Valentines Dinner at Home

This year Valentines day was quite enjoyable.  To be honest, they all have been pretty nice.   I don't think we've ever done any big celebrating but we have spent some years going out to dinner and/or exchanging gifts.  We opted not to do gifts this year after recently just purchasing a new desktop computer for me and because we are spending lots of money getting a new bottom job for the boat.

Since Valentines day fell on Sunday we leisurely enjoyed all afternoon together and spent the day getting some things done around the house.  I am very excited about that and hope to share a few small finished projects with you all soon.  My valentine is a good man and knows how to treat me right.  I am a happy wife when he tackles that honey do list.  We wrapped up the evening with a delicious steak dinner cooked at home on the grill.  Of course, you know me, I just had to jazz up our meal with a few sweets and a few decorations for our sweet little table for two.   

Everything I used for our setting I already had on hand.  The only things new this year are the plaque I made a few weeks back and the metal X and O, both were purchased and made for other displays. 

 It all started with my decision to use my off white table cloth because I don't have a solid white. I actually liked the softness of the off white and surprisingly enough it complimented all of my other elements quite well.

I also decided I wanted to keep the lazy susan on the table since its such a large table. Additionally, this would give my display in the middle a bit more depth.  I was pretty thrilled to find the off white round crochet table topper in my linen drawers.  I have a pair I used on round tables by the bed waaaay back in the day. Sometimes it's good to hang on to old linens.

After getting the linens in place it was an easy pull together on the center display just pulling a few pieces here and there from a few of the Valentines displays I did around the house this year.

The flower arrangement from the kitchen was light and a perfect off white match to the tablecloth.

I then placed the Love plaque I made this year (see here) on the table, the mercury candles jars, a little faux lighting and topped it all off with the adorable metal X and O I purchased this year from Michaels.

I just adored my place settings. Sorry, I don't mean to gush but they were just soooo cute!!!

Here's the breakdown, I started with my Lenox Butlers Pantry dishs, then added the linen dish towels I purchased a few years back from Stein Mart when I managed the home dept.  I have a set of six of these because they went on clearance after not selling during for Valentines one year.  I think they were perfect for Napkins, don't you?

 The red heart plates are melamine and have a bit of a sparkle to them.  As you can see below, they were just perfect for dessert.

I brought out the bubble acrylic goblets also from Stein Mart and these beautiful blown glass stems given to me from my son for Christmas a few years back.  

Need I say more!  It was an easy day followed by an easy dinner for two with a festive atmosphere too.  Life at home is good!

Thank you so much for popping in today.  If you enjoyed seeing this tablesetting and you'd like to see more there is a party going on over for;

Tablescape Thursday

Go on check it out, it's beautiful!

On a side note;  Did you know Picasa is going away?

I'm not trying to be whiner but let me share how much of a struggle it was to get my post out on time today. It was a big struggle because I just found out last weekend that Picasa is going away.  I know it is not until March that they stop supporting it and I still could have used it but I really felt the need to figure out a new plan immediately.   I have used them for years to do my editing and storage of photos.  I was quite in a panic until I read and have assured that all my photos are backed up on google photos.

I felt relieved that they have an editing program but  I was again disappointed to find out that the editing features were not all I had hoped for.  I don't know if I was doing something wrong but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to watermark my photos on google photos.  I have no text symbols at all, so I had to back track and re-decide what to do. It was all very challenging because I am also on a new computer that uses Windows 10.  I like the system but I was having problems with it trying to figure out the path my photos were taking when I downloaded them.  I could find them on the Windows gallery but not in the computer files and that was a problem when trying to edit them in another program.  Finally, I figured out how to redirect the Windows photos to a folder I could find.  Whew!  

For the moment I have decided to edit my photos using Ribbet.  I like how quick and easy it is and I can save edited photos really fast right back on my computer.  I don't like not being able to easily work on editing batches at a time and uploading batches at a time to blogger.  Since blogger is so supportive of Picasa I've become quite spoiled.  I wonder how this is all going to play out soon and what will be the new replacement.  I know it's all good, but sometimes these changes....

With all that being said, I hope to be back with another post soon (after I recoup some time) my sweet readers to share my latest home project.  I hope you'll join me again.  Hope you all are having a wonderful and productive week as well.  

Hugs and Waves!

Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday

Which do you prefer?  We claimed both at our home!  This year was just a little bit different at our house.   I decided to step up our celebrations a bit and attempt to cook an actual New Orleans style meal to enjoy with my tablescape. My dinner menu of choice was Jambalaya and California Dreaming King Cake. It may not sound like much for a celebration but for the two of us it was just enough.  We definitely were feeling like it was Fat Tuesday.

Our large round family table is in the den now and is where we enjoy most of our meals these days.  I decided this would be the perfect spot to set up my Mardi Gras tablescape.

This year I stayed focused on using dishes I knew we would use with the exception of a few filler plates.  It's okay to have some just for show, especially for Mardi Gras.   I wanted to try and stay close to the traditional Mardi Gras colors, though I ended up with quite a variation in the shades. I didn't have many choices in green, gold, and purple dishware.  I also didn't want to use anything I have used in my two previous Mardi Gras tablescapes.  I will reshare those again at the end of this post, or you can revisit those posts here, 2014 and here 2012.

  My charger plate (well that's what I'm calling it) is really a terracotta dinner plate that was set just for show.  I chose this to give the whole place setting a bit more depth and width.  I used the green in keeping with Mardi Gras colors and because it complimented the salad bowls I knew we would use for dinner.   Note to self: You really need some gold chargers!

 My next choice for the stack was these square melamine salad plates.  These were to be our dessert plates for later.  They  were also chosen to bring in purple, another one of the traditional colors of Mardi Gras.  I have some lovely small round deep purple salad plates I really wanted to use but they just didn't fit with the rest of the stack.  Maybe I will share them in another tablescape soon!

 This was the dish that was so important for me to keep and the very one I worked everything around. It is a terracotta salad dish that closely resembles a bowl.  I love this dish!  It is perfect for meals like the one we had tonight when you need something in between a bowl and plate.

Finally I topped the stack of dinnerware off with a yellow bowl.  This was to catch all the shrimp tails that we had to peel off ourselves.  I used frozen shrimp for this dish and I while I saw that is was indeed peeled and deveined (time saver) the tails were still on.

Of course I had to throw in a little Mardi Gras bling to spice up the setting.

 Sparkly and bubbly silver stainless flatware and a gold rimmed wine glass brought in a few more festive touches of silver and gold.

 The most exciting elements used for this table for me were the napkins that I embroidered myself just for the occassion.  I decided they looked so cute they even deserved a combination of three napkin rings for a big bling factor.

 This design was such a cute design I found online that I knew I had to try it.  I did some slight editing as it was supposed to have the word Royalty underneath Mardi Gras.  I didn't want that, nor did I want to use the colors that were recommended which brought in Royal blue and Red.  If there are any native New Orleans families out there peeking in, I do apologize for changing up the traditional royalty colors.  I really wanted to keep this design a little more simple yet still have a bit of  bling with the crowns.

For my centerpiece I used some faux flowers I already had.  I just pulled together all the different colors I needed and it was done.  I only added a few beads, again trying to keep it more simple.  I know it's quite odd to keep things more simple for Mardi Gras but that's the way I was rolling this year. 

I didn't want to go out and purchase anything for this setting.  I already had all of these on elements on hand and I really wanted to just focus on the dinner this year.

...And focus on it I did!

Let me tell you the Jambalaya I made was soooo good!!!!  It had all the right ingredients in it to make it one of my newest favorite dishes.  I used a recipe I found here at Gimme Some Oven, with just a few slight adjustments.  I am all about saving time so when I found a frozen package of celery, bell peppers, and onions I was very happy.  I also grabbed a bag of frozen Tyson chicken chunks.  I know it's processed and maybe not the best choice but I really, really, hate to cut up chicken.  It's strange but it just bothers me.  I like to cook fresh chicken, love it, just hate to "cut" fresh chicken.  I also used frozen shrimp because the local shrimp around here is just not the best this time of year.  Remember I was going for quick and easy.  I did use almost all the other suggested ingredients and let me just say it was the bomb!

 Speaking of bombs!  This was supposed to have been the California Dreaming King Cake.   Go ahead, you can laugh out loud now.  I did.   Unfortunately, I didn't grease my bundt pan well enough and it stuck and stuck and stuck.  I tried very carefully to get it out but it would not budge.  Then I finally just gave up, dug it out and preceded to dump it all in a bowl.  It was pretty good even though it looks absolutely awful!  Hey, I know, why in the world would I show you this?  Well, I'm all about keeping it real here.  You win some, you loose some!

I took this picture with such high hopes, thinking I would have a lovely cake to show you too.   You can find the recipe I used for the cake here at The Painted Apron.  This recipe called for olive oil and wine so I just had to give it a try.  I wanted to try this cake since I had some Chardonnay on hand given to me from a friend.   I'm not really a Chardonnay kinda gal.  I like White Zin so this was to be perfect time to open it and use it.  No, I didn't drown my sorrows in it later either, though the thought did cross my mind.

Thank you so much for stepping into my home today for a visit and a chat.  I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you'll come back again sometime.

Mardi Gras 2014

Mardi Gras 2012


  Tablescapes are just one more of the many things I enjoy sharing with all of you and I also plan to share this post with a few others at;

Tablescape Thursday

This is an action packed week for us.  We've got a 2 year old birthday coming up for this little one,

 and then a Valentines weekend too.  Whew, Good Times! 

Hope you had a wonderful Mardi Gras,

Hugs and Waves!

Mardi Gras Tablescape 2014

Hey Y'all! Do you celebrate Mardi Gras?  Well, me neither....LOL!  But....I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a Mardi Gras tablescape.  I just love the colors and imagery of Mardi Gras!  I have only done one other MG tablescape shown HERE. It was such fun to do that one that when I realized Fat Tuesday was fast approaching us this week I just couldn't help but getting creative.

I shared a few peeks on Instagram on Tuesday because I didn't have time to do a whole post until this morning.  Remember you can find and follow me on Instagram now too.  I may be wrong but I think you can still sign up for Instagram online even if you don't a cell phone, just go to Instagram.com and add me The Decorative Dreamer.  Now lets take a closer a look!

This year rather then sticking with only the more traditional colors of Mardi Gras I decided to veer off in a different direction.  I added the color teal.  A whole lot of teal!

What spurred the addition of teal was my centerpiece.

I had on hand several sea glass rocks in teal shades that I layered with iridescent pebbles, added the masks and beads I still had from the last MG tablescape I did.

I then topped it off with Peacock feathers.  I am not sure but for some reason Peacock feathers remind me very much of Mardi Gras and New Orleans.  Perhaps it has something to do with all those beautiful hand made masks.

Next, I added my teal and green Mediterranean styled dishware.

I topped the teal dishes off with a more traditional colored green napkin and gold beaded napkin ring.  Remember green, gold and purple are the traditional colors of MG.

I had a little fun with the more excessive patterns found in both the place mats and table runner.  Both of these seemed to bring in a little more of that French flair that also seems to hover in my mind when I think of Mardi Gras.  N'est-ce pas?

Sparkly silverware and...

....purple goblets paired with crystal wine glasses etched in gold complete the place settings.

A few coins, candles and silver sprinkled throughout added just the touch of "reckless elegance", 

I was hoping for.  Love that phrase, I think I'll coin it.  LOL!

Anyone care to be my mystery guest?

This was so much fun!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did creating it.

Have a great weekend friends!