New Contemporary Dining Room Chair Covers

Friday afternoon I finished some  new dining room chair covers.  When I purchased the fabric, they only had 3.33 yards and I knew it would not be quite enough.

 So I had to add a coordinating fabric to the two end chairs. I was thrilled to find something I already had in my fabric stash.  I had about five yards of it! I think I originally bought it to make neutral chair backs.

Here is a close up of the end chairs:

I am pretty happy with these contemporary chair covers. I think it will be such fun to set a full table with them.  They look like Easter eggs, so I think an Easter table would be perfect!

But since it's not quite time for an Easter table, I set it in a contemporary style with colored-water floating candle holders to match the colors in the chair covers.



I still need to put out the flatware and candles, but I think I like the direction it's taking.

Easter Tablescape

Easter will be here before we know it.  I was looking for inspiration from some of my previous tablescapes:

I like the bunny chair backs, so I may use them this year.

Definitely must use the bunny napkin rings!

Ditto on the "Happy Easter blocks".

Not sure if I will use the egg holders this year.

I  am tossing around the idea of hanging a tree branch from my chandelier this year and hanging my hand-decorated real eggs from it.     Right now I am considering hosting an Easter brunch instead of a dinner. 

These previous year tables give me a good idea of what I have to work with as far as the table itself.  I don't know about you, but I forget what I have from  year to year.

It is not too early to begin thinking of your Easter plans for this year!

Valentine Tablescape 2012

 

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Christmas Table 2011

Next Saturday I am hosting a dinner party for my inlaws. I wanted to do a table that coordinated with my bronze/green Christmas tree:

  Since I work full-time I had to begin preparations over the past weekend. 

 I set a fairly simple table with a very easy centerpiece of pinecones and green glass & silver mesh balls.  I nestled six votive candles among the greens.

 These amber glasses are circa 1974.

I like this table. I like the simplicity and how it blends so nicely with the bronze/green Christmas tree.

I also set a second table as I am having 11 guests and they won't all fit around one table. I don't have enough of the same dishes, etc., so I did this table differently, yet not glaringly so.  I still used pine cones in the centerpiece and green plates.

I reversed the glassware/napkins colors. The pink tablecloth goes with the pink hydrangea tree as this table sits right next to that tree.

If you don't read my main blog, you can see more of my Christmas 2011 decorating by clicking here.

My Top Five Posts according to Blogger Stats

Today I had time to explore my stats and I thought I would show you my top five posts and the tablescapes of each. First here are the Blogger stats:

Black and Yellow Fun Tablescape:

I was a little disappointed that the table that got the most views was not even one I designed. You can see more of this one by clicking on the heading text above the pic.

#2  Black, White and Red Rose Table:

This classic table is also one of my favorites so I was not surprised to see this as #2.

#3  It's a Jungle Out There:

I have done other jungle tables that I like better. I guess having the word "jungle" in the post header caused the search engines to pull up this one when people googled.  Now I am wondering where that fabric went! It would have been perfect for a recent animal handbag I made.
#4  Black, Silver and White Tablescape:

Another classic color combo.  I like this one, too.

#5  Valentine's Table 2009:



Hmmmm...these selections are interesting to me. Four of the five tables have black as a prominent color. People must like black.

Overall I have done a lot of tables that are more interesting than these. 

Have you ever checked to see your stats to see what your top 5 posts are? I wonder if you were surprised, too.

Purple, Grape Hyacinths and Tiger Plates

I made this grape hyacinth bouquet outside on my flower arranging bench.

Don't you think this would have made a great table?

  Unfortunately after I made the bouquet, I didn't have time to set an entire table. Maybe next year.............

Where I Store it All--Well, Most of It--OK, at least 3/4th's of It

I have shown this area before, but I recently spent six hours (over two days) removing everything from these cabinets, rearranging the shelves, washing all of them and then putting it all back (not exactly  all...I did donate three boxes of dishes that I felt certain I would never use to a thrift store---I am not a hoarder...I am not a hoarder). Now it all fits better and I can find what I want and I can get it out easily.

I am not going to talk about every shelf, but will highlight a few of my favorites.  I am very fortunate to  have this large area solely to indulge my dish hobby. 

Here are the first two units (I have four of these):  I used to have all the shelves the same size, but noticed some buckling of the shelves, so I decided  that I needed to put most of the super heavy plates on the bottom where there is more support.  That meant I had to remove the four little silver thingies that hold each shelf and re-adjust them all.  . . major ordeal....let me tell you...

 In the first section notice that I made the last area very small. I wanted to be able to have a shelf all by itself for my super big heavy meat fork and knife set.  It is a beautiful set, but it used to be on the bottom of about a dozen other trays and was way to difficult to get to, so I rarely used it.

Just look at those beautiful ducks engraved on the handles!  Now I can easily pull it out--wonderful!


One shelf is dedicated to my Tiara glass. I have loved this amber-colored dishware since the 1980's (when everyone else hated it--perhaps they still do, but I still love it).

Here are the other two shelf units:

 Some of you may be wondering what all the white stuff is sticking out of the dish stacks. Some of it is paper toweling and some is felt. I use both to prevent scratches.

I put another skinny shelf on the top of the end section for big heavy relish trays.  Shelf #2 is full of small relish trays. You would think we eat a lot of relish around here--LOL.

 The third shelf holds most of my pedestal servers--cake plates and footed bowls.

The bottom shelf holds white milk glass plates and my collection of those vintage crystal star plates (can't think of the proper name right now--maybe Federal Star or something similar--anybody know?).

 I cannot tell you how good it feels to have this job done. I had DH take the 3 boxes to goodwill right away so I would not be tempted to grab more items back.  I did grab a few before he left.

Like these tarnished silver plated items:

 I sent at least 6 silver plated items to Goodwill. These two called out to me just before they left, so I took them out of the goodwill box and spent a few minutes cleaning them with  silver cleaner.  They did clean up nicely, don't you think?

It feels so good to have this  major task completed!