Favorite Pink Plates and California Trip

It's Saturday again so it's travel time!

It's also time to show off some pinks and a favorite.

Visit Beverly for Pink Saturday at

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

and Laurie for A Few of My Favorite Things at
http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

Debbie for Garage Salen Party at

http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

You'll be glad you did!

For my favorites and Pink Saturday, I am sharing with you my pink china, The china set with pink and green floral borders are the ones I just found at a thrift store downtown before we left for Dallas 2 weeks ago. I got 8 dinner plates, 8 cups and saucers, 8 dessert plates and 8 berry bowls. They were marked $47.00 but when the sales clerk saw me looking at them, he said he would give them to me at half prize. He must have wanted to get rid of them. They look like they were just displayed in a china cabinet and never used. I did not commit right away but kept looking around gathering more items I liked, including 2 wooden roosters, 2 pairs of candle holders, 5 small vases, 2 mini cups and saucers and a cherub figurine. Then, I asked him if I could give him $30 for all of them. And he agreed.

As I was reorganizing, trying to find a place to store the new old china set, I saw some more miscellaneous pink plates that I have, so I pulled them out to show you. Do you see the 3 sets that do not match anything on the table? They are all made by Limoges. These are all favorites!

Here is a close up of the plates.

I think they are pretty when layered.

Many of you already know I went to California to attend a very good friend from College, my classmate's son's funeral.

It was not really a vacation so I did not do any sightseeing but I took a few pictures as we were driving by places.

California is so pretty with all its mountains and healthy vegetation.






It was so sad seeing my classmate and her family so sad but it was nice to see some of our classmates from College.



The beautiful service was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The park is very pretty and serene. We had mass on the day of the burial and there were so many people, standing room only inside the church. That just shows how many people love Patrick and what a good person he was. Please continue to pray for him and his beloved family. I can only imagine how hard it is for them to cope with the premature loss, no matter how hard we try to remember how happy Patrick is with God.



Several of our classmates were kind enough to open their homes to us and drive us around. Thank you so much, Tess, Danny, Sahnee and Leilani, Emilie and Rod and Nel.

Below is Tess and Efren's lovely home. They even have a practice golf lawn in the back and that's Tess posing in it.



Meet their dog, Kobe and bunny, Billie. Their roses are gorgeous!


And this is Sahnee and Leilani's home. I love their small pergola in the front yard. At the bottom right is Emilie and Rod's home. I really love their gardens with so many pretty flowers.


These were houses in the neighborhood. Do you see the full moon?


Isn't that a pretty sunset?


I took the photo below as we were landing into Denver. The moon was full. I booked at the last minute so I did not have many choices. I had 2 lay overs.

I had the worse luck in this trip. Going there, my flight in Houston left me and I had to wait another 2 hours to catch another flight to California. Luckily, there was one more flight.


Coming back, it was even worse. From Denver, I flew to Houston and was left again for my final flight. And it was the last trip to Baton Rouge so I had to book at a hotel to stay overnight and catch another flight the next day. This is one reason I like to fly via Southwest. I never encounter those kind of problems. I was so tired, sweating and trembling from running between gates to catch the trips, but to no avail.


Thank you so much for stopping by. And thanks, Laurie and Beverly, for hosting 2 wonderful memes.

Romantic Back Porch Dining

I hope you are having a nice week. I missed you all. It seems like I have not posted for such a long time cause even though I have a post for Saturday, I actually entered it last Wednesday. I got stuck in Houston from California because I missed my flight so I had to stay in a hotel there overnight but I finally made it home last night.

I set up a tablescape for two in the back porch and the plates are white, so I am linking with Susan for Outdoor Wednesday at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

Kathleen for White Wednesady at http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/

And another Susan for Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

I wanted to set a tablescape earlier today inside the gazebo but it rained so hard. I set one up later in the covered back porch instead.
Since it is more of a garden setting, I used my green and white topiary salad plates with ruffly plain white dinner plates.

I lit some candles on the small candelier, the black wrought iron lantern and a lady bug tea light holder to set the ambiance.

I like to see the mosaic on the table so I just used a see through lace for the table runner.

The sign says "Love Grows Here, (You reap what you sow)"

I don't know what I did differently but my white orchids actually bloomed this year. Aren't they lovely? I have had such a hard time in the past, getting them to bloom again after they lose their flowers.

I love these salad plates. I bought them from Clearwater, Florida a while back.

The table is near the fountain and the sound of the flowing water is very relaxing.

Aren't those cordial liqueur stem crystals so cute?

I hope you enjoyed my mini tablescape. I enjoyed having you around. Thanks for coming and a special thanks to our gracious hostesses, Kathleen and the 2 Susans.

Antique Empire Dresser and Dallas

Right now, I should be in California but I will take you to Dallas where we were last week since I posted this in advance.

I am linking with Beverly for Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

I'd like you to see the pretty pink crape myrtles near the hotel.

The morning before we left for Dallas, the wheel of our pool polaris came off so I had to take it to the pool shop which is located downtown. I hate doing that so to make the morning more fun, I went to an antique shop and a second hand store both in downtown. It's very rare that I would come out empty handed, lol. I spotted an antique empire dresser with flame mahogany that I really like so I started negotiating. The sales woman told me she would give me 10% off with free delivery. Being the dedicated blogger as I am, I always have a camera in my purse so I took pictures.

When I got home, I asked John if he would buy the dresser for me. I described it to him and then showed him the pictures. But we were leaving for the airport in a half hour so he told me to call the store (luckily I got their card while I was there. Am I prepared for this or not? LOL) and tell them to deliver it on Monday.

I also bought a set of fine china, made in Japan at the second hand store and some candles and holders. The whole set of service for 8 fine china were marked $47 but the guy behind the counter told me he will give them to me at half price so I bought them. They are still in the garage and will wash them after I get back from my trip.

That was one of my fastest productive shopping trip so taking the polaris to the pool shop which I hate, became a blessing in disguise.

I am linking with Laurie at http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/ so I can show you my new favorite antique Empire dresser, circa 1840.

Here it is! I love the glass knobs and they are original. I cannot believe how good the condition is and it is just perfect in the children's guest room. I debated if I should put it in the adult guest room but you can see which won. That leaves another room for future shopping, lol.

Now, let's go to Dallas! It was very hot! We stayed at the Intercontinental hotel where the meeting was held. We were on the top floor with a beautiful view.

It is so pretty at night.

First thing we did after dropping off our luggage in the room was have dinner in this pretty restaurant on the ground floor.


This is the view that I see from the bed as soon as I wake up.

For a few more dollars, we opted to have access to Club Lounge where we can get free breakfast in the morning and snacks in the afternoon. Aren't these pretty silver coffee and tea pots?

On the first day, John's meeting did not start until noon so we got to walk to the nearest shopping plaza. We passed by these pretty crape myrtles.

Beautiful pink flowers!

The shops were nice but everything was so expensive. We stepped into a store that was selling tank tops for $78. Who can afford that? We stumbled into a glass art shop and I had to wear white gloves to be able to handle things. And no, we did not buy anything.


John was craving for diet coke so we stepped into a pancake house. We already had breakfast but I was embarrassed to sit and just order a coke so I had this yummy strawberry waffle. I figured John would be in the meeting so I would just skip lunch and I did.

On the walk back to the hotel, we passed by this cute squirrel who didn't mind us and just kept eating in the middle of the sidewalk.

I just love these tall Italian cypress. We planted 2 in our backyard and they are not looking good. I am not sure if they will make it.

Don't you just love the lion heads outside the store?

There's the corporate office of Pizza Hut. I took this picture for my son's sake. He manages a Pizza Hut in Florida. I think this is where he went once for a meeting.

The next 2 days were spent by me mostly inside the hotel room while John attended meetings from 7 AM to 6:30 PM. He tried to encourage me to go shopping but it was really a long walk and I did not want to take the shuttle by myself. I enjoyed watching TV, blogging and just relaxing in the room. Every now and then, I would go downstairs to browse in the shops of the hotel but there was nothing that really appealed to me.

But on the last day of the meeting, they were released earlier so we took the hotel shuttle to go to Galleria. It is a pretty mall and I enjoyed walking around. I managed to buy some plates, bowls, ice cream mix and a tablecloth from Williams Sonoma. We had them shipped.

I also bought some square chicken wire plate chargers and some rooster place card holders from Pottery Barn (getting ready for the Rooster Party!) and lots of tank tops at Old Navy. They were only $5 each and flip flops were 2 for $5 so I bought 2 pairs. The mall had an ice skating rink.

We took a taxi on Sunday afternoon to take us to the airport. We passed by this neighborhood which the taxi driver said is a million dollar house row and where George Bush' house is located.

And now, we are approaching Dallas Love airport.

We were home by 8 PM and then unpacking began.

I hope you enjoyed the tour, mostly just of stores. Sorry we did not really have time to tour the city for me to be able to show you. Thank you so much for coming along.

Thanks to Beverly and Laurie for hosting. I hope you will go visit them and their participants too.