Tablescape Thursday

Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting this weekly event. I enjoy all the tablesettings and especially love her Blue Willow tablescape this week. I can't wait to see everyones posts this week!

HOLA! Thought I would share one of my favorite table settings from Cinco De Mayo.

We love mexican food and when I saw these dishes on sale at J.C. Penney-they were just hard to resist! We have a taco bar at home almost every week and these are perfect for our little mexican fiestas. I love the bold colors and striped border around the plates. I think it's fun that they are each a different color.

I use the square plate to serve tortillas on.

I found the tablecloth at Bed, Bath and Beyond made of that wonderful indoor/outdoor fabric. I have used this tablescape out on the patio in the summer accented with muti-color flowers from my backyard.



The napkins were also sale items, I think they were $1.00 a piece. I found the Department 56 napkin rings for 75% off! They actually match another tablecloth and napkin set I have but they look great with this tablesetting too!

The salsa set was a birthday gift from a friend and it just happened to match-I just love that!

The large margarita glasses were also gifts and are perfect for ceviche or shrimp cocktails for a cool refreshing first course. I love ceviche and it is so easy to make. The recipe is at the end of my post.

Shrimp Ceviche

1lb pound medium cooked shrimp

1-2 ripe avocados chopped in bite-sized pieces
1-2 chopped tomatoes

Cilantro finely chopped

Sweet onions-finely chopped 1/2 cup (or more if you like)

Your favorite salsa 1/2 cup
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Lime juice

Garlic salt, pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate for a couple hours, serve cold over lettuce leaf in a wonderful glass. I love to use a large margarita glass. Enjoy!

Sunday Favorites: Stargazing in Oklahoma

Thanks again Chari for hosting Sunday Favorites-such a fun and easy idea! I'm new to the blog world and don't have many posts yet but I will share a repost from last month. Thanks Chari for all your encouragment and kind words. You are the most gracious hostess. Here's my repost from April...hope you enjoy!

Anyone who knows me very well knows my favorite flower is the Stargazer Lily. My husband gave me my first potted Stargazer almost 20 years ago and he bought it at a grocery store flower department. I had never seen this variety of lily and I thought it was so tropical and exotic looking -it was love at first sight!

When it finished blooming I almost tossed it out until I noticed the care tag and the instructions said this lily could be potted outdoors as a perennial. I never expected it to live, but I planted it anyway ( just in case) and to my delight my grocery store lily not only came back but bloomed the following year. I was hooked! I now have them throughout my flower beds and in Oklahoma they bloom around the Fourth of July. We enjoy them so much and they are fantastic in a vase-just remember to cut the pollen off as each flower blooms if you bring them indoors. The aroma is strong so beware if you are allergic. They are reliable easy care lilies. You'll find us out in our garden on any given evening in July just "stargazing" !

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone....Miss Bloomers

Red Sun Coleus

Red is one of my favorite colors in the garden so I wanted to share this picture I took while vacationing last summer. We visited Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain Georgia, a garden I have long wanted to visit after seeing it for years on the Victory Garden . The gardens were as beautiful as I expected, serene and full of wildlife. While in the hummingbird garden I took this picture of a drift of red sun coleus.

Finding Mr. "T"

Knockout Roses really live up to their name!

Purple pansies and yellow violas with white alyssum are an easy tolerant combination and can take our extreme spring weather changes in Oklahoma. I just love french wire baskets!

......and finally Mr. "T"

Finding Mr. "T" on Saturday was a nice surprise and quite amusing little break from our gardening chores. While busy planting begonias and cleaning out leaves from the flower beds our little terrier decided to explore a pile of leaves where she carefully decided to bury her cherished rawhide bone. In the process she met Mr. "T" and began barking incessantly, I went over to calm her down fully expecting to see a toad or frog but to my delight there was our resident turtle.

Mr "T", as we affectionately call him, had survived another harsh winter. I wondered if he was even still alive as I have saved his life many times from the driveway and street in front of our house. He roams freely and sometimes tries to cross the busy road. Thank goodness I have found him or he has found his way back. Since we live across the street from the lake I am always amazed to see him back in my yard but I guess he likes to munch on the bananas I throw out around my roses. I first discovered Mr "T" quite by accident and realized he would show up every time I "fed the roses". He loves bananas so Saturday I had to stop what I was doing to get Mr. "T" a fresh banana. This is the picture we took of him enjoying his post-hibernation snack!

Thanks Susan at A Southern Daydreamer for hosting Outdoor Wednesday. Check out all the beautiful posts-I've enjoyed them all!

Sunday Favorites

This "favorite" blue and white table setting is from my first post as I was learning how to set up my blog. I invited my neighbors and foreign exchange students for a spring tea and served quiche, assorted fruits and muffins along with several flavored teas. I used dishes my mother gave me from her vast blue and white collection she acquired while living in Japan and Hawaii. Some dishes are from China, some Japan and England and I just love to mix them. The simple goblets were from my great-grandmother and I love the bubble glass bases on the stems.

Thank you, Chari-I am having a wonderful time viewing everyones posts and learning in the process. Hope your Sunday is special.