My Tablescape Inspiration: Quimper Wine/Cider Barrel

Hi everyone! I would like to congratulate Susan for reaching a milestone, hosting the 100th Tablescape Thursday. Congrats, Susan, for this very successful meme that brings lots of joy to dishaholics all over the world.

My inspiration for this tablescape is my centerpiece, a Quimper barrel. I saw it on Ebay while vacationing in Destin and I had to get it. Fortunately, it had a "Buy it Option" so I bought it right away. It really looks so good just sitting on the wet bar counter but see, it can double up as a centerpiece too.

Congratulate and visit our gracious hostess, Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com and see more creative tablescapes.

I was going to post this Quimper wine or cider barrel for a favorite on Saturday but after I tried using it as a centerpiece, I like it, so why wait til Saturday to show it? I have something else to show on Saturday anyway.

I like the look of Quimper but I don't think I will start collecting them because I am really running out of ideas on where to store more dishes. So I think this is as far as what I will own. But that could easily change, knowing me, lol!

My tablescape today is on our breakfast nook in the kitchen. I wanted to do one in the gazebo but that will take more time which I don't have right now since I am flying to California today for my classmate's 28 year old son's funeral scheduled for Saturday. Please continue to pray for him and the whole family. I really do appreciate all the prayers.

I received this German stein S & P shakers as a gift about 20 years ago.




I am using various Spode blue and white dinner and salad plates with my yellow rooster plate chargers. I have had the Spode dishes ever since I lived in FL but this is the first time I used them on the table. The sauce server at the bottom left is a Polish pottery.


Aren't the little cups cute? I really like the picture of the lady in the front.

And I love this finial on top which is actually the cork. I suppose this is where you fill it with wine, brandy, cider or whatever you prefer to serve. It has a spigot for convenient serving.

I just got the flatware from Neiman Marcus when they put them on sale. I have black ones that I bought from Marshall's and TJ Maxx about 3 years ago and I really like them because they are heavy. I have been wanting to have blue handled flatware so I watched for these to go on sale and took the opportunity to buy them when they did.

I used 2 types of goblets, plain blue ones and ones with yellow pineapple. I thought they were lemons but I changed my mind after noticing the spiky leaves on top. The wine glasses have blue dots.

See the loquats outside the window?

I did not use napkin rings because I like the way the blue flatware shows above the yellow napkins. I just added some blue flowers that I bought from the Villeroy & Boch outlet store in Destin and placed them above the napkins.

Thanks again for the visit. I hope you enjoyed seeing this tablescape as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Congrats and thanks to Susan again!

Relaxing on Massager with Quimper

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going good so far. Mine's busy as usual. I just got back from Dallas on Sunday evening, unpacking 3 suitcases while packing another one for me to take to California on Thursday, for my classmate's son's funeral. Though it will be nice to see everybody there, it will be a very sad reunion. Anyway, I did not want to miss Tuesday's parties so in between doing laundry, unpacking and packing, I am posting this. I am getting tired from all these traveling so to relieve that, I decided to get a massage while sipping tea with my Quimper tea set.

I am linking with:

Marty for Tabletop Tuesday at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

Lady Katherine for Teatime Tuesday at http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/

WandaLee for Tuesday Tea for 2 at http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/

Martha and Terri for Teacup Tuesday at http://www.marthasfavorites.com/

I picked some flowers in the garden to put in a clear vase.

The massager is in the master bedroom and I can watch TV there too while relaxing. I love this massage chair, it massages your legs and the butt, lol. We ordered it when we tried it at a medical convention in Chicago. I couldn't get up after I sat down and I had to justify the cost by telling dh that we pay almost $200 each to get a massage when we are on a cruise for 1 hr. which would cost $4000 so, 10 massages will more than pay for this and we can stay on it anytime for as long as we want. That's all it took to convince him, lol. He's easy!

I took a few pictures of the dresser top for Marty's Table top Tuesday.

Do you think I like jewelry? The top drawer of the dresser has jewelry organizers and they are full. LOL! Of course I keep the fine ones in the safe.

We won the Tiffany style dragonfly lamp from an estate auction downtown.
And yes, I am packing for another trip. Do you see the luggage back there? Kathleen of Cuisine Kathleen suggested I just keep one packed all the time but you know you have to wash the dirty clothes after each trip so that is not even possible. This packing and unpacking business is really exhausting.

We have a good view of the pool from here too.

Well, I better keep this post short since I have to finish packing. Thank y'all for coming by and thanks to our gracious hostesses for hosting. Do treat yourselves and visit them and their participants and enjoy their blog entries.

A Mini Met: Repositioning of Chaise and Plants

These are flower boxes hanging from our fence by the driveway. They are my contribution for Mosaic Monday, which is hosted by Mary of http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

I am bored in the hotel so I am going to blog. Luckily, I have a few pictures in my laptop that should qualify for Met. Monday, that is hosted by Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

and Sally's Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Those 2 lounge chairs are right outside our home office. I thought they were blocking my view a bit so I moved them slightly.

Actually, I pretty much just put them on an angle, really not that much change. And then I moved 2 planters with trellises behind them and here's how it looks now.

There's AJ when she was with us last month in a blue bathing suit. Another blue is the big pot
straight ahead with a blue cypress in it and a smaller blue pot next to it. And of course, the pool water is very blue.

Lastly, I want to show you this bird nest on one of our hanging plants on the gazebo. I thought I would take a picture of the eggs so I zoomed the camera and took a shot. I really could not see with my eyes because the nest is deep inside the plant and to my surprise when I took the memory stick into my computer to look at the pictures, I saw the mama bird with its wide eyes just watching. Doesn't she look mean? LOL! I think she is ready to attack to protect her babies. Do you know what kind she is?

A week later, I took more pictures. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. Just like I said, I really could not see anything in there, it was too dark so I was just trying to take pictures while zooming blindly. Do you see at least 3 baby birds?

Hope you enjoyed my mini met for today. Thanks for coming and thanks to our hostesses. If you want to see better mosaics, blue items and transformations, go visit Mary, Sally and Susan and their participants.

My Favorite Friends from College and our Reunion in Destin

I am out of town and I posted this in advance. But I am adding this.

What I posted for Sightseeing Saturday is about my first reunion with my classmates in College, my very close friends. Today I got a call from one of them because something very sad and tragic just happened. I would like to request all of you to pray for my classmate, Emilie and her family. Her 28 year old son, Patrick, had a seizure in bed last night around 10 PM and he was rushed to the hospital but did not even make it there alive. Patrick is not sick and this was the first time he's experienced a seizure, that is why we are all shocked and the family understandably is devastated. It was very hard for me to hear Emilie bawling on the phone because she is a very fun loving gal. The whole family needs our prayers. PLEASE join me in praying for them and I thank you.

Let's go to the beach! Isn't that a good idea in this really hot and humid weather? Well, at least that is how it is in this part of the country.

I am linking with Beverly for Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

The trip I am sharing with you is my reunion with my BFF's in College. Yes, they were my favorite friends when we were in College gazillion years ago and they still are. Therefore, I am linking with Laurie for a Few of My Favorite Things at http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

We called ourselves The Spooks!!

It was summer when we had the reunion in a summer beach location so I am linking with the Tablescaper for Summer Sunday at http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

There are 7 of them: Elsie, Emily, Gatchie, Jazmine, Lyla, Nel and Tess, all equally wonderful, sweet, compassionate, fun loving, responsible and have a great love for God and family. There were more of us when we were in College but some still reside in the Philippines and some, we have lost contact with. These were my friends when we were still in College studying to be Medical Technologists, now also known as Clinical Laboratory Scientists. If you do not know what that is, we are the ones testing your blood and body fluids so that physicians can diagnose you clinically.

After we all graduated, I came over to US and 3 of them proceeded to go to the College of Medicine and became physicians. Now, we are all spread apart in the US except for one who resides in Canada but we still communicate via email and occasional get togethers.


They all flew in and attended my youngest daughter, Tina's wedding. This is part of my Pink Sat. contribution. Tina's wedding colors were champagne, brown and dusty rose so my gown had pink beads on the top. Elsie's wearing a pink shawl too.

From L to R:

Nel, Elsie, me, Emilie, Gatchie, Jazmine, Lyla, Tess

The first time we had a reunion since College was in 2003. That was 33 years after graduation. We've been having one every year or every other year since.

I am sharing the very first one with you. This was the most memorable in my opinion. I am sure most of them will agree. We rented a beach house in Destin but we all met at my daughter's home in the Tampa Bay area. I rented a mini van that can sit 8 people but trying to fit all the luggage for 8 people was the real challenge. We had to buy a canvas luggage carrier to put above the van to carry the excess baggage. Gatchie who is the most energetic and now an Internal Medicine doctor, is the one organizing the stuff on top of the van.

The ride did not seem long because we had so much fun and all you could hear inside the van was laughter and music.

Below is the beach house. It is a duplex and we occupied the right side. It had a bedroom with a queen size bed and a loft with 2 full size beds and a sofa bed in the living room. The nice thing about it was it was right on the beach. You go down from the stairs and step right into sand. We could hear the waves of the water from the house and it was so relaxing especially when it was time to go to bed.

We took early morning walks on the beach.


and enjoyed the breathtaking view from the balcony!

The buildings around us were all tall condominiums.

I was the organizer and I had activities lined up every minute of the day. Of course that included relaxation, shopping and bonding time too. We played Guesstures and Scrabble.

We went on a dolphin watch cruise. See the dolphins?

It was a lot of fun!

That's Jazmine under the Jaws. She makes us laugh! LOL! Just thinking about her puts a smile on my face.

We had a karaoke contest and I won it. Yipee! My price was a Coach purse.

Shown below is Nel doing the Limbo rock while Emilie, who studied to be a Pathologist and is working as a Cytologist now, held the stick. Emilie is someone who is very loving, very motherly and is an excellent homemaker. She cooks for us and is always cleaning and straightening up the house.

We lounged in our PJ's a lot and that was part of the fun.

Jazmine taught us how to hula and belly dance and it was so hilarious. I couldn't take still photos cause I was dancing with them but we have videos.

We ate a lot! I mean, A LOT!

But we also exercized a lot, and swam or just soaked in the beach water.

Doing a head stand is Nel. She is the most girly girl among us, so reserved, so lady like.

It did not matter what time it was. We would just go to the beach whenever we felt like it.

The more fortunate ones treated us to dinner.

And Tess, the facial expert shown here with Lyla, the Anaesthesiologist, gave free facials. Tess also is our joke teller. All she has to do is open her mouth and she can keep us laughing in stitches.

We ate at Fuddpuckers. See the colorful building? It has a lot of pink so more pink contribution here.

And at night before we would turn into our own beds, we would just all stay together and bond. Oh what fun times! I love you guys and I miss you! When is our next reunion?

I hope you enjoyed our sightseeing for today. Thanks a lot for coming.

And thanks to all our hostesses for faithfully hosting these fun memes week after week after week.