I've Fallen for Lenox

I've been working on this very special table scape all summer.  Well maybe not all summer, but definitely since our vacation in July.  When we went to the beach this summer I hit the Lenox Outlet like I always do.  This year I came across an idea for a whole new look for my table settings using Lenox for my everyday settings as well.  I say as well, because I have been a Lenox girl since the day I married.  My first set of Lenox is the Charleston pattern, you can see one of my table scapes using that collection here.

While at the Lenox Outlet  I picked up four salad plates that were a closeout pattern that I absolutely fell in love with.  I was perfectly content to just enjoy these four salad plates paired with other dishes I already own.  However, when I was checking out the sales lady pointed out some dinner plates that these salad plates would compliment in another pattern that was sure to be around awhile.  Although I did not buy the dinner plates that day, we looked at them together and it was an image I could not get out of my head.  You know the feeling, love at first sight! 

Well, it's been about two and half months since I first saw these plates together and I have since come across four more salad plates bringing my total to eight.  I also now have four of the dinner plates I was introduced to as well.  Three of those I unbelievably found in a stack at an antique store recently and one I purchased retail to complete the set of four dinner plates.  Hopefully my Christmas wish list will deliver more dinner plates and serving pieces.

So with out further delay I want to share my newest everyday dinnerware collection.  I think you will love and "fall" for this pattern just as much as I do.

Here they are!

They are a beautiful slightly off white china.

With a beautiful scalloped edge.

The dinner plates are Lenox Butlers Pantry Gourmet.

Just try and tell me you don't love the edge on this dish!

 I have paired it with salad plates from Lenox Accoutrement's Cornelia Cream.

It has the same colorings with a damask border.  I just love these two patterns blended together.

The Butlers Pantry pattern by Lenox actually has several different settings. There is the original Butlers Pantry pattern and then the Butlers Pantry Gourmet that I have.  They are meant to be used together and offer a beautiful blending of dishes that coordinate well together.  Also, for all my Rooster loving friends out there, they even introduced Rooster plates in this pattern.   I am so excited about this pattern and how many variations it offers in one collection.  You can check them out at Lenox.com if your interested.  I am not being offered anything to promote this, just sharing my newest love with all of you .

Careful though, or you might be FALLEN in love with Lenox too!

Please be sure and visit many more beautiful tablescapes at

Tablescape Thursday.

Thanks for visiting, wishing you a beautiful Fall!

Mary

I made a Tassel!

Look what I made!  I am so excited!  I have been seeing all these wonderful tassels out there that our blogging friends are making and have wanted to do one myself.  I even saw some for sale at Michaels that look very much like the tassels everyone in blogland is selling.  They were not nearly as nice though! 

I have been putting it together in my head for a few weeks now and knew how I was going to do it, just not too sure how it was going to all come together.  So I finally sat down Sunday afternoon and whipped out all the items I thought I would use.

I knew I wanted to make a Halloween tassel and remembered I had some small statue figures in my Halloween box.  I decided to go ahead an unpack a few more of the smaller items too.

Then I pulled out all the ribbons I thought might be the best options to use.  Turns out I didn't quite have the size or colors I really wanted to use, but I wasn't going to let that stop me this time.  I was determined to do this without paying a dime, using things I already had.

First up was this Styrofoam base.  It was thicker then this but I cut it in half.  Now I have another piece I can use for the next one.

Next item I used was a doily similar to the one above except it was an off white one.  I have a few more of these just sitting around from a project I was going to make many many years ago. 

The next thing I used was this beaded trim.  I just gotta have a little bling you know!

Then out came the glue gun.

First I glued the doily over the Styrofoam then glued the ribbon around it.  In retrospect I wish I had glued the beaded trim around the end of the doily to make it longer since I did have more that would have gone around that perimeter easily enough.  Oh well, this is a learning project.

Then I added these ribbons I had left over from other decorating around the house.

Then I cut this fabric into strips to use.  I only needed a small amount of this.  I have had this from a costume I made for Halloween year ago.  It's not burlap but sure looks a lot like it doesn't it?  I forgot all about it until I saw several of your projects decorated with burlap and then remembered I had it.  Yippee!

I then glued the figure to the top and a little something extra, I'll show you that in a minute.   First, let me show you one more step I did on the bottom. 

I turned it over and painted the bottom with this decoupage glue.  That way the Styrofoam will not shed so easily.  I know there's other steps I probably should have take to prevent that but that's just what I did.

And here it is before attaching the hanging ribbon.

I kinda like him just like this too.  He makes an excellent candle topper, don't you think?

Here's the little something extra I added.  I went through my buttons to see what I had, and found this old upholstery tack with a nice brown and rust fabric already on it.  Easy peasy, all I had to do was push it right in!

Pretty cute!

Now here it is, with a hanging ribbon attached.  I just attached the ribbon around his hat.  I think if I were going to use him permanently as a tassel I would attach a ring to his head.  I actually even have small extra rings in my jewelry box, but I'm not committed to that idea yet.

I just love it!  I know it's not as wonderful as all the beautiful ones for sale by all of you pros, but this is my first attempt and I am feeling pretty good about it.  I hope you like it too..

What a fun way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon! 

Please be sure and join me and my other creative friends for Metamorphosis Monday.

There always something changing on Mondays!

Have a great week!

Mary

Consignment Treasures

This week while scouring around for a China cabinet I came across just a few goodies.  Not a lot to show you here but I wanted to share it with you anyway.


For some reason I have been coming across these all summer long.  At every antique and thift store out there, I've come across some version of this.  Only it wasn't until the other day that I came across a complete set such as this one.

That's right, this is what I have been coming across for sale all summer! 

I am thinking they have been calling out to me.

Mostly what I have found up until now though is just the circular portion of these sets.  I have come across plastic sets, and ceramic sets, but only the 3 round parts of the set.

I was floored when I found out this set also had the middle part included, and was also included in the price.

I love the details on this set in particular.  It is ceramic with a California stamp on the bottom.  I am planning on painting out the brass handle as I can remove that easy enough.  But the best part of this deal was that is only cost me $3.00 for the set!  Can you believe that?

I also came across these amber Dansk candlesticks.  They were $6.00 with 50% off, so they also were only $3.00 a set.  This is my second Dansk candle holder purchase recently. Weird huh?

I decided to do a Pumpkin display for now on these.

I hope you enjoyed my Consignment store finds.  I sure do!  I am linking up with Debbiedoos today for her Garage Salen Party!   Oh come on, it's close enough, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary

How have we done it?

Last night while sharing a little quiet time the Mr. asked me a question that rather caught me off guard.  He asked, "How have we done it?", he was referring to our 22 years of marriage.  That's not even counting the 6 years prior to that we dated.  He was thinking about how after all these years we are still so attracted to each other.  I was like, what do you mean, we love each other dear!  We both kind of smiled at that, but honestly he and I both know better then that.  The thing is we truly "like" each other also!

No we don't have an anniversary coming up, it was just one of those rare evenings when the Mr. was really thinking about us.  I'm thinking it may have had something to do with him spending the day in my world.  You see, the Mr. had yesterday off and indulged me in yet another day of hunting.  I have a birthday coming up very soon and have requested that I would like a new china cabinet.  Now when I say new what I really mean is new to me!  We simply cannot afford a new china cabinet right now and I have never really even wanted one until recently.  I proposed if I could find an old china hutch that I could fix up it would be fit the bill perfectly.


 The Mr. being the great friend that he is loved this idea too, especially when I found one that I thought I loved on Craigs list that was dirt cheap.  Let me back track a few weeks here first.    Several weekends ago, we drove all the way to Rock Hill with our trailer in tow to pick up what I thought was going to be the deal of the century!  It was so not what they pictured or described and turned out to be junk!  It took me less then 5 minutes to look at it and say, I am sorry this is not what I had envisioned and we were back in the car on our way home.  LOL!  The Mr. being the sweet man he is was quite relieved.  After we left,  He said, "I was going to let you buy it but there was no way that thing was coming into our house after we got home".  LOL!  Needless to say, we laughed the whole way home! 


Let's move forward to yesterday.  He surprised me again by asking me did I want to go take a look at another china cabinet I told him I had found in an antique store that I thought I wanted.  Oh yes!  I was so excited.  I really thought this was the one.  It was big and could be quite the beauty after redoing it, and was priced really wonderfully!  So, off we went to the musty old dusty antique store, together.  Have I mentioned before that antique stores and thrift stores are not my husbands thing?  Well, they aren't, but for me, he's willing to go the extra mile.

Here it is!  Here's the cabinet I was pretty excited about.  It's big, it measures 5'7" wide. and 6'9" tall.  I have the space for it, that's not a problem.    Unfortunately, that excitement faded when the Mr. spotted a strip of veneer cracked off the side towards the back on the left.  I still think it would not show where I plan to place it and if I'm painting it I may be able to do some cosmetic work to that area too.  He's not sold and I'm not nearly as sold on it as I was after a second look.

I fell in love with these doors.  They have beveled glass in each triangle and are puttied in the back.  However the putty is very old and is flaking off inside.  The Mr. thinks this will be very troublesome to fix.

I loved the side area and those ugly curtains would be torn off right away!  Another thing that has me leery is that it has a veneer finish that would be hard to paint. I'm not familiar with painting on veneer.  It's not that cheap plastic type of veneer, but it's still veneer.  I don't know!

I also loved how much drawer and cabinet space this had below and that it is up on legs.  All the cabinet have a lock and there is a key, the Mr. thinks I will end up not liking that.  Strange thing was I could not get the 2nd to last drawer open to inspect it and we were too afraid to pull it hard because of the glass doors up top.  Not to mention I had no space to really check it out good in this crammed up antique shop. What's in that drawer anyway?  Pretty scary!

Here is another cabinet I had also spotted in the same store but did not like as much and saw lots of work to be done on it.  The Mr.liked this one better even with all the work to be done.  Go figure! 

This one is only 4'7" wide and 6'6" tall.  I didn't like that it didn't have a lot of space and would need new shelves.  They must have been glass and broke, but I would want wooden shelves.  Also not overly crazy about the mirrored background.  And would need to replace the cracked glass on the front left.  Then I still would want to repaint the whole thing!

This wonderful piece of work is only $89.99!  I don't know!  Looks like an old dresser to me.

I don't know why this picture turned out so yellow but thought you'd like to see the bottom of it anyway. 

Neither of these is actually anything close to what I really want!  If money were no object this is what I would prefer.

Now this is what I truly love.  This is from Hooker furniture is part of the Summerglen collection.  Only this is way out of reach at 3,000.00 plus dollars.  But, isn't it just wonderful!  Well, I guess it looks like I am still looking for now.  I am so thankful for a husband who indulges and endures with me.

Now getting back to the original point, about we truly like each other.  You see, because he likes me he joins in on my adventures and I join in on his.

Here we are after last Saturdays, "Around the Islands" race.  I am not one to enjoy a race because they can be too intense.  This was a race by our cruising fleet which was very unofficial.  It is much more my style.  My husband just adores sailing!  He is not what I would call a hard core sailor but he is a very enthusiastic sailor.

Yes, that's me with my feet propped up as usual!  Would you believe there are times I am soo not this relaxed on the boat, sailing?  Many, many, many times!  But, I love spending time with my husband and these moments when I can sit back and just enjoy our time together.

I hope you see where all I was going with this very long winded and side tracked post!  How have we done it?  Of course we have love, but we also really " like" each other too!

I'm sharing this post today for Inspiration Friday.  I know most of you may not need to hear this but just in case there is someone out there that needs to remember this or needs to hear it, there it is!

And for the rest of you, I would love any and all advice on where to find a good deal on a new to me china cabinet/hutch, whatever.  Or do you still like the first one I showed you?  Hmm??

Have a great weekend Yall!

Mary