It's Wet in Copenhagen!

Yep, Saturdays are always double posts for me. I have this urge to take you on a trip for one thing and I also want to show you something pink. I hope you will come along with me to Copenhagen in Denmark even on a lousy and gloomy weather. And for more pretty pinks, do see Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/
For my pink contribution, I want to show you my cute energizer bunny. Isn't he a cutie? I have friends who call me an energizer bunny but I think Lynne of http://lynnesgiftsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2010/01/thief-in-broad-daylight.html is the real one, lol.

But I keep him in front of me by my desk anyway, kinda like a reminder for me to keep working.

Hope you enjoyed the cute pink bunny. He better really keep going cause we need him for spring, don't we?

And now, let's drive around Copenhagen. It looked pretty good from the ship but once we got out, the rain started pouring really hard.

This is pretty much the only one we saw because rain or not, we went out of the bus for we weren't going to miss seeing this "Little Mermaid" icon of Denmark. I tell ya, we were soaked! And I think it was worth getting wet for this lovely bronze sculpture.

Well, let's just drive around, ok? And sorry, I can't tell you anything about the buildings cause I could not even understand what the tour guide was saying. The rain tapping on the windows was just too loud.

Some colorful buildings here.

a beautiful church

My sister managed to organize this big group together in this tour. A lot of us are related, distant aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc. The one sitting in front of me on my left was my classmate in 2nd grade and I haven't seen her since. It was a lot of fun touring together. I think there were 36 of us. Some of them are in other tables.

Thanks again for coming by I hope you did not mind the rain one bit. See you next Saturday for another sightseeing and hopefully it will be a dry one!

Living Room Mantel

I love parties so here I am joining another one. This time it is the 3rd mantel party hosted by Beth at http://bethcrabtreehunter.blogspot.com/. Don't forget to visit her to see more wonderfully decorated mantels.

Last week, I showed you our mantel in the family room. Shown below is our mantel in the formal living room. We have 3 fireplaces in the house. The third one is in the kitchen and maybe I'll show that to you next week.

The painting above the fireplace is my childhood home in the Philippines.

We have a collection of Sevres urns and I placed some celeste blue ones here. In the center is a Waterford crystal clock that a friend gave me for Christmas. We were shopping at TJ Maxx and I saw it and told her I really like it but will think about it for a while and decide later if I will buy it or not. After a while, I went back to get it but it was gone. I was kicking myself for not buying it. Unbeknownst to me, she hurriedly bought and paid for it and had the cashier wrap it fast so I wouldn't see it. And then she surprised me and gave it to me for Christmas. Isn't that sweet?
Do you like the shell shaped urn? Or maybe it's not called an urn. Do yo know?

We bought the crystal finials from an antique shop. They came with a mirrored tray and 1 more for a total of 5 finials. The tray and 5th finial are sitting on the coffee table right now. Nothing is ever permanent in our house except for the heavy furniture that I cannot move, lol.

Thanks Beth, for hosting another mantel party and thank you all for coming for a visit.

Dragonflies

Does anybody here like dragonflies? I think they are so cute and they do not bite nor sting so I like them in the garden and I cannot wait for spring to come so I can start working in the garden and see them around again. Maybe I won't see them outside right now so I just decided to create a tablescape using them as my inspiration.

Tablescape Thursday is hosted by our most gracious hostess, Susan of http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/and if you want to treat yourself to some awesome tablescapes, you need to go pay her and her participants a visit.

I bought this copper dragonfly from a local frame and gift shop. It's quite big and I really like it. I kept it on top of our corner china cabinet in the dining room with just the face showing and almost forgot about it. One day while in the bathroom, I suddenly got a glimpse of a pot with a topiary in it and noticed that it has a dragonfly. You see, I had to bring a lot of plants in the house before it got cold, to save them from freezing. The pot reminded me of the dragonfly sculpture that I have, which also gave me the idea for this tablescape.

Don't you just like those cobalt blue eyes?

I bought these dishes last summer from Marshalls. When I saw "Rice, rice, baby", on the bowls, I just had to have them too. We eat rice here day and night.
John and I still have our bad colds so we had some hot homecooked soup. And of course we had to have some rice with it. I got the hobnail plate chargers sometime last year from Dillards. They were 75 % off but I can't remember how much I bought them for anymore.

I like the shape of the dinner plates, so unusual. Somehow, they remind me of something turkish, of a mosque. I use dipping sauce with crushed hot pepper when I eat so I use a mini saucer with my setting. John doesn't.

How many dragonflies do you see here?

Did you see all 4 of them?

I hope you like this casual setting. Thank you for coming by and thanks, Susan for hosting one of my favorite parties.

Formal Living Tabletops

This is Barb's second week of Tabletops Tuesday. To see a lot gorgeous vignettes, you need to go to her site at http://gritsglamour.blogspot.com/. I am certain that you will enjoy everyone's creativity.

Last week, I showed you our family room mantel top. Today, I would like to show you the tops of our coffee table and a French server in the formal living room.
What I have on top of the coffee table is a Sevres compote held by 3 cherubs, a Viennese vase, a pair of Meissen figures, a Napoleon porcelain tray with 3 expresso cups on top of a gold mirrored tray and a crystal finial. All of these were either won from an antique estate sale or bought from an antique store.

I think the pictures on the cups are as follows: Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife, Josephine and his dad, Carlo. The tray also has Napoleon's picture on it.
We bought the mirrored tray from an antique store downtown and it included 5 different shapes of crystal finials. One of them is on this table behind Napoleon's cup and the other 4 are on the mantel of this room's fireplace.
Can you spot the crystal finial here?

Here's another view of the table, which shows the bottom shelf. On the bottom shelf, you will see a big Sevres egg compote held by 2 nymphs, a pot with faux flowers, a bejeweled bunny, a Meissen bird, a mini amber tree and a twin ballerina figurine. The latter 2 are not showing in this picture.

Do you see the large painting above the sofa? It's oil and I painted it.

Here is a close up of the cherub Sevres compote.

and a close up of the tray with cups

You get a little glimpse of the dining room from here.

Now, let's go see what is on top of the French server.

An antique clock, an old lampshade, 2 marble busts, a vase with faux flowers and another vase with faux ferns.

I love the ornate design of the lamp shade. I am not sure what you call this lamp style but I love the shade and its bronze figural base.

The clock was given to us by my sister in Illinois. We visited her one winter and after we got home and talked to her on the phone, I told her how much I like the clock in the guest room. The next time we met, she brought it and gave it to me. Isn't she nice?

The mirror is from either Indonesia or Malaysia.

Under the server is a wooden box of magazines, a chess set I bought from Greece and a bowl of natural crystals and stones, which is another one of my collections:-) I am just fascinated by the different colors, shapes and patterns.

Thank you Barb for hosting. This is really a fun party. I hope you all enjoyed how I decorated our table tops. We hardly ever use this room that's why I keep a lot of our breakables and collectibles here. Thank you all for coming by.