Tablescape Thursday - Granny Gathering

Tablescape Thursday is the day I look forward to all week long -- to visit Susan at "Between Naps On The Porch" and see all the pretty dishes! This week I'm posting the two tablescapes from my "Granny Gathering" last Sunday. I realized when I was looking through my pictures there were more of the centerpieces than the dishes. Oh well, I guess that counts too.

My "chalk dish" announces each Holiday and event celebrated at our house.


What a cute little "Granny" - actually I found her at a thrift shop - she's the Mrs. Santa half of a S&P set -- but they only had her and she looked pretty lonely, so I invited her to the party!


Our first table was the "Granddaughter" table. Lots of pinkness. I layered a vintage rose stenciled tablecloth over my white tablecloth. Then pink placemats.


Each of these placesettings had a pink glass charger, a Gibson salad plate with pink roses, and a pink glass bowl. The glasses were from my husband's grandmother and the flatware was from Target. The cloth napkins are reversable - one side has pink roses and the other is a pink and green plaid.


Here's a close up of our centerpiece, filled with vintage baby girl items.


Well actually, these little girls aren't probably anything very old. But they reminded me of the big snow we had last March when they lost electricity at my daughter's house and they all stayed with us for a couple of nights. I called the girls my "Snow babies" and it was one of my very first posts.


This is an old silver plated baby spoon and a cute little picture.


We have a Bunnykins baby cup from the early 80's (daughter) filled with pink and white flowers.


This little baby bonnet was my mother's. I found the little shoes at an antique store and have no idea how old (or not) they may be -- any guesses?


This wicker victorian baby stroller isn't old. It was actually red when I found it - an odd color I thought for a baby item - so I painted it with white paint, knowing it would probably turn pink -- it did! Also you can see little bits of pink and ivory trimmed in green vintage baby shirts and a green vintage baby bib under all the baby items.


Our next table is the "Grandson" tablescape. White tablecloth layered with a vintage embroidered topper. My new birthday Gollum/Gibson dishes mixed with white and blue salad plates. Leaded crystal glasses - bamboo Cambridge flatwear from Marshalls and blue floral napkins from Tuesday Morning. I think I've "scaped" with everything but the dishes.


Everybody had to find their place set with their "Granny" name. There were several Grandma's, Grammy, Gi-Gi, Nana, Namaw, Gamm and Granny. Those who had all grandsons had blue ribbons, all granddaughters had pink ribbons, and both had (of course) a pink and blue plaid ribbon.


A close up of the grandson placesetting.


The baby boy centerpiece. See the little white high-topped shoes that many of our babies wore when they were first learning to walk. Those high tops were supposed to give those little ankles extra support. I don't think they even recommend those anymore. Excuse my shoes on the table! But aren't they sweet?


An old silver "gerber baby" spoon tied with blue ribbon and a cute little picture of a baby riding a toy camel. I think that little baby boy is about to crawl off the cake stand.


My grandmother used to have a bronzed shoe of my mother's on her coffee table that looked identical to this one. I don't know what ever happened to it, but when I saw this in an antique store I was flooded with nostalgia, so it went home with me. The old matchbox truck belonged to my husband. I couldn't find a vintage boy's bib, so a new one from Marshalls will have to do.


This was a Bunnykins cup given to our son when he was born in 1979. Filled with yellow and white flowers.


Remember the old wooden blocks? Do they even make them anymore? And more matchbox trucks of my husbands. Probably painted with lead paint before all those things were tested.


A bit fuzzy picture of a plastic diaper pin shaped rattle - my childrens era. Vintage blue shirt.


Lastly, this was a Marshall's find - a Wedgewood Peter Rabbit plate - I just loved those Beatrix Potter books.

Hope you enjoyed the "Granny Gathering" - be sure to check out all the other tablescapes this week at "Between Naps On The Porch".

I'll be leaving on Saturday to spend a week with two of our Grandgirls and being "Nana in Atlanta". See you when I get back just in time for the twins 1st Birthday party. I'm sure that I'll be posting lot's of pictures of grandbabies next week. Until then....

See ya!

Granny Gathering

I'm back from my "bloggy break" of last week. We had VBS in the evenings at church and I watched the twins so my daughter could teach in the art room -- we both had fun! Then this weekend I was preparing for a "Granny Gathering" at my home Sunday for lunch and sharing of pictures of all the grands. We had such fun! I had a Granny luncheon about 2 1/2 years ago when several of us from church had grandchildren all around the same time and invited some other grannies as well. It was such a fun celebration that I planned to do another one after the twins were born last August and never seemed to be able to find a great time to do it -- so I decided to wait until this weekend when it seemed that the next round of grand babies arrived. (we've added 5 new grand babies and 3 new grannies to the group since our last granny gathering) I'll be posting the tablescapes on Thursday but in the meantime - I thought I would share the fun and food. I was so busy preparing the food right up until the last minute that I didn't get any pictures of the food - but I'll still share the menu and recipes.


Here's a photo of five Grannies at our baby boy table. We started out with a choice of beverages: Iced tea (sweet and unsweetened), lemonade or water and an assortment of salads: "Italian" garden (romaine, cucumber, tomato, celery, black olive, green pepper, green onions and Parmesan cheese; Spinach, with strawberries, walnuts and red onion - dressings: poppy seed, Greek or oil and vinegar. Frozen fruit salad: recipe -

2 cups sour cream
1 small can crushed pineapple
3 tablespoons chopped maraschino cherries
3 bananas diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 C. sugar

I froze this in muffin tins - made 1 dozen.


We also enjoyed an assortment of finger sandwiches. Homemade chicken salad on mini croissants; homemade pimento cheese on whole wheat bread, a spread made of cream cheese, crushed pineapple and chopped pecans on raisin bread, and tomato on white bread.

Pimento Cheese recipe - it's a little "zippy"
8 oz. block of sharp cheddar - grated
8 oz. block of extra sharp cheddar - grated
small jar (2 oz) pimentos with juice
splash of Worcestershire sauce
4 drops of Tabasco sauce
a few shakes of cayenne pepper (told you this was zippy)
enough mayonnaise to make this creamy

Chicken salad recipe -
boil whole chicken - then chop in food processor - (when I use all breasts I boil them in chicken broth for extra flavor)
2 stalks celery chopped finely
2 tablespoons pickle relish - I've used sweet and dill whatever I have on hand
salt
pepper to taste
enough mayonnaise to hold everything together


For dessert we had an assortment of sherbets: orange, lemon, lime, raspberry and pineapple, with cookies and a sprig of mint for garnish.


Four of us shared the baby girl table. After we enjoyed the meal - we all had a great time of sharing photos of all the grands. Lot's of oooohs and aaaaahs.


Here's our group of happy grandmothers.
Front row: Grandma Sue (2 grandboys and 1 grandgirl), Grandma Dixie (1 grandboy), Grammy/Gi Gi Beverly (2 grandboys); Second row: Grandma Sharon (1 grandboy and 1 grandgirl), Gamm Sandra (blue print sleeveless) (2 grandgirls and 1 grandboy); Nana - (me) (4 grandgirls); Third row: Grandma Barbara (1 grandgirl); Grandma Brez/Grandmamama Brenda - (3 grandgirls); and our "top granny" Nammaw Jane (1 grandboy).

I just realized posting this that I'm the most "granny" of us all!

See ya!

A treasure of cuteness!

I love getting packages in the mail.. don't you? My friend Sherry, from The Butterbean Tent has made some new treasures of cuteness for my grandgirls and the package arrived on Thursday. You may remember an earlier post I did of two t-shirts she did for Stella Grace (I'm the Big Sister) and Molly Rose (I'm the Little Sister) -- they were so adorable -- when I go visit them next month I'm going to try to get a picture of those two in the shirts to post.

Because the twins will turn one next month for their special birthday we have adorable keepsake bibs:
One for Miss Keelyn (I don't know why this turned sideways)


And a matching one for Miss Kendall.


You may remember the "Welcome To The World Sweet Pea" card I made for Molly Rose -- and now she has a matching bib!


And not to leave out big sister Stella Grace (who's too old for bibs) we have this treat -- a popcicle shirt! Now how cute is all of this? Sherry's got a great selection of children's items at her store - so if you're looking for something personalized for your children or grandchildren be sure to check her out at www.thebutterbeantent.com. She has a great selection of cuteness for boys too!



I couldn't resist posting this picture of Molly's reaction to her first bath! Sort of the way I feel on Monday mornings - how about you?

I'm taking a bit of a bloggy break this week -- we're having Vacation Bible School at our church every night this week and this weekend I'm having a "Granny Luncheon" for 12 of us grannies from church. I will probably be checking some of your blogs on the run, but I don't think I'll get another chance to post until next week. Didn't want you to think I was AWOL.

See ya in a week!

From Sand Castles to Snow - Christmas In July

Felecia over at "Playing Dishes" has been getting us in the mood for Christmas with her Christmas In July tablescaping memes. Today is her third Saturday of posting and invites us all to "play along". I had no idea what I could get my hands on without going into the attic or out into the shed -- but I did come up with a few things that had gotten left behind when I was clearing out the Christmas decor.

Here's my Christmas In July tablescape called "Christmas Eve Services in the Forest" I ususally put this lighted Church under my Christmas tree in the dining room each year. That tree is always decorated with churches, angels, snowflakes and white candles. I couldn't find this Church last year until after Christmas, that's why it didn't get put away. The snowy trees were some I kept out all winter in different winterscapes through February. (before blogging) The tablecloth is one I've had for years from Walmart. And the Gibson Christmas dishes were found, I believe at K-mart -- when our kids were still very young.


Here's an overview from "Santa's sled."


View from the forest.


A closer look at our Church, found many years ago at Garden Ridge.

A side view of our Church scene. This all brings back a memory of a Christmas Eve Church service I attended with fiance, (now my husband) in 1974. My father and sister where singing in a combined choir from several churches. We rarely get snow in December here, so we weren't expecting to leave the Church that evening only to find that it had been snowing hard during the service and everything was Christmas card perfect. It was a lovely Christmas that year.


I put the flatware in a sheer wine colored bag over a layered white and wine napkin.


Gibson Christmas dishes mixed with "Gollum" dishes. The holly theme is also picked up in the tablecloth.

My mother's antique salt cellers she used every Christmas with the little red spoons.


My husband's grandmother's crystal wine glasses. The shape of them is an upside down version of the snowy evergreen trees.

A place setting by tea light.


Our centerpiece by tea light.


A starry night look at our table. After I took these I realized that I should have tried to light the Church with some battery operated tiny lights. The battery tea light just isn't doing the trick.



Merry Christmas in July!

Be sure to stop by "Playing Dishes" to see the other Christmas tablescapes.

See ya!

Tablescape Thursday - A walk on the beach

Here we are, once again, playing with our dishes and looking forward to visiting all the other dish delights at the "progressive tablescape party" hosted every Thursday by Susan of "Between Naps On The Porch"


The antique washstand in my dining room is dressed for the Summer season with my jar of shells collected in Florida on vacation earlier this year, my "Cup of Sea" and a little picture that says it all....


...Life is sweeter by the sea. We love beach vacations the best. So lets take a walk on the beach today... shall we?


For my beach tablescape I've layered a tan linen tablescarf that just covers the top of my table over my white tablecloth. The tan linen looks like sand to me.


It looks like the beach is full of activity today!


The little sandpipers are darting and dancing across the sand.


They always make me smile as they scurry back and forth in the sand, just out of reach. I found these two cute guys at the thrift store a few weeks back.

It looks like a special treasure has washed ashore. This cute bottle was part of an invitation we got to a wedding next month. The invitation was all rolled up inside this bottle - along with sand, shells and the umbrella.


We'll search for pretty shells as we walk the beach. These were found at the dollar tree this year. Some were brown.


And some were white. I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I got some of each ... just like the beach!


We'll collect starfish in all sorts of variety. Some are white and skinny.


Others are plump and bumpy. I found these at the flea market for $1.25 each.


These are the dishes you've seen plenty of times. JCPenny dishes I found at Good Will a few years back. Starting with the bowl.


Then white salad plates American Altier from Tuesday Morning. I found these right after the Good Will trip.


The JCPenney dinner plate.


Placemats of woven seagrasses from Marshalls.


We're finding such fun keepsakes today at the beach.


Someone has built a beautiful sandcastle. This was an ebay purchase. A discontinued Partylites tealight burner.


Another view of the beachscape.


An overview of our table. White cloth napkins and shell flatware.


A seagull view of the centerpiece.


Would you like to sit and have some refreshing iced tea from my seashell pitcher. Do you take lemon?


Let's stay and chat until the sun sets and the stars come out.



Then we'll stroll home and off to sleep and we'll dream about sandcastles by the sea. Thanks for sharing my walk on the beach today. Now let's go check out all the dish delights everybody's sharing over at "Between Naps On The Porch"

See ya!