Christine's Home and Travel Adventures: October 2013

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Happy Halloween, 2013!!

It's almost Halloween so let me wish you all a Happy Halloween! I hope you have a lot of fun treat or tricking! Do you have your treats and candies ready?

Of course, this calls for a Halloween themed table.

The plate layers consists of Mac Kenzie Childs plate charger, then a Gales ware dinner plate designed by Laurie Gates and a ghost and pumpkin ceramic salad plate.

The skeleton salad servers were from Kohl's on clearance last year.

Placemats from Kohl's on clearance 2 years ago.

Ghost and pumpkin S & P shakers from Zulily.

Pumpkin napkins from Woodville, MS and napkin rings from a store in New Orleans I bought a few years ago.

Wicked S & P shakers from Ross.

The small ceramic ghost plates (will use them for dipping sauce) were from Walgreens. The orange handled flatware were given to me by my son, Jed and wife, Becky a few Christmases ago.

Both stems were from Ross in Monroe, LA, from about 4 years ago.

Another S & P shakers, pumpkins this time, from Ross.

One of the many Halloween accessories I pulled out from the attic, a ghost tea light holder.

I think this ghost house was from TJ Maxx.

Thank you so much for your visits. I appreciate your comments as well and also appreciate the hostesses of the memes I am linking to.

Thank you all so very much!

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Kathleen's Let's Dish

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Paula's What's It Wed

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

Seasonal Sunday

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Monday, October 21, 2013

In previous weeks, I have shown you all the pottery that I gathered to get ready for the baby shower I was hosting. The time finally arrived and I want to show you how I arranged everything on the deck.

We never knew how the weather would be so I could not set up ahead of time. I started early in the morning with the sunflowers I bought from the store and then added more cuttings from the garden.

Although I pretty much got everything ready, baked and prepared everything I could, there were still some stuff like frying eggrolls and shrimp toasts, etc. that could not be done ahead of time.

Luckily, 4 of my friends offered to help me and they all arrived at 10 in the morning. Not only did they work, they brought our lunch too. What am I going to do without them? The party was scheduled at 3 PM. My kirchen was a beehive, Noemie vacuumed, Brenda applied the shrimp and chicken mixture on the French baguettes, Riza separated my frozen eggrolls and Maribel cut up the veggies and fruits and got the trays together with the dips.

I set the table outside and got everything all set up.

The girls helped me decorate outside too.

The party was scheduled for 3 to 6 PM so I decided to make it a tea party, just pastries and oer d ouevres'.

Food for the Gods, eggrolls and shrimp/chicken toast below.

Below, you will also see a Brie cheese with Kahlua pecan topping, served with crackers, the recipe of which I copied from FB. It was really good.

I ran out of time to bake cupcakes but I found some with plain white icing and I just added the blue pearls to decorate them

I baked the raisin oatmeal and coconut pecan cookies from scratch but bought the pre made ghost dough from Walmart and just baked them.

On the left corner of the table below is Fruta de Crema, a dessert with cream and fruit cocktail and lady fingers, the recipe of which I also got from Facebook. This was so good and I want to make it again soon, just for John and me, lol.

I also made finger sized egg salad sandwiches.

All teapots are Polish pottery, filled with peach melba tea, beer ginger tea, Damson plum tea and hazelnut coffee.

The guest of honor finally arrived blindfolded, with her sister and mom, lol. She did not know where she was, although she wouldn't know where she was even without the blindfold anyway, since she has never been here.

She was totally surprised and even her mom and sister were tearful.

Isn't she tiny? I think I looked more pregnant than her, lol, even though she is already due in Dec.

We had so much fun playing games, and eating, of course. I heard some of them say this was the best baby shower they have ever attended. That statement, plus seeing all the girls have so much fun, made it worth all the work I did.

My friends helped me take down all the decorations too, which I gave to the celebrant to take home.

After John's employees left, my friends called their families to come and join us and we continued the party inside the house. The baby shower ended at 6 PM and the weather was beautiful and sunny all day. Around 7 PM, the rain poured heavily with thunder and lightning. How lucky could I be that it cooperated and waited till after?

I was exhausted and it took me 2 days doing nothing to recuperate but we all had a lot of fun.

Thanks for allowing me to share this with you. And thank you to the hostesses that I am linking to.

Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday

http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

My Happy List Tuesdays

http://ricki-treleaven.blogspot.com/

Kathy's A Return To Loveliness

http://adelightsomelife.com

Sandi's Teatime Tues

http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

FriendsSharing Tea

http://blog.bernideens.com/

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Martha and Terri's Teacup Tues

http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

Maria Elena's Tuesdays at Our Home

http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Kathleen's Let's Dish

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

Kathryn's Anything Blue Friday

http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/

Cindy's Amaze me Monday

http://dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

A White Fall Challenge with Pewter

When we think Fall, we usually think oranges, greens, browns, yellows, maroons and even purple but never white right? Well, Kathleen of Let's Dish has challenged us to create a Fall table with predominantly white with just 1 color added. I love challenges and I hope my table is able to live up to that.

All white with just a little touch of silvery pewter.

The tablecloth has white embroideries and piercings all over. It's from my favorite linen store in Grand Cayman. I really like their tablecloths there because they do not absorb dirt and they can be machine washed and do not need to be ironed. I think the material is microfiber.

I immediately thought of using my white pumpkins that I bought from Lynn's store from a few years ago. I borrowed my silver plated mirrored plateau from our bathroom, usually holding my perfume bottles, to elevate them. Then, I added some bottles with silver mercury and votive holder, and I got my centerpiece.

I had pewter colored candles that I placed on a white iron candle holder.

Finally, I got to use my Fleur de lis set of flatware that I bought from Horchow about a year or 2 ago. I think they have a pewter look. They even feel like it.

My place setting started with a white plate charger that I bought from JC Penney's about 5 years ago. Don't they match my flatware? The dinner and salad plates are American Atelier in "Bianca" pattern. I have had this set displayed on the top shelf of my black hutch but hardly used them too. Finally, I placed a white lidded individual serving pumpkin bowl that I bought from Marshall's (2 last year and 2 more this year).

I also added some white acorn place card holders from Williams Sonoma and the napkin rings are white farm animals that I bought from an antique store downtown.

I bought the wine glasses from a local estate sale. I love the etched flowers. but I have no info on them.

The tea set is all white with a cameo. I cannot remember where I bought it but the white wicker with a glass tray is from Florida. The lace runner is from an antique store downtown that closed before last Christmas.