Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #337! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Welcome, everybody! Some of you may already know this, but mother-in-law found a house a week ago. Since it was a cash offer, she literally closed on the property a week later, which was this Monday! (yeah!!!) She is really happy that she found a home she can love and has been busy updating her address, getting her Texas driver’s license and new car tags. A great week!
This coming weekend we will begin helping her get her things moved out of storage and into her new home. Should be a busy weekend. 😉
Again, I know I wrote about missing last week’s SYS in my post on Sunday, but again I would like to apologize for missing due to exhaustion from work. This is a better week and this students are behaving better.
This week we have a smattering of really pretty features: tablescapes, recipes, home decor, furniture updates and bits of porcelain…
So let’s get to this week’s features, shall we?
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Daniella (Dani) from Sweetly Dreaming of the Past shared this wonderful post about Regency Dessert Recipes for Your Tea. Perfect for all of us Jane Austen-ites!!!
And also this one (a tug after my own heart!) as Dani shares her orangerie ~ Sheltered for Winter.
Last up for this week is this post about A Beginner’s Guide to Chair Upholstery by Coco from The Crowned Goat. With a visit to her parent’s home, Loblolly Manor. Fun!!!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #336! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your family or your love. Mr. Ethereal flew back to Georgia on Valentine’s Monday morning, but he sent a sweet treat of cookies along with a pair of heart-shaped earrings. Very sweet indeed!
I hope Cupid was good to you, too!
Now let’s see what we have in this week’s features and a quick look at what I posted this past week…
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
And thank you for stopping by my Pop-Up Tablescape Party the week before! I appreciate the people who came and linked up. I will try to do more pop-up parties for fun as time goes on. It’s good to do something new!
And here are this week’s featured posts…
First up this week is this sweet post about Romantic French Couples in the Holiday Cupboard by Debra of Common Ground. They are just precious and remind me of the pair I found a couple of years ago now… Debra also shared another post I loved ~ Vintage Botanical Valentine Entry. Do stop by!
Here’s a fun recipe to make for Mardi Gras! Quick and Easy King Cake Recipe posted by newcomer Alea from Premeditated Leftovers.Welcome, Alea!!!
Cindy from Reinvented Delaware shared a little of this and a little of that in her post (including painting her kitchen cabinets — a HUGE job!) at All Things Vintage #18.
The original painting is funny indeed! ~ Thought you’d enjoy seeing Shelbee and family’s rendition… 😉 Too funny!
💜
Michelle from K’Mich Wedding Soirée Blog shared this post about whether to have one or not ~ Is Anyone Doing a Honeymoon Anymore? Interesting thoughts as I know my new niece and nephew didn’t take a honeymoon right away, and another young friend and her husband left a few days after the wedding.
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
Happy Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday weekend (observed),
Oops! I forgot that this month was supposed to be a craft idea, so… I am recycling these Moss Covered Balls. I did use them in our springtime vignette so I’m not too far off! They are messy but turn out great!
springtime plates
a linen dish towel
any other items you’d like to include!
Arrange the tea towel in the bottom of the basket, then add in “risers” to lift the rear plate. Place some fun spring melamine plates next. I used some of the beads from the bead garland underneath to lift the back bunny plate.
Add in some moss-covered balls and plastic eggs into the basket. Drape the bead garland (or an egg garland) over and around the basket, then add sweet little rabbits and other farm animals to your scene. I’ve used a curly wool sheep, a small duckling and several rabbits old and new.
A touch of Easter grass hides another lift underneath the mother and baby rabbit.
My spring vignette covers the gamut of holidays in the springtime! The addition of a small heart pillow and a clover door hanger round out my springtime display.
Total cost?$7.99 for the four melamine plates found at Tuesday Morning a couple of weeks ago. Everything else I’ve picked up in previous years and the littlest bunny in blue jeans I’ve had since the 1990’s when making bunnies was popular.
Total cost for the moss covered balls was about $9 for the bag of moss last year. I have noticed that the cost for moss has shot way up this year! Do check out your local dollar store first.
Thank you for stopping by! Please enjoy your visit today to all the other ladies on the $10 on the 10th tour ~
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #335! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Happy Almost Valentine’s Day to y’all! I’m sure most of you know Cindy over at County Road 407. Well… She informed me the other day that since I’ve been here in Texas for over five years now, it’s high time I use “Y’all!” 😉
So y’all’ll be hearing me use some twang around here, lol! (Actually, my original accent is from Ohio, so when I moved here, the twang just got worse!) Cindy rounds out this week’s featured posts and you’ll find hers down below.
I am excited to feature more Valentine’s posts for you, and coming next week we will be moving into all things Spring! I should be eeking out a quick post for tomorrow. I’ll be joining the $10 on the 10th gang with a quick springtime post.
So, until then, let’s get this party started!
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Lois from Walking on Sunshine shared this easy recipe for Valentine’s Day Cookies. So pretty and delicious looking!!!
Rita from Panoply shared a post about this and that which included these fun memory craft ideas made for family members by a friend ~ Miscellaneous Musings #21. Love the apron idea!!!
Newcomer Lenny over at Fat Dad Foodie brings us his quick recipe for No Bake Heart Rice Krispie Treats ~ perfect for your little Valentines!!!
Some fun reads to get you through winter and beyond: Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy shared her favorite January Reads!
Sarah from Must Have Mom shared this sweet craft-sewing project perfect for giving your sweetheart and friends this Valentine’s Day! ~ Cricut Valentine’s Day Tic Tac Toe Bags. Adorable!
Robin from Junk is My Life shared a neat DIY post creating this Shabby Chic Fancy Floral Chair. Love it!!!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
Happy almost Valentine’s Day to you all! Today we have a Valentine’s table set for tea. This post is inspired by all the pretty tablescapes shared in posts across the internet this week…
Bringing out my favorite Limoges dessert plates paired with newer teacups and teapot.
Getting ready for summer travel
As I was ironing this sweetheart tablecloth and napkins I’d sewed a few years ago, I thought about what I’d like to decorate this tablescape. My daughter and I are still planning on going to France this summer for my niece’s wedding. Inspired by that thought: I brought out this small trunk with its Eiffel Tower and roses, my favorite chalkware maiden (an antique find written about in this post), and a clear glass pedestal cake plate given to us as a wedding present.
A photograph taken when we lived in our Prairie Home ~ our Heartland Charleston 365 RV.
Inspiration also came from this week’s Share Your Style #334 with a couple of inked posts by Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland who joined a group of bloggers hosted by Rita from Panoply (your post might be in this blog party, too!).
I am not part of this blog hop but thought you might like to visit and enjoy some pretty tablescapes over these wintery days!
So all these lovely tables and home decor were my inspiration…
Travel inspiration abounds with items displayed with ties to France (the original bust created by Grinam Niam, English and French tableware and trunk.
Sew your own table linens
Do you create your own table linens? Or do you enjoy the hunt for linens while out looking through thrift shops and home decor stores? I’ve had good luck with both but for this tabletop display I wanted to use my homemade pretties…
This 45″ red tablecloth fabric was found online at Joanne Fabrics several years ago. The napkins I made a few years before while we were still in our Big House in Murrieta, California.
Square and rectangular linens are really easy to make out of straight-off-the-bolt fabric and all it requires is a sewing machine and thread, the fabric itself and an iron!
I’ve linked to the instructions here above in case you are new to sewing and would like to whip some table linens up for your Valentine’s table this year.
I’ve set the table for two for an early Valentine’s tea. It’s just my mother-in-law Gini and I here at home this week. Mr. Ethereal is away on business and will be staying in Georgia with the Artic storms hitting all over the South and Mid-West.
We shared an afternoon of cake and conversation over a few cups of tea…
Usually we are over in the family room plunked down on the red L-shaped sofa “taking tea” while watching YouTube or movies in the evening, so this was a nice change!
The snow was bright outdoors with snowbirds in from the North ~ visiting black-capped chickadees, local sparrows and mourning doves ~ and our resident squirrels.
Taken earlier in the morning… You can see plants covered over against the freezing rain. I scattered seeds several times yesterday for hungry feathered and furry friends.
A pair of blackbirds came by in the late afternoon and I caught one on film. He was wondering what I was doing…
What’s up?
An unexpected day off from work is a nice and welcome change of pace! I love teaching our students but it is nice to just be able to be at home and rest…
One of my favorite furry buddies
And having cake after dinner was really a special treat! With the cold creeping through these older window frames, we drank tea all day long…
A few of my favorite things!
“Constant Comment” was the perfect tea to have with this carrot cake… I go through boxes and boxes of it during the winter!
I used these Ecko heart-shaped pans. I found a similar one on Amazon.com by Wilton, if you are looking for some. (not sponsored)
Yummy!!!
Both cake sections turned out light and fluffy and I used some leftover buttercream frosting in between the layers.
I tried using a piece of lace to make a pretty design on the cake top and dusting it with powdered sugar, but… Epic fail! That just turned out ugly.
So I did the next best thing: just dust the whole top with the powdered sugar and carefully adding small colored candy pieces in a heart shape in the middle. 😉
And here is our table all set for tea! Inside was bright and cheery with the sweetheart tablecloth and late afternoon sunlight bouncing off the snow from outside.
Thoughts of romance in the air…
A pop-up blog hop
So… For a little fun, link up your favorite Valentine’s Day tablescapes and we can have a little party together! Just an impromptu blog hop… Hope you will join the fun!
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #334! Happy Thursday to you all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Well, hello there! We have a snow day here in North Texas today and it was a good call by our school district to close down for a couple of days… Nice gentle rains yesterday evening turning into snow early, early in the morning. But, by 5:00am, the snow changed into freezing rain… Just a bit hazardous for school buses and folks to be out driving in it! My head cold is still going strong, too, so I went to bed early last night and just didn’t have the energy to get this post out. (think: emoji w/ rolling eyes upward…) Today is a new day and I have been able to get things done!
Our latest news: Yoda was quick about getting out and back in this morning, and he usually enjoys walking about in the snow. Coming up on 16 years old (I kept thinking he already was 16 last year; I was wrong.) this spring, he just doesn’t have the musculature to keep him warm anymore. I think the cold must really hurt his joints. He still comes inside all frisky for a few minutes each morning and evening, though! He is also enjoying having my mother-in-law here every day to let him out around noon-time and to give him more loving pets and cuddles throughout the day! 💜
Hubby and I have been house hunting with her on the weekends since New Year’s when they got back here from California, and even this past Monday evening we drove over to tour a home, so no posts again this past week for me. She did put in an offer on the home we saw on Monday night and hopefully she will hear back yea or nay soon. 🙂
This is all of my latest news, besides just going to work everyday, so let’s get this belated party started!!!
And here are this week’s featured posts…
Starting this Valentines themed SYS post, our friend Sujatha from Crystal Grandeur shared a beautiful tablescape perfect for “V day…” ~ An Evening Garden Setting. Lovely!!!
Gorgeous presentation abounds at the home of Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland who shared her post ~ Valentine’s Day Tea ~ part of a party of 20 tablescapes perfect for copying for your Valentine!
Of course we need something yummy to eat for Valentine’s… Jean of Delightful Repast shared her recipe for Banana Creme Pie: Best Crust Ever! Since I’m home for four days… How about you? Yum! ;)’
Jennifer from Wanderlust and Wellness brings us this beautiful Valentine Charcuterie Board… Simply beautiful!!!
Ringleader for that 20 blog party mentioned above is none other than our friend Rita from Panoply who shares her fun pinkalicious tablescape ~ I Only Have Ice for You, Valentine. (I’ve got to quit working so I can come play with everybody! I DO miss getting out there…)
Elizabeth from Pinecones and Acorns shared an easy trick for making this yummy Heart-Shaped Cake for Valentine’s Day. Stop by to find out what she did! ;)’
Cindy from Reinvented Delaware shared this fun DIY post ~ Old Step Ladder Upcycle. Great repurpose!!!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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 so much, dear friends! Happy linking to you all,
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #333! Happy Wednesday to you all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Don’t you just love that Valentine’s Day is coming soon? I have a couple of Valentine’s posts but just haven’t put everything together yet. I found the battery charger for my Canon camera so happily I can shoot nice photos again, yeah!!! Now that Covid is waning, colds and flu seem to be back again… I’m down with a cold that wants to turn bad so this SYS might be a quick one.
I hope this finds you well and healthy! Now let’s check out this week’s featured posts…
And here are this week’s featured posts…
Let’s begin this party with Niky’s post from The House on Silverado ~ a Date Night: Dinner for Two ~ perfect for the Valentine in our lives!
Longtime friend Daniela from Sweetly Dreaming of the Past shared her beautiful post full of long-ago fashions to love again ~ History of Fashion: Civil War Fashion.
Lori from Walking on Sunshine Recipes brings us these yummy Strawberry Pudding Cups. Yeesssss!!!
Newcomer Sarah from Must Have Mom created these adorable DIY Valentine’s Day Gnomes. Really fun to make and give!!!
Laundry isn’t always fun but redoing our laundry rooms is definitely a Valentine to ourselves ~ Renae from Peacock Ridge Farm shared her’s in this post ~ Beautiful French Country Laundry Room Makeover.
Debra from Common Ground brings us her lovely post for winter decorating ~ Deer on the Winter Baker’s Rack. Really pretty!!!
Rita from Panoply is back with a wonderful post sharing her new home ~ First Winter in Our New Home: Bare Necessities. I’m sorry I couldn’t pick up any photos! It’s darling!!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #332! Happy Wednesday to you all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Well, it’s that cozy time of year when we just want to wrap ourselves under a comfy blanket and curl up on the couch with a good book, watch a wonderful old movie and drink something yummy and warm… With that in mind, I’ve picked a few good recipes and beautiful decor to inspire us. And… after an unexpected break last week from SYS, we are back! It has been an adjustment having my mother-in-law living with us, and I feel a bit like Ruth and Naomi at the moment. Hubby has been gone on so many business trips since September, he is hardly home.
But last week was missed because of an unexpected phone call I had to take for the IOOF of which I am a member. So, sometimes life just gets in the way… Today we are back and ready to share your latest posts. Thanks so much for sticking with me and I apologize if you stopped by and there was no notice. Please forgive me this omission.
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Debra of Common Ground shared a bunch of great ideas for us to use at next year’s New Year’s Eve parties!! ~ New Year’s Eve Tablescape Inspiration ~ Love this!!!
MaryJo from Master “Pieces” of My Life shared her gorgeous tablescape also filled with NYE ideas ~ Mercury Glass Tabletop Ideas. So pretty!!!
Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy shared A December Visit to the Ditch. I love Jeanie’s walkabouts and visits around Michigan!!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
What a great week of new ideas to start our year with a bang!! Thank you again to everyone who linked up and I can’t wait to see what all you bring this week to the SYS table…
Bonjour, mes amies! I am excited to share some pieces from the first china pattern I ever bought shortly after Mr. Ethereal and I were married… plus some exciting news!
Hubby and I moved to Southern California after he graduated from Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia. His first duty station was aboard Camp Pendleton, so we drove the 2700 miles from Connecticut to Sacramento, visiting both parents before the big move.
When I was home in our apartment by myself, sometimes I’d take the bus and go into Oceanside, Carlsbad or Vista to eat lunch out and go shopping at the local mall or to go antiquing. One day I found an Ethan Allen furniture store and as I was walking around inside, I turned a corner and there was an entire set (48 pieces!) of Villeroy & BochBotanica staring back at me! I was ecstatic!!!
This is the same set of which I had collected a very few pieces while I was with my host family in Germany back in 1981. To find that Ethan Allen had brought over this lovely set of tableware, I was sooo happy!
I already owned a creamer & sugar bowl, a salt & pepper (behind the teapot here on the table) which I’d bought with my host mother at a tableware shop in a town along the Rhein River. Petja, my younger brother Gene’s exchange partner who came to our house three years later when Gene went on his own exchange program, later sent me the matching V&B Botanica china trivet.
A gifted trivet sits underneath the creamware teapot. I loved the feel and heft of this piece!
Today there are only five dinner plates unbroken, all eight salad plates and all the cups and saucers survive. My mother often bought me pieces from a shop out near where she lived in Connecticut after my parents moved there. She would send me pieces for my birthday or Christmas and sent a lovely covered butter dish, which could hold up to a pound of butter (two sticks side-by-side, double stacked tall). Our son was making something on our Big House’s kitchen island one day and pushed things back to make more room and sadly the butter dish crashed off onto the floor…
It had been so lovely with its pinks and purple sweetpeas all over the dish top. I would love to have added it here to this table for you!
Do you like the new carpet underneath the dining room table? We found it at Ikea when our kids were over for an early Christmas. Love the light blue florals!
The dining room is now an orangery with many of Mr. Ethereal’s mother’s plants inside as well as our mandarin orange tree. It’s fun to set a table in there now with so many plants!
“Croissant, anyone?”
For our European breakfast, I tried to recreate the breakfasts we would have at my host family’s home in Leverkusen. My host father’s grandmother lived with the family and they had a large round breakfast table off the kitchen. Every morning, fresh danishes and bread (bröt) were delivered to the house for the day’s meals.
“Erdbeeren” (or strawberry jam) and lingonberry jam were breakfast staples. Several years ago I found lingonberry jam at Ikea so this last time I picked up another jar.
If you can find some, lingonberry is a really nice, tart jam! It is a good substitute for strawberry, if someone can’t eat seeds in their jams and jellies.
Here the plates are unstacked so you can see the different flowers.
So what is the news?
A week ago, an invitation came to attend my niece’s wedding for this coming July. Her husband-to-be is from Venezuela and they both met as missionaries… They live in Grenoble, France!!!
So, after missing the opportunity as an exchange student as a young 19-year-old, I sure am NOT going to miss out this time! My daughter already has the time off from her work and I will be off for summer, so we will be going together.
So that’s my exciting news, dear friends!
So what can you tell me about going to France? Where do you recommend flying into? Charles De Gaulle airport, there in Paris? How do we get to Grenoble? Bus? Train?? Rent a car?
At least they drive on the same side of the road as we do here in the United States. 😉
And what about Air BnB’s?? How do I find out about this stuff?? After really not traveling for the last 35 years, I am pretty clueless, lol!
I thank you for all the tips in advance, Sweeties!!! <3
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #331! Happy Wednesday to you all, dear friends!!
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! I appreciate your subscribing, also. 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!💜
Happy New Year, y’all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas week and then New Year’s Eve with family and friends. I have really enjoyed these past two weeks at home. I finished the last bit of insulating in the shed, did a little painting, worked on laying pavers along the garden pathway, and planted some plants. Hubby began creating two small loft areas over each end of the shed for overhead storage, and that is coming along. I am back to school as of today and our kiddos show up tomorrow. Lots of concern about Covid since the Omicron is highly contagious, so hopefully all the vaccination shots do their thing!
On a happy note, my husband, after working in California since September and flying up from So. Cal to Northern California over six different weekends, Mr. Ethereal flew back one last time just after Christmas. He helped my mother-in-law meet the movers at her house and storage unit to get her household goods onto two trucks. Her house of 57 years sold and she is beginning a new chapter here in North Texas. A lot like us! 🙂
The first set of movers gets here this coming Friday. After the movers drove off, Mr. Ethereal and Mom drove the southern route to get here from the greater Sacramento area. She is staying with us until she finds a new place, but for now it’ll be cozy winter evenings watching movies and hanging out with Mr. Ethereal and Yoda and myself…
So that’s what I’ve been up to since last time! How about you? How were your Christmas and New Year’s?? Hope they were wonderful!!
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Bridie from Heart, Hearth and Crafting shared a free pattern to make this warm and cozy Mariners Hat. Looks really easy to knit, too! Great gifting idea…💜
Parsimonious Decor Darling shared lovely Celtic tablescapes to copy in this post ~ Traditional Tartan Twofold. Totally in love with these flow blue zoological dinner plates!
Cindy from Cindy’s Recipe Box shared an oldie but goodie for any kind of holiday fête ~ Eggnog Pudding Shots. So delicious looking!
Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone 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. 💜
Thanks again, dear friends! Let’s get this party started,
