Happy Wednesday, everyone!Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #293!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! As always, I am glad that you are here…
I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here and/or on my other social media sites, thank you! 🙂
Well last week was a complete bust blogging-wise, wasn’t it? We had no internet from Valentine’s Day Sunday morning until late Friday or Saturday morning, I forget now. I just know that once we had internet service again, I was busy WRITING!!!
I had all of my principal photography done, I just couldn’t create any posts… But, since so many people were without power and heat, nor still some without water here in Texas (something some of our school families are experiencing right now because of major water main pipes freezing in last week’s storms), losing the internet was nothing in the scheme of things.
I do have FOUR back-to-back posts up for you this week:
This morning’s blog hop ~ A Hopping Good Spring Mantel Display, part of a new hop you will want to check out: Blogging Seasonal Inspiration with Terrie of Decorate and More With Tip and Cindy of The Crowned Goat. Do stop by and maybe look to join the fun!
Niky from The House on Silverado brings us our first feature with this easy DIY Farmhouse Coffee Mug Stand! I love how she used these hanging hooks!
Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home brings us this lovely Nature-Inspired February Vignette. I love old bird and botanical lithographs and prints, don’t you?
MaryJo of Master”Pieces” of My Life shared her lovely remake of some baskets she had in this DIY post ~ Weathered Baskets DIY. (Personally, I want the basket above!)
Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge has a new series you might want to check out ~ Stay at Home Date Night! Stylish Mondays. I love fashion sites and that’s why I often include those here for you because I think we all like to see what’s new (and pre-loved vintage, too!).
I am sooo stinkin’ proud of Katie of The Preppy Empty Nester! Here is her journey through weight loss (thought this was appropriate since we just got through the holidays!) and how we can change our dietary habits, too ~ Rules and Tools of My Weight Loss Journey. Way to go!!!
Honorable Mention
Valeria of J East of Eden shared a wonderful DIY knitting post but I couldn’t pick up any of the photographs of her knitting; HOWEVER, I could pick up this gem, which was in the sidebar! (Soooo me!!! ) I cracked up when I read this and I hope you will, too. Seriously, though, do stop by and check out Valeria’s Mod Denim Knit Kitchen Towel post. All the instructions and several knitting photos are right there to follow in this “How To.”
And that’s it for this week, friends!
Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week! I appreciate you! 🙂
Happy almost spring, friends! (Or should I say Hoppy Spring?? Hee hee!) Today I am joining Terrie of Decorate and More With Tip and Cindy from The Crowned Goat in sharing a new blog hop called Seasonal Inspiration. This time Spring Mantels are on repeat for you!…
Welcome to everyone coming over from Rachel over at Junk to Gems! I love the pretty spring display Rachel has put together. 🙂
I have been having a lot of fun creating new mantel vignettes every couple of weeks over here since fall and this latest mantel styling you could just see in this week’s Spring Sofa Table post.
Our Spring Mantel
This spring display is a little more twee than the sofa table vignette, which was much more sophisticated. However, since I have a love of both styles, my mantel is lightheartedly decorated with coconut hair rabbits and a cute French script one I found down in Austin a couple of years ago. It was natural for me when I looked in my spring box to pull all the rabbits out this year for spring decor!
The branches in the Ball jar I cut off our large pear tree outfront a week ago and they are just beginning to bloom. I am really excited about them as I have never forced branches before!
Our fruitless pear tree out front was gorgeous last spring with all its white blossoms gently falling down and scattering on the ground below ~ like petals of snow…
I can’t remember if our pear tree bloomed right when we were moving in during 2019, or if we missed it (or I missed it because I was too busy unpacking), but it is very pretty! The tree had a huge branch fall off just about a month or two after we moved in, and Mr. Ethereal and a neighbor took an ax and chainsaw to it.
Since it isn’t quite ready to bloom yet this year, winter is the perfect time for me to get out there and work on thinning out the tree’s branches. A lot should have been pruned off a long time ago. It needs a bunch more cut off for its overall health, but now it is waking up…
But back to our mantel and its springtime display!
Creating this fun spring mantel was just a matter of removing a few pieces from the mantel look I had up just before. I added in two hurricane lamps and a couple of small tea light holders for ambiance in the evenings.
The vintage tinted lithograph in its green chalk-painted frame is now hanging on the wall between the fireplace and the quarter-round display cabinet.
Many of the moss balls have moved off to the DVD cabinet/bookcase to the left, and the vintage Limoges plates are back stacked tidily in the kitchen cupboards!
And the mid-size frame is getting a new piece inside it very soon… But that is for another crafting day!
Today is all about these cute rabbits… And this bunny is “taking tea!” ;)’
Here are the links to my friends on today’s tour… Next up is Cindy of Cloches and Lavender and I know you will love her spring ideas!!!
Welcome to another monthly Pinterest Challenge, my friends! As always, a big thank-you to Cindy of County Road 407 for bringing us all together. This month we have a bunch of bright and cheery sofa table inspirations for you featuring springtime vignettes! After the crazy-cold 100-year-snowstorm we just had here in Texas (and across much of the USA), I am ready for spring!!! How about you??
Let’s hop on over and see what everyone is creating…
A big welcome to everyone who is just coming over from Rachel of The Ponds Farmhouse; I am happy to have you here!! I LOVED all three of Rachel’s ideas for her console table… Really pretty ideas! Well, if you like what you see on my blog, please consider following along. 🙂 To all of my friends old and new, I am glad you are here, safe and well. and able to visit!
Here is our inspiration photograph
Sincerely, Marie Home
Our inspiration piece comes to us from Amanda Marie fromSincerely, Marie Home. She is a young designer whose contemporary farmhouse style is warm and inviting! I like her mix of neutrals, small green checks, brick fireplace and warm painted woods with traditional English style furniture ~ beautiful!
What strikes me about the inspiration’s sofa table
On the sofa table itself are three tidy stacks of coffee table books
A natural woven basket full of white flowers and greenery ~ this arrangement is set inside a low white bowl with two sweet brass quail adding to the feeling of nature brought indoors.
a wicker candle holder on its own white plate, a small glass mister and a small statuette
What inspires me in the rest of the room
the bleached dropcloth slipcover on the sofa
the use of greens, creams and whites in the room with a garden or botanical theme to the room
a checked wing chair across from the sofa and next to the fireplace
a beautiful antique white fireplace surround with matching hurricane lamps flanking the built-in mirror on the mantel
more books and greenery up on the mantel echoing the sofa table vignette
two botanical prints up on the wall behind the wing chair
In my sofa table rendition
I brought in a couple of stacks of interior design books in whites to freshen up my sofa table’s look and to bring in more white to my room. Our living room is naturally pretty dark with these tan walls so I like to add a lot of white to my decor.
Where the inspiration piece had a grouping of four items on the sofa table’s right side ~ two book stacks offset with a small statue and the wicker candleholder in opposing corners, I went with a grouping of three.
My maiden statue, one stack of books, and a tall bubble glass candleholder on a vintage creamware saucer create my look.
Here I was testing out which basket I wanted to use for this challenge. I added a piece of pink granite rock brought back from Crazy Horse monument, South Dakota, to the bottom of thiswicker basket; it balances the weight all of the floral stems. I added in a balled up piece of chicken wire about 12″ x 18″ with the ends tucked under and inward after the picture was taken.
A large centerpiece of faux greenery and flowers set inside an old wicker basket, plus a second stack of books and another glass candleholder make up the left side of the sofa table arrangement.
The painted tray and the fluted creamware saucer serve as bases for both the floral arrangement and the soy candle.
A matter of scale
I didn’t have a small statue or I would have used it here. I know the scale of the statue competes with the size of the floral arrangement, but when looked at from different directions ~ the statue is sometimes the centerpiece, and from the opposite viewing direction, the florals in their woven basket stands out.
Later on I added a small wood cut underneath the floral basket giving that arrangement a little more height. I think the flowers and the statue make a good combination together!
Adding a small pewter sugar bowl topped with a moss ball takes the place of the vintage plant mister.
The florals, moss ball and later a small sheep bring nature inside to my sofa table vignette. The greenery is repeated up on our mantel with more moss balls and some pear tree branches I am forcing.
Two hurricane candlesticks mimic those in the inspiration piece and the brass candleholder pieces copy the brass elements from the original.
My mantel almost always has a framed mirror above it and the mantel is decorated for spring. I’ll share more of that another day. 🙂
Completing the scene
The wing chair with its deep green and blue plaid placed next to the fireplace and draped with a vintage white linen runner over the back, combined with this vintage print in its green chalk-painted frame copies the inspiration’s look.
Thank you for visiting today and I hope you will stop by all of my friends who are on today’s tour. Next up is Nikyfrom The House on Silverado and I know you will like her sofa table styling! Check out that cute end table’s French style… (I think it needs to come over here, lol!) Niky always creates such pretty vignettes… Swoonworthy!!!
Louisiana’s grand two week celebration held in New Orleans each year and known world-wide simply as Mardi Gras may not be city host to the grand parade, massive celebrations and frat house parties this year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but Mardi Gras is being celebrated BIG in other ways!
The Crescent City has come up with a fun alternative all its own called “Yardi Gras” where sororities, fraternities, businesses and other sponsoring “krewes” and homeowners are lending their front yards and inside their homes as backdrops to display all of the wonderful Mardi Gras floats, flowers and more!…
Here are a couple of photos I found out on The Atlantic website for the City of New Orleans. You just have to boogey on over to see more of the crazy magic that is Mardi Gras!…
I’ve learned since moving to Texas that New Orleans is only six hours away and just over the Texas-Louisiana border, not unlike the five hour drive from our former home in Murrieta, California to Las Vegas, Nevada!
Just a hop-skip-and-a-jump!!! So maybe next year I’ll get to visit Mardi Gras… ;)’
Can’t wait to try the food! YUM!
It’s wearing frightful color combination in public and rolling your eyes at the guy in your office who–like clockwork, year after year–denies that he got the baby in the king cake and now someone else has to pony up the ten bucks for the next one.
Two of my friends, Loretta and Karen June, who love to visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras season!
Here are my friends from our IOOF lodge here in Denton who found these Mardi Gras shirts last year at a Buc-Ees gas station (a big deal here in Texas!) on the way to Louisiana.
Two nuts trying not to laugh!!! XD
Another friend from Lodge, Torrance, shared her mantel with me and I get to happily share it here with y’all!
(Oh, and Torrance and her husband went by Terrell, Texas two weekends ago and picked up a shirt for her and me!! Woot!) Bummer we had all the crazy snows this week here in Texas as I was looking forward to wearing my Mardi Gras shirt to school… Since the City of Denton has very few “snow plows,” school was cancelled in shifts this week. Most of us haven’t had internet and many are without power all over Texas ~ which is WHY this post is getting out to you late. 😉
Love love love Torrance’s living room mantel decorated with French New Orleans masks and all the bright colors associated with Mardi Gras! She even put up a small Mardi Gras Christmas-type tree! Too cute… <3
Here on our library table (vis-a-vis our tea table/end table) I had fun creating my own Mardi Gras vignette. I am so happy I found this French couple at the thriftshop last fall! They work perfectly into so many tableaux…
Well, friends, even though Louisiana didn’t get to have their “official” Mardi Gras again this year due to Covid-19 and not enough people having been innoculated, and then all the snowy weather with Snowpocolypse 2021, I hope you enjoyed a little celebrating in your own home!…
“Welcome to Texas weather! Just wait 10 minutes and it’ll change…” I heard this phrase a lot when we first moved here to North Texas in late 2016, and long-time residents weren’t kidding!!! That first year we experienced snow right after Christmas with temps in the teens (in our very thin-walled first trailer ~ not a four-season trailer!), biting “chiggers” (which are really a type of mite), puss caterpillars (a nasty stinging creature which looks like a white cocoon in the grass ~ treat with rubbing alcohol on the skin, btw), stinging nettles and poison ivy…
One of two puppies out on the front porch…Love the snow on these guys!! Here is the other cement puppy following our real pup, Mr. Yoda, who actually really enjoys snowdays!!! This old tea pot is now used for watering plants ~ a good recycle idea. 😉Yoda also really enjoys racing back inside for his rub-down with a towel to dry his paws, belly and cheeks, which always get snowy from sniffing for squirrels… ;)’ “It’s cold, Mama!”
Five years on, we are finally getting used to Texas’ swinging weather patterns and even the summer heat and humidity we are warming up to…
With this week’s crazy cold snowstorms across much of Texas, I thought I’d share some of our amazingly beautiful snowy weather with you that we’ve had on this Valentine’s Day and throughout this past week! And I have to tell you, I am so glad to be back up and running with internet. I cleaned around the house on Sunday afternoon, and I could work on crafts, I just haven’t felt like doing much, really. This winter has been all about rest for me and it’s enough to just work in the garden when the weather is nice and to create a few vignettes to share with you.
Have you felt the same this winter season?
Anyway, with notifications about the coming polar vortex broadcast the previous weekend, it was good to finish up planting the hollies and boxwood and get back inside! The garden was as prepped as it could be for this “Snow-pocalypse,” as my friend Kristen called it at school one day.
Snowmageddon for Valentine’s Day and beyond
I haven’t been able to get on the internet since early Sunday morning, so… All the posts I wanted to share for this week are getting out to you late. However, it has been a peaceful, restful week with schools closed down, most businesses throughout North Texas are also closed, no trash pick-up or mail service because they can’t get through, and interruptions in electricity a reality.
Many people are still without any source of heating due to power lines being down, so we are fortunate to have had only a few power outages here in our area. Our main issue is now unsafe drinking water, so we must boil for the time being… Really, a minor inconvenience if there ever was one!
Great job, Ferrell Gas!!! This was Tuesday, 2/16/21.
I did go driving around two days ago to get our 30# propane tank filled in case we needed it for heating (Hubby will set up the tent heater inside our fireplace WITH the flue open!) and/or for cooking outside on the grill. We haven’t needed it, but kuddos major to Ferrell Gas here in Denton, Texas, for their employees! These young men stayed long past their shifts had ended and kept filling bottle-after-bottle of propane for customers!!!
This was only half of the bottles… More were lined up around the corner to my left (where my bottle was). I came back to Ferrell Gas after 7:00pm, after getting some groceries and having some dinner, to see how far my bottle had moved (several customers had stayed most of the day and had helped move bottles forward throughout the day). I helped move bottles forward for the rest of the evening.
Ferrell Gas would get their power on in 1 hour blocks, so the young men could only fill during that golden hour, then they would have to wait until the next time the power was switched on. They needed power to run the gas pumps, but otherwise the gas was flowing just fine!
For those of us still at Ferrell Gas at 8:00pm when the power went off, if you stayed until 9:00pm when the power came on again, the two men filled our bottles as the last for the night, and everyone stayed and helped move ALL of the remaining unfilled canisters inside the barbed wire-enclosed area, keeping them in order of drop-off.
I think this was pretty cool as customers had written their names and telephone numbers on each of their propane tanks and everyone present kept these canisters in order as they were being trudged over, passed forward and moved behind the gated area. The men would fill them all beginning at 7:00am the next morning. There were well over 100 propane canisters left to fill…
City of Denton water trucks fitted with the few snowplows they have. Woot!!!
At the time I was out, Mr. Ethereal kept me updated with power losses so I decided to try and find fast food to bring home… McD had been open but their power was cycling, too (my guess) so I got out of that line, checked Jack in the Box next door but it, too, was cycled off.
KFC was open across the street and doing a booming business ~ it took an hour to get food but everyone waited patiently in line to order. Only a few selections were available, but hey! This beggar wasn’t choosey!!! The chicken was hot and tasty!
One no-no photo when I was slowly driving home… (No one was around…) It was 9:30pm. and the snow was beautiful!!! I couldn’t resist…
A car came into view just as I was taking the time-lapsed photo so the tail end of his lights appear center-back, which I love.
The first big snow…
I can’t remember now if this was Sunday, Valentine’s night (I think so) or the next night, Monday, 2/15/21, but I bundled up and trekked outside to shoot some photos in the 12 degree F weather. The wind wasn’t blowing so the cold wasn’t as biting and it was beautiful…
***ps I found another use for our PPD masks!!! They are great for keeping your face from freezing!
Our backyard (the test photo) under the first snows…
Shooting up the adjacent street in our subdivision… If I’d had a pair of 170cm skiis, boots, bindings and poles, I’d have come down this “bunny hill” for hours!!!
A visitor to our new birdfeeder… Hubby went out Monday around noon and picked up some new birdseed and a bag of sunflower seeds (after this was taken). The cardinals, pyrrhuloxia (a much larger cardinal), sparrows and chickadees are now really happy!
See? It’s a monster bird, these pyrrhuloxia! Must be 8-9″ in length though my bird book says it is a “medium sized bird.” Not these guys! Maybe it is a junco of sorts?? (Taken with my iPhone 7; blown up/resaved)
The Backyard
The first snow storm was a lot of fun and this is what we woke up to on Valentine’s Day with a few flurries throughout the day… Just a few inches of powered sugar snow, which when the sun came out on Monday, it sparkled!
Tuesday afternoon after the night’s second big snowfall.
It’ll be a few weeks before I know if I need to cut down any canes on the roses and what plants didn’t make it, but the roses should be fine. They have been covered with straw or leaves since Saturday and Sunday morning.
Most of the plants I purchased this fall are all cold-hardy down to -20 to -30 degrees, even the new hydrangea. I do have one lavender under straw and under a frost blanket along with the three camellias in the planter under our MBR window. It may or may not make it. I just didn’t have time that last Sunday to dig it up as it was getting dark…
This is partly why I put in the French fence here… To put this urn next to it with its sweet boxwood ball. <3 I hope to find another fencing piece identical to it to put in opposite along the fence, to create an entryway to this garden area.
The lavenders and smaller hydrangeas planted in pots, Mr. Ethereal helped me truck those indoors to the garage on Saturday ahead of the storms. The bougainvillea I already had in the garage along with the two unplanted rosemary plants.
The rosemary topiary and two mini agapanthus are inside the dining room near the windows. I sure hope we can build a new garden shed/greenhouse this year! It’d be a lot easier to haul them in there. 😉
This was definitely the first stormy day as the snow was low in the bowl. Now it looks like a bubble on top!
Our little angel’s head wreath crown is now the brim of her wintertime bun hat! So fun to go out and photograph when it sunny!
Love this photograph of our big girl… Wish I had thought to move the carpet junk out to the trash area just beyond the gate, but oh well!
Going out for milk
Tuesday was bright and cheery! I took Yoda for the shortest of walks around the house but he didn’t want to go far on Valentine’s Day, so he has only gone out for restroom breaks.
Me? I am ready for a hike, friends!!!
Well, this is getting long so I’ll stop here for now!
Hope you have enjoyed this small tour of North Texas snows. It is the coldest it has been here in Texas since 1898 when settlers began keeping records, from one story I heard on the radio.
This IS still considered prairie country so no doubt there have been many, many years of really cold weather before 1898, when these were just windswept prairies… Before all the buildings were built and towns and cities grew up, when just cowboys and cattle roamed the small hills and valleys of Denton County…
Someday when you come to the D/FW area of Texas, come check out the Stockyards down in Fort Worth! Lots of history about Texas’ early cattle-driving days…
Happy Wednesday, everyone!Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #292!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! As always, I am glad that you are here…
I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here and/or on my other social media, thank you! 🙂
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all this week! I am excited to feature some great Valentines link-ups you’ve all shared. There are a number of cool crafts as well as lovely tablescapes (of which I always gather so many ideas and I am sure you do, too!) Also, if you like Mardi Gras, I’ll be sharing a post later this week with my Mardi Gras vignette!!
I forgot to add this favorite so am adding Debraof Common Ground‘s beautiful heart wreath from her Romantic Valentine Review... Love it with the old frame-now-chalkboards!!!
If you haven’t picked up these awesome vintage lithograph-type portraits from the local craft store, they are so fun to make into cards, Valentine’s ideas and more! Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home shares her DIY Shabby-Vintage Valentine Hearts in her post.
Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week! I appreciate you! 🙂
Welcome, friends, to this month’s $10 on the 10th!Where a group of us get together each month and create a vignette or project for under $10 on the 10th…
I’d like to thank our hostesses Ann of Apple Street Cottage and Tammy of Patina and Paint for putting together our themes for this year and gathering all of us together each month. Thank you, Ladies!! As always, we have a great group of friends who are sharing their favorite ideas with you. Be sure to check out everyone’s posts linked at the bottom of mine, thank you!
This month we are featuring Easy Crafts for you to make… If this is your first time visiting here at French Ethereal, welcome! I’d love it if you’d subscribe to my blog or to any of my other social media, thank you.
My wintertime craft can’t get much easier than making Moss Balls… Perfect for displaying any time of year (and I know there will be a few Valentine’s projects here for you this time), this craft project can get a bit messy, but otherwise creating moss balls are super easy!
Supplies you will need
styrofoam balls in various sizes
Elmer’s-type glue and a paint brush or…
glue sticks and a glue gun (recommended)
sheets of sphagnum moss or loose moss
scissors ~ to cut out the moss as needed
Directions for creating moss balls
***Set up a bowl and pour some Elmer’s type glue in it/prep your glue gun with glue stick(s) as needed.
I found that the Elmer’s glue didn’t work well for me and that the glue gun worked better, but since it was how I originally photographed, I thought I’d include it for you. 🙂
Cut out pieces of sphagnum moss from a sheet and peel off moss. If using a glue gun and glue sticks, quickly add glue to an area on your styrofoam ball and lay on the moss, pressing gently (so as not to burn your fingers). Overlap moss as needed and fill in bald areas as needed.
Continue adding moss in sections until the whole styrofoam ball is covered, let dry thoroughly.
Total costs? About $4.00 for a package of styrofoam balls and up to $9.00 for a package of sphagnum sheet moss. With a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby, the moss comes in at $5.39. Total for both? Just under $10! 🙂
I found some sheet moss online here. (not sponsored)
*** I tried using a blender to chop the moss finer, but that didn’t work well either. I found the press-and-glue method with melted glue from glue sticks worked the best.
This photograph above shows a couple of moss balls in with other raffia balls as part of last year’s post about upcycling a basket.
Edith & Evelyn Vintage
Then I found this photograph over on Cindy’s blog, Edith and Evelyn… I just adore how she used altarsticks (tall candlesticks once used in a church) on her dining room table topped with moss balls!
Recently I used several moss balls in decorating a Wintertime Mantel. They add a lot of texture, color and personality to any vignette and I can hardly wait to get decorating with them for spring!
In this springtime post I wrote a couple of years ago, I used sheet moss to create “grass” for our big rabbit ~ “Some Bunny Loves Me.” The leftover moss is what I used to make these moss balls.
An easy craft project of which you can make several moss balls in the course of an hour. I hope you’ve enjoyed this craft project and here is the list of everyone on today’s $10 on the 10th tour…
Happy Wednesday, everyone!Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #291!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! As always, I am glad that you are here…
I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. Thank you!💜
I forgot to add this favorite so am adding Debraof Common Ground‘s beautiful heart wreath from her Romantic Valentine Review... Love it with the old frame-now-chalkboards!!!
If you haven’t picked up these awesome vintage lithograph-type portraits from the local craft store, they are so fun to make into cards, Valentine’s ideas and more! Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home shares her DIY Shabby-Vintage Valentine Hearts in her post.
Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week! I appreciate you! 🙂
Sandra from Dinner at Eight shared her lovely place settings of Lenox china in this wintery post ~ Snowdrifts on a Plaid Table. Just lovely!!!
MaryJofrom Master”Pieces” of My Life shared her fun Hot Beverage Station in her link up this past week. Yum!! :)’
Jocelyn from Just a Little Southern Hospitality brings us her lovely tablescape set for tea ~ Roses Are Red My Love… Soooo pretty!
Want to visit Canada this year? Take a trip (and a wintery walk!) with Thelma and her friend Carol of Thelma’s Days in this post ~ Life in Lockdown – Part 2. We are talking COLD! (But beautiful!!!)
A Quick Honorable Mention
Jeanne over at Selep Imaging shared her beautiful snow-covered garden… Lovely! Winter Garden. I’m sorry that I can’t share a photo with you… I’ve tried over several posts and it has something (I think) to do with how her photographs are saved for copyright, I’m sure. But happy to mention so you can stop by for a visit! <3
Well, that’s it this week, friends! With all the computer glitches between my accidentally overwriting a “reusable block” with 10 features… Now the block itself has “corrected” every previous Share Your Style… I’ll be busy fixing that soon. (Think eyes on an Emoji looking skyward!) Oy vey!!!
Hopefully this week’s party goes better for you!
A big Thank You to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to y’all for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜
Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week! I appreciate you! 🙂
Valentine’s Day table settings for me by far are the prettiest to create. Soft and romantic, these tablescapes set with the airiest of bone china pieces is always the way to go for pure beauty. Today I’ve brought out all of my beautifully decorated French Haviland & Co Limoges pieces to share with you…
Statuary
For this table setting, I brought in my little resting angel to add to our decor. After a good bath and a little touch up paint he rests comfortably in the table’s middle. Along with a small bouquet of grocery store florals, the two create a nice low off-set centerpiece along the table.
I actually got the idea from an older post I did back at our Big House in California…
This was one of the first teas I photographed when my blog was still very new ~ a Peacock and Roses Tea. The script writing I loved to use now causes problems when reading the post so the text is wonky but the photos are still good. 😉
I had saved up these little notepads from Joann’s or Michael’s for a year until it was my time to host a tea, then I brought in our angel and strew peacock tail feathers along the table with him. I think these are Mary roses, an English rose I had growing out in the garden there.
Close close all night
By Elizabeth Bishop
Close close all night the lovers keep.
They turn together in their sleep,
Close as two papers in a book
that read each other in the dark.
Each knows all the other knows,
learnt by heart from head to toes.
Recently I found these creamware mugs (not sponsored) while looking for after-Christmas sales at At Home, a home goods retailer close by in Lewisville, Texas (just east of Denton). They are a nice addition to the other creamware pieces I’ve collected over the years from HomeGoods, Marshall’s and other shops.
How I set this table
I began setting this table with a snowflake patterned tablecloth I have had for years. I love its lacy texture and the way it drapes off the table ends is very pretty and ethereal. Over the years it has shrunk with washing and accidental drying (from when I first began having teas with friends) so now it is more of a runner.
This worked perfectly as I was able to use the fall placemats I shared in this fall tablescape just upside-down, which adds even more texture and pattern to our table setting!
Bring in the pink
My go-to color is always pink! I had fun with last month’s Blue and White in the Cupboard but pink and white is my absolute favorite combination for any tablescape. This time I’ve pulled out four now-vintage Shabby Chic napkins I’ve had since the early 2000’s when Target used to carry a lot of Rachel Ashwell Simply Shabby Chic table linens.
Paired with the new white-handled silverware I picked up at Judith Stringham’s Christmas sales event in December plus a sweet silk rose napkin ring, the Haviland china looks delicate and sweet. Bone china is pretty tough, actually. It’s stoneware that bangs and chips more readily, surprisingly!
Since we are still officially in winter ~ even if the plants outside say spring is coming soon! ~ I kept the pine and pinecone garland up on the chandelier and added a few more crystal and mercury glass ornaments to it for fun. Here is the other heart wreath I didn’t use in this month’s Pinterest Challenge wreath makeover.
Happy Saturday, friends! Our weekend began with a light rainstorm around 6:00am so since I was up early letting Yoda outside, I just happened to come back into the kitchen and check my four persimmons and… They were soft and ripe!!! A perfect morning to bake some persimmon cookies… :)’
Persimmon Cookies Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour AND 1 tsp. baking powder (***I used 1 cup bran + 3 cups all-purpose flour in this batch. The bran gives a nice texture to the cookie.)
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup of persimmon pulp ~ grind skin and insides of persimmon in blender (cut off leafy tops and compost them). *** 4 persimmons makes about 2 cups of pulp
1/2 tsp. baking soda in pulp (set aside after blending together)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp’s of ground nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt
1 cup raisins or nuts (***I used both chopped pecans and golden raisins)
optional: 1 cup chopped dates
***This recipe doubles well and cookies can be frozen unbaked or baked.
Instructions:
Blend persimmon pulp with 1/2 tsp. baking soda per cup of pulp until creamy; set aside. Cream sugar and butter together, scraping sides and bottom to mix well. Add in the egg(s), vanilla, and pulp mixture – mix well creaming this wet mixture.
Add dry ingredients – flour(s) and blend well, then add in fruits and chopped nuts. Mix just until blended.
Drop by teaspoon/scooper onto greased cookie sheet or parchment paper. Cook slowly at about 325 deg. F to 350 degrees until golden brown on top. ***I cooked these at 335 deg. for 18 – 21 minutes. Cookies will spring back but should be thoroughly cooked on the bottoms. Add more time as necessary and begin checking at 12 minutes when using higher temps. Enjoy!!!
While each batch of cookies baked, I watched garden shows on the tele… I found Bunny Guinness recently and really like her landscaping! She is really good and creates massive landscapes for her clients across the UK. This is her home’s north garden sitting area. Just lovely!
Needless to say, today’s cookies aren’t going to last very long…
Now I wish I’d bought more persimmons! Lol!!! 😉
