Patriotic Tablescape

Today is Tablescape Thursday thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. While shopping last week I came upon such fun red, white and blue paperware. I will share with you today some casual tablesettings for the 4th of July.
This round table is set with a blue and white tablecloth and each of the four placesettings is just a little bit different. Two are set with round red placemats and the other two have red and cream ticking rectangular placemats.I love the shape of the square plates. They are all from either Target or Walmart. Colors, designs and coordinating napkins this year just called to me-I had to buy them. The cute plastic red polka dot glasses are from Crate and Barrel-given to me by a friend at Christmas but I think they look fun and happy for the 4th here. I love this flag plate with it's red napkin on top and then the cute red and white polka dot round plate. The blue knife fork and spoon stand out on the red placemat.
This placesetting is on the red and beige stripe placemats. The plain red square plate and round blue plate is set off well with the red and white stripe napkin and blue utensils.
This dark blue plate with a barn red center matches the red in the placemat and the fun checked napkin well. I tied red and white twine around a flag toothpick to place in the center of the napkin. The vintage-looking red wagon adds a bit of whimsey to the table. It could hold the salt and pepper shakers, or candies.The fourth placesetting is plain red square plate, round smaller plate with the blue and white stars napkin and again the blue utensils. It was fun mixing and matching the different colors and designs in the paper goods.
The centerpiece for this table is the tall, barefoot Miss Liberty holding her cat and a book and is a Williray Studio piece. A glass jar with a narrow neck is holding 5 small flags and 3 larger ones behind her.I found this charming set of serving bowls at Home Goods and they look adorable on the table to hold all kinds of things from condiments to fruit or vegetables. Well, I am off to hang my flag for the 4th of July. I hope you've enjoyed this patriotic table. To see more tablescapes click here.

Getting Ready for the Fourth!

Party Invitation
Everything's coming up Red, White and Blue here as preparations are being made for the 4th of July holiday. You are invited to the party. This is a cute and easy invitation a neighbor brought to me that was used for her family reunion.
It is simple to make. Here are the directions to make it:
You need 7 Popsicle sticks.Paint half of four sticks blue. When the blue paint dries, paint white or silver stars on the blue part. (These stars were made with a silver paint pen.) Of those four sticks paint the other half of two of them red, and half of two of them white. (This completes the top half of the flag)Paint one more stick red.Paint two more sticks white.( This completes the bottom half of the flag.)
Now in the spaces you can write the party info. (You can add more sticks to the bottom if you have additional information to write)

Put all the sticks in an envelope and mail your invitation. The recipient has to put it together like a puzzle to figure out the invitation information. Have fun with this one. You could use it for a family reunion, birthday party, or good ol' Fourth party. Send your's out soon just in time for the Fourth of July! Enjoy!!

Happy Father's Day

Father and Son
Today, a vocabulary lesson:
Whenever something happens for the first time it is often memorable. From Webster's Dictionary, FIRST= before any other; preceding all others .
FATHER=ancestor, forefather; one deserving the respect and love given to a father;originator;source; a male parent.
Today I pay tribute to a first-time father, with all the love, joy, hopes and responsibilities that fatherhood brings. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers everywhere, (to Ralf and Jeff, who are very wonderful fathers) and especially to first time father, Nick, father to little Hudson.

Happy Happy Father's Day!!
You will be the BEST!

All Fenced In

I posted before about my quest for a backyard fence. This is the finished product which I am thrilled about as it gives just the privacy needed. It was quick work--just 4 days to take out the existing wrought iron fence and install this privacy fence. They call it a fence, but it really turned out to be more of a wall I think.
Looking west along the wall toward the neighbor's wall.
This is looking east. I had them wrap it around the corner between the next lot just enough so people driving on the street could not see into my patio area. The following is the process that took place:
This is the view looking out from the patio to the street (the same view as the picture before). The supports for the columns have just been cemented in.
Each panel is attached to a column in one piece and weighs 6,000 lbs! So of course the forklift was an important part of the work that day. There was also a long bed truck holding all the panels.
They are maneuvered and guided into the slot on the column. This part of the process takes about 30-45 minutes per panel. I had 15 panels.
Each panel has to be cut at the bottom corner to fit onto the cement foundation of the column to which it attaches.
Each one is cut by hand (with a power saw) and this is what the air looks like during that time. I felt sorry for the poor guy cutting it and having to breathe all this in even though he wore a mask.
Lots of Men, hard hats and Many BIG trucks. This man is pouring cement for the beam inside the column.
It was a very fascinating project to watch. I am so happy with this choice and to have my backyard to myself now that all the work is finished. It has been raining ever since so I haven't been able to get my patio furniture out on the patio and really enjoy being in the backyard yet. I have all summer to look forward to that though.

Friend Making Monday

Today is Friend Makin' Monday courtesy of our hostess Kasey at All That is Good
Our task today is to tell 10 reasons why I love Summer. This one is easy for me because:
1. I love to be warm. It is almost certain that the weather will cooperate in summer to keep us nice and warm. I love that I can put on one layer of clothes and be comfortable.
2. I love to see the beauty of nature in its wonderous glory--the pinks, and the yellows, and the corals and reds and the vibrant greens.
3. I love sunglasses, sandals, t-shirts, and short pants.
4. I love to go out in the morning and walk the neighborhood and to see which flowers are blooming and how the lawns are nicely mowed and the trees all green.
5. I love to hear children laughing in the swimming pool.
6. I love picnic foods. Also, it is fun to switch over to summer foods--bbq's, salads, ice cream.
7. I love how the nights here are warm, as well as the daytime.
8. I love summer night concerts in the park and the sound of crickets at night, fireflies and frogs croaking.
9. I love to work in the yard and watch my plants grow as I baby them with water and fertilizer.
10. I love the smell of newly mowed grass.
I could go on and on, and wish to list 20, but I won't today.

I love summer!

I hope you do too. To learn more about other summer 10's click here.

Ole..I love Mexican Food!

My favorite food is Mexican. Salsa, burritos, enchiladas, tamales, you name it, I love it! So for today's Tablescape Thursday and also Foodie Friday, I have pics of two different Mexican tablescapes. The first one is what you can do when you want to entertain and have nothing of your own to work with like I did when on vacation at a timeshare recently. The preparation was perfectly minimal. Just a stop at a grocery store where I purchased the pretty orange flower wrapped in orange wrapper. (Sorry the flowers got cut out of this picture).
Then across the parking lot to a wonderful Mexican restaurant for the organic salsas and chips. The salsas were put into clear glass tumblers from cupboard. The multicolored chips were displayed in a large glass mixing bowl. We transferred the enchiladas from their black plastic containers right onto the white plates but first we put the colorful napkins on them so they would look festive as the guests arrived at their places.

The flower centerpiece was placed on a lovely rust colored raised shallow bowl that was already in the center of the table. The color was perfect for our festive look. The guests arrived and loved the very easy entertaining that we did for little or no effort.
Table #2. The Sunflowers provided the centerpiece for another Mexican table..Book club meeting dessert I had at my home. The Sunflowers are in a large rustic vase in the center of the table.
I crisscrossed two different runners on the table. One is plain red with multicolored ball fringe on the edges. The second one is a multicolored flower print. I used these ceramics from guatemala at the base of the large vase of Sunflowers.
For the napkins I used these wonderful hand woven Indian-patterned small cloth ones which I tucked white paper napkins inside. (They were a garage sale purchase). The bright yellow with polka dot plates were used for the Lime Pound Cake served with Raspberry sauce which also went beautifully with the colorful tablescape.
Along the center of the plain red runner I placed these wonderful hand stitched little embroidery pieces that I found at a garage sale one day.
Here are close-ups of some of the detail stitched on them.
Both tables were very festive and colorful and used items that I found around the house, or condo as it were. They were both fun to decorate with this theme.
I think Ina Gartner's Guacamole is the BEST! It follows:
4 ripe Haas avacados
3 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 small lemon)
8 dashes Tabasco sauce
1/2 cup small diced red onion (1 small onion)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 medium tomato, seeded, and small-diced
Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl. (I use my hands) Immediately add the lemon juice, Tabasco, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and toss well. Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the bowl until thyey are finely diced. Add the tomatoes. Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.

Enjoy! Ole!

To enjoy more tablescapes click here for Susan's Between Naps on the Porch, our hostess and Designs by Gollum for more Foodie Fridays

Service Club--Ten Club

Friends at work and play.

There are times in our lives when we feel overwhelmed with all the responsibilities and challenges facing us. It is times like this when we wish there would be someone to intervene and help us. There are other times when everything is going well, we feel good, we have energy and we want to help make someone else's burden lighter. We have all experienced each of these times. Often the added benefit of giving to others is that we feel our burdens less as well.

Recently our local TV news program had a segment about a service club called the Ten club. Each member puts in $10.00 a month and then that money is used the next month on a community service need. Friends of mine thought it was a great idea and so we began our own Ten Club. The first month we met and organized ourselves into teams of two. Each team is responsible for finding a need and getting any supplies needed to fill that need when we meet as a group for their month.
We had seven women at our first meeting. Each person was asked to bring a winter coat. We collected 11 coats the first meeting. The coats were given to a homeless shelter afterward. As we investigated further we found so many needs in our community that we will never run out of ways to help and in our little ways we hope to help even if it is a drop in the bucket. We are enjoying our time together as an added benefit.
The next month we decorated 116 boxes that would hold the monthly food for Senior Citizen of the local Food Bank. We thought that by putting this bright paper on the boxes, that it might also brighten the day for these Seniors.
We also made 150 cards to go with the food in those boxes to give a little cheer to those sweet older faces who would receive them. We put a personal message on each one too.

The next month we sorted medical supplies which were then packaged and sent to a disaster afflicted area in Florida.We worked along this long table as quickly as we could before another box was dumped out for us to sort. We were able to sort through 2 pallets of supplies. As you can see there are lots of boxes needing attention.
Next month we will be assembling activity kits for children who are staying long term at a local hospital. One never knows when a need will be your own so it is nice to give when you can. We know it is only a small way to help another but we feel we have been given so much that we, too, must give any way we can. We also like knowing that when we help others, when our turn comes around, our own needs may be met by someone else. Here is a short clip with that same message.