Christine's Home and Travel Adventures: April 2016

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Crab Dinner on the Back Porch

We were driving on the way to Lake Worth when I saw a sign "Blue Crabs for Sale". I love blue crabs so when we got back home, John and I went to local seafood market to see if they were available. They only had 11 left and I bought them all.

Eating crabs is messy so I thought it best to set up the table out on the back porch, especially with 3 little kids with us.

Sorry about those 2 cabinets in the background. This is where I painted them but they are now in the second guest room/office combo.

I also made shrimp pasta, in case the kids did not eat crabs.

I have lots of basil in the garden so I decided to make Caprese salad as well.

Kids love garlic bread! Adults do too!

We always eat with rice!

Dragonfly napkin rings.

It was nice to eat out for a change. Plus I did not have to worry about any crumbs falling on the floor. Tina brought her dog and she just cleaned it up, lol.

Thank you all for stopping by. When this posts, I will be sailing on the Mediterranean sea or land touring somewhere in Europe, so I will get back to you later.

Update:

We just got back from a 17 day cruise and land trip visiting different countries of Europe (Dubrovnik, Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, Athens and Crete, Greek, Palermo, and Rome, Italy, Vatican City, Marseilles, France and Barcelona, Spain), so I am just linking this now. We had a great time !

Thanks for the visit and thanks to the hostesses!

Sandi's No Place Like Home

http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

Jeanne's Blue Monday

http://backyardneighbor.typepad.com

Christine's Dishing It and Diggingi It

http://www.rustic-refined.com/

Cindy's Amaze me Monday

http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/

Chloe's Celebrate it Monday

http://celebrateanddecorate.com/

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party!

http://blog.bernideens.com/

Julie's Talk of the Town Tuesday

https://lovemysimplehome.blogspot.com/

Tuesday's The Scoop
http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/

Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday

http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Maria Elena's Tuesdays at Our Home

http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/

Show and Share

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Sarah's Homemaking party

http://www.hopeineveryseason.com/

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Home Matters

http://lifewithlorelai.com/

Thoughts of Home Thursdayhttp://www.athomewithjemma.com/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://adelightsomelife.com

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Share your Style Thursday

http://www.thevintagenestblog.com

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com/

Kate's Flaunt it Friday

http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/

Foodie Fri and Everything Else

http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Share it One More Time

http://designthusiasm.com/

"Anything Goes" Pink Saturday

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/pink-saturday/

Sunday, April 24, 2016

My Baby is 35! Favorite Dishes for Her Birthday Dinner

Last Friday was my youngest daughter, Tina's birthday. My baby just turned 35. As many of you know, she is also my neighbor and we take turns making dinner and on her birthday just happened to be my turn.

I used 2 of my favorite patterns for one of my favorite girls. The dinner plates are made in Portugal and the pattern is "Sari". I bought them a long time ago from either Horchow or Neiman Marcus on line. The soup or salad bowls are from the German Villeroy & Boch "Audun" collection. I love the pastoral scenes.

I just took a vase which we bought from an antique shop in Natchez and placed some yellow flowers in it for the centerpiece.

Villeroy and Boch Audun Chasse soup bowls

Yellow vintage wine glasses with stemmed Princess House crystal glasses for tea.

Silver plated flatware

V&B Audun Charm serving bowls

I love the design on the translucent frosted glass vase with dragon flies.

Portuguese dinner plates in "Sari" pattern

I love its slightly oval shape.

We finally moved this painting from Natchez.

and I moved what was there into this other wall across the table. Did you notice I have my little French buffet table here instead of the little colorful table that used to be there. Our house decor is going back traditional, it seems. The accessories on top, bowl, balls and urn, are actually mainly cobalt blue in color.

The plate chargers are octagonal in shape and in pewter color and I bought them on sale from Pottery Barn.

V&B Audun Ferme tea set. This is what started my collection. I bought the teapot, sugar and creamer servers from Trier, Germany, while on a tour there.

I served apple cider on the teapot.

The celebrant's ice cream cake

And there is Tina with her family. We really did not invite anybody else but we had a great time and we were stuffed. I cooked pancit (Filipino noodles), crispy pork and coconut shrimp.

Thank you so much for visiting. I appreciate all your comments.

Thanks to the hostesses I am linking with. I appreciate all your efforts.

Sandi's No Place Like Home

http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

Jeanne's Blue Monday

http://backyardneighbor.typepad.com

Christine's Dishing It and Diggingi It

http://www.rustic-refined.com/

Cindy's Amaze me Monday

http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/

Chloe's Celebrate it Monday

http://celebrateanddecorate.com/

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party!

http://blog.bernideens.com/

Ruth's Tuesday Cuppa Tea

http://www.antiquesandteacups.info

Julie's Talk of the Town Tuesday

https://lovemysimplehome.blogspot.com/

Tuesday's The Scoop
http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/

Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday

http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Maria Elena's Tuesdays at Our Home

http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/

Show and Share

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Sarah's Homemaking party

http://www.hopeineveryseason.com/

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Share your Style Thursday

http://www.thevintagenestblog.com

Home Matters

http://lifewithlorelai.com/

Thoughts of Home Thursday
http://www.athomewithjemma.com/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://adelightsomelife.com

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Share your Style Thursday

http://www.thevintagenestblog.com

Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop

http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com/

Kate's Flaunt it Friday

http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/

Courtney's Feathered Nest Friday

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/

Foodie Fri and Everything Else

http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Share it One More Time

http://designthusiasm.com/

"Anything Goes" Pink Saturday

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/pink-saturday/

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Refinishing Office Wall Unit and Guestroom 2/Office Combo Transformation

I am so relieved after I finished painting this wall unit. We moved it from MS and it sat on the back porch, since the garage is full of boxes that I still need to open and organize. I thought we couldn't use it here but I was able to fit 3 of the wall units. Now it is functional cause John and I can use our computers at the same time when we want to.

This is the original finish and as you can see, it came in 4 units and a table. But we downsized and we do not have a dedicated home office here in FL. so we couldn't fit all. I wouldn't have touched this furniture if we stayed in our Natchez home but our FL home is so much smaller and I want it to look brighter. We left one unit on the back porch in its original finish. I painted and distressed the 2 desks with hutches and a center unit for our files (bottom), TV and printer. There is no room anywhere for the table.

This is our second guestroom that doubles as our office before we moved more furniture from Natchez. You can see the desk across the bed. John and I had to take turns using the computer because the space is small. We couldn't even fit both of our desktops.

And the pictures below is how the room looks now.

Let me take you around the room. I had to move a lot of furniture around the house to be able to place what we moved from Natchez, MS. this past March. I could have sold that dark narrow cabinet but I need it to store my many photo albums. I am still debating if I should paint it also but for now, I will leave it as is. All the albums aren't in there yet, probably some still in boxes.

That colorful striped cabinet used to be in the dining room but I had to replace it with a French buffet moved from Natchez. This is the only space that I could think of moving it to.

Ahh! There is my blue for Blue Moday.