Christine's Home and Travel Adventures: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

It's Cloche Party Again

It's time for Marty's Cloche party

again. I did not have much time to prepare so I am only sharing a few, some of them I've already had in past posts as part of centerpieces. If you really want to see a lot of creatively decorated cloches, please visit Marty at
http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/. You will be amazed how much creativity there is in Blogland. These are my 2 large wire cloches dressed up for fall on our formal dining table.

I bought this glass box from onekingslane.com and filled it with faux ivy and small tea pots and cup.

This is a cake plate that used to be kept on top of the book shelves in the hall. Since they still

have to work on our water damaged floors there, I have to keep the shelves empty and this was moved to the kitchen counter. To be creative and to save some counter room, I placed some Polish pottery divided plates inside it.

The insurance company finally sent our check but it still needs to be co signed by the mortgage holder. Then we can start ordering the wood floors. We could not find a perfect match but settled for something that is close enough.

I think I have at least 4 of these white ceramic single butter server cloches. I have 4 clear glass round and 4 square ones too that are kept somewhere.

John picked this up from one of the estate sales we went to in Baton Rouge. I put his low calorie snacks in it.

I bought this from TJ Maxx, or was it Home Goods? It used to sit inside my kitchen china cabinet but I moved it on the kitchen fireplace mantel.

This glass box is another one I bought from onekingslane.com. I decorated it with bird stuff and it is sitting on our breakfast nook table.

I used it as part of my centerpiece for a breakfast tablescape with my girl friends during our sleepover this past weekend. I will show the rest of the post perhaps on Thursday.

This is a very small cloche. I placed a small Infant Jesus of Prague inside it and it fits perfectly, then I added my turquoise cross with it. And do you see a button filled glass behind it? I put all extra buttons attached to shirts and coats when we buy them there.

Thank you so much, Marty, for hosting another fun cloche party

I guess this serves as your Tabletop Tuesday meme?

Thank you all for stopping by. I always enjoy your visits. Happy Halloween and Happy All Saints Day!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Shopping in Charleston and Fall for Pink Sat.

It's Saturday so it's time for Pink and Sightseeing Saturday! Beverly of http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/pink-saturday/ is hosting Pink Saturday but today, we can post Fall photos to welcome the season.

My home is welcoming you all. Happy Fall y'all and Happy Halloween!

And so the Charleston saga goes on for Sightseeing Saturday. Today, I will take you along shopping with us. This was next block to the hotel. The hotel occupies the whole block so I should say, this is diagonally right across it. Although Forever 21 is not an antique shop, this is the antiques row.

The first antique shop we entered had this pair of iron planters with acanthus leaves in front. I wanted to bring them home. They will look so nice on the front porch.

There were a lot of nice things inside but we could not afford them, too pricey! I thought the plate holder in the center below was very interesting and unusual. I looked at the price and I was shocked although I cannot remember now how much it was exactly, either high 100's or low thousands. I like that secretary too.

I would really have so much fun creating tablescapes with these.

So much eye candy here!

Even John enjoyed browsing in detail.

I want that china cabinet on the left.

Exquisite furniture all over.

John has always been wanting to have stand up desk just like this but I always discourage him because I would not know where to put it.

Ok, that was enough antique shopping. My heart could not take it, lol.

These baskets were sold everywhere. They were making them right there. This was outside the market plate but more were for sale inside.

Our next target was on the other side of the hotel which is the more modern downtown.

I told you, the baskets were all over. Everything inside this shop is tax free because it is a non profit organization.

We get tired of walking and every now and then we sit and buy food. We had a bento box at a Japanese restaurant below.

And then we went shopping again. There's John at Pottery Barn hauling what I bought.
He is such a good shopping companion, because aside from pushing me to buy whatever I want, he offers to carry them for me.

We passed by an Apple store and this was right after Steve Job's passed away. They had a wreath in his memory. It was pretty touching.

This market place was right in front of the hotel so I would go there while John was at the meeting. I had so much fun just walking around while doing a little shopping. The second floor is Confederate museum and I feel bad because I ran out of time and did not get a chance to visit it. I guess we took it for granted because it was right in front of the hotel and we kept saying we will go there "later".

We spotted a fun store selling natural rocks.These salt rocks have a night light inside them. We already have one in the house in the family room but we bought another one for the bedroom. They are supposed to have healing powers. Maybe that's why I have so much energy:-)

Just look at all of these! I had a ball just touching each and everyone of them.

Here is my rock collection at home where I added what we bought, which is kept on one of the end tables in the living room, on top of a Meissen compote. I bought the coral at the Jewelry Convention here in Natchez a few weeks ago.

I love the different colors, amethyst, aquamarine, citrine, jasper, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc., etc. etc.

Thank you so much for stopping by and going on a virtual shopping trip with us.

And thanks, Beverly for hosting!

I am having a girls sleep over this weekend because John is going to FL to visit his daughter and meet his newborn grandbaby. I am afraid to be home alone so I asked my friends to stay with me and they very kindly obliged. It should be fun!

I decided to stay behind because I will be away from home for a while in the coming months, when my daughters' babies are born, to help them out.

I hope you all have a nice weekend!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Not Too Spooky but Cute!

I am afraid of real ghost but I love whimsical white ones. I even like Casper. When I was in College, I belonged to a group called Spooks. We still reunite every 2 years or so, in fact, we are planning to have another reunion here the summer of next year. One of them is even planning to fly all the way from the Philippines.

This tablescape is dedicated to them.

I was watching TV last week while snuggled into this Halloween fleece throw when I suddenly a light bulb flashed in my head and I thought, "I could use this as a tablecloth!". And so I did!

The dinner plates are one of our everyday dishes. They are plain orange and plain green. The salad plates are Biltmore's "Holland Platinum".

I saw these spider webbed placemats at Homegoods, more than year ago in Fort Myers, when my daughter had a baby.

I used black goblets and green wine glasses.

The plate chargers are mercury glass and have roses around the border.

I have had these plates since I lived in Florida. They are really sturdy. I like their distressed look. They came in orange, green and a white with striped green and orange. I mix and match them and they have been my everyday dishes for years and they are still in perfect condition, and to think that I bought them at a dollar store in Florida.

a ghost tealight candle holder

I brought this fruit basket from our Charleston trip. It was only $5. I wish I had more room in my luggage or I would have bought more to sell in my booth.

I bought the cookies from Homegoods in Pensacola. I think they are so cute and I cannot get myself to eat them, lol.

I have dinner plates matching this black and platinum Biltmore plates but I wanted to add some fall colors on the table that's why I added the orange and green dinner plates.