Tablescaping with Chefs

Do you do Italian night at your house?  We sure do!  In fact we have Italian dishes quite regularly here at our house.  Spaghetti is one of my most all time favorite dishes to eat and to make so I cook it  quite regularly.  One evening about a month ago, I was setting the table once again for one of our regular spaghetti dinners and thought to myself I sure would love to do an Italian night tablescape.  Not only, was I thinking about how I would put it all together, I was thinking about the perfect dishes to use as well.   Of course, I was thinking about those specific dishes because I have been staring at them at them everyday at work ever since last October and had grown quite fond of them.

  But....the last thing in the world I needed around here was more dishes.  Do you think I let that stop me? Oh Noooooo!!!!  Especially when I figured out how I could buy them without getting my Mr. all upset.

I'll be honest with you.  This was what started it all, and this was for all intentional purposes as far as it was going to go when I first purchased these little guys.

They are part of a collection of fashion ceramics we sell at Stein Mart that is labeled International Chefs that are designed by artist Jennifer Garant.  They are salt and pepper shakers, aren't they just so cute? The Mr. said the great thing about these is you can always know that the chef in the black pants is the pepper and the chef in the white pants is salt.  LOL!

Well, that's part of the conversation we had with my own chef about these this weekend when he came to town for a visit.  Little did he know I had just a few more surprises to share with him.

I was so excited that the time had finally arrived when I was able to bring out the new dishes.  Of course, I wanted to serve Spaghetti on them that night as well.  I almost hit a snag when I asked my son and his girlfriend if they would join us for dinner at home and he hesitated saying they had already eaten Spaghetti only a few nights earlier.  I was literally holding my breath!

Then, when they agreed Spaghetti would be fine, I pulled out the new dishes and rapidly went to work setting the table.

I even pulled out my forever unopened bottle of red wine for a great prop.  LOL!  Don't worry, my son decided to supply his on bottle of red wine instead, so off to the store they went.

I started our setting with my white dinner plates from Lenox.

I then decided to use my amber colored goblets because I liked the way they coordinated with the new dishes.

The black and white checked napkins were a must but the bamboo flatware was a stretch I know.  I used them anyway because they were black and the only black flatware I own.

Now are you ready to see the new dishes yet?  Okay, here they are!

They are chef plates!   All of these are also designed by Jennifer Garant.  They are also part of the International chefs collection but I think these are all actually French chefs though.  Oops!

Oh well!  I still think they were perfect for an Italian night dinner.  Honestly, the more I looked at these in the store the more I kept thinking how great they would look with Spaghetti.

So when the right opportunity finally arrived I cooked up a big pot of Spaghetti sauce...

 ...and pasta.

Chopped up a little salad....

....and baked a loaf of Garlic bread.

This is what my son picked up from the grocery store.  No particular reason for the brand other then he wanted to try it out.

So, with the table all set and dinner made it was time to dish it out.

Yummo!

How cute is that?

My oldest, the chef and his girlfriend certainly thought so.

Especially when they realized that the dishes and the salt and pepper shakers were theirs to keep and were going home with them!

See, didn't I tell you I figured out a way to buy these dishes without getting the Mr. upset?

LOL!

I love it!  I just couldn't resist buying these chef dishes for my very own chef.

Could you?

I am so happy to finally be able to share this post with you at

Tablescape Thursday.

I've really been waiting on this one!

Hope you enjoyed your visit here, I'm glad you took a look.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a great weekend Everybody!

Goodbye Valentines, Hello Easter!

Hey Everybody!  I hope each of you had a wonderful Valentines day.  I certainly did!  Even though I had to work and had quite a busy day it certainly ended up very sweetly.  

My employer made an announcement during our morning meeting the other day that he heard on the radio that the average male spends around $180.00 something on Valentines and the average female spends about $130.00 something.  Can you believe that?  Not in my household!  I can honestly say, my first thoughts were, that must be before they get married.  LOL!  Then my greedy self said out loud, Can somebody please tell my husband that?  Haha! 

Seriously though, I am so blessed by my husband and he just get's better and better every year too!  There used to be a time when we first got married that he didn't take Valentines very seriously at all.  He was of the male mindset that thought it's waaayy to commercialized, so why bother.  His thinking was, I don't need a special day to tell you I love you, yatta,yatta,yatta.  But then, he quickly matured and learned the error of his ways (yes, I just said that) and got on board.  As far as Valentines spending goes though, we really don't do big.  Some years are more thoughtful little gifts but most years it's chocolate and flowers and I am just thrilled with that!

Here's what I came home to last night!  One of my most favorite gifts was the fire.  I am not kidding!  I love a nice warm cozy fire and he knows it.  That was definitely intentional! (blush)  

It was so cool to go on Facebook last night and see so many of my friends posting all their lovely flowers, cards and candy.  How neat is that?  I loved it!  It was kinda like when you were a kid in elementary school and shared all your Valentines with your other friends.  Remember that excitement?  I sure do, and it was so sweet to see some of my friends sharing that too.

Okay, now back to the title of my post....

 Hello Easter!

I know some of you are probably thinking....Seriously???

Well, the answer is yes, seriously!  That's what I spent the majority of yesterday doing at work, moving Valentines out and Easter in.  We actually started receiving Easter merchandise a few weeks ago. Yesterday it all came out in full force!  I set up six tables in the front of the store including a wall display at the front of the store too.  I love doing Seasonal decor, but it's kinda challenging because it's so temporary.  You really want to make the most impact you can for such a short amount of time.  Sometimes you have very little time between the holidays too and need to move and set things up quickly.    I am off today, and am already thinking of ways I want to tweak my displays when I get back in on Thursday.  Mercy!   I won't have much time to do this though, because we've got more sales to set up for and another truck to receive on Friday, which means more new merchandise that needs creative "vignettes".  Okay, yeah, I admit it, I am loving it!

This is what I really wanted to show you, though.  I just had to share this sweet bunny that I simply could not resist.  He really looks so much nicer here in my dining room then on that display don't cha think?

I was smitten from the minute I opened the box!  I knew he would be leaving the store too quickly with someone, so I decided it might as well be me!

Here's a few more close ups.  He has an off white ceramic glaze with a crackle look under the glaze.  His finish is very smooth though.  You can even put a little something in the basket on his back, like flowers or small eggs or something cute like that.

I love how neutral he is and think he will be a perfect centerpiece on my Easter table this year.  Don't worry ladies, I am no where near ready to decorate my home for Easter yet.  Well...maybe. Hmm???

Aww! So sweet!  

If you adore this fella like I do, I suggest you hop on over to your nearest Stein Mart, because I have a feeling these guys are gonna be quickly hopping right on out the door.

Happy Day after Valentine's Day Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

2012 Valentine's Day Tablescape

Well, it's almost that time and I've just about got everything ready for Valentine's Day.  I've done a little decorating outside and inside and I've got the table set now too.  Woohoo!  The only thing left to do is to find a few special sumpin sumpin's for my sweeties to let them know how much they are loved.  

I am very pleased with this years table scape.  I already had everything I used for this, except for one element.  

Do you know what that is?

Here's a hint...these are very precious, strong and fragile at the same time.  But, the ones I bought can't be broken. 

If you guessed the hearts, you are correct!  Yay!

I absolutely fell in love with these wonderful melamine heart plates I found at Target.  They had them in full plate size and salad size and pink as well.

I wanted the red because I just love how they sparkle.  Hard to tell in these photos but I think there must have been some type of glitter used in making these.

I love how they just pop right off of the white of my Butlers Pantry dishes by Lenox.

 And, I love how the white dishes pops off of my red place mats.  Do you remember when I found these last year at Ross?  They are made of vinyl and so easy to clean!

A Valentine's dinner deserves the very best for those you love so I pulled out the silver we inherited from my in-laws many, many years ago when my MIL passed away.   

Thanks to Cherry Kay at Entertaining Women I now know the pattern of my silver is called Francis 1 by Reed and Barton.  Luckily for me she recognized it and identified it for me along with my bouillon spoons that I posted about last week.  Thank you so much! 

I decided since I was using the silver to eat with we may as well use it for our drinks as well.  The goblets are our most recent inheritance from my in-laws last year when my FIL passed away.  He had kept the goblets and several other pieces when he remarried after my MIL passed away to use himself with his new wife. 

Our goblets are engraved with the initial of our last name as is all of the silverware.  It was very customary for people to do this back in the day.  Not so much now.  I didn't have time to polish the goblets before this post so you will have to excuse the tarnish please.  Maybe you could just focus on how cool the battenburg lace looks in this reflection instead.  

Speaking of the battenburg lace, I just have to share how I came up with this runner.  It is actually two battenburg lace valances that I have saved forever and a day when I used to have them in our bedroom.  I just placed them on the table back to back and then added my red runner right on top.

I think lace and hearts just go together so well, don't you?

My valentines runner was a project from last year.  I bought a plain red runner from the DT and painted it.  So simple!

I used these same exact flowers for one of my settings last year only in a different container.  The white milk glass vase was a nice find that I picked up last year from a thrift store for only .50 cents.

On my sideboard I created a Valentines cloche display using a crystal bowl that was a gift from a friend that I filled with hearts.  I thought is was perfect since it has roses on the side of it.

I mixed in a few of my shiny hearts with the glittery ones.  Love it!

I can hardly wait!  I hope the Mr. will cook us something good.  LOL!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my Valentines table scape.

Wait!  I want to show you one more thing.  When I found the plates at Target I was actually there shopping for something else too.

 Here is a glimpse of a few things I picked up for a very special project I am working on.

I am going to create a very special Valentines card for a very special young lady this year.  I do not know who she is but I do know she is one of God's children who needs to hear how very special she is and how loved she is.

I was so touched by a post that Susan at My Place to Yours did HERE a few weeks ago about the girls they minister to at Hope Unlimited for Children.  I don't know how this escaped me before but I had not caught on to the staggering amount of young girls who are forced and subjected into prostitution in Brazil each year.

When she asked very simply for help in sending Valentines to these young girls so they would begin to understand their worth I knew I had to make one too.  I hope you will also consider taking just a small bit of your time to help as well.  You don't have to make something, you could just send a card and it would mean so much!  There's still plenty of time because Valentine's day is not until April in Brazil.  I feel so strongly about this I immediately put this on my FB page for my friends as well.  I plan to share this post with them as well, because I know every little card will help.  If you want to help too, please click HERE to see Susan's original post.

Thank you so much!  I hope you all have a wonderful day!

I can't wait to get home tonight to check at all the other wonderful tablescapes who are joining; BNOTP for Tablescape Thursday