Let's Have Tea in the Formal Living Room

Here is another triple posts. Make sure you all visit our gracious hostesses:

Marty hosts Tabletop Tues. and you can visit her at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com

Lady Katherine hosts TeaTime Tuesday and you can visit her at http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com

Wanda Lee hosts Tuesday Tea For Two and you can visit her at http://theplumedpen/blogspot.com

Let's have tea and coconut cake in the living room!

Tea set came with a complete set of servings for 8 dishes, made in England in Warvel pattern. I won it on Ebay while I was in Florida, another package waiting for me in the garage when I got home a few weeks ago. The set does not look like it has even been used.

I bought a coconut icing from a candy making shop in Florida. Then I baked a yellow cake from a store bought box and iced it and sprinkled coconut on top. Hubby has been eating the icing, scraping it off the cake, lol. He is a coconut addict.

Showing below are Meissen figures of a man and woman and a Sevres compote with cherubs.

The plate is another one (I won 6 of them) I got from Ebay while in FL. They are Limoges porcelain plates from the A. Lanternier factory, circa 1891. I like the gilded gold and scalloped rims.

Here's a peek of the dining room from the living room. (foyer in between them). I got the tea candlestick holder from an antique shop downtown a few months ago. I have a pair of them but I only used one here.
The fork has a lion head. I bought the set from Horchow or Neiman Marcus months ago.

Again, this was posted in advance. I thank you for visiting and commenting. I'll get back to you upon return.

Thanks to our lovely hosts!

Concealing the Pool Equipment

I am not home so I am posting this in advance. I am thanking you in advance for any comments and I might be late in responding but I will catch up when I return.

I am linking with 3 memes today:

Blue Monday is hosted by Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Metamorphosis Monday is hosted by Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

I hope you will visit all these gracious and ever loyal ladies to see a lot of wonderful creations.

For Blue Monday, I am sharing my Forget me Not hanging plants. I love their blue flowers. I have 2 of them hanging on the porch on the office and master bedroom side.

Mosaic Monday contributions will be scattered around.

For Met. Monday, I am showing you what I did to hide our pool equipment. I have been working on this continuously since the pool was built. I have tried several solutions but they were never the right one. I think I finally found something I am happy with.

As soon as you get to the backyard, this eye sore greets you and it's really been very frustrating to me. I don't know why they placed it there but I think it is because behind the wall is the garage and the electrical panels are in there. There is also a gas line there for the big generator that is next to the pool equipment. We had a centralized generator installed after we had a bad hurricane 2 years ago, leaving us without power for at least 4 days. Now, whenever the power goes off, 5 seconds later, the generator kicks in automatically and then we have power all over the house. It is really very convenient.

The pictures below are the "Before".

Can you see the ugly equipment? Of course you can cause it greets you right in the eye. I tried putting iron trellises and hanging flowers on them but the equipment is still very visible as you can see below. The big box in the last picture of the mosaic is the generator. I am going to put a big bushy plant in a pot on it when I get back.

While flying to Florida a few weeks ago, I saw these white self watering planter/trellises in the Skymall catalog. When I got to FL., I went on line and emailed a picture to dh and he said to go ahead and order 3. I thought we needed at least 4 so we bought 4. I think we need 2 more so I will probably order more. They have a water reservoir underneath so you can just fill it and not worry about watering the plants until it is empty. Perfect for us because we travel a lot.

I think they are concealing the equipment much better and will even be better after the plants grow and the flowering vines spread out.
Eventually, I will fill those holes with 2 more units. I do have to leave a little gap because the pool people have to go there when they come to clean and maintain the pool.

Do you see the ugly black spots on the deck? I did host them out after I took pictures but they came from the trees, I think from the acorns. Yikes!

Here is the view from the house. Do you see the garbage can on the right side in front of the trellis? I ordered it from Neiman Marcus on line. The set of trellis and the garbage can were among the packages that I had to open when I got home. I told you I went on an on line shopping spree while in Florida, lol. You should have seen all the boxes that came in while I was gone. They were all over the kitchen, garage and some in the foyer.

I want to buy and plant more climbing flowering vines. Should I get the same ones that I have (Carolina jessamines) or should I get other flowers with another color?

In case you are wondering what that round thing on the ground is, it is a wet deck. We turn it on when the grandkids are here. Water shoots intermittently upward and the kids really enjoy it.

This is one of the vines I planted when we moved here. I planted it outside the office and hubby moved it here when they built the pool. It did not die last winter even if we had a really bad one (we had temps in the teens which is unusual for us). That is the reason I picked to plant the same kind in the trellises. I have not decided if I should plant the same kind in the other 2. What do you all think? I want something evergreen like this one though.

See the pretty yellow flowers?

Can you spot the trellis all the way to the end of the right pitcure? And can you spot the ugly big green plastic trash can at the end of the left picture? I think our new garbage can looks a lot better now, don't you?

I am just so happy that I don't see the ugly equipment anymore from our office cause I stay here a lot blogging.

This last picture does not have anything to do with the memes but I just wanted to show you our peaches and the small Japanese magnolias behind the arbor that are blooming. Do you see them?

Thank you so much for coming by and thanks to Sally, Susan and Mary for hosting these fun events. I hope you all have a nice week!

Fort Myers and My New I Phone

I have pink flowers to show you too but since I just got an i phone with a hot pink case, let me show you this first. I waited for my mobile phone service to be upgradeable before I was able to get one and it finally happened this month. I got an i phone 3 GS with 32 gb which is what we bought AJ when they first came out. It is so funny cause we go on Skype and she teaches me how to use it, lol.

Everyday feels like a Saturday to me now since I stopped working. But Saturdays are still more fun because I get to take you sightseeing and I get to show off something pink. I am linking with Beverly for Pink Saturday. I hope you will all visit her and all other participants. I know you will enjoy seeing all their lovely pinks.

Last week, I told you we will go to Washington DC. today. But I changed my mind, we'll save that for another Sat. I thought I should show you Fort Myers since I just came from there and my photo file is still easily accessible.

The day before I left, my daughter took me to an outlet mall. And what did I buy? Another coach purse. A Villeroy & Boch store was closing and everything in it was discounted. If you are a follower, you know how obsessed I am with dishes. OMG! I could have bought the whole store but I was struggling with packing and luggage weight issues already. I managed to buy a covered server which I thought was very reasonable at $13.00. (it was 50% off on top of the already discounted price) I also bought napkin rings for 50 cents each and other small kitchen gadgets. The server was in a box and luckily got home without breaking.

Back to the mall, the flowers and palms all over were so pretty. It also had a fountain in each corner.

Tina's friend also came with her daughter who had a great time playing with Brendan. Look at the 2 of them so happy, holding hands and all, so cute!

While I was visiting, or rather babysitting, they took me out to dinner at Crab Shack. The view was breathtaking cause it was right on the water and the food was delicious too. The waitress gave Brendan a rubber shark and he had a great time playing with it.

My daughter and I shared a seafood bucket, complete with shrimp, crab, corn, potatoes and scallops, I think (can't remember anymore, lol). Yum! We finished every single item leaving the bucket completely empty. My son in law ordered a blackened mahi sandwich and he said it was very good too. We had chips with crab salsa for appetizer and it was so good, best I've ever had in that category.

I asked Tina to drive me through the place where Thomas Edison's estate is. These plams have been planted by him that is why the city do not want to take them out to widen the road even if traffic gets so bad sometimes. It was so windy when we went ther. Look at the palms at the bottom left just swaying to the right. I also wanted to show you the banyan tree. There were a lot planted in the grounds where Edison's museum is. I guess he got the first one as a gift from India and it just spread from there. They were huge!

This is really an Edison country, Edison everything, Edison bridge, Edison Restaurant, Edison Rd., etc., etc. etc.

The house below is part of his estate. Almost across from it is his museum and laboratory. We did not enter them this time but we did on another visit about 2 years ago.

Here's another house in his estate. The area is very charming with all the old houses around.

This was a picture from our visit 2 years ago. I just wanted to show you how big these banyan trees are.

Edison was a workaholic. He worked in this lab for several hours. He even had a cot there and he would often sleep there. Sometimes, an idea would enter his head and he would get up in the middle of the night and start experimenting. His mind was working all the time. No wonder he invented so many things such as gramaphones, electricity and lightbulbs, cylinder and disc phonographs, film projectors, motion pictures, etc. He had 1093 patents. Below is his laboratory and those were his original lab glassware, chemicals and equipment. It reminds me of the days when I was in school doing Chemistry experiments, struggling to find out what the unknown was in Qualitative Chemistry. Yikes!

It was time for me to go home. My daughter took me to the airport early in the morning and the sun was just rising. I miss the babies so much!

We passed by this building and I thought the reflections on the building were so pretty.

Henry Ford was Edison's best friend. They worked a lot together. This was an exhibit in the airport.

I hope you all enjoyed this little tour of Fort Myers, Fl. I certainly enjoyed taking you along. Thanks for coming and thanks Beverly for another Pink Saturday!

Roosters Meet Penguins in a Jeweltone Setting

It's Thursday again. Yippee! We get to play on our tables. Thanks to Susan of http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for making this a possibility.

I was quite inspired by the quilt I used for my spring table. I thought it worked very well so when I was about to put this quilt away, which is the quilt I use on the master bed in the winter, I thought I would try to put it on the table first. What do you think? It has very rich colors and it is handmade. I bought it from Rhodes, Greece a few years ago.

The fine china set is in the "Shima" pattern which I bought from Horchow or Neiman Marcus. Because it is Asian in design, I took 2 of my Asian figures from the home office and used them as part of the centerpiece.

Tea set is "Artesian" by Tracy Porter.
See the roosters and the peacocks? I used rooster and peacock S & P shakers, roosters in the centerpiece, pewter peacock napkin rings, red rooster charger plates. I got the ceramic rooster plates from Ebay ($12.99 for a set of 4). I thought that was a good price so I bought 2 sets of red, 2 sets of yellow and 2 sets of multi colored ones (blue, green, yellow and red).

So, Cindy (Applestone), those were part of the packages that I opened when I got home but there were so much more and I will tell you which ones as I post them. I went on an on line shopping spree while in FL, lol. There just wasn't enough for me to do there, in spite of helping take care of the 2 babies.

The flatware that I used are silver plated from International Silver.




The first pic below is the view from the foyer and the one on the right is the view from the mirror.

I borrowed the orchid (faux) from the foyer.

See the Asian figures? I bought them from Horchow a while back, about 2 years ago.

Isn't this a colorful tablescape? LOL! I was just playing, not really using it. I am going to be out of town from Friday to Sunday so I might not be able to respond to your comments. But, I will try to catch up when I get back. You all have a nice week!

Thanks Susan, for such an enjoyable meme.