Easter Dining

Easter was a sweet affair at our house this year.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and I enjoyed seeing my brothers and spending a little time with their families and my sweet mother.  I cooked like nobody's business and hopefully sent them away full and satisfied.

It was such a busy morning, but I managed to set a fun and whimsical Easter tablescape for us as well.  

 I pulled out a large piece of yellow buffalo checked moire fabric that I've used for the tablecloth several times before. I wanted to keep things casual and add lots of color too.

Here's my table all set for eight shown before I pulled in the extra chairs from the kitchen.  We all fit but I am thinking I really should consider getting a longer table.  My dining room would accommodate one just fine with a slight furniture rearrangement.  For my settings, I opted to use a mixture of glasses and plates.

Four place settings had the Butlers Pantry "Gourmet" dinner plates mixed with Accoutrements Cornelia Cream salad plates.   All of the china used is from Lenox.  

Each of those settings also had a checked floral napkins and a polka dotted egg napkin ring of which there were four different colors and my new purple stemware from Novica.

The polka dotted egg napkin rings I purchased at work from Stein Mart.

The other four settings had Butlers Pantry dinner plates and salad plates and green goblets from one of Walmart's Better Homes and Garden collections.

They all had a little ceramic ducky napkin rings paired with yellow floral napkins.

I used my wedding stainless, Louisiana by Onieda for all eight settings.  This photo here shows you how close the two settings were in the middle.   Pretty tight huh?  It's a good thing our family doesn't mind rubbing elbows together.  LOL!

My new stemware made it to the Easter table this year but I still want to do a special purple setting using them soon but not just yet.

I kept a few elements for the center of the table that I used in my last setting but added a few new things as well.

Since I knew I would busy cooking the rest of the meal I took the easy way out on the dessert and bought a coconut cake from Sams.  It was delicious and sooo moist!  I also bought the mini croissant rolls from Sams too.  They are my all time favorites to enjoy during the holidays.

I just couldn't wait to use my wire eggs for a centerpiece.  I wanted to add our dyed eggs to them and had intended to have everything ready before our guests arrived.  Unfortunately working everyday the week prior to Easter and cooking all morning on Easter left me strapped for time to dye the eggs.

Thankfully I was able to talk my son and one of my nephews into helping out with dying the eggs.

They were so sweet!  They really wanted to dye the eggs with two different tones on each side.  I did not have any of those wire egg holders so they patiently held each egg in the cup to get the different colors.  Thankfully we only dyed a few but I couldn't help but chuckle when I looked across the table at dinner to see my sons fingertips were dyed too.   

They did such an awesome job and were able to place them on our table to complete our centerpiece.  But the real reason to get the eggs dyed was to have them ready for our family's annual "egg wars" where we tap them against each other on the ends to see who has the winning egg.  This blue and green one shown here was the winning egg and my son was the proud winner.

With the eggs all done, the food cooked and table set we all sat down, enjoyed each others company and stuffed our bellies full!

I hope you had a fantastic Easter with family and friends too!

I am linking this post to the following parties;

Let's Dish

and

Tablescape Thursday.

Thanks for hosting such fun parties each week ladies!

And thank YOU for dropping by too!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Feeding my Passion for Purple with a Product Review

Hi Friends!  Do you have a secret passion for purple?  I certainly do!  Why so secret?  Maybe because purple is often associated with being the most favorite color of adolescent girls.  I am ashamed to say (not really) that it's one of those childhood favorites that I have never outgrown.  Just one peek in my closet and you will see that I love purple.  Well, maybe you should have a few peeks!

I love to wear all sorts of colors.

But purple has always been one of my favorites.

As you can see I am as attracted to clothes that are made of solid purple as I am to those that have just a splash of purple.

I even own purple sweaters and purple fleece.  Geez, I know! I love purple that much.

Of course, I think the Mr. looks great with a touch of purple too!

In a previous post here, I showed you how much I enjoy my lavender baths.

And, it looks like the lavender I planted outside last year is thriving after all.  I may be adding more of this for sure since it seems to be doing pretty good here.

I just recently added purple verbena by the pool and gardenias.

Then, just this past weekend, I purchased a few lavender azaleas to add along the fence line.

I hope these azaleas will thrive here as well.  I purchased the small ones for two reasons.  One the were very economical and two, I'm not sure if this area is going to be great for azaleas so it's kinda like a test.

Oops, I am getting off track here..back to my purple passions and the review.

On my screened porch (which we have finally power washed) I've added this purple glass candle holder for just a touch of purple on the porch.

Last week I showed you my purple glass decanter that I've added to my fireplace mantle.

In the kitchen I have a few of these plates on the wall.  I have had them for sometime.  My passion for purple really has been long standing but I tend to only use it for accents.

As in these Vera Bradley plates that I hung in the dining room.

And on the small violets in my Easter cloche.

I think every room should have a splash of purple, don't you?  It really is such a comforting color to me.   For me personally it inspires creativity and invokes passion.  I've been told before that I wear purple well and have purposely worn it for job interviews or meetings that I'm a bit nervous about in the past.  It seriously helps boost my confidence.  Purple has always had an association with royalty but did you know that there once was a law that only allowed British royalty to wear purple back in Elizabethan times? That's wild, I can't imagine not being able to have or wear purple.

Now as much as I love purple, and if you haven't figured it out by now that I really do, would you believe there is one area of my life that is lacking purple?  Well, there was!

  

I say was, because thanks to a very generous company called NOVICA, I was offered a chance to do a product review.

 I was very excited to participate when I saw that this company was in association with National Geographic.  I grew up on that magazine.  Yep, it was one subscription that my mother always kept, that and Readers Digest.  It's probably the one subscription that fueled my passion to be a travel agent when I graduated from high school.  I loved seeing and reading about other places around the world and other cultures.

Upon closer investigation I found out that Novica offers hand crafted products from local artisans around the world.    You can order directly from their website here, or you can also host an in home party for your friends or even become a local independent consultant for them.  Check out this link here for more about that.

The range of products offered by Novica is amazing and beautiful.

A few things they offer are;

http://clothing.novica.com/womens/sweaters/

http://accessories.novica.com/womens/belts/

http://home-decor.novica.com/home-decor-candles-and-lighting/table-lamps-and-lanterns/index.cfm?c=280&l=4 

And the list goes on and on!  I'm sure you can see why I was so excited about this company.  Not only do they have beautiful handcrafted products to wear, but, they have products for the home as well.

So what do you think I would choose to review?  Of course if you've been following along with this post I'm sure you have figured out by know it was something purple.  What area of my life could possibly be lacking in purple you ask? Well, it's one of my newest passions created over the last two years.  Of course, I am talking about tablescaping.  Would you believe I had no purple stemware?   

Well, I didn't!  I didn't until this box arrived that is.  It was so fun to get a call from Mr. after work who said there was box from Mexico delivered to me by Fed Ex.  Haha!  Can you imagine what he must have been thinking?  LOL!

Look what was inside!  Not one but six gorgeous hand blown purple goblets.  I cannot speak enough about how well packaged these goblets were.  I had been a bit worried about ordering glass through the mail but I can assure you these glasses were packed for protection from breakage.

They are nice and thick too!  I just love them!  Each one is handcrafted so there is some variances in them but for the most part they are nearly the same.  There is only the slightest amount of bubbles and beautiful hint of swirling within the purple glass.  I love, love, love it! 

Can you imagine how excited I am to create a tablescape using these?  I know you can!  I cannot think of another occasion more appropriate to use purple then Easter.   I certainly hope to be back soon with a beautiful new Easter tablescape for you featuring my new glasses.

I hope you'll join me then too.  I am joining Kathleen today for 

Let's Dish

to share my latest finds along with the beautify of purple

and a most wonderful and unique company called

Novica.

To see more of the beautiful products available from Novica please click on the following links;

http://accessories.novica.com/mens/cufflinks/sterling-silver/india/

http://accessories.novica.com/womens/shawls/alpaca-wool/

http://accessories.novica.com/womens/belts/recycled/brazil/

http://accessories.novica.com/womens/scarves/painted/silk/

http://clothing.novica.com/sweaters/

http://clothing.novica.com/womens/tops/knit-tops-and-tees/basics/

Have a great day everyone!

Real Life Vs. Blog Life; Keeping Perspective

Do you ever feel like your blog life and real life are battling against each other for time?  I sure do!  In fact I feel this way all the time now ever since I have gone back to work.  I especially feel this way even more so this time of year when everything is starting to bloom outside and calling me to come outside and play.

The dogwoods are blooming, the sun is shining and the temperature has been absolutely wonderful!

I have been spending my precious time off cleaning up a bit outside

We finally finished raking up all the leaves that had accumulated here in our natural area by the fence.  It may not look like it in this photo but it was a momentousness task.

I bought and added a few purple verbena to my flower area in between the pool patio and deck areas.  The Mr. has almost finished the lattice work too.  We still need to stain it and add more mulch to both this area and the natural are but I am pleased with how things are progressing.

This picture shows you quite a change from the way things looked here only a few weeks ago.  Do you see how large the leaves on my Oak Leaf Hydrangea have already grown?

Speaking of large, here's a glimpse of my Encore Rose bush.  It's huge isn't it?  I'm so glad to see it's starting to bloom!

I finally found a little time to put out just a few Easter decor items.

The scary bunnies are back!  My family is going to have fun with these again.  LOL!  The Mr. and son #2 do not particularly like them at all.

There is something about the facial expression on these bunnies that just freaks them out.  They also claim they have eyes that follow you around the room.  Hehe!

On the mantle I changed up just a few things for a more summery feel.  

I added my faux chocolate bunny for the holidays.  

I thought I'd show you my glass decanters I bought from work too.  We sell these in different sizes and shapes and in green too.  I just love them!  I think the purple is the perfect accent on my mantle this year.

Now that I've shown you some of what I've been up to, I'd like like to get back to the real meat of this post.  Real life verses Blog life and keeping perspective means time management, which I have not been very good at.  I can't tell you how many times I have rushed out of here off to work or stayed up late to post and visit and comment and so forth.  I know first hand how difficult is to keep up.  So it should come as no surprise when others find it too difficult to keep up with me.  

Once again I find myself feeling frustrated by those who stop following.  Why should this matter so much?  I guess because I have always felt like I really try to make a connection with those who follow my blog.  I guess maybe I don't or maybe I just don't measure up to their standards.  Whatever the case may be it's a bit annoying when it happens with no explanation what so ever.

I was thinking about this and thought that maybe it was a good idea to once again explain what type of blogger I am.  I mostly blog about my real life and my decor.  Rarely do I post pictures from magazines, Pinterest, other bloggers or other sources off of the internet.  I enjoy sharing some of my things and enjoy looking at yours and getting all sorts of inspiration.

Like you, I enjoy sharing my photos of my finds and home.

  I started off blogging under the name of Sailing Simply.  I miss that name and that blog so much and often wish I had never changed.  It still sits out there in cyber space waiting for a visit from me The Decorative Dreamer.  I kept it up because I had intended to post some of my sailing exploits on there.  Only I find that when I sail I really just don't want to be taking pictures.  I rather enjoy being with my family and friends and just enjoying the moment.  So often when I take my camera, I only take a few pics then decide not to post them.  Also, I find family and friends are not so keen to have their mugs plastered across the internet.  Do you know what I mean?

     I've especially enjoyed those few authentic friends I have made through blogging and try to visit and communicate with you as often as possible.  In real life I find I just don't have the time to do this often enough.  I don't have the time in large part because I work full time now.  I'm in retail and that means my hours change every week.  I work a few nights each week in addition my day time hours.  It's a very challenging thing to rotate your work hours and your home life, not to mention maintaining a blog.  But I have felt like I was doing it well.

It's nice to know when you do something well.  It's nice to also be rewarded for it too.  Woohoo!  I work hard and I'm so thankful to work for a company that recognized that.  I was also thrilled to be able to add another pin to my lanyard.  LOL! We get them for all sorts of things, kinda like hat pins.  Yeah, I love the small stuff!

But what I want you to know what I enjoy most about blogging is...being authentic to who I am!

 When I say authentic it means I am sharing my life, my thoughts and it's my blog.  The authentic blog friends that I connect with just seem to have a mutual enjoyment of sharing a part of our lives.  Somehow, at some point we have made a connection that the other person we are communicating with is real and has feelings and is sharing a snippet of their life.  It does not mean we have to constantly keep sharing comments back and forth on every single post.  We visit when we can and acknowledge that the person on the other end has a real life.  This are the friends that I have maintained.

  I wonder if those that just stop following others ever acknowledge that or maybe their life was just not able to make another connection with someone at that time because they only are interested in looking at pictures.  That's okay too, we all blog for different reasons.  Maybe they were just not that interested, who knows.   The internet just makes it too easy to log off from another persons life, but should we do so without even a goodbye?  I guess that's just part of the risk of blogging of opening up your life and sharing a little piece of you.  If you have dropped me because I didn't visit you enough, or didn't make the connection then I am truly sorry.  In my defense, as I hope you can see, I have a real life.

And it's calling me away to spend less and less time here in blogland.  I plan to keep sharing things with you and visiting you when I can.  I hope you understand that w/out my real life there can be no blog life worth sharing with you.  That's my perspective.

If you have read through this and would like to share your perspective I would love to hear from you.  What's going on with you?  Do you ever struggle with blogging and real life and time management?  

Thanks so much for dropping by.  I hope you have a beautiful day!