Ancient Chinese bowls and A Tablescaper's Dream Kitchen

When I used to work, I hated Mondays. But now that I am blogging, I am loving Mondays. I am sure a lot of you feel that way too.

Here is another double post. I'll start with the shorter one, Blue Monday, hosted by our ever smiling Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/. Go to her site and check out the list and visit all their wonderful blues!
My contribution for this week is a pair of ancient Chinese fluted bowls a friend gave us 15 years ago. I placed them on the end tables in our living room.
They came with their own wooden stands.
There is the one on the left.
a bird's eye view

I took a picture underneath the bowl but I cannot read it, it's in Chinese writing, I think. If any of you can read it, please let me know what it says. Of course you can click the picture to make it bigger and see it better.

Here is the other one sitting on the right end table of the sofa.

Sorry, I could not give you any more info on the fluted bowls but I really like them especially because they look really old and I have never found anything like them in stores. Thanks again, Sal, for hosting this event.

And now for Met Monday, sponsored by the ever talented Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/01/tablescape-tuesday-and-coming-january.html. Make sure you visit Susan's blog and don't miss the interesting post she has for us today and then visit everyone's "Befores and Afters". I know I definitely will!

I hope I don't confuse you by showing you our kitchen. LOL! I think I can open a restaurant with all the dining tables that we have but one thing for sure, our home is a tablescaper's dream since we have so many tables.

I only picked a few transformation photos of our kitchen here because if I posted all of them, I will never finish uploading and I know I will bore you to death. I can assure you that this transformation is ever evolving! We even confuse our electrician by moving the light here and then, taking it out and moving it there, taking it out again and moving it to another place. Well, at least we are giving him an extra income, right?...... especially since his wife got laid off from work. We used to have our rectangular table in front of the fireplace and we put up a hanging iron light.

Then, we replaced it with a round table which evolved from my hubby's spotting, falling in love and buying this thick and heavy lazy Susan at Red Door in Baton Rouge. Then, I won a bid on 8 Chippendale chairs in an estate auction. (the other 2 chairs are in the living room) The buying of the table came last.

Isn't it usually the other way around? LOL! A local Rex store is closing and everything they have for sale are at 25% off so off we go too! We bought this 42 inch Sony Bravia TV which we did not have a place to put it so up it goes above the fireplace. Not bad cause dh loves watching TV while eating and I also enjoy watching TV while cooking. Of course now the hanging light is disrupting our view so we had to call our ever loyal electrician Mitch to come and move it again. Of course, he had to install the TV also and move all the cable and electrical outlet locations because I do not like to see hanging cords everywhere.

Here's another view............from this,

to this

and finally, to this

From this,

to this

and finally, to this.

I am showing you this picture only to show you the round rug that I used to have there,

I replaced it with a rectangular hand knotted Persian rug. Don't worry about the visible electrical cord showing under the TV in the center. I have since solved the problem by adding a painted wooden box. You will see it in other pictures above.

Here's a picture showing the medallion. You can click on the picture to see the details. I really like it, do you?

We went to an antique auction last Saturday and won this Pickard bowl sitting on the lazy susan.

Here's a close up.

It kinda matches our Pickard tankard that we are using for a vase.

I was using this breakfast nook as my crafting space.

Take note of the hanging lamp cause it's not there anymore.

It's been replaced with the hanging iron lamp which used to be in front of the fireplace. And as you can see now, this is where the rectangular table went.

Now, let's count our dining tables. Just in the kitchen alone, I have 2 dining tables that I can play tablescaping on, not to mention a large island counter. I have 2 more tables in the back porch and very soon, I'll be able to use those too. In fact, our peach trees, camelias and azaleas are all blooming already. And then we have a big table in the formal dining room and a smaller dining table in front of the fireplace in the family room. You see what I mean about our home being a tablescaper's dream?

Thanks for coming again. Hope I did not bore you with this long post.

Now I am off to visit everyone on Blue and Met Mondays' lists. C' ya all there!