Living With Thanksgiving

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Easter Tea in the Garden

March 31, 2020 39 comments Easter tablescape

Join me in the garden for an Easter tea. There is birdsong, a slight breeze, and beautiful sunshine. I just received a surprise gift of the beautiful flowers you see. They were perfect for the Easter Tablescape Blog Hop today sponsored by Chloe @Celebrate and Decorate.

I had planned all along to use this tea set for my Easter tablescape. My husband's aunt passed this tea set down to me several years ago.(See former post with this tea set here) I dearly love to use it. However, I had no idea what flowers I could use.

Then voila! A friend offered me a bucket of flowers she rescued from being thrown away from an antique show. Check out my friend Sarah, on Instagram@ Spencecollection and show her some love there. She sells lovely antiques.

There were two shades of long stem roses and white hydrangeas. The bridal wreath is from my garden. I had a great time deciding on a container and setting the table. I've never had the luxury of arranging that many flowers!

"But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea." Jane Austin

The little white basket is my childhood Easter basket. My sister and I had matching baskets. I wouldn't take anything for this little basket. So many precious memories.

Please serve yourself a meringue. I'll pour you a cup of tea and we can have a nice chat!

The weather is so pleasant!

Imagine the lovely fragrance of these flowers. Pretty fragrances feed my soul!

But wait, there is more. Remember me telling you I'd never had the luxury of arranging so many roses. I was able to fill another watering can full of those gorgeous roses.

I've had a delightful morning in the garden.

The birds were delightfully singing and I saw a couple of early butterflies gliding by. So, I decided to capture the scene on video. For me, it is always intimidating to talk on a video. It will be on my Instagram story if it doesn't load here properly.

Amid the turmoil and fear with the effects of the Corona Virus, we all need assurance and trust. As I spent a pleasant morning in my garden styling this table I was not alone. This table was done weeks ago just as news of the virus spreading to New York was released. The words to this dear old hymn comforted me.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

Stay safe and healthy. Prayers for those affected by the virus, our government leaders and first responders. May God heal, protect, comfort us and give us great wisdom. The links to participating blogs are listed below. Stop by and leave them a comment.

Celebrate & Decorate
Panoply
Create With Cynthia
Home is Where the Boat Is
Debbee's Buzz
Belle Blue Interiors
Everyday Living
Life and Linda
At Home with Jemma
The Painted Apron
Home and Gardening with Liz
Harbour Breeze Home
Our Crafty Mom
Zucchini Sisters
Red Cottage Chronicles
My Thrift Store Addiction
White Arrows Home
Corner of Plaid and Paisley
Southern Nell Gracious Living
My Family Thyme
Blue Sky at Home
Intelligent Domestications
Living with Thanksgiving
The Little Yellow Corner Store
Design Morsels
Calypso in the Country

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Bloghop Tuesday

March 28, 2020 6 comments

You are invited Tuesday, March 31, 2020 to a Easter Tablescape Blog Hop. Hope to see you Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Spring is Coming!

March 03, 2020 49 comments spring tablescape 2020

We have signs of spring everywhere! Daffodils, snowdrops, and tulips are blooming, and robins are everywhere! Our azaleas are even blooming early! However, because of our cold and rainy days recently, spring seems far away. So we will just have to make springtime on our tables for now. Please join me today as I participate with a group of tablescapers for a blog hop sponsored by Chloe Crabtree @Celebrate and Decorate. If you are coming over from Harbor Breeze welcome. The links for each blog participating are available at the end of the post. Spring decorating inspiration abounds.

"The trees began to whisper and the wind began to roll and in the wild March morning, I heard them call my soul. "Alfred Lord Tennyson

I snapped this quick picture after I conditioned my flowers. Normally, I am in a hurry and I don't take the time to condition flowers overnight but I did this time.

It has either been cloudy or raining almost every day since I bought my flowers for the spring tablescape hop. I made this picture one evening just to remember I did have fresh flowers because I was afraid I wasn't going to get to photograph my table with these flowers because there was no light. To complicate the matter I live on a very wooded lot so my home is dark on a normal day.

I haven't personally had any stock before so it was a treat for me. They have the sweetest fragrance. I found two shades of pink stock, purple alstroemeria, and white hydrangeas at Trader Joes on my way home from my daughter's home. It is incredible how reasonably priced their flowers are. The stock was $2.99 a bunch.

I love the gold stand for this urn but it makes the arrangement much taller and harder to photograph. In the room, it looks nice to be large. My ceilings are high so something taller looks better.

I found this sweet pink votive recently while visiting my daughter in a decorating shop. It made a perfect vase for some spring bouquet flowers.

The spring bouquet flowers grow as if they were ready to make an instant bouquet. Maybe that is how it got its name. My friend, Charlotte, has a large tree-like bush of spring bouquet and offered it for cutting. It also has a sweet fragrance. This is a great scrub for your garden and she says it has pretty berries around Christmas.

I also bought myself some beautiful Lenton Roses. I have enjoyed them on my dining room buffet. They came in three colors. I bought the Helleborus Ice N' Red and Helleborus Ice Rose. It also came in a white. They grow 12-24 inches high in Zones 5-9. It is a free-flowering perennial. Rose flowers stay dark rose as they age and they last until late spring. I will be planting mine in my woodlawn garden and hoping they will rebloom next year.

'I shopped the house' for dishes to use for this table and literally took the rose medallion plates off my wall. Years ago, I started collecting rose medallion because I liked it. I didn't realize how many I had and six was definitely enough to set a table. The price tags are still on the back of the plates because I don't want my children tossing these antique plates away. Three of them are unmarked. That means they date earlier than 1890 when the U.S. required the date. Rose medallion is a 19th and 20th-century Chinese export porcelain. Rose medallion has a central medallion of a rose, peony, or even birds. The dominant colors are usually pastel pinks and greens and can include red, blue, orange, yellow or gold.

The rose medallion vase used for the flowers and ginger jars and footbath on the buffet is not antique rose medallion. They are reproductions and are around 25-30 years old.

I switched out the mirrored runner for the round mirrored tray shown here. Which do you like best?

I normally use this tray on my coffee table.

I normally use a tablecloth mostly because it does help lighten up my room.

Would you believe I just took all the dishes off the table and put on a tablecloth? It is still so dark outside it really didn't help much. I snapped a quick cell phone pic.