Winters Garden Table

Thanks for stopping by today 

Today I'm sharing

my Winters Garden table.

 I started planning this table with the black background

placemats and paper napkins as the focus.

But as I put elements together I feel like the bee 

salad plate and green glassware may have stole the show!

 I just love the way the Fitz and Floyd napkin rings with berries

pickup the berries in the placemat!

 The lavender and green plaid silk napkins mirror the 

lavender and green in the roses centerpiece and 

the yellow roses pickup the yellow bees on the salad plates

and lemon napkin rings.

 I am in love with the Lenox Tikaa gingham dinner plates.

They go with everything and make a great neutral.

 A bird's eye view shows the 

Napoleon bee flatware from Wallace Silversmiths.

 The Indiana glassware set of five was a great find at an

antique store years ago.  

 The beeutiful gold border of the placemat and napkin

really pop off the black background.

 I was in love with the floral centerpiece.

I first thought the yellow and lavender would not 

match but I was delighted with the result!

 I put my dessert set of brass fork and spoon

above the place setting and was delighted with the match

against the napkins!

Here are the sources for the table:

Placemats and Paper Napkins -Beeutiful by Design

Dinner Plate -Lenox

Salad Plate -Anthropologie 

Flatware -Horchow

Linen Napkins, Fruit Napkin Rings, 

Dessert Set and Glassware all vintage.

Roses Tea Party

Welcome to the roses tea party!

I combined my love for blue and white along

with roses and tea parties for this tablescape.

From the grocery store I purchased a mix of roses

and arranged them in my blue and white bee teapot for the centerpiece.

 Then I started adding my blue and white pieces

of teacups, dinner plates

and the matching sugar and creamer set.

 I found these adorable

miniature tea cup and tea pot

place card holders, which

just happened to come with rose

place cards!

 I layered brightly colored paper

teacup napkins with navy

linen napkins with teal and lime tassels

and then slipped on the Spode blue and white

napkin rings.

 Chinz tea bag holders were

used as a bread and butter plate for whimsy.

 My final touch was a mixed set of chinzy flatware,

which came with a fork, knife and two spoons so

breaking with tradition I placed

the fork and knife together for company.

I really enjoyed putting these elements

together to share with you

and want to thank you for stopping by!

Here are the sources for the table:

Place mats -gift but I found similar at Macy's

Dinnerware, tea cup cream & sugar and napkin ring -

Vintage but I found similar online at Macy's

Napkins -Blue linen & tea cup paper -Beeutiful by Design

Bee Teapot -Replacements LTD

Tea bag plate -Amazon

Flatware - Amazon

Tea placecard holder & cards - Amazon

Book Clubs for 2019

Image graphicsfairy.com

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I thought I would share my listing of online or virtual book clubs since our theme this week is Book Club.  My 2019 goal is to read two books per month.

I began researching these a few years ago when my Crohns Disease all but made it impossible for me to leave the house.  I enjoyed reading and that was one of the few things I could do at home.

You may want to go to the book club meeting or online chat or like me you may just enjoy reviewing the selections each month and picking a few for your own reading list.

Image Hello Sunshine Facebook

1.  Hello Sunshine

Hello Sunshine is the company of Reese Witherspoon.  She started a book club last year I believe and I have read several of her 2018 selections and they were all good.  She has a Facebook page you can follow here.


2.  Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble bookstore has started a book club in their store.  It does not meet monthly, but you can find out more information about here.  My daughter and her friend went to the Hurstbourne Lane Louisville KY location meeting last fall and said it was enjoyable.

3.  Victoria Magazine

In December 2018 Victoria Magazine announced their inaugural book club selection would be Little Women.  It looks like from their website here it will be an online forum discussion group. 

4.  Louisville Free Public Library

In 2011 the Mayor's Book Club started at the Main Branch of the Louisville Library.  They meet on the third Wednesday of the month from noon to 1PM.  If you work downtown this would be a great way to join a club and attend during lunch break!  There is more information on their website here.

Finally if you are not interested in a book club, but just more book suggestions to read I have the following websites I found interesting:

Good Reads:  this online site will give you suggestions broken down by category, help you pace your reading and more.  This link here will give you their top 43 suggestions for 2019.

Style Blueprint:  this is a southern website that offers local restaurants, shopping and entertainment articles, but also frequently lists books to read.  This link here will give you their top 5 2019 reads.

Simon & Schuster:  I recently signed up for an author forum at Simon & Schuster's website and since then I've been getting lots of emails about upcoming books.  Granted they are only promoting their own published books, but still you get to read more information about the author and sometimes they email you presale discounts.  Their website is here.

Do you have any other book club or online sources for good reads? If so please comment below and share!  Have a great day!

Non Floral Christmas Centerpieces

Welcome and thanks for stopping by!

I thought I would share a few non-floral centerpiece

ideas for your holiday table. 

 There is always so much going on during the holidays

sometimes setting up a nonfloral arrangement

makes sense both because you can

prepare it ahead of time & it saves money!

Such as a Gingerbread House 

on the Gingerbread Girls Night In table.

 I often use items that complement the table theme

or can be used for the table for example

at the Country Christmas table

this vintage red truck that holds extra

napkins and flatware.

For the Furry Tails and Cocktails

table I used this adorable cookies for Santa

plate and a few dog gone good mugs! 

 Here a simple arrangement of 

candy canes and ornaments in  a silver

bowl is lovely.

 If you collect Santa or Snowman

figures they would be a nice addition to your table.

 Here I've used a set of vintage ornaments

in a silver plate.  These are always a favorite

of mine as they remind me of my grandmother.

 I used an arrangement of silks, dried babies breath

gold and silver ornaments in this

antique ironstone wash bowl.

Finally a few glass containers filled

with festive red and green ornaments!

Shop your house this holiday to find what you can use

to decorate your table this season!

Furry Tails and Cocktails with Santa

Welcome to Grandson Date Night!

Tonight it's Furry Tails & Cocktails

with Santa.

 Okay maybe we're not having cocktails

but rather hot chocolate in our

Santa mugs.

 This table was inspired by these

adorable doggie and Santa paper napkins.

 Using this cookies for Santa plate

and my set of Scotty and Westie mugs

for a centerpiece kept it easy

and boy friendly.

I also sprinkled a few

dog trinket dishes around.

 We served BowWow BBQ sandwiches & Pawtato chips

for dinner.  Afterwards we visited a local

pet store to pick out a gift for our grand dog!

 I ordered dogs from Amazon

similar to the animals I used 

in the recent birthday post,

however this was an epic fail

because they were teeny tiny!

 This familiar

paper check runner & red paper plates

were also used in the Country Christmas table.

 We all need to keep things simple during

the holidays & not changing

out the entire table is an easy way to do that.

 I also reused my plaid flatware,

 red sparkle balls & mini light up

Christmas trees!

 I actually planned this whole table 

at the end of last Christmas around my dog

Madison, but sadly she is not with us this year.

 It's a ruff life for these tiny

plastic dogs because they hit the trash

as soon as we were finished.

 I have collected these set of four

Santa mugs from Pottery Barn for several years

along with my collection of vintage Santa mugs.

I feel better about using the new ones for

beverages plus they are 

dishwasher safe & can be easily replaced 

if an accident happens.

Furry tails and cocktails is also a great entertaining

idea to gather with furry friends & their owners for 

cocktails and appetizers or cookies and cocoa before or after a group trip

to a local pet fundraiser or pictures with Santa 

this holiday season.

A Country Christmas

Welcome to a Country Christmas in our kitchen.

We were heading out to our town's light up festival

on a Friday night after a long work week

so I kept it easy with pizza and paper.

 In lieu of flowers I used

my vintage like truck to hold extra 

napkins and flatware as the centerpiece.

 A red check paper table runner 

lines up battery operated

 mini Christmas trees

and red sparkle balls.

 I just love these tree napkins

with multi shades of red and green~so festive!

 You can see a peek of the gray

buffet in the background holding

our gingerbread collection of train lamp, 

gingerbread house and cloche holding a mini 

gingerbread house.

 I set out painted green mugs for coffee or cocoa 

after the lighting ceremony, 

while we will use soda cans and bottle waters for dinner

again keeping it super easy!

 The red truck has a matching

mini truck that holds tree

salt and pepper shakers.

I pulled out the plaid flatware I purchased at HSN a 

few years ago.  I imagine you will see a lot of the 

flatware this holiday season.

What get together are you planning for this holiday season?

Using paper makes for easy setup and cleanup

and allows you to enjoy

celebrating the blessings of family and friends!

Stop by the shop and grab some or all

of these paper items and plan it today -you can do this!

Easy and Elegant Gingerbread House Girls Night In

Thanks for joining me today for 

an easy and elegant gingerbread house girls night in

using paper products.

 With a burlap tablecloth as the base

I used plaid plate chargers 

and matching plaid mini pedestal stands.

 I added matching plaid mugs 

to enjoy your favorite

seasonal eggnog, coco or coffee!

Then I mixed in red polka dot ribbon

wreath napkins and dinner plates

that are both beautiful and practical because they are paper.

This makes clean up both easy and quick 

so you can move on to gingerbread house decorating

with your girlfriends.