Peacock Tassel and a Storage Desperately Needed

Here's another meme that I would like to join regularly. It's Mosaic Monday and it is hosted by Mary at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/. Please visit her and enjoy the other creative mosaics.

Well, it's the beginning of the week again and you all know what that means, right? It's time to join and visit Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ and show off our blues. And it's also time to join and visit Susan at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ to share any makeover that we have done.

Please allow me to show you my peacock tassel. If you are a regular visitor on my blog, you would probably know that I like peacock accessories. I bought the tassel from Angela of http://www.etsy.com/shop/thetasselhouse. If you want one (many different styles), you can visit her Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/thetasselhouse. She is very good and very creative.

Let me see if you can spot the difference. This is the "Before" (which is even before the 2 huge Sevres egg compotes were which have already been moved too). That French provincial cabinet holds many of my plates but I am still running out of storage area. Think about it, I can store 15 sets of dinnerware in there, except for real big ones with extra serving pieces when I might use 2 cubby holes.
This is now.

I bought the personal dresser sitting in the corner thinking it will look good in our guest room. I unpacked it in the kitchen and then moved it to the dining room with an intent of putting it away later.



Today, I was looking at it thinking, uhmmmm, this could serve as a storage for
my tablescaping accessories. I am in desperate need of more storage, especially for plates. But I already found room to store more. We have a walk in closet in the garage with built in shelves and I will move some of my rarely used dishes there.So I asked my husband to help me move the big cabinet for the little one to fit in the corner. I placed a Frenchy pedestal on the other side of the cabinet for balance. Now it is holding 2 of my tea sets. I told it is supposed to be a dresser that is why it has a mirror but instead of make up, I placed some of my salt and pepper shakers inside.


and you can see the flatware in the drawers.

a closer look of the s & p shakers.

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I think the inlaid wood is very pretty. Hope you enjoyed this mini makeover. Thanks again for coming and thanks to our gracious hosstesses, Sally and Susan!

London Bridge is Falling Down....Not Really!

I cannot believe I forgot to upload my favorite sites so I just had to add it. I usually put my descriptions above the pictures but it won't allow me on this top picture so they are below.

The Westminster Abbey, formally titled The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, is mainly Gothic, on the scale of a cathedral, is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English monarchs.

St. Stephen's Tower, although more commonly referred to as Big Ben is a clock tower. Big Ben is actually the massive bell inside the clock tower, which weighs more than 13 tons. The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower are among London's most iconic landmarks.

London Bridge is a bridge between the city of London and Southwark over the River Thames.

The Victorian Tower Bridge is now 100 years old. It was designed by Wolfe Berry and Horace Jones and completed in 1894. The middle of the bridge can be raised to permit large vessels to pass through. As you can see from the picture, it was rainng when we went there. The picture is actual and taken through a bus window and not enhanced.

Wow! This week really went fast, too fast! It's already Saturday? Oh well then, it's time to have fun. Let's show off our pretty pinks and let's go sightseeing.

Pink Saturday is brought to us by Beverly of http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Week after week after week, Beverly hosts this wonderful meme so join in on the fun and visit her. Take a look at all the pinks being displayed in Blogland.
We just arrived from London last Tuesday. I was so happy to see Whittard of Evelyn because I love their instant tea. In addition to that, they have many neat serving items. I spotted these pink egg cups set and they were on sale. Yipee! Aren't they cute? I love how the egg cup is on a pedestal. I borrowed my amber egg so you have an idea of how it looks with an egg. The spoon is also very cute. I bought 3, keeping 2 and I will include the 3rd one to my 200th post giveaway. It is fast approaching so watch out for it.
Well, of course it is also Sightseeing Saturday and since we just came from London, I will tell you about our trip while it is still very fresh in my mind. Thanks to Laurie of http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/ for her mosaic tutorial. This post really benefited from it.
We stayed at Marriott's Grosvenor Hotel and the pictures below are its sorroundings. Using rewards accumulated from past travels allowed us to stay there for 5 days for free. The roof top topiary garden is what you see when you look out from our hotel room window. We were on the third floor. The church is Ukranian Catholic. We woke up so late on Sunday (jetlag) so we weren't able to attend mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. We passed by this church so we went in. The service is not the same as a Roman Catholic service so we did not stay long.


We walked around the hotel a lot. I just love all the beautiful red brick buildings with wrought iron balconies. I especially like the hanging flower boxes.
We took a "Hop Off, Hop On" bus tour for 2 days but did not really go down to any site cause we wanted to see all of them in 2 days

Do you see the guards all lined up at Buckingham Palace?
I labeled the pictures but I cannot remember what the building with arched entries is.Trafalgar Square is where you can find the tall monument of Lord Nelson. The area looks magnificent and none of these pictures do it any justice.

The ferris wheel is well known as London Eye. It is 443 ft tall and is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe.


The Marble Arch was built in 1828 as the chief entrance to Buckingham Palace, but when the Palace was extended in 1851, the Arch was moved to its current site as an entrance to Hyde Park. This was walking distance from the hotel and it is near the tour bus stop.



Next is the Tower of London. According to Wikipedia, the tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.





And I believe it is home for ghosts too, LOL.

Aaah! This is my favorite part of the trip....Shopping! The hotel we stayed is only a block away from Oxford St., where all the neat shops are. It was nicely decorated for Christmas.

The primary reason we went to England was to attend John's co worker's wedding in Manchester. We took the train to go to Manchester. It took about 2 hours. The bride and groom are both of Nigerian descent. The wedding ceremony was Christian but the reception was traditionally Nigerian. It was very interesting and very enjoyable to watch. Do you see John dancing with the groom's dad? LOL! Both bride and groom and the groom's parents are doctors.
We had to hitch a ride to go to the reception. We did not know that there weren't any taxi where the church was located. The groom's sister was kind enough to ask another guest to give us a ride. The one sitting next to John was the one who gave it and she offered to take us to the train station after the party too. Isn't that so nice of her? The woman wearing purple and yellow is the groom's mom.

Another interesting thing about their tradition is the party favor, actually favors. We received so many gifts, not only did they come from the bride and groom but relatives were distributing them too. We received flip flops, candies, soap, towel, t shirts, platters, a charm, keychain, etc. I joked and said that we should have brought an extra bag. And would you know that the next item we would receive were bags? LOL!When we got back to the hotel, I left a comment on my classmate's friend's blog about her picture which was taken in London. Next morning, I got an email from her asking me to call her. I did not know she lived in London. All the while, I thought she was just visiting when the pictures were taken. We set up a time to meet at Piccadilly Circus.

According to Wikipedia, Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context a circus, from the Latin word meaning a circle, is a circular open space at a street junction

The statue of Eros, a winged archer made out of aluminum is set in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. It is one of the most recognizable symbols of London. Originally known as the Shaftesbury Monument, it was unveiled in 1893 as a memorial to the Victorian philanthropist, Lord Shaftesbury. My new blogger friend took us to China town and we ate dimsum there. And then, she also took us to their condo. Meeting Cora was one of the highlights of our trip.

It was time to go back home last Tuesday and here I am relaxing while waiting to check in. I was excited because I was about to meet another blogger friend, Athella of http://athellag-ocdesigner.blogspot.com/ at New Orleans airport. You see, she has been visiting her stepmom in New Orleans and when she mentioned that she is flying back the same day we arrive, we made a plan to meet. And we did! She met me in the baggage claim area. We chatted and chatted and we were both so excited. Too bad she had to catch a flight so we only met very briefly but what a special moment!

You may link with Sightseeing Saturday by entering your permalink and name below. Please add the SS logo on your blog to spread the word.








Thank you all for coming and thanks to Beverly also for allowing us to participate in Pink Saturday. Have a nice weekend y'all!

A Tablescape In A Jiff

I opened my Blog dashboard and I saw Shelia's Tablescape Thursday post. I did not even realize it is already Thursday tomorrow until then. We just arrived from London late last night and I have been so busy unpacking, both luggage and boxes that came in the mail.

But hey, I missed TT last week since I was out of the country but there is no reason to miss this week's, right?

Come on, let's all visit Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ and Leigh at http://lbratina.blogspot.com/ to check out this week's creativity on the table and awesome great deal finds.

So I hurrried up and created this.
And what better way to create a mini tablescape than using our game table in the family room?
Do you see the pair of brass candlestick holders? I got them at a flea market in Vidalia during the balloon festival for $2.00 for the pair. They are solid and heavy. They are my contribution for Thrifty Thursday.

I just unpacked these dishes today. They came in while we were gone. They are vintage, Bavarian Tirschenreuth china in Rosedale pattern. I won them on Ebay. I was watching the auction and I was ready to place a bid at the last 30 seconds when my internet service went out. I was so mad and needless to say, I lost the bidding. It was a complete service for 8 including serving pieces in hardly used condition and it only went for $89 for the whole set.

The next day, I was notified by Ebay that the item was relisted so I went to it and this time it had a $150.00 "Buy It Now" option so I bought the set. I don't know what happened to the first winner but it looks like the deal did not go through. You see, Tirschenreuth had been out of business since the 30's so I know these dishes are old. And when we went to an estate auction a few days before we left London, the set of dishes of the same quality were going for over $800.00. I could not even bid cause I knew I would never pay that much.
I think they are pretty, don't you? Unfortunately, some pieces were broken during transport. I still have to collect from the insurance company but there are still enough left in the set which makes the set still worth what I paid for, I think.
Since I used the brass candlesticks holder, I also used brass plate chargers and flatware. The flatware also have mahogany in the handles and they are marked "Siam".

Unfortunately, the cover for the round vegetable server was one of the broken items and it makes me sick because I just checked the value on Replacements.com, the covered vegetable is worth $159.95. I wonder how much the value is without the cover.

I added a pair of salt cellars here.

I told you this is quick one. I forgot to put my goblets, lol. Sorry!

I hope you like my impromptu creation. Thanks for coming. I missed you all. And thanks to Susan and Leigh for these 2 fun events.

An Exciting Day in London

We visited London and just left this morning. The main reason was to attend a wedding in Manchester last Saturday, which we did. While in London, I decided to visit a blog of a friend's friend, Cora. I thought I have seen some pictures taken in London on her site a while back so I looked for them and left her a comment. When I got up in the morning to check my messages, I was so surprised to get a message from Cora, asking me to call her so we could meet. I had no idea she lived in London, all the while I thought she was just visiting the country when the pictures were taken. I called her and we set up a time and place to meet and I was so excited. I also think we were classmates in 5th grade because we went to the same school.

We got to Piccadilly Circus a little early so we started exploring. You can't miss red phone booths in London. They are all over.Aren't these flowers gorgeous? They were being sold in the sidewalk.I was so excited to see a Whittard of Chelsea Tea Shop. I have been to one in San Diego and I love their instant tea with different flavors. Unfortunately, the store in San Diego had gone out of business so I haven't had a source since. We went in and bought a few cans and some ceramic egg cups and spoons. I thought they would be cute to use for a breakfast tablescape. We stopped and took pictures by Eros statue and fountain. Romantic Eros was erected in 1892 as a memorial to Lord Shaftesbury. Although people associate it with romance, the winged angel actually depicts charity.Then I spotted Cora so we crossed the street to meet her and her cute grandson, Adriane.She took us to Chinatown and we had a dimsum lunch. The food was really good. We couldn't wait to eat that I forgot to have our pictures taken in front of the food so we can share it with you.I did manage to take a picture of some of the food.And this is Cora's precious grandson. Isn't he a cutie?After eating, we took a bus to go to Cora's condo. She wanted to show us how people lived in London.This is the view from her condo window. Isn't it gorgeous? Cora was very sweet and hospitable. I wish we could have had more time to spend with each other but we had to go back to the hotel. had to pack since we were leaving for US early the next day. This truly was a very happy moment and to think that it was not planned ahead of time at all. Thanks Cora, for the wonderful day and it was so nice to meet you in person.

Pink Crown and Let's Go Just Closeby

OMG, I don't know what happened. I loaded some plates with pink crowns when I posted this but they're not showing. I am so sorry, Beverly, but I cannot reload them cause I am not home and I am traveling in London right now.

I have some pinks, my pink sweater for one, and some pink in my mom's dress, in my sightseeing post. Would those be ok for now?

I am getting ready for another trip so I thought we could just go somewhere closeby for Sightseeing Saturday. I hope you will join me by showing us some of your sightseeing pictures too. If you want to do that, please enter your info on Mr. Linky below. I hope it works because I might not be able to check since I won't be home this Saturday. I am posting this in advance.

We do not live too far from New Orleans so we go there a lot. This is the French Quarter. I love their iron balconies especially the ones with hanging flowers. Mmmmm, I am in the mood for Cafe du Monde coffee and beignets right now. Just look at the long line!
Isn't John cute in his scooter? LOL!
We rented the scooter just so we can ride around Bourbon St. and nearby streets. Parking is scarce so we usually just leave our vehicle in the hotel parking lot and just walk here. Someone offered to take our picture cause she said this is a "Kodak moment", lol.
We take my mom too when she is visiting. She is 91 years old now but can still walk around.
They say I look like my mom, do I? Anyway, behind me is St. Louis Cathedral, located next to Jackson Square on the French Quarter and facing the Mississippi River. It is the oldest continually operating Catholic Cathedral in US.
View from the hotel room window.


Old Ursuline Convent from the 1700's is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley and the first girls' school in Louisiana. It was ran by the Ursuline nuns from France to relieve the poor and the sick and provide education for young girls.

This is the St Louis Cemetery established in 1854. I don't know why but I am fascinated by old cemeteries. I love the iron gate.

Pretty, huh!

Now, I will show you some homes that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Can you see the water mark? That's how high the water went up in this particular house.

Do you see the X on the door? Every house here had that marker. After several days when the water had gone down, each and every house was checked and the X mark would indicate what day they were there and they would write 0 if there were no bodies found or a number if there were any.

This is the new levee. Hopefully it does not collapse again. The other side of it is water.

These were the motor homes that became temporary residences for families who lost their homes and were displaced. I have to tell you that the last time we went there, 50% of the home owners have returned and rebuilt.

That was pretty depressing so let's go see the beautiful houses now on St. Charles area.

Below is Archie Manning's home.

The Memorial Katrina Fountain was erected on August 29, 2006 to serve as a beacon of hope for the rebirth of New Orleans.

The 3 Faces of Katrina: Hope, Faith & Charity

Lastly, I just want to show you this. We were browsing through the window of an antique shop and saw this buffet. Doesn't it look so much like what we have in our dining room?

I am so happy you came along with me on one of our trips. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have anything to share, please enter your name and permalink below. You might want to copy the Sightseeing Sat. logo unto your blog to spread the word about the meme and so that people will know you are participating.

A Pair of Tobacco Twist Pedestals With Griffins

I am happy to join Diane at http://diane1876.blogspot.com/ for 2nd Time Around Tuesday. You ought to visit her and her other participants and feast your eyes on many lovely second time around items.

Last Saturday, we attended an estate auction in Port Gibbons. I had my eyes on several antique furniture but everything went up so high and the only furniture we won are a pair of walnut pedestals. They have tobacco twist and griffins. I love that they look so unusual and I am loving the claw feet.
I thought they will look good with our lion throne chair.
and this is where they ended up.

We also won a few fine jewelry in addition to this pedestal pair but you probably wouldn't be interested in seeing them.

Thanks Diane for hosting this fun event and thank you all for visiting.

Boots Party, Pink Flowers Blooming and Istanbul, Turkey

This just now became a quad post, lol. I almost forgot about promising to join the Boots party hosted by http://ladybugfromtexas.blogspot.com/. I just got reminded by Dixie's comment so I went to my shoes closet in the garage to dig them out. They do need some dusting anyway to get them ready for I will be needing them soon. Please visit Deb and join in on the fun.
Do I have boots! But don't I have a lot of everything? LOL! I have knee highs, short boots, water proof boots and hiking boots. I also have cowboy boots but they are still in Florida.
But my very favorites are my brown Coach boots and the brown leather boots next to it for a more dressy look.
This post started with a double post but ended up to be a quad one.

I cannot believe how fast this week went by. I must have been having so much fun, or was I just doing so much work? Anyway, I find fun in work too so I was really having fun. Weekend is here again so we can show some pinks and go traveling. And I think I will link with Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday since I am showing plants, so this is actually a triple post. No wonder, the days go by so fast and I am having so much fun :-) Fertilizer Friday is hosted by Glenda. Please visit her at http://www.tootsietime.com/ and you will be amazed at her gardening abilities.I will have to post my Saturday posts today also because I will be out on an estate auction all day tomorrow. We are going today just to view what is being auctioned. I can't wait!! Pink Saturday is hosted by Beverly. Go visit her at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/, enjoy her pink and then visit her participants and enjoy their pinks also.

I walked around the deck and backyard to check what pink blooms I am still having. It has been raining everyday so the plants are thriving. I cannot remember having this much rain in the fall in past years. I thought it rained a lot only in the spring but I am not complaining.

First is our hanging periwinkle. See how healthy it still is?

I think this a gaura. Please correct me if I am mistaken because somehow I have a hard time remembering names of different plants. I just buy and plant them when I like the look. Next to it is a heather, kinda pinkish but more of purple.

Now, this has been in the property before we even moved. I have no idea what it is and I just noticed it blooming.

It has pretty pink flowers. Can somebody tell me what it is please? Thanks.

I thought it was some kind of camelia at first cause we have a lot of camelias where it is located but it does not look like the others.

I planted these pink caladiums around the gazebo.

Sorry, I don't know what this is.

I have 2 of them and placed them on each side of the pool entrance. See the leaves in the pool? The polaris is working overtime but still cannot keep up. The wind has been blowing hard making the leaves fall from trees. I guess it's really Fall, even in the south. Do you see the pink mandevalias in the background? I also have Asian orchids next to them

More periwinkle in the gazebo.

Now, it's time for fun. Let's go sightseeing!

Turkey day is coming soon so let's go visit Istanbul in Turkey. I took my granddaughter, AJ and daughter, Tina with her hubby, Scott to go on a cruise with me and one of the port stops was Istanbul. Unfortunately, Tina, who was 5 months pregnant had cabin fever, literally, so she had to stay in bed. Actually she was so sick, running a high temp. Poor baby! AJ just wanted to stay and play at Camp Carnival so I took my son in law, Scott to tour the city with me.

We took a taxi and we were fortunate to get a driver who spoke English well and was able to tell us about the history of the city. Of course, you already know that Istanbul used to be called Constantinople, right? Do you remember the song "Istanbul, Constantinople....." ? Of course, you don't, cause you are not as old as I am, lol!

Below you will see the aqueduct. And look at the fish in the market. Can you believe how fresh and huge they are?

This is the Bosphorus. It was too cloudy, otherwise, you will see the Asian side, which is across the sea. The Bosphorus is 20-miles long and it joins the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea in Istanbul, and separates the continents of Europe and Asia.

This is where a vendor kept pushing to sell us a fake Izod jacket for $20. By the time it was ready for us to leave, the price went down to $5. Darn! I should have bought it at the price, LOL, but I was being stubborn because he was so pushy.

They had lots of monuments such as this. Sorry for the picture quality. The taxi was moving fast while I was taking it.

Look at the bird's eye view! Breathtaking!

Agia Sofia was a former orthodox basilica, now a mosque and a museum in Byzantine architecture. It was the largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years. There were so many mosques everywhere.

Gorgeous flowers!

I was on a mission to buy an authentic hand knotted Turkish rug for our formal dining room so I asked the taxi driver to take us to a store that sells good quality hand made rugs and this is where he took us. I felt sorry for my son in law after a while cause we were there for hours, while the store owner kept ordering his laborers to bring more rugs and spread them for me to see.

And I wanted a big one so these poor guys had to lift these heavy rolls of rugs through the stairs from another floor.

After looking at a lot of them, I was down to my best 2 choices but I still could not decide, so I took pictures and I asked the store owner if he has a computer so I could email them to my husband who can help me decide. Luckily, he had a computer and although it was very slow, I was able to send pictures to John who I had to get out of bed to get to his computer. It was in the middle of the night in US at the time but he was glad to hear from me. We decided on the one below. The colors are much better in person cause the light was reflecting on the rug. We opted for a lighter colored one because we have a dark wall paper in the dining room and I did not want the room to get any darker. The rug arrived at home even before I got home. And here it is now in our dining room. Do you think we made the right choice?

We also went shopping at Grand Bazaar. Grand is an understatement. It was REALLY, REALLY huge and was so crowded. It was an indoor shopping area with alleys of shops going in all directions. We kept losing our guide but we had a lot of fun shopping.

And you think I look too short standing next to Scott? My daughter who is married to him is even shorter, LOL! He was a basketball player in school and she was a gymnast.

I hope you enjoyed touring with us today. I would love to see some of your travel pictures too.

If you have any sightseeing pictures you want to share with us, please come and join me by adding your name and permalink below. Please copy the Sightseeing logo on your post to let other bloggers know that you are participating and to spread the word about the meme. Thanks!

Thanks also to Deb, Beverly and Tootsie for another fun pink and fertilizing event and for the boots party..