I would still pick you

I still remember the day that I picked you. I was 12 years old, and we were on the playground, you made a wise crack to me and at that moment I knew I wanted you to be my boyfriend.  You were the best boyfriend a girl could ever ask for...and you still are!  This year we celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary and I wanted to do a table that was just for us.  I tried to use similar colors to the ones of our wedding.

It was so funny when I pulled out the pictures of our wedding day and was looking at them, I noticed that the lace edge on the tablecloth is very similar to that of my wedding dress.  I have always loved hearts, so yes my wedding day would have been on February 14th had it been a weekend, however when we were married it was not, so we chose February 18th.  I found this tablecloth last summer at Tuesday Morning and just picked it up with no specific use in mind.  On it I placed a square topper that I picked up last September at the annual Fair on the Square in Huntsville.  I had no idea it would be used together, but I so love them together, very romantic to this romantic at heart.

The chargers are a birthday present from my precious daughter last year, they really help to make this table extra special.  She is such a thoughtful person, I love that about her.  She found them at Horchow on one of her google searches.  Lucky me right?

I guess I am a hopeless romantic at heart, because when I saw this china by Mikasa called Love Story, I knew it was for us.  I decided that I wanted Love Story to be the china I use each year to set a table just for him and I.  The luster of this china is so deep that it just glows like a blushing bride.  Of course it was the hearts that drew me in initially as well as the name, got to love that name.

The flatware I chose, well that is another story.  I was at a local antique shop browsing, when I stopped and looked in a case at a collection of antique flatware.  One in particular caught my attention, I asked to see a piece, of course it was covered in tarnish, but the pattern was so me and simply beautiful.  The man told me the name of the pattern was 1937 International 1847 Rogers Bros. First Love.  Well of course the angels sang and light shown down from heaven.  Divine sign? This should be mine right?  I mean after all I had married my first love.  I was ready to open my wallet and buy it on the spot, but his pricing was by the piece and my first love and I would have been on a bean and water diet for a while if I had bought it.  So what does any smart collector do?  Make a mad dash home and hit ebay like a fat kid hitting a dessert bar!  Needless to say, the antique stores pricing was way out of line and I was able to collect a great collection of this pattern at a smidgen of the price I almost paid.  I love this pattern, and another great bonus for this sentimental heart of mine, when I pass this on to my daughter, the name will have a special meaning to her as well, as she just married her first love on New Year's Eve.

My gosh, can I tell you how cool it is when you start putting a table together, and you think to yourself 'I know I have some awesome goblets that would really be perfect for this' and you pilfer around and yes there they are.  I bought these pink goblets many many moons ago at either TJ Maxx or Home Goods for no other reason than their color, I cannot resist pink.  The pink goblets with the Mikasa Love Story iced beverage glasses look amazing together.

It is really a simple table for two, with Love Story candle sticks in the center with some flowers that I found on clearance at Michael's that are very similar to mine from my wedding day.  A Love Story vase with more flowers, and I surrounded it all with more candles in various heights just to add lots of candle light and to add a little more of that pink color.  Additional items were added that I thought might finish it off.  I was so excited a while back when I received a email from Mikasa with some new pieces to the Italian Countryside pattern, and one of them was the cake pedestal. I snatched it up along with some of its closest friends!

He has and always will hold the key to my heart, so these were another perfect touch.

I was in Hobby Lobby looking around and saw these cute letters and liked all the raised detail in them and as I was standing there I thought to myself this would look really great on the counter for our anniversary...but I didn't do our names, I kinda put a twist on it.  What do you think? Sweet right?

I also took this footed jar, and tied some lace around it and placed a tag on it that reads 'Remember this. Things I love about you'.  I cut slips of pretty pink papers and wrote things that I love about my fella and placed them in the jar along with some on the little wedding cake.  Some of them were funny, like 'I love that you kill bugs for me' and others were more serious such as 'I love that you are an honorable man'.  This was really fun to do, and he seemed to like it, of course I think everyone likes to hear praise and to know that they are appreciated.

I think with all the wedding whirlwind we have been in this past year, it made me want to create a special table for us to remember our special day.  I even included our toasting goblets from our wedding.  Yes they are tarnished, I worked on them, but I will probably have to seek some advice or help on getting them up to snuff.

Hearts...yes I am a sucker.  Was back then and obviously still am!  This is our first smooch, and I remember being embarrassed about kissing in a church in front of everyone.  Oh that was a long time ago!  Our special song on our wedding day was Endless Love and my daughter was really sweet and had the song played at her wedding so my husband and I could have a special dance.   So I made sure to add  our wedding date and the words 'my endless love' in the other side of the frame.

 I added one more item to the house as a reminder of that special day, I painted this wedding book right after we were married, and thought it would be nice to pull it out and enjoy it again.

I am not sure if that boy on that playground all those years ago knew what was in store for him, but I am certain that God made this boy just for me and I would still pick him! 

Hope you enjoyed a look at this tablescape, and please leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by!

I am joining Susan for:



http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Winter Blessings

One of my favorite things about winter is how stunning the beautiful Cardinal looks against the bare branches, its striking red color draws the eye, and holds me captive.  Actually it is one of the few things I like about winter.  I am definitely more of a spring and fall girl.

I decided to tie that to this tablescape, I used my dinnerware with the pine and antlers...well because this is the time of year that my honey and I spend in Mexico hunting the elusive Muy Grande, so it was a perfect marriage of my two loves.

Once I had the vision of this tablescape tucked away in my mind, I knew the table cloth I wanted.  It needed to be something that looked like an old flannel or wool blanket from days gone by.  I was fortunate enough to find material at my local fabric store that fit the bill perfectly.  I wish you could feel it, it is so soft and feels like a time worn friend.

I used my red napkins and wrapped it with a napkin ring with a sprig of pine and holly.

Each place setting is on a square Madras mat, topped with a creamy white Italian Countryside platter used as a charger and a little birdhouse with a bright Cardinal sits on each salad plate.

Much to my surprise, I found these great goblets with the pine detail at a local resale shop months before I had the vision of this tablescape.  I just loved the frosted wintery feel of them, so yes they came home with me.

My red goblets are from JC Penney 3 years ago on clearance, I have to be honest, I have a hard time walking away from red goblets, much less ones that are on clearance.

I wanted my table to have the feel of winter, to me nothing says that like pine, maybe its because as a little kid, our christmas tree was always one that we would go out in the woods and cut down, and my mom would always put pine here and there to make it smell yummy in the house.  So that is what I used with this table.  I used a centerpiece of pine with lots of pinecones, as well as a beautiful snow covered birdhouse, and the prettiest pine trees...in my neck of the woods there would be no snow, but in my vision...let there be snow!

I added in lots of beautiful Cardinals all around the house, I can almost hear the little chirp that they give out each evening when they come to the feeders.  No one else sounds like the Cardinal, I always stop and look when I hear that first little chirp, they really are a Winter Blessing and here is to wishing you many Winter Blessings.