Let there be White Tablescape

Well here it is 2:00 in the afternoon (which makes it 5pm on the east coast) and I have been looking at everyone's white tablescapes and I feel so left out. I wanted to participate, but when I got home from work last night I decided that taking a nap sounded better than putting together a white tablescape to blog about. But now I am really regretting that decision (my life story). So while I was checking out everyone else's I noticed that not all were completely white. So I thought "Ah ha! I have a tablescape I posted about before on Tablescape Thursday back in April that is mostly white. It might just work for this blog party". Late in the afternoon I can just about justify anything.

And what blog party am I talking about? Why the Let There be White tablescaping event hosted by Cuisine Kathleen. Be sure to visit her blog by clicking on her name, the party name or the photo above. Then you will find all the participants.

If you have seen this tablescape before, I hope that you don't mind that I am sharing it again. This was my welcome spring tablescape on my other blog Manning Family Tree. But because I have started this new blog for my decorating & blog party stuff & this tablescape is mostly white with a touch of blue & green, it works just as well for summer (if not better). So I am posting it here. I'm changing up some of the wording for this repost as well as I originally posted it before Easter.



This is my living room dining area. All the furniture in this room is Mission style. It was my husband's furniture before we got married. Even though it wouldn't be my first choice (I'm more of a Shabby Chic girl), I have learned to love it.

For my centerpiece I hunted around my house for various items I could use. The pineapple concrete finials came from my backyard (I guess that is what you would call them. I asked my hubby what he would call them & he said "ugly". Men!) . The larger one originally came from Home Goods a few years back. The smaller one came from Marshall's a couple of months ago. The piller candlestick was a thrift store find & a leftover from our wedding. Two of the green balls came from Michael's on clearance & the one in front came from the Dollar Tree. And of course my Target birdie S&P.
I've used my JC Penney Home Collection clearance plates.

My napkins were a clearance find at WalMart. For my napkin rings I used drapery clip rings & attached a silk gerber daisy flower (from a dollar store) & a piece of blue organza ribbon (the candle holders from Dollar Tree came tied up with this ribbon).
I set up my table on a Saturday & took my photos during the day this time. They turned out so much better. See what happens when I actually plan ahead? I get better results.
I found the blue candle holders at the Dollar Tree. The placemats are from Marshall's on clearance. The silverware is my everyday set by Oneida. The pattern is Michaelangelo. I've again used my Libby goblets from WalMart.


One final look at my table. I just love how this table turned out.
Well I hope you enjoyed my summer (previously spring) tablescape. And I hope you don't mind that it wasn't completely all white.

Let's have a tea party

Today I am participating in two blog parties with one post. Barb over at Grits and Glamour is hosting Tea Time Tuesday. And Tam over at The Gypsy's Corner hosts a weekly Three or More Tuesday party. I'm sure you got here from their posts, but if not, be sure to click the links on their names or the photos above to take you to their blogs. There you will find the list of this weeks participants.

Those who know me the best know that I can be lazy, or to be politically correct, motivationally challenged. So because of this defect in me, I don't really have a new post to share with you. Instead I am going to reshare a post I did on my family blog Manning Family Tree for Tablescape Thursday back in May. I'm sure a lot of you may have already seen it, but there might be some who missed it. Plus it's my favorite tablescape that I have done so far & I love seeing it again & I hope that you will too. Since this post is about a tea party & the table is set for three, this post qualifies for both blog parties.


Now I don't have any daughters (boo hoo) or any grand daughters (we can always hope). But I do have 2 nieces who I call my faux daughters. I'm lucky that my nieces only live about 15 minutes from me, so we see each other quite a bit. I decided that we would have a tea party. Only problem is, I forgot to invite them and we don't drink tea. But I love tea cups, tea pots & everything else that goes with a tea party, so I thought I'd throw a faux tea party for my faux daughters Danica & Taylor.

Since the weather has been beautiful here in SoCal aka: Southern California, we would have our little tea party out by the pool. Oh, oh, looks like someone forgot to put away the extension cord & hose as well as sweep before taking the photo. Men!!! (Did you notice that I'm not taking the blame?)


Here is the tablecloth I started with (I really took this photo when I was putting everything away, but if I hadn't brought it to your attention that the cement is now all cleaned up, you wouldn't have even noticed. Would you?) I got this tablecloth at a thrift store when I lived down in San Diego county. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but knowing me, it wasn't over $5.00. Most likely only a couple of dollars.
Then I used my Bordallo cabbage plates. I only have 3 of the dinner plate size. That is why this tea party is just for 3 of us. The plates came from Ross back in Jan or Feb. I got them on clearance for I think $3.50 each. The silverware is new!!! I got it at Ross a few weeks back. $12.00 for a service for 4. I love the dark color of the bamboo.
Next I layered on my thrift store china salad plates that I got a few weeks back. I paid $2.00 for 4 of these plates plus 2 smaller plates in a different pattern. I love the pink flowers with the green cabbage plate underneath.

Here is a close up of my new silverware.
Then on top of the salad plates I put a different tea cup at each place setting. This is for me. This is my favorite tea cup. It is by Lefton. I got if off ebay. I may have splurged & paid $10.00 for this. I loved the green color with the pink roses.
Here is the tea cup for Danica. This came from ABC Distributing catalog. The bottom says "Formalities". I paid $4.95 for this tea cup. Again, I love the pink roses.
And the tea cup for Taylor. I used a Royal Albert American Rose tea cup but put it on a completely different saucer called June Bouquet by Duchess bone china England . But I think it goes together as they both have pink roses. Both the tea cup & saucer came from the thrift store. Most likely paid less than$1.00 each. I then attached little vintage napkins along with a reproduction vintage print as a name card to each tea cup handle with a drapery ring (in this case it is more like a hook). I love the medallion that was on the ring. I think it looks vintage. I'm finding that drapery rings work great as napkin rings. And they are cheap. I got these at Ross & paid $2.99 for 7 or 10 of them. Since they are actually hooks, they will come off easily from the cup handle. The napkins were part of a lot of 40 vintage napkins that I won from ebay for $9.99. I also put a packet of flower seeds (25cents each from Dollar Tree) at each setting as a little take home gift. I have them on forks bent to make easels (forgot to take photo). Here is my place setting. I love Shasta daisies. They were my favorite flowers when I was a teenager. Now my favorite flowers are roses or hydrangeas.

Here is Danica's place.
And Taylor's. Don't you just love the basket on the napkins? For the centerpiece I started out with this wooden basket that says "Fleurs" on the side. I got this at Costco at the beginning of the year. They originally came with succulents in them, but they were dying so this was a clearance item. I got it for $6.00. I think they originally sold for $20.00 or so. Since I don't like succulents, I didn't care if they were dying as I was throwing them out anyways. I only wanted the wooden basket.

Then I added some silk peonies. I thought the color of these flowers matched the pink in the flowers on the tablecloth.
Next came a birdhouse. I got this a few years back to use in my wedding. Can't remember where I got it from though. I just love this birdhouse. I sat it on a vintage napkin inside the box.
Then I added this little birdie & bird nest. This came from Michael's last year on 50% off sale.
And then I added this iron candelabra. I got this at a trade show in Vegas a few years back. I paid $2-3.00 for this.

I love how this turned out. I guess I should have lit my candles. Oh well, just pretend they are lit.

My tea service items all came from thrift stores, ebay or were free. The pink & white pitcher was an ebay find I'm sure I paid less than $10.00 for it. The tea pot was a freebie from my niece Danica. She had bought it at a thrift store to use for a friends Mad Hatter birthday party. She gave it to me after the party. The sugar & creamer came from a thrift store.

I just love my tea pot!!! I normally collect china that has roses, but I love how this pot has little blue flowers. Something different from what I normally collect.


The goblets are my Libby glasses from Walmart. I think they were like a dollar a piece.

I love how each place setting is a little different. But they all still look good together.

One final look at the table. Did you notice that the concrete is now swept? Isn't hubby a doll for doing that for me? Thanks for joining my faux tea party. Now I guess I better invite Danica & Taylor over for a real tea party. I know they will be asking for one when they see this.

Update: Since I first posted this on my family blog back in May, my niece Danica has asked for a real tea party. So far, we haven't been able to get together to do so. I hope you liked my little faux tea party and that I cheated a little. But wasn't it worth it?

Metamorphosis & Mosaic Monday-Mobile Garden

I finally have my act together to show something for Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. And this is also my first time participating in Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House.

Be sure to visit both of their blogs to see this week's participants & to see what they have to share.

My hubby decided this year that he wanted to have a garden. Problem is, we have nowhere to plant a garden. Now nothing stops my hubby when he wants something, so his solution was to make a mobile garden.

It all started with this metal arch that hubby found on the side of the road. He had seen those topsy turvy thingies & wanted to try growing tomatoes. So he thought this arch would be great to hang the topsy turvy's from. He first spray painted the arch a oil rubbed bronze.

We then went to some building yard that sold metal. Hubby picked up some pieces of metal to make part of the frame that the wheels could be attached to. Here is hubby welding the wheels & casters onto the metal. He then made a couple of posts.


Built out the rest of the frame to hold the boxes for the garden below.

Since hubby knows how to do stained glass, he wanted to make the post tops out of blue glass. I wish I had got a better photo of them. They are beautiful, but I forgot to take a photo before he put them on top.
And here is the final product. Our mobile garden. Since it is on wheels, it can be moved anywhere in our yard that we would like.
Here is the garden area below. See the sweet garden angel watching over our garden?

Here is the latest photo taken last Friday.

I had two hanging candle holders that I am also hanging from the arch.


The topsy turvy's are growing great. The far left one is Roma tomatoes, the middle is Jalapeno peppers & the one on the right is beef stake tomatoes.
Here is a mosaic I made of some of the plants that are growing in our mobile garden. Click on photo to enlarge.
We are growing the two type of tomatoes, 3 or 4 different kind of chili peppers, green bell peppers, lettuce, 2 different kinds of onions, radishes, broccoli, cilantro, cauliflower and green beans. Our radishes are just about ready to pick. I've picked beans a couple of times now & the Roma tomatoes are just starting to turn red. I am so excited.

Well thanks for visiting. Be sure to visit my other post showing my thrifty finds for the week. You can find it by clicking here.