Tablescape Thursday for October 29

It is Tablescape Thursday at Susan's (or it will be later tonight Oct 28). SO BELOW --I decided to go for some cheerful reds this week (I love red!!) . I used my red goblets again. This time I used clear glass dishes so we could enjoy the fullness of the red plaid!! I love the glass dishes ---I love to see the tablecloth.




NOTE: in the pic above you can realize again why it is called spindle cottage. You can see some of them fore and aft and on the chairs. I also love the iron work in the corners of the doorway.

The napkins were from GW. The silverware is a very old set that used to belong to my mom.

I love Zinnias (spelling/??)--I have lots of them growing in my garden. I am so in love with their bright happy flowers. Next year I think I will fill one of my garden patches with them.


The vase was an old dark green glass one that I discovered lying about or is it laying ?? in my daughter's back yard--down not far from a creek. She said I could have it!!! I was so thrilled and spent a lot of time cleaning it!!

I love the apples in the silver bowl. I have kept this on the table this week---I love silver with the red.





Once last glance with the candle light. As I have said before this area in our house is one of our favorites for eating (when there are three of us) in the cooler weather. It is a cozy warm area.

Metamorphosis Monday

FOR OCTOBER 26

It is Metamorphosis aT Susan's and I wanted to show a transformation we did a while back. I don't have the before Picture so I will tell you about" the before". In our "sun room" we had a yucky gray indoor-outdoor carpet that was in the room when we moved in to this house. We never had the money to do anything about it. One day my hubby and I got talking and we realized that under the rug was old tiling. I thought that this might be better than the rug. So one day when I could take it no longer I started ripping. WELL, to make a long story shorter, the tiles were horrible!!! SO NOW WhAT do I do. I ripped out the tiles and was left with all this goooooooy glue junk. I purchased stuff that was supposed to remove the glue and started on a section....over by the bay window area. I was hoping it would look like slate!!! THEN I realized WAIT---perhaps if we just put polyeurathane over what was there it would look like ceramic tiles!! The tiles had left an imprint from where they had been so it looked tile-ish! ANd the swirls of yellow glue etc looked like some tiles I had seen. So here is the result:




The only problem is the first coat took over a week to dry!!!! WE were very worried...maybe it would never dry....a reaction of glue and polyeurathane. But it did dry and the next coat didn't take as long. By the way there was a huge crack we had to fill in and paint to match that hides beneath a rug--it still came out pretty well.


Here is another picture of it that I took last month--you may have seen this one:

Tablescape Thursday/ lacey reflection

BOY the week does fly!! It is tablescape Thursday at Susan's again!!

The other day when I was reading my Bible and doing some thinking and drinking my tea near the fire (hey, I consider this multi-tasking, you know!! Reading, thinking, drinking--at my age that is work!!). ANYWHO.......I suddenly noticed this little Tablescape below:



Do you see what I did??? The reflection of the lace curtain on the tray and tea things---I just loved it. And in the next picture you can better see its play on the Bible:



As I have said, I was getting the enjoyment of the fire as well--it was a nippy morning. Here is what it looked like:





Here is a close up of the cup I was using with its saucer. These were designed by Rosanna in Seattle, however she makes them in China.





What I like about them is the uniqueness of the saucers, their size, and the fact that they can be microwaved and are dishwasher safe (not that I have a dishwasher ;-) ). These came in the a very cute box with 3 other different cups---so here they are:



This one ABOVE is my favorite one--I love the bright yellow.



I love the green in the one below!



Below is the top of the box they arrived in--this collection is called Chelsea Flowers:



Here is what the whole box looks like:



So all in all these are a treat to use--I find them just a bit fun and funky......And there was one neighbor visitor trying to eaves drop in another room:



All in all-what can I say??? Nothing quite as nice as a cuppa, eh?

Metamorphosis Monday

It is another metamorphosis Monday at Susan's. {Oh and if you have looked at Susan's post for this then you will die laughing at the contrast of the kitchen there with my kitchen. I really had to chuckle--the difference between a High kitchen and a low low lowly one!! HA! }

I don't have a dramatic change to show, but nonetheless I like it or I wouldn't be showing it. (Is that a true statement--not sure ;-) ). I wanted to warm the kitchen up a bit. My kitchen and one of the attached rooms has this dark black flooring. So to warm it up for winter I added this old beat up rug. It did warm the space.




Below: I also added some apples to the container on the counter. Now there were green ones mixed in, but I confess that I have eaten those!! Don't mind the rest of the mess---I didn't take the time to clean up! (oh and an interesting note about the apple cookie jar---It belonged to the previous owner and I didn't realize it until the antique store owner who I was purchasing it from told me!! Weird or what!!! the previous owner had died and I believe she still frequently pays us visits (justkidding)}

Below: here is a view from a slightly different angle. I love my red and white enamel table because you can put hot things directly on this. We also use it for the lap top and can sit here and write or look up recipes and do blogging stuff etc while we are cooking. It also makes a nice little breakfast area etc---I am amazed at how many things we use this table for!!! Underneath is storage for 3 crockpots, an onion bin, a food processor and blender, large cutting boards etc-- AGAIN--don't mind the mess--I didn't clean it up!

Below is a slightly different view--I wanted you to see the spindles at the top (the previous owner had a thing about spindles!!!)


Now some complain about a small kitchen or a non-updated kitchen, but I have to say with complete honesty that I love this small kitchen!! It works! I can be anywhere in it in 2 steps and it makes prep and cooking and clean up a whiz! Plus It fits in with the 50's (it was updated in the 50's --the only thing is in the 2000's we had to replace the oven and the stovetop, the faucet since we couldn't find parts!!). But this was the 50's kitchen and frankly I like it because I grew up in a kitchen in the 50's. So no expensive renovations here. I don't even have a dishwasher and you know what....I love it! I find it so soothing to do them by hand. Guess I am a 50's gal ;-)

Cool morning and homeyness

It is a cool morning here and we hadn't put our heat on yet in this area of our home. SOOOO it was a good excuse to light the fire and enjoy some cozy time! (Hey--if you are looking for my tablescape it is in the post below this one)


I enjoyed some gluten free toast with applebutter (from the Mountains of NC)--on my new plate and cup--I love these for Fall and winter!!



It is the nice thing about the South--one can enjoy warm fires any ole time ;-)

Tablescape Thursday for October 15

It is tablescape Thursday at Susan's--time is flying!! For this week's tablescape we had our little table that we enjoy eating at when there is just two or three of us for dinner. I think gnomes and Fall and canoeing go together. So the center of the table had a cute gnome-scape.




I like birds and brass and berries and brown (the 4 b's for Fall too


There is something so homey and lovely about this gnome couple nestled in the brass candlesticks.




We used our ruby stemware, and our deep brown bowls (I only have two of these and they are by corelle--wish I could find more. The ones they are now selling are much smaller!) I found the napkins at a yard sale and I love their color!) I tried some other candles of a more pumpkin color (below) but decided I liked the taller lighter ones.

Below is the big table which sits in the same room. I found the little squirrel in an antique shop, but he is probably quite new.



I couldn't leave out how well the couch in the next room matches our table decor!! And the wild beasty loves it too.



After a trip to the zoo on the weekend we picked up a few pretty leaves and inserted them under the glass tabletop.(below)





So I ended up with the more beige colored candles. I tried white and pumpkin colored ones--and ended with these. It is a cozy spot and the gnomes make me smile! Have a nice weekend, ya'll.

Met Monday October 12

It is Met Monday at Susan's. We made a change this week in one of our little eating areas. You have seen this "before" picture (pictured in this first picture below) in a previous post. I do love eating here and we still can do it ....but we enjoy this little bay window in the cooler weather as a instant kind of Porch ;-) . We like the freedom of moving the side chairs to face out towards the outdoors and watch all of the birds and squirrels. So...here is the before..............





and below is the after

So...we moved the table --this makes it easier to change the position of the chairs. AND of COURSE of PRIME IMPORTANCE IS HOW BOOTS FEELS ABOUT THIS---HE IS LOVING THE SUNSHINE AND THE CHAIR. (HE IS 15--so we have to have pity on him).

We have also put some dashes of red in here to tie in with the upper dining area that has red checked tablecloths (as you can see in the post below or in my header). We also changed out the picture that was above the little gas stove for a big mirror to reflect more light into the room for the darker days ahead. This has worked well so far. (I bought the mirror from Craig's list and then had to pay the same price to have the backing fixed and the hardware exchanged!! YIKERS!! The wood frame was so hard it would bend any staples even from an electric staple gun---The frame guy was amazed at the toughness of the frame. ANYWAYS he fixed it for me.....this thing was heavy!!

Tablescape Thursday for October 8, 09

I gave a preview of my tablescape on Met monday...so here is the whole thing. Go to Susan's for more.




Above you see the soup silver dish that we all love. I purchased it for ten bucks when it was black! It polished up sooooo nicely. We had some nice fall soup at this meal! Below is a shot taken through my laundry room window (Ha!) of the little eating nook.



Above is the shot of the same nook at night through our little hallway door. Below you can see the ruby glasses we found at the same antique shop (note: not the ruby tea light holders!)



Above you can see the salt and pepper shakers we found at the same shop.


Above you see some old linen napkins I found on ebay and the silver and something (bronze or copper?) napkin rings which I also purchased for dirt cheap from the antique shop--they were black!! Just needed polish.

It is fun (above) to put cheapo casual stuff with the silver stuff! I love the old soup spoons that belonged to my mom.



We added a few more candles





My hubby loves tablescaping!! He loves it when I do anything different and looks foward to it.....I find we linger longer ---Ha!!

One last view---have a great weekend!