thought it would be a good investment to acquire the land adjacent to their property. Then he decided that he would like to turn it into a little guest house. This picture shows how it looked just before we got started renovating it.

My daughter Dana did the design and acted as the general contractor for the project with me consulting with her over the phone. Bless her heart, she was the one that dealt with the day to day issues and had to listen to me freak out from a distance, and to Dad who was right next door, with every wall that was removed or cabinet that was built.

Finally, when all the construction was finished and Mom and Dad were out of town we set about the interior decoration. In three day with a one month old baby and three year old in tow we cleaned, shopped and stocked the little Guest House full to the brim with everything that you see in the following pictures.

To see the completed details you can click on the link below.
http://howtokeephouse.blogspot.com/2009/01/2008-project.html

Hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was bitter sweet. I spent the weekend up north with my grandchildren while their parents got away for a much needed rest and had a wonderful, exhausting time with them. Aaron & Angie came by with rest of my grands and where a huge help with the little ones. The sad note to the weekend was that when Dana and Doug got home on Sunday afternoon they found their beloved eleven year old Labrador, Spayd's dead on the garage floor. We have no idea what happened but you can imagine how horrific it was for them to come home and find her like that. She had been fine all weekend, playful and happy. We are all just sick about the loss.
Sorry, I didn't mean to go into this here but it is just so on my heart I couldn't help it. Spayd's has been with Dana and Doug for a third of their lives, I am heart broken for them and to have this happen on my watch.......well you can imagine how I feel too......

Thanks for coming by for Metamorphosis Monday and for listening to my sad story about our beloved Spayd's.

Susan has her link up on Between Naps On The Porch so if you want to join in on the fun stop by there and sign up. It really is fairly easy to do. Even if you don't want to join in the posting you might want to click on the links and see what other projects her participants are sharing. Susan's post on the transformation of her foyer has me totally inspired.

~ Foodie Friday Trainwrecks ~

Well, my first Foodie Friday post ever fell right into the theme of this weeks Foodie Friday Trainwrecks quite nicely. I had another funny story about food that I told our lovely host at Designs By Gollum that I was going to post, but this one worked out to be a trainwreck that fit the theme too and it was at hand, as they say. So, welcome to my first Foodie Friday entry.
From a distance it does not look too bad. A nice classic chicken piccata with steamed fresh asparagus as the main course. A light green salad and a side of lasagna left over from last nights dinner with John's sisters at Olive Garden. All accompanied by a mellow glass of Chianti Rufina.

On closer examination you can see that the steamed asparagus is a limp pale green version of its former self. John does not like his vegetables al dente but cooked a bit further. However, when he asked me if the asparagus were from a can I knew I had crossed the line from al dente to border line mush.

Trainwreck # 2 was the chicken piccata. Usually when I make this dish I use the bare minimum allowable of olive oil to saute the meat in. Well I saw on a cooking show that regular vegetable oil is preferable because there is less chance of scorching the delicate olive oil. Big mistake. Instead of using my regular process of heating the EVOO over medium heat and slowly cooking the chicken I cranked up this new oil and burnt the heck out of the whole batch of chicken.

Here you get a close up of the limp asparagus and the over cooked chicken, like you really wanted to see it close up......

Well, here it is even closer. You can see how greasy it is too, as well as burned.....

It is so disheartening to go to the trouble of preparing something and having it turn out badly.

Poor asparagus in all their fresh glory before I cremated them.

John's favorite salad, that we have with most meals, turned out just fine Thank goodness all was not lost. We ended up eating everything, well I did any way. Half way through the meal John said he was full and pushed his plate away. I'm feeling bad until he says, 'I had a snack'. When did you have a snack? 'Just before dinner, I saw Doug eating potato chips and that made me want some'. Seriously, we are so lame, i knew immediately who Doug was. Doug from the TV show King Of Queens. Doug made him do it............... Oh, and when he first walked in from work and saw the table set he asked 'Are we having food or is this just one of your tablescapes?'

Well, there you have it my first Foodie Friday and a typical day at our house. Thanks for letting me play along. Hope you enjoyed my trainwreck of a meal and that you take a few minutes to enjoy this lovely first day of spring.

I'm off to see what other Foodies have posted at Designs By Gollum and to see if I did this any where near how you are supposed to do it. Why don't you join me........but first leave me a comment so I can come and visit you too.

Happy Foodie Friday and First Day of Spring.

Hugs,

Sue

Tablescape Thursday

Welcome to my third Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch.
Today I thought I would share our everyday table setting.

Our everyday dishes are Spode's Blue Italian.

The square blue and white trivets come in handy for setting hot dishes on if I'm serving family style.

About an hour before dinner I will decant the wine so that it has time to breath and become nice and smooth.

Saluto

Thanks for coming by. You can see other Tablescapes by visiting Between Naps On The Porch and clicking on the other participants names in the Mr. Linky section of Susan's beautiful blog.

This has been fun, I encourage others to join in too.

I look forward to hearing from you and visiting other Tablescapers, these gals do some pretty amazing things.

Hugs,

Sue

Spring Fluffing

The delightful Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is having a Spring Fluffing party. I do not have much decorated yet for spring but because she is such a sweetie I did not want to miss her party so I thought I would share my fairly new mantel decoration with you all.
When my daughter Dana from Dana Moore Designs was here the weekend we were putting together the entertainment center she ran down to the basement and pulled up some spring things to fluff up the mantel.

The first things she brought up were my huge French rabbits that I like to use at Easter time. They fill in the space nicely. With these 18' ceilings you really need big items to make any kind of a statement. These big rabbits caught my eye at The Great Indoors several years ago and I look forward to using them each season. I purchased the blue and green Mama rabbit with her babies sitting on her and the green watering can at the same time. Dana used the books to set the watering can on to give it some height. Then she used an antique candle box that we had downstairs to carry the dark wood from the entertainment center over to this end of the room. The terra-cotta pot with moss in it adds a little softness to the arrangement.

This picture from upstairs shows the full fireplace with the crooked floating rug in front of it ;)

Thanks Rhoda for the party. I hope you enjoyed your visit here. These parties have been a fun way to meet other bloggers. I so enjoy hearing from all of you and so appreciate your comments and all of the new followers of Life At Home. Stop by Southern Hospitality , join in the fun and grab a cup of coffee and spend some time visiting the other participants. I hope to get around to visiting all of you soon.

Happy Spring Fluffing.

Hugs,

Sue

Metamorphosis Monday

Welcome to the first Metamorphosis Monday at Life At Home. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is our host for this fun event. Her Metamorphosis of her bedroom is divine, be sure to stop by and check it out and while you are there you can visit other participants in Metamorphosis Monday too.

~ Before ~ Today I thought I would share our entertainment center metamorphosis. Here is the cabinet that housed our old TV. This is a picture from last fall with some of our harvest decorations showing up. I really like this cabinet but it was too small. The TV in it was so small that our old eyes could barely see the picture from across the room when we sat on the sofa to watch it.

So, on a trip to Costco shortly before Christmas John decided we needed a bigger TV. I reluctantly agreed knowing that the big black box would be a huge eye sore in our open floor plan home. But, being the good wife that I try to be I gave in............remember I said reluctantly ;) We didn't have any thing to put the beast on so we quickly rearranged a few things. My pretty cabinet went upstairs in our bedroom and we moved a table from behind the sofa across the room and plopped the beast on it. Here you can see a glimpse of it behind the chandelier. I tried to hide it in the pictures taken at Christmas time but you get the idea.

~ After ~

Finally after a few months of shopping we decided to order this cabinet from Direct Buy. The cost was so much less than any we had looked at so we ordered this one site unseen. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of it for the price we had to pay. It took John and Matt a whole day to put it together but we are happy with the way it looks. What do you think? Better than the old beast plopped up on the table? It really is so much easier to see. I can even see it from the kitchen now.

It has plenty of storage for all the things that go with modern entertainment systems plus a little room to add some decoration. In this tower I put a few old books, boxes and bunnies.

A little more of the same in this side. I can't part with the old World Books that our children used when they were little for research before computers became so available. I thought they worked in here. The warm color and the memories they evoke seem to make them still relevant today.

Thanks for stopping by Life at Home and thanks again to Susan for hosting Metamorphasis Monday.

Hugs,

Sue

Tablescape Thursday

Welcome once again to Tablescape Thursday presented by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. One of these weeks I will get this right. Last week I could not get my link backs to work. This week the pictures loaded backwards, my fault but the window washers are coming in a bit and I don't have time to reload them right now. Any way, happy Tablescape Thursday.Hopsy at Monograms And Manicures and Miss Janice at Etiquette With Miss Janice are celebrating Lilly this week so I thought I would join in with this little lunch tablescape.

This little corner of the island in our kitchen is where I sit in the afternoon to have lunch. Today's lunch will be on this Lilly inspired table setting while I look through my Lilly book.

I have no idea what will be on the menu but at least the table is set and ready to go.

Again, I can't get my linky thing to work...........You can find Between Naps On The Porch, Monograms And Manicures, and Etiquette With Miss Janice in my side bar.

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps On The Porch has a Tablescape Thursday feature on her gorgeous blog that I thought I would join in. If you have not been to her blog you are missing out. Stop by and check her out and then visit the other participants in Tablescape Thursday.

Today I did a colorful table setting in the dining room. The dishes are MacKenzie-Childs Honeymoon in Blue and Green used alternately on each setting.

The stem ware is also various patterns of Mac-Kenzie-Childs for the small glasses and the tall cobalt blue wine glasses were a gift from my friend Sarah. I like the way they add height to the tablescape.

Here you can see some of the detail of the bases of the glasses.

The little white butter plates and salt cellars are old pieces from my white wedding ring china that another friend, Maurine got for me many years ago. The center arrangement placed on a gold frame mirror ties in the gold rims of the dishes and the gold silverware that John's Mom got us for a wedding preasant. The Tracey Porter candle sticks are from my old shop as is the whimsical puppy vase at one end of the center piece.

This ruffled bowl ties in with the ruffled edges of the dishes. I tipped it on it's side so you could see the pattern. The placemats and napkins, that I forgot to put on the table until after I had taken the photos, are green silk with pink, green and blue dragonflies


Thanks for hosting Tablescape Thursday. I hope you enjoy this crazy colorful tablescape. My text is not working right so please excuse the spelling and gramatical errors. Blogger won't let me go back in and fix them but I wanted to join in the party anyway ;)

I look forward to hearing from you and visiting other tablescapers.

Hugs,

Sue

~Organizing~

Good morning. I have been having technical problems with the computer but I think they are worked out now. In the post below I was trying to write about the new green paint that I ordered from Fine Paints of Europe that is supposed to be a match for the Laduree green that they use on their boxes. Every time I tried to type the cursor turned to a cross and would not let me enter any text..........Today it seems to be working just fine.

I've been around visiting all your lovely blogs but have not been having much luck leaving comments. Some times the cursor works and other time it does not. So any way, ~hi~ hope all is well with all of you. Are you all getting ready for spring? We are around here. I have been working with all my color fan decks picking out paint colors to do some painting. Paint colors are really difficult to pick out for me. I think that is why I like wallpaper so much. You get to see the big pattern and color and if you use multi colored paper it is very forgiving.

Our closet has gotten out of control over the winter. It is so cold in there so not much time is spent keeping it organized until the weather warms up.

~Laduree Green~

Happy Birthday Dana

~Happy Valentines Day~

Thirty some years ago Dana came into this world and has been a light in our lives ever since. Will you join me in wishing her a happy birthday on her blog at Dana Moore Designs? I'm sure she would get a kick out of hearing from you.

Hope you all have a great Valentines Day!

Decluttered Cupboard

These little risers really free up space in the dish cupboard. Tea and coffee cups looks so English Cottage cute hanging on cup hooks on shelves but I haven't had any success screwing the cup hooks in. It probably involves a drill to start the hole but my drill skills are lacking.

Hope you are enjoying this warm day.