Christmas 2015 Part 2

As another Christmas season comes and goes, here are a few photos of the kitchen and family room.  All the decorations will be down by the end of the day, boxed up and stored for another year.  Hope you enjoy!

On the kitchen island, I keep this Tiffany silver trumpet vase and change the flowers depending on the season.  It doesn't take up much room, so that I can serve or prep when needed.  If you look behind the vase, I hung snowflakes from the window valence.  I used a tension rod, and hung the snowflakes with white thread and ornament hangers.  At Christmas I use a butler's tray table in the corner to hold extra Christmas trays and wine glasses.

For Christmas morning breakfast, I again used my Christmas china, with red chargers and Lunt flatware.

For the centerpiece, I used decorated greenery and gilded fruit, silver antler candleholders, and red votive candleholders, which match the sequined red chargers.

 The centerpiece bowl is a unique piece--silver and crystal--with four taper candleholders.  It's one of my favorite estate sale finds.

For beverages, we used champagne flutes for our mimosas and vintage glasses for water or milk.

Above the patio doors, I added these love and joy signs.  They are battery operated, but I had to climb on a step stool to turn them on.

On to the family room.  On the cocktail table, I used a garland with a gold ribbon, my gold reindeer that I love, gold trees, and ...hmm are those artichokes? pineapples? acorns?  Well, whatever they are, they were used on the cocktail table vignette with gold battery operated pillar candles, which were on a timer. The candles provided a nice glow when coming into a dark room.

A shot of the family room in the evening.

The main Christmas tree was again gold and bronze.  I added some new decor this year, musical notes, large bronze snowflakes, deer heads, and lots of grapevine.

I changed up the mantle and placed my garland straight across instead of swagging (is that a word?) it.  I found these stick garland mini lights, which I added, as well as the gold pieces on the end.  Have no idea what to call them, but they were sort of a paper mache and I have ornaments shaped exactly the same way, so I had to have them.  I also used musical ribbon bows, and decorated with the same notes that I used on the tree, and cupids playing different instruments.  

Here's a close up of the decorated mantle.  Behind the garland, I used gold finials that I found years ago at Kirklands, with tall gold candleholders on each end.

 I made this little arrangement for the hearth using a lantern, greenery, and other gold/bronze accents.

 Big items have big impact, but sometimes you just need something small.  I found these petite gold Christmas trees and thought they were cute on a silver tray.

The bookcase was decorated and I again used my silhouette angels for the top.  This year I ordered votive candles on a timer so that they would come on automatically in the evening.  Yay!  No climbing up to cut them on!  Worked like a charm.

 I have used this woodland scene vignette before, but this year I moved it to the end table with my leopard lamp.

We were again blessed to have our son and daughter home.  Our son finished up at Virginia Tech in December, and is beginning the job search.  Our daughter is still in New York and is in a show called "New Dawn" at the end of the month.  If you are in the area, I hope you will go check it out.  

Christmas night we had 30 of my cousins over for a Christmas get-together!  Everyone brought an appetizer, and we had a lot of fun.  2015 was a great year, and I am very thankful for my family and friends!  On to 2016!

 Happy New Year to you and yours!

A Beachy Setting

It has been a whirlwind of a summer.  We have been to the beach for three weeks, and I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to share our vacation with family and friends.  Even though I am sad that the summer is coming to a close, I have great memories of fun times!  The weather continues to be hot through October, so hopefully we will get back there soon.

In the meantime, a beach tablescape will do.  It reminds me of eating delicious seafood, wading in the cool ocean, feeling the sun's warmth, and curling my toes in the sand.

I used a white and cream-colored runner as a base, and added a silver boat-shaped dish as the centerpiece, filled with an assortment of shells and votives.

I wrapped two cylinder vases with rope, and used these for my "beachy" arrangements.

A cream basket-weave design plate held my shell dishes which are tinted blue with beige.

Instead of using busy napkins with shell-design, I decided on plain white ones, with beautiful floral cut work.

The colors and textures of the shells are beautiful.

Starfish, shell, and votive holder add to the beachy feel.

A friend of mine gave me these great wine glasses that have a silver base with shells and a lobster.  The beverage stem has a silver rim.

A silver shell napkin ring holds the napkins in place.

Another close-up of the lobster wine glass.

Using battery-operated votives in the boat centerpiece keeps me from worrying about fire while entertaining.

The shell placecard holders were also a gift from my cousin.  Thank you!!

Your place is ready!  She-crab soup??

I hope you have enjoyed your summer.  Thank you for visiting with me today!

I also want to send my condolences to the families of the victims of the WDBJ shooting near Roanoke.  Alison Parker went to JMU, the same university as my daughter, and Adam Ward attended VA Tech, the university my son attends.  My heart aches for these families' loss.  Please pray for them!

--Betsy

Spring, Wherefore Art Thou?

Waiting for spring is really trying my patience.  I am tired of the cold.  I'm sure everyone else is tired of the cold.  If spring doesn't arrive soon, I am going to scream.  Loud.  So I pulled out some spring flowers, dishes with happy colors, and put together a little simple table for four--dreaming that soon flowers will be blooming and the sun's warmth will bring the world alive again.

Using materials I found in my stash, I put together three spring florals.

I pulled a spring runner from the closet and used greenery down the center.

A nest of eggs is the focal point in each arrangement.

White tapers fill in the spots between each of the florals.

A dainty porcelain napkin ring holds each sage green dinner napkin.

Candleholders are vintage with a delicate silver overlay.

Dishes are sage green and  pink.  I believe they came from HomeGoods or TJ Maxx.

Silver flatware is simple as well, nothing too fancy here.

The fleur-de-lis glasses match the pink plates, and the pattern on the stems reminds me of dogwood.

The runner has a basket of spring flowers at each end, you've probably seen these in the stores.

Bird's eye view!!

At least it's a sunny day, even though you can't hardly open the door because of the frigid temperatures.  This does not feel a bit like Virginia weather.

I think this has cheered me up a bit.  Stay warm, my friends, and let's hope spring arrives soon!!

Thanks for visiting!  

~Betsy

A Christmas Eve Tablescape

Christmas has come and gone.  Everything has been packed up and stored for another year.  Before we move on to the next big thing, I thought I'd post the rest of the Christmas photos.  There was no party this year, but we had some of my children's friends over at different times, accompanied by their parents, who are our friends.  I enjoy the Christmas decorating, even though it is a ton of work, and I'm hoping that down the road my children will have good memories of the beauty and joy of the season.  And maybe even of their mother, haha!  I know they appreciate our efforts as they get older, and I think they even enjoy being with us.  We, of course, love having them home, and I always get sad when they have to leave.  So one last glimpse of Christmas! 

While shopping at Tuesday Morning, I ran across this reindeer.  He was so regal and beautiful, I knew that he had found a home.  Since I am a regular shopper at this store, the kind ladies are always looking out for me.  This reindeer had a mate that came in on the next truck, and they kept it in the back for two weeks, waiting to see if I would want it. Unfortunately, I didn't come back in for awhile, and they sold it as soon as it was put out. A lesson learned, check back frequently, you  never know what's on the very next truck!

I decorated this fella up using poinsettias and a bow.  He sits on top of a field of decorated greenery.

The poinsettias I used are also in the arrangement on the sideboard.  The colors used here were that silvery gold, not the bright gold or dark gold often used at Christmas, but I decided to use gold accoutrements instead of the red that I usually use at Christmas.

I used mercury glass votives and finials that I used last year on my table, and I also added some silver and glass ball ornaments.

We ate our Christmas Eve dinner in the dining room, and my husband's brother joined us.  Normally, I have 7 or 8 for Christmas Eve, but this year it was just the five of us.

I used my battenburg tablecloth again, because I can change the look by using an under-cloth, and it fits my table well with all the leaves.  Since Rudolph was so big, I kept the leaves in the table for the entire season.

I also used my antique silver candlelabras with silvery candles.  I special-ordered them in October, and they are nice and tall!  

My gold-rimmed antique stems were used for dinner as well.  For dinner we had our usual--beef tenderloin, potato casserole, broccoli casserole, romaine salad with fruit and blush wine vinaigrette, spinach squares, and hot rolls.  We had drinks and appetizers in the kitchen before, which were pecan cheddar spread, shrimp cocktail, and hot crab dip.  For dessert, I had a tray of goodies I had been preparing all week.  No one left hungry.  We did start in the afternoon, and we just kept eating and socializing into the evening!

I put up my small Christmas tree in the corner of the dining room again this year.

My husband likes to hunt.  Let me re-phrase that--he likes the whole idea of hunting.  He likes being outside and looking at the game and beautiful surroundings.  He gets impatient, and doesn't necessarily like killing the animals.  He enjoys watching them, but often just lets them go.  We do have a problem with the deer population, though, and they can cause a lot of harm.

I enjoy decorating with deer at Christmas, and I use them all around the house.

I also used my Lunt flatware, and gold dinner napkins, and my Christmas china.  I again used my silver chargers I lucked out and found at the local Goodwill store.

While shopping at Pottery Barn, I ran across a beautiful red velvet spread that I thought would look great on my bed at Christmas.  After looking at the price tag, I thought it was a big extravagant, but I loved the look. Again, I found something similar at my local Tuesday Morning store.  This coverlet is just a great red color, and I thought it went well with the gold in my bedroom.  But they did not have the pillow shams.  Lucky for me, the kind ladies called around until they located two for me at another store!  Love those girls!!

I also did a bit of work in my son's room before he came home.  We had his room painted (revere pewter, by Benjamin Moore, I think) and I did purchase this new comforter and shams at Pottery Barn.  

We are headed to New York at the end of the month to help my daughter move (just to a new apartment, not home).  I started a new blog--totally unrelated to tablescapes--but if you get a chance, take a peek.  It's concerning helping my grown-up children with the next phase in their life while trying to help myself!  It's called Seeing Stars In My Eyes.

My photography isn't the greatest, sorry about that, I have two very nice cameras and neither one of them is working.  All the photos above were taken with my cell phone.  Some aren't too bad, and it is convenient, but I will try to get the cameras repaired in the near future. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Stay warm and carry on!  --Betsy

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