Christmas Tablescape-Dining by Candlelight

I look forward every week to Susan's Between Naps on the Porch and Tablescape Thursdays.   This holiday season I have been inspired by so many beautiful tables.  This year my table was simple, but thought I would share this week.   

Christmas evening we dined by candlelight in our new dining room.  We still have some finishing touches to complete in this room as time and budget allows.  I love red and white and used my Target dishes purchased several years ago along with my favorite red goblets.   I found the goblets in a gift shop in Grapevine, Texas and just had to have them.   

I just layered a lace tablecloth over my red tartan plaid one for a more formal look.  I used my Wallace sterling silverware  and a few milk glass candlesticks mixed with my everyday  clear ones.

 

I bought grocery store flowers and arranged greenery and added a few candy canes for color.

We got twelve inches of snow and were really "snowed in" but  shared a wonderful family Christmas dinner with my three sons, husband and two dogs. 

Happy New Year!

Christmas Evening Table

 Sunday Favorites

Thanks Chari for all the inspiration you have given me during the first year of my blog!

I love red and white and dining by the soft glow of candlelight.  I set a simple table this year due to time constraints.  Sometimes simplicity is just what I need with everything else I have to do during the holidays.
I just layered a white lace tablecloth over my red plaid one.  The plates are from Target and the red goblets I bought in a little shop in Grapevine, Texas a few years ago. I love the size and weight of them, not to delicate for my guys to handle. 

Another view of the dining room and Christmas tree.  We are enjoying the soft glow of the new chandelier especially since my hubbie installed the dimmer switch. I didn't order my floral centerpiece this year but bought grocery store flowers and greenery and just added a few candy canes for color.

Hope your Christmas dinner was wonderful and shared with your loved ones!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a blessed and Merry Christmas...we are currently under blizzard conditions in Oklahoma and I'm enjoying being in the comfort of my home with my loved ones.   I'm thankful for a warm home this Christmas Eve and for all the new friends I've met this year through blogging.  Stay warm and safe!    Hope Santa brings you whatever you wished for!

Sunday Favorites-Precious Angels from Heaven

I posted this originally for Pink Saturday but it's perfect for Sunday Favorites too at Chari's place at Happy to Design.  Chari, thanks for your visit today! These are some of my favorite little Christmas decorations.

I love having things around me that belong to my Mom and grandmothers as it reminds me of times we shared when I was growing up.  These familiar things bring a sense of nostalgia, comfort and family and I love decorating with special "family heirlooms" at the holidays.   My mother has given me so many lovely things, and several years ago she passed along these little Christmas angels to me.  They are from the mid 1950's and  have the sweetest little faces.  They are actually older than me and belonged to my grandmother.

I have them on the side table in the dining room this year..but I think they look cute no matter where they are.

Have a Blessed Holiday Season and Merry Christmas!

                                 

Holiday Chandelier - My first Metamorphosis Monday

I love Metamorphosis Monday and have been a fan but have never participated..so this will be my first Metamorphosis  post.   Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch  for always being such a wonderful hostess.

We inherited my mother-in-law's Thomasville dining room suite this past summer.  I have been  working on transforming the room from a formal living room to a formal dining room.  We've  changed from a striped wallpaper to a neutral creme color on the walls.  I probably will go darker, but I wanted a clean slate to start with as picking a color can be overwhelming to me, especially darker colors.    Now that I've lived with the furniture for several months I am beginning to develop a color scheme of what I would like the finished room to look like...the work is still in progress...but I thought I would share my new chandelier we installed just in time for the holidays.  What started out as a "simple project" ended up taking us most of a weekend, and we took back two chandeliers because they just didn't look right.

                        
Here is the room...a work in progress, we still need to hang the mirror.                                                  

Here is the ugly before....

and here is my new chandelier.

I still need to decorate it for Christmas....but will have to do that sometime this week. Next I am looking for window coverings to go over the wood blinds and fabric to cover the chair seats that will coordinate.  I am thinking along the lines of burgundy fabrics.   I would love to add crown moldings to the ceilings too but will have to wait until after the holidays.   I'll have to post the finished room someday!

Hope everyone has a great Monday and Holiday Season!

Napa's Bloomers-Flaunt your Flowers

Well not much is really blooming around my garden right now..but in October me and my hubbie went to Napa and there were so many gorgeous flowers...I just had to snap a few pictures to share with my bloggie friends.   I love this purple morning glory that has climbed up a sunflower.

This is another morning glory curling round a split rail fence.

We went to the Napa Valley farmer's market and they have beautiful bouquets of sunflowers..I just love them! Such a happy flower.

Here is another fuzzier varitey ..reminds me of the teddy bear sunflower.

Hope everyone has a great Friday...especially our hostess Tootsie who is a constant source of gardening and decorating inspiration!  Make sure you check out all the posts for Flaunt your Flowers.

Hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas Season! 

Christmas circa 2000-Sunday Favorites

I love the cottage look and almost a decade ago I had a light and  bright combination dining /hearth room that featured blue and white.   These are pictures from that room..during the Christmas season  all I had to do was add a  pop of red to give it the holiday look.   I get nostalgic about this room because I miss all the wonderful memories of watching movies and family meals we enjoyed there when my three sons were still living at home.   We still live in the same home, but I have totally redecorated this room with a darker color scheme and the dining area is no longer a part of the family room.... but that's for a later post.  Hope you enjoy one of my favorite rooms.

The cabinets are from my parents home and enclose some of my mother's collection of blue and white porcelain dishes she collected in the orient. 

Our family dining room was used extensively when my boys were all home.  Many wonderful family meals were served here. I always enjoyed  decorating this chandlier. 

A closeup of a simple mantle vignette

Wow ...even my hubbie looks a decade younger!  Hope everyone enjoys your favorite family memories.

Merry Christmas !

Thanks Chari for being our wonderful hostess for Sunday Favorites! 

Pacific Grove-Monarch Butterflies

Pacific Grove, California  is one of my favorite places to visit. It is known for the being a Monarch butterfly sanctuary. These winged beauties migrate in the fall and spend the winter months in this lovely coastal town.  Monarch butterflies are seen on homes, signs and buildings throughout the area .  This house is known as the Butterfly house and was a couple blocks away from where we stayed. It makes me smile!

The entrance sign to Pacific Grove or Butterfly Town U.S.A.

Decorated old fashioned lamp posts

Streetside gardens include monarchs too!

If you look closely this historic building's stained glass windows are adorned with monarchs!

Pacific Grove is delightful town with a very pretty mascot.

Hope you enjoy Outdoor Wednesdays, make sure to check out Susan this week at A Southern Daydreamer.  She is always the sweetest hostess!

Pink Saturday and The Pink Elephant

While on vacation and driving from Napa Valley out to the coast to Bodega Bay, we found ourselves in some cute little towns.   I saw this sign I knew we had to turn around and get a picture of this one of a kind neon sign for a Pink Saturday post....It's just the cutest!

It's always fun to see what everyone has posted for Pink Saturday at Beverly's How Sweet the Sound!  Hope everyone has a great and fun Saturday!

Sunday Favorites-Happy Sunflowers

This is one of my favorite tablescapes...and my choice for Chari's Sunday's Favorites. I use sunflowers in my home in the fall as well as summer -so I thought it would be a good re-run post. Drop by and visit our amazing hostess Chari to see everyone's favorites this week. She is definitely one my favorites!!

Originally posted (5/13/09)

Sunflower Inspired Tablescape for Two

Last summer while shopping I found the cutest sunflower tablecloth and napkin set. The best part was it was a Department 56 ensemble on sale for 75% off-how could I resist? I hadn't found any dishes that would coordinate so I put out an APB with my girlfriends. I finally found my sunflower plates at Pier One this past weekend and I just love how they look layered with two other plates.

I think yellow sunflowers are such happy flowers and they come in so many colors and varieties. Bright yellow is definitely my favorite!

I grew sunflowers from seed last summer and ended up with a six footer...I think the variety was Mammoth...so appropriately named. I definitely needed to stake this one as it grew taller than me!

One of my dear friends Luann was out helping me locate dishes and found this adorable sunflower serving piece at a garage sale! She gave it to me for Mother's Day and will be so cute to serve chips and dip or vegies on. It's such a nice piece and just love it ! Thanks Lu!!

I looked in thrift, gift, and antique stores thinking I might find some bright bold fiestaware plates in yellow, orange or red but when I spotted the sunflower dishes I was sold!

I have layered red chargers from Portgual ( I got on sale at T.J. Max shopping with my fellow blogger Tina) with my grandmother's "Brentwood" dinner plates as a background to the sunflower luncheon plates. I haven't used my grandmother's china in many years...but the periwinkle blue was a perfect match to the blue in the tablecloth! I am so happy to use these plates again in a new updated setting.

She gave these to me as a wedding present 33 years ago!

I found the sweetest florist in a little shop in the historic district of Crown Heights. Her shop is called "A Date with Iris" and the owner's name is Stephanie. I showed her my napkin and she helped me pick out a few sunflowers and gerbera daises along with a lovely little periwinke flower that I have never seen. She was a delight and wrapped the flowers in brightest colors of tissue paper.

Her business card is adorable!

(Thanks Deb for the garden bench)

The border of the tablecloth is so fun...black and white checks along the edge just give it a touch of whimsy! I love whimsy.

I even had a few early visitors to my table... They just arrived and it was their first visit to my home. I think they love sunflowers too!

....our maybe they just wanted a "Date with Iris."

Hope your day is filled with sunflowers and sunshine!