Florentine Tablescape

We are having a small dinner party this weekend for our "couples" book club. We love getting together with a small group of friends to share our lives as well as thoughts about what we've been reading. The book we chose for our friends to read and discuss is a classic, I, Claudius  by Robert Graves. It is about the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius. Well, I couldn't quite come up with a Roman theme for the party , so I'm going Italian. I've pulled together several things that I think look quite elegant.

On our trip to Italy several years ago I bought several tapestries at the San Lorenzo market in Florence. I've used one as a table topper and turned it on a diagonal.

I've used gold chargers, Wedgwood White dinner plates and hand painted salad plates. Each plate has a slightly different motif.

 I'm using my sterling flatware made by the Italian silversmith Buccellati. The pattern is Milano. I've always considered it to be classic and timeless. Simple white linen napkins are dressed up with gold beaded napkin rings.

For a centerpiece I filled an Italian cachepot with Christmas ornaments that have yet to be put away! Maybe I'll swap them out for some flowers by Saturday!

 Iron candle holders with some gold beading adds a little sparkle. I've placed them on my vintage Florentine trays, which you can read more about HERE.

And some vintage ruby red goblets add even more richness to the table.

For dinner I'll be serving turkey tetrazinni,  

lasagna florentine, caesar salad (of course) rustic Italian breads, assorted cheeses and Nutella pound cake and gelato for dessert. I'll share recipes in a few days! 

 I like to join these parties

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings

Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage

Tuesday Treasure @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Be Inspired @ Common Ground

Open House @ No Minimalist Here

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Ranch

Home and Garden Thursday @ Delightsome Life

Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

Frenchy Postcard Pillow

My brother got married this past year and his lovely new wife suffers from allergies, particularly down pillows. So they were cleaning out and redoing all of the throw pillows in their house and they happened to toss them my way! I came back from our visit at Thanksgiving with several bags full of down pillow inserts. Now that the holidays are over, it's time for some sewing projects.

Of course, I turned to Debbie over at Confessions of a Plate Addict for some inspiration! Here is her version of a Pottery Barn pillow that she shared awhile back.
 So I made a copycat of a copycat.

I printed off the postcard images onto iron-on transfer paper, trimmed the images then ironed them onto plain muslin. Then I top stitched the "postcards" onto some ticking fabric that I had in my stash. 

Here is my version, looking very fresh!

Gotta go, I've got more pillows to make!

I like to join these parties

                 Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings

Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage

Tuesday Treasure @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Be Inspired @ Common Ground

Open House @ No Minimalist Here

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Ranch

Home and Garden Thursday @ Delightsome Life

Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

Cookie Buffet

Candy buffets have been popular for several years now at weddings and I've put several fun and colorful ones together. A new trend is a cookie buffet. Actually these have been popular for years being a long standing tradition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, I grew up in Pittsburgh but moved away as a teenager. I don't remember this tradition, but others have assured me it started there!

Another dear friend had a son getting married over the holidays in California and she and her husband hosted an informal open house the beginning of January in Arizona. They chose to do a nacho bar, a cookie buffet and a hot chocolate bar. I volunteered to help set up and this is how the cookie buffet turned out...

I made a chalkboard sign for the table.

 The bride's colors were turquoise and red so we tried to stick with that.

 I did a mixture of cake plates and glass canisters for the cookies,

 and made labels for each flavor.

We did ten cookie varieties - chocolate chip, lemon bars, ginger snaps, snickerdoodles, peanut butter, peanut blossoms, iced sugar cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, dark chocolate white chip and pirouettes. I recommend planning on 3-4 cookies per person.

Here I am all set up and ready for guests. This is the kind of dessert buffet that is fairly easy to pull together if you like to bake - or have friends that do!

I like to join these parties

Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings

Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage

Tuesday Treasure @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Be Inspired @ Common Ground

Open House @ No Minimalist Here

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Ranch

Home and Garden Thursday @ Delightsome Life

Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

Favorite Posts of the Year

It's fun to review the past year, see what projects I've done and see which ones were most popular with you,my followers. I get so many of my ideas from my fellow bloggers and I truly appreciate the way blog friends encourage and support each other.

So here are my top 5 posts from 2013-

Vintage Hanky Sachet Tutorial

Hanging a Silver Tray

Painted Lazy Susan

Boudoir Pillows

Silver at Your Service

A sad  follow up to my post about these lovely serving pieces- I took most of these into my antique store a month or so ago. When I went in last week they were all gone! Sold? Sadly, no. Some unkind shopper helped themself to all of my silverware without paying! I know it's a reality of doing retail, but isn't it sad that people will behave this way? Oh well, there's always more treasures to find!

Thanks for visiting my blog this past year and all of your kind comments

Happy New Year!

Karee

I like to join with

Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

Pink Saturday @ How Sweet the Sound

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Amaze Me Monday @ Dwellings

Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage

Tuesday Treasure @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Be Inspired @ Common Ground

Open House @ No Minimalist Here

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Ranch

Home and Garden Thursday @ Delightsome Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Crystal Snowballs

Have you ever seen these chunky, icy looking votives? 

They are made by Orrefors Kosta Boda a Swedish glassworks company.  Orrefors and Kosta Boda were two separate companies each founded in the 1700's. They joined forces in the 1980's. Their designs have won thousands of awards and their pieces have been featured in museums around the world. Here's a little info from their website.

"Handblown glass has been produced in this part of Sweden for more than two and a half 

centuries. The story of Orrefors begins with iron and the forest. As early as 1726, Lars Johan

 Silversparre received permission to build a furnace and a smithy at "the beautiful river that 

flows into Lake Orrenas". The iron works was given the name Orrefors, which means "the 

Orre waterfall". Production at Orrefors did not become significant until the 1910s, when 

Johan Ekman of Gothenburg, who had highly ambitious production plans and had realized 

the importance of design, acquired the glassworks. A number of proficient glass artisans 

were recruited. Ekman wanted to place production on a more artistic basis, and in 1916 he, 

therefore, engaged the services of Simon Gate, the portrait and landscape painter. 

The artist Edward Hald arrived in the following year. This laid the foundation for a vital 

tradition of Orrefors, in the form of close cooperation between skilled glassblowers and 

gifted designers."

I started collecting their snowball votives many years ago.  I love the way a small candle glows from within and brings fire to the ice.

I have found several of them over the years while thrifting, but you can buy them new in gift stores or on their website in the $20-30 range.

I've mixed the snowballs in with some mercury glass to really bring out the sparkle!

They make a nice wintery entrance in my front foyer.

For more information check out their website

orrefors.us

I'll be joining

Time Travel Thursday

What's it Wednesday

Easy Neighbor Gift

I mentioned in my last post that I'm going away for Christmas. This put me in a quandary for neighbor gifts. I usually like to give something homemade but I knew I'd be short on time this year. So, I admit, I found this idea on Pinterest and I liked it's simplicity! My family doesn't drink alcohol, but we love Martinelli's sparkling cider.

I added a festive tag.

 Here's  hoping our friends and neighbors have a "cheery" holiday!

I'll be joining

The Scoop

Downsizing the Decor

I usually love going all out in decorating for Christmas, but this year we are heading to Atlanta to spend the holiday with my daughter and her husband in their new home. So I "downsized" my decorating and just got out just a few "essentials".

A little sparkle in the front entry...

Some candles in the living room...

 A glittering table top tree...

And a nativity, because, that's what's it's really all about, isn't it?

I'll be joining

Wow Us Wednesday

The Scoop

Inspire Me Tuesday

Soda Cracker Toffee

Here is a  favorite treat that I like to make and share during the holidays. It's easy to make and is sort of a cross between a cookie and candy. If you've never tried it, it tastes a bit  like caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels - you know, crunchy, sweet and salty all at once!

It just takes a few ingredients, butter, brown sugar, saltine crackers, chocolate chips and nuts.

 Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with foil. Lay out 48 crackers into the sheet.

 Combine 3 sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in a large saucepan. Melt over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes.

 Pour the caramel mixture over the crackers and spread evenly. Place into a 375 degree oven and bake for 5 minutes. It will bubble.

Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips. 

Let the chips sit for a couple of minutes until they have melted and then spread evenly over the crackers. 

 Now sprinkle with 1 cup of chopped nuts. I use either walnuts or pecans.

Cool completely! This will take a couple of hours in the fridge or over night at room temperature. Then break into pieces. This will make 48 pieces if you break along the cracker lines.

 Here it is bagged up and ready to give as a thank you treat to the members of my church choir.

Enjoy!

Soda Cracker Toffee

48 saltine crackers

3 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with foil. Lay out 48 crackers into the sheet.

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine 3 sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in a large saucepan. Melt over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes. Pour the caramel mixture over the crackers and spread evenly. Place into a 375 degree oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips.Let the chips sit for a couple of minutes until they have melted and then spread evenly over the crackers.  Sprinkle with 1 cup of chopped nuts. Cool completely. This will take a couple of hours in the fridge or over night at room temperature. Then break into pieces. This will make 48 pieces if you break along the cracker lines.

I'll be joining
The Scoop
Home Sweet Home
Feathered Nest Friday
Show and Tell Friday