Father's Day Table 2013

My table is set for Father's Day!

My husband deserves a special table this year.  He and the boys have been working hard the last few weeks rebuilding our deck. They will be out golfing in the morning at their annual Hockey Father/Son Golf outing.  I plan to feed them when they get home, so they can go back out and work on building our deck.

So I wanted to give them a Man's Table!

 When I saw these Tim Holtz Belt Buckles - I knew I wanted to try making little belts for napkin rings. 

These are the supplies I used.  I cut a wrapping paper tube on a spiral slant so that it would kind of wrap around the napkins.  Then I colored it with a furniture marker that I had, and colored over that with some darker brown to try to give it a little leather look.  I attached the buckles with the rivet that comes with the buckles.  To finish them off I put three black dots and then punched tiny little holes at the ends of the belt. 

I bought the beer because it matched my color scheme.  It's called Third Shift - my girlfriend and I thought that sounded pretty manly too!  The boys are going to try it out tonight - now that I have all of my photos taken.

I did a no fuss, no flowers centerpiece.  I thought the drawing mannequins represented Tom and the boys pretty well- except for the fact that both boys are just as tall as my husband now.

I hope you are able to show some love to the person who was most like a dad to you this weekend!

Sources:

Tablecloth - Marshalls

Placemats, Chargers and Khaki Napkins - Pier 1 Imports

Blue Dinner Plates - HomeGoods

Brown Square Plate and Khaki Dessert Plate - Ohio's Amish Country

Assorted Beer Glasses - TJMaxx

Flatware - World Market

Plaid Napkins and Napkin Rings - I made

I will be linking up to the following parties:
Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Be Inspired @ Common Ground
Seasonal Sundays @The Tablescaper

Sunshine Yellow and Blue Tablescape

Summer is here!  We finally saw some sun!  I just felt like the table should be set with yellow for the sunshine.

And blue for the blue skies.

Gardens are in full color,

The baby birds have already left their nests

The sounds of lawnmowers fill the neighborhoods! 

These are the weekends of relaxing after several hours of playing in the garden.  

I hope your days are filled with sunshine!

Sources:

Tablecloth and Salad Plates - Marshalls

Placemats - Pier 1 Imports

Flatware and stemware - World Market

Both Napkins and blue dinner plates - HomeGoods

Chargers - Old Time Pottery

Yellow Dessert Plates - Homespun Treasures in Ohio's Amish Country

The flower pots are clay pots that I used scrap paper and Mod Podge to cover  - if you look close in the second to last picture - you will see a spot where I ran out of the yellow paper I was using!!

I will be linking up to the following parties:

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

The Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and
Inspire Me Tuesday @A Stoll Thru Life

Craft Room Tour

Yesterday I shared all of my Dish storage and just showed a bit of my Craft Room - but I wanted to share more details of my Craft Room. 

This is a corner of our Basement.  My husband built a wall sectioning off approximately a third of our basement for storage and the other two thirds is additional family living space with a pool table, poker table and big screen TV -our boys used it quite a bit with their friends when they were younger. 

 So my room is on the storage side of the wall.  I took the front part of the storage area and sectioned it off as my space with a wall of white book shelves.  And since my husband had put in two doors to the storage side of the basement - my "room" has its own door.

This room has been evolving over a number of years.  I keep adding and tweaking things.  The book shelves and the sewing counter are the two original things I started with when making my creative space.  

The counter is two remnant pieces we picked up cheap at one of the big box home improvement places.  We used some short book shelves underneath the counter - he anchored the back of the counter and drilled some holes in the top to make way for the electrical cords for my sewing machines.

We never drywalled this side of the basement - so I had to find a way to work with the cinder block walls and the unfinished back side of the dividing wall.   I painted the back wall a bright green hoping no one would notice it was just cinder block.  I don't really want to pound a nail into the cinder block -so I have tried to find creative ways to hang things up on the walls.  I found those two green chairs on clearance at Walmart - they were supposed to be for Back to School/College decor - apparently no one wanted the bright green because I got them dirt cheap and they are very comfortable.  

A couple years ago we painted the cement floor with a dark charcoal color and put down an area rug.  The best thing was when my husband installed some track lighting - it replaced an ugly old fluorescent light - this gave it much more of a studio type look.  I suddenly didn't mind the rafters and air ducts so much - that lead me to using more galvanized storage items, including this old metal tackle box I filled with some of my favorite embellishments.

I painted the back side of the unfinished walls and studs white and attached some metal grid panels.  I used to use these wire grid panels as my craft show display years ago - so I was happy to find a new use for them since I haven't done any craft shows in about 10 years!  I found some scrap paper racks that would fit on my metal grids in a store supply catalog - this paper rack cost me less than $100.  The shelf underneath it was a left over from one of the kids rooms.  It works great to store punches, ink pads, envelopes, and pads of paper.  

Last year I went out and bought a new work table from Ikea.  I have to say that this was not the table I had planned on buying.  When my daughter and I had taken a day off work and drove all the way to Pittsburgh to get the table I had been dreaming about - Ikea was out of stock on the one I wanted.  My daughter can attest to the fact that I was just about in tears when I found out I wasn't coming home with the table I had been drooling over in the catalog for the last six months!  My daughter convinced me that the narrower table would work - and of course she was right!  

  The newest addition is my wrapping station. 

  I bought the ribbon racks from Michaels with a gift card my husband gave me for my birthday.  They were buy one get one free - so of course I got two!  But  I was bummed when  I got home they did not fit between the studs.  So I hauled down two more of the wire grids I had in my garage and figured out a way to rig the ribbon holders to the wire grids - and they worked beautifully!!  I was able to use the hooks from the system to hang some old tension rods I had left over from a room redo to hang up my rolls of paper.  I recycled a few tin cans and some buckets I used from a tables cape - and never spent a penny putting this all together!!!  

I recently moved some of my Tablescaping items down to my room, but I wanted to keep them organized.  I decided to cover some cardboard boxes I picked up at the store and covered them with scrapbook paper and made some nice big labels so I can easily find what I need.  

The Embroidery Floss Cabinet is a favorite of mine - I bought it almost 20 years ago from a fellow crafter who owned a smocking business.  I keep my little embellishments in it  - now all organized by color.

My neighbors think I am crazy because I am always out spray painting something! I painted my spool racks, the frame of my bulletin board, some quirky cut outs a friend made for me, and even the legs to my ironing board! 

All these little things some how make me love the space even more.
If you can't find me - I am probably in my Craft Room with my music playing!

Thanks for stopping by I will be linking up to the following parties:
Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper

Busy Monday @A Pinch of Joy
It's Party Time @ Three Mango Seeds
The Sunday Showcase @Under the Table and
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Where do I Keep It All?

I am going to answer one of the questions I get asked a lot! Where do you keep it all?

And since The Tablescaper is having a Where Do You Keep it All? party, I thought this would be the perfect time to share my stash!

Let's start with the obvious, my dinning room hutch:

Since this is a pretty new piece of furniture, I am enjoying all of my new space for dishes, napkins and flatware.

I like to cut some of the paper that the stores often wrap the dishes in down to circles to put between the plates, just to give them a bit of protection from getting all scratched up.  

Now I don't have as an extensive collection of dishes, linens, stemware or flatware as some of my fellow tablescapers, but it is growing and I am having to branch out of the dinning room and seek storage else elsewhere!

This brings us to the living room!!  I have taken over the cabinets in there which used to house some figurines, a stereo and a TV.  But the stereo quit, the new TVs don't fit in this small cabinet now, and I packed up the figurines in favor of my dishes!

I am also storing all of my candles and candlesticks in this cabinet.

Along with some silver and mercury glass pieces.

I have sorted them by color groups, all black, white and grey on this side.  All of my Sorrento country colors are together, and all of the pastel colors are in the dinning room hutch.  Just making it a bit easier to find the right set when trying to find the perfect dishes to complement the tablecloth or the idea I have in my head!

Now the dishes are just a small part of a tablescaper's stash!  We still have chargers, tablecloths, runners, place mats, napkin rings etc.  That's when we head down to the basement.

I have recently redone my sewing room to make it more of an all purpose craft room  to include some of my Tablescaping items, scrap booking and paper craft supplies, and a wrapping station.

The white wicker armoire that used to be in my daughter's room has now become storage for chargers, runners, napkins and place mats.

I found these baskets at HomeGoods and was thrilled that they fit perfectly on my shelf.  They filled up quickly with paper tubes, string, excelsior - things that I seem to use quite a bit.   Then I covered some simple cardboard boxes with scrap paper and made some labels to store my fake fruit, veggies, birds nests etc.  Now that they are clearly marked I should be able to find what I am looking for!

More storage cubbies are used for table clothes along with my fabric stash.

I have been doing some posts on gift wrapping, so I wanted to be sure to include my wrapping station

and how I store the gift wrap supplies.  

I will be doing a Part 2 of this post to show more details of my Craft Room.  This post today focuses on the storage of  all my "stuff".  Tomorrow's Craft Room post will focus more on the details of my Craft Room.  I hope you will come back to see more!

If you enjoyed seeing my small collection, stop by the The Tablescaper's party to see some real dish collections!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Memorial Day Table Setting 2013

Hard to believe it is Memorial Day already! 

Memorial Day is a time to show our pride for our country and honor those who fought so hard to make it the wonderful place it is today.

We will be flying our flag and gathering to remember our fallen service men and women.

This long weekend is usually the mark of the beginning of summer!  Far from it here today - it was only in the forties!  

I think we will have to wait for an outdoor picnic!

I am happy to show off the Red, White and Blue and very proud to be an American.

Thank you to all the men and women who serve our country and to the families who have lost loved ones defending this great country of ours.  Please know that there are people out here who do care and pray for you everyday.

Prayers also go out to all those in Texas and Oklahoma who were tragically stricken by the tornados this past week.  Our hearts and prayers will be reaching out to you.

On a happier note, please enjoy your weekend!  Hopefully you will be able to spend some time doing the things you love! 

Sources:

Table Cloth - Kohls

White Chargers - Old Time Pottery

Red Plates and cups - Marshalls - last year

White Plates, Blue Placemats and napkins & red check napkins - Pier 1 Imports 

Moss Balls - Joann Fabrics

Flatware - World Market

I will be linking to the following parties:

Memorial Day Challenge - Let's Dish@Cuisine Kathleen

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Seasonal Sunday @ The Tablescaper

Lilac Table for Mother's Day

My lilacs are finally blooming!  Just in time for my Mother's Day Table.

I have been jealous watching all of you posting such beautiful flowers while we were still having snow here in Ohio! 

I was worried I would not have any lilacs this year.  My mother had started a lilac bush for me several years ago from one of her bushes.  It has grown pretty steadily over the last few years.  But for some reason this year it is not looking so good.  It will get some TLC this spring so that I don't loose it.

It all started with these beautiful lilac plates with a raised floral pattern.

Then I found the purple version of the stemware that I have been in awe of on some of my favorite blogger's tables!!  

From there I took a trip to my favorite fabric store, it is like a little slice of heaven for those of us who collect fabric!!  I would like to make a shout out to the girls at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, Ohio!!  If you sew and have not been there yet - I highly recommend this store.  You will not be disappointed!

I bought two beautiful pieces of fabric for the napkins, one a floral, the other a subtle plaid of lilac and brown. The floral piece is one of the prettiest pieces of fabric I have ever worked with. 

 On my last trip to Miller's Dry Goods I met two ladies who were taking a cross country trip to every quilt store they could find and blogging about the trip.  They were having such a good time, it was infectious!

While my mother cannot make the trip down to my house, I will be making a trip up to see my mom at her house.   I hope to enjoy this table with my boys who will be home this weekend!  They will endure all the purple and flowers for their mom for one day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!  I hope you are able to share some special memories with someone who has been a Mother to you. 

Sources:

Purple bottles - Michaels

Crochet place mats - World Market

Willow Chargers - Pottery Barn

White Chargers - Old Time Pottery

Flatware - Home Goods

Lilac Plates and Stemware - Home Goods

Napkins - made from Fabric from Miller's Dry Goods

I am linking to the following parties:

Let's Dish @ Cuisine Kathleen

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Seasonal Sundays @ The Tablescaper