Spring Garden Party Ideas.....

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's Party!"

~Robin Williams~

NOTE: For those of you dropping in from Susan's Garden Party, this is a post I did earlier this spring. To visit more garden party posts at Savoring Time in the Kitchen, click here. Thank you, Susan, for hosting this lovely event.

Beautiful living this week has been all about celebration, beginning with Easter and winding up with a little garden party yesterday, the first the season. I really intended to spend the day out of doors by myself, setting up a little tea table to sit and read. Once I got started I thought, "Why not make it a little entertainment to share with my blog friends?"

With spring in full swing here I thought a garden party luncheon would be a perfect party theme. I chose a sun dappled spot on the ridge line at the edge of the woods, a backdrop of new birthed greenery to serve as a perfect setting. A vintage folding table and iron chairs were placed between two towering oaks with a mossy green carpet and warm brown earth underfoot.Here, won't you have a seat?The seat cushions are covered with vintage embroidered pillow cases, a gift from my friend, Laura. Tiny daisy embellished cocktail napkins grace the top of the pillows freshly plucked from my bed. The tea table is covered with a vintage table cloth featuring crochet lace insets and multicolored baskets embroidered on the center panel. I am so glad you could join me as special guests! Let me introduce you to some ladies who will be joining us today.This is Lady Hawthorn. She is wearing her favorite red dress and plucky plume in her hawthorn bedecked hat.

Sitting next to Lady Hawthorn is the demure Miss Green. Miss Green is a bit on the shy side but extremely photogenic. If you look really close you will see that she has a wee surprise in her gorgeous green hat, a sweet tweet that was a part of a gift from my friend Nancy.Lady Dogwood is pleased to make your acquaintance. She is wearing her favorite color of green. She is known for wearing her famous wild dogwood blossom hat complete with curling feather. These fantastic feathers were a gift from my friend Pam.Lastly is Lady Louise, as you can see she is a little camera shy and tried to cover her lovely face just as I snapped the picture. Lady Louise loves red and chose to wear her showy red hat. All the flowers for the hats were gathered from the woods around Quill Cottage. Snacks and sweets will surround the ladies. If you don't have divas like I do, small vases filled with flowers or any figurine will do. You could also place votive holders with tea lights on each plate. One single large blossom or cluster of flowers would be stunning too!

These sweet ladies are vintage head vases. I refer to them as my damaged diva collection, each one has a chip, crack, or flaw of some sort, damaged and not considered valuable by collectors standards and each one exudes an attitude. Each one still holds water, is useful, and in my book they are beautiful.

You might have noticed that all the ladies dressed in their finest, completing their costumes with dainty pearl jewelry. Their ladylike grace set the decor of the luncheon with a decidedly feminine tone. A three tiered silver server was used, strands of my paternal grandmothers costume jewelry pearl necklaces draped from each tier and pink reproduction depression glass plates complete the service.Vintage blue rimmed floral embellished plates topped with more pink glass plates wait to be filled with goodies. Pale pink lemonade can be sipped from stemware embellished with a gauzy bit of tulle and clip on earrings, also my grandmothers costume jewelry. Silverware and handkerchief napkins reside in unusual servers. You may recognize the silverware server as a...toothbrush holder! I have several of these that I previously used to display my artist brushes in, like this...

I was about to toss them as I was no longer using them and it suddenly hit me that I could use them at place settings as little mini silverware and napkin holders. The key to being able to use these is to make sure the decorative end of your silverware is fairly small or straight. You might notice that I have a salad fork instead of a regular fork, the end of the regular one is larger than the salad fork. To frill your napkin just pinch it in the middle and pull it down through one hole, fill in the other three with your cutlery.

The menu will consist of Strawberry Spinach Salad, fresh vegetables, braided rolls, and lemon strawberry tarts for dessert! Might I direct you to my recipe link page, The Cook's Book, where you will find recipes for these as well as other sweets and tea time treats. The photos below are reprints from a previous blog post and feature the food in the recipes. What's a party without a little favor? Each place setting has a vintage ladies glove placed beside it to serve as a little treat bag. The items in the glove are hand related to pamper the guests.On the finger of each glove is a fun junk jewelry button ring that I made. A fun idea would be to purchase inexpensive costume cocktail rings that guests could actually wear. Placed inside each glove is a tiny bar of sweet smelling soap and a small bottle of hand lotion with an added embellishment of tulle, buttons, and pretty posies. I also included a handmade paper and ribbon book marker in a floral motif.I hope you have found a few simple, fun, and easy entertaining ideas here today. Thank you for joining me. To see how other guests of hostess, Melissa, are finding beauty in their week, please visit The Inspired Room. You won't want to miss visiting The Inspired Room where there is a fantastic give away going on, so run over to sign up! The prize is a Kodak Easy Share Photo Frame, for details see Melissa's post.
Have a pretty weekend!

Blessings,

Miss Sandy

Beautiful Bookends (Tutorial).....

"I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back."

~Maya Angelou~

This has really been a beautiful and inspiring week. One of my Beautiful Life Goals was to seek out and attend a conference. Well, I did just that this week right from my very own home. I was so excited to here our hostess, Melissa of The Inspired Room, speak at A Woman Inspired online conference. It was so great to have a voice to go with that pretty sweet face and blog! Melissa did a great job and I came away with so much encouragement from what she had to share.

Thinking over all I heard from each of the speakers of this event I am reminded of bookends. Bookends are a prop placed at the end of a row of books to hold them upright. Bookends are also defined as a support, any device that bears the weight of another thing. That is exactly what the speakers of this event did, they held the listener upright with their unique brand of encouragement and uplifting teaching and testimonies. They were a support in our walk of faith, letting us know that we are not alone in our thoughts, feelings, or experiences. Many of them confessed to bearing the weight of fear of public speaking yet were obedient in stepping forward, opening up the beautifully bound volumes of their lives and sharing their individual stories, pages read with such honesty and sincerity. If you are interested, CD's of all the sessions will be made available for purchase soon, just click on the highlighted link above to visit the site.

I had time for a sweet and simple bookend project myself this week and I wanted to share a little how~to with you. I have been gathering favorite things from around my home to begin creating a little vignette on the two shelves over my sofa. I wanted some bookends with that timeworn appeal that I so dearly love but could not find exactly what I wanted. One day while I was out scouring my favorite junk bins at a couple of flea markets I came across a couple of old rusty chippy painted strap hinges, a handful of ceramic thing~a~ma-bobs, and two spray painted ceramic apples. An idea was born!I about had a conniption when the store clerk started to muscle my perfectly "L" shaped rusted in place strap hinges flat! "NO!", I cried, "You will ruin them!" He looks at me like I am nuts, "Lady, they are pretty much already ruined." "No, they are perfect just as they are. I am going to use them for book ends." I get that funny, "OK" sort of look from him as I take my rusty crusty treasures and leave. He did loosen one a little so I reshaped it and left it out in the rain and weather for a week and it rusted back up.

To make your own versatile display bookends you will need:
*Strap Hinges~Perhaps you do not like the rusty crusty look, think sleek and modern and use new silver or black hinges for that modern industrial feel. Don't limit yourself to rusty and crusty or industrial, how about spray painting them bright red to hold kitchen cook books, or sweet soft pink for the nursery?

*Something to use as feet~old knobs, wooden balls, thing~a~ma~bobs, old wooden spools, nuts and bolts would work well for an industrial feel, etc. Use you imagination here.

*E6000 glue

*Sandpaper

*Clear matte sealer

INSTRUCTIONS:
*If using old hinges, gently sand off any loose rust and wipe hinges clean. Be sure to sand the areas well where you will be attaching your feet if you are gluing them on. If your hinge is new or loose you may want to glue the joint at an angle with a few drops of super glue to hold the "L" shape.

*Coat hinges, if rusty, with a coat of clear matte sealer. This will prevent further rusting and keep rust from rubbing off on the cover of your books. If you are spray painting your hinges do so now and allow to completely dry.

*Using E6000, glue feet in place and allow to dry completely. These hinges have holes in them that you could screw your feet to if you are using something that would work that way. My thing~a~ma~bobs needed to be glued on.

You now have a rotating display pair of bookends! Below you will find some ideas of the versatility of display ideas you could use with these simple bookends. (Click on any photo to enlarge for better viewing)

My original idea to use the spray painted apples.

How about a sweet little pair of wooden feet? Think how cute this would be with your child's baby shoes!
You don't have to use a pair of anything, use two related but different items like this cast iron bird on one side and a nest full of eggs on the other.

What about items found in nature, like pine cones or sea shells?

Fun vintage finds can be cool too, like these old cameras or "instant ancestor" photos found at flea markets.Chippy china, favorite figurines, or jars full of beautiful buttons work well too!
I love the versatility of these! I hope you too can put this simple project to use in your home.

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

Beauty Is In The Eye of the Beholder.....

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

~Margaret Wolfe Hamilton Hungerford~

One of my Beautiful Life goals is, "...refraining from ordinary business as usual to enjoy little moments of beauty..." I readily admit that five days of being sick is not exactly the way in which I meant to refrain from ordinary business as usual, but, it was not without its beautiful moments.

Tender concern from my family and friends made me feel beautifully cared for. The arrival of a special package from a blog friend on an emotionally rocky day was the highlight of my week! It's beautiful message touched the deep places of my soul and renewed my hope. Being able to share A Woman Inspired with a couple of dear ladies made me feel beautifully useful even from my sick bed. Their excitement is contagious! It's not too late to be beautifully inspired by the line up of speakers for this event.Most of the week here it rained and stormed but today the skies cleared, the sun came out, and the woods surrounding Quill Cottage burst to life with more signs of sweet spring. Lot's of sweet moments to savor here this week. Does anyone know what this pretty pink woody stemmed plant is?

This afternoon I felt well enough to totter out to the edge of the woods to the nearest wild dogwood and get at least one good look at it in all its glory before the blooms fade. I stood under that tree reveling in the sunshine and remembering a beautiful old legend, perfect for remembering with Easter drawing near...

THE LEGEND OF THE DOGWOOD

An old and beautiful legend has it that, at the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood was comparable in size to the oak tree and other monarchs of the forest. Because of its firmness and strength it was selected as the timber for the cross, but to be put to such cruel use it greatly distressed the tree. Sensing this, the crucified Jesus in his gentle pity for the sorrow and suffering of all said to it: "Because of your sorrow and pity for My sufferings, never again will the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a gibbet (cross). Henceforth it will be slender, bent and twisted and its blossoms will be in the form of a cross -- two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints -- brown with rust and stained with red -- and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see this will remember."

On the way back to the house I plucked a handful of these...I buried my nose in their sweet heady scent deeply inhaling the smell of spring. I placed them in one of my damaged diva's (head vases), and now she sports a pretty purple posy chapeau! Any given week might not look exactly like what we expected, but if we look hard enough at what we have been handed, we are sure to behold some sort of beauty. To some eyes my week might not have been so great filled with sickness, emotional upheaval, and damp depressing weather. I made the choice to behold the beauty of the smallest of blessings and it brightened my vision for what is to come, little touches from heaven that remind me that sorrow, sickness, pity, and suffering are a part of my world, but, there is always the brightness of tomorrow to look forward to.

To see how others found beauty in their week pop over to visit Melissa of The Inspired Room. Have a great weekend!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy