First Outdoor Tablescape, 2011

The weather here has been perfect, sunny and in the 70's, for almost 3 weeks now. I have been trying to clear the leaves out of the yard but after 8 big garbage full and not even showing any dent , I decided to hire a yard boy who is coming today to finish the job. Our daffodils, paper whites, camelias and rosemary are blooming and I see little leaves starting to pop out of the perennials. This inspired me to do a tablescape outside on the pool deck.


I am joining the ever gracious hostess for Tablescape Thursday, Susan. If you want to get inspired, go visit her at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

I am also linking with Michael, aka, Gollum at http://www.designsbygollum.blogspot.com/ Everytime I want to try a new recipe, I visit her site. And then I find myself lingering longer because her photos are so fabulous and her decorating skills are amazing!

I picked the table on the deck that is closest to the kitchen. Easier for me to serve the food there.

You might have seen these plates displayed in the kitchen cabinet. I finally got to use them. I thought the butterflies would be perfect for an outdoor setting.

I set the table for 2, just for me and John.

I gathered a few plants and candles and took my 2 garden figures from the porch and created a centerpiece. I bought or rather snatched the figures from Vanna on Ebay. I say snatched because I got them for free. Both arrived with broken ankles, not Vanna's fault (because they were packed very well) but the delivery men weren't very careful. So she gave me a full refund and got her money back from the insurance company. She advised me to glue the legs with Elmer's wood glue and to just keep them and that's what I did. In spite of the fractured legs, I just love them and they are a good addition to the garden. I usually keep them by the fountain on the porch.

This was last Saturday and John decided to invite the part time anaesthesiologist, who is from out of town and is staying in a hotel. He must have felt guilty putting him to work for an emergency surgery late on a weekend. So, I quickly added another place setting.

I started cooking while they were working in the OR, working as fast as I can thinking I only had an hour and a half to prepare.

I bought the green straw placemats at TJ Maxx when I visited my daughter in Florida a few weeks ago. They were only 99 cents each. I love the grass green color.

I put on the rice steamer and thawed out the red snapper in the microwave oven.
I served the rice in this floral lidded dish.

I prepared a sweet and sour sauce and poured it over the fried fish. Then I mixed some salad greens for a Caesar salad.

and then I waited and waited and waited and nobody came. I finally called hubby and he said the patient needed extra care and the anaesthesiologist had to watch him for another half an hour more. He could come home but he had no ride since I dropped him off at the hospital earlier, so he would just wait and ride with him.

The pool water color changes from green to blue and then to red. My favorite color is the blue one.

The fish was served in a fish shaped dish.

I was expecting them to be home by 7 PM but they did not get here till 9 PM so we ate really late. Although bugs aren't around yet, I had to cover the food, just in case. We originally planned to watch a DVD after dinner but we had to skip it cause it got so late after we ate and chatted outside and our guest had to get up early for 2 cases the following morning.

One thing good about eating late was that we were all hungry so I did not have anything to store in the fridge, for there was no leftover. I served cookies for dessert because I thought I did not have enough time to make a special one. We all enjoyed the outdoor dinner and conversation regardless of how late it was.
Bumble bee napkin ring and Napoleon bee flatware.

I only have 2 bee rings so I used a lady bug for the third setting.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my outdoor tablescape as much as I enjoyed setting it up. Thanks a lot for coming and thanks to Susan and Michael for graciously hosting.