SPRING RANDOMNESS

Hello everyone!  I actually did a post yesterday but I ended up deleting it.  I am not getting used to the new Google format at all, but with a little practice, I will.  It's a beautiful day here in the Midwest, almost 60 degrees and sunny.  My yard and gardens are cleaned up and waiting for some flowers and herbs to be planted.  It gets cold at night though and who knows, we could have snow tomorrow!  These carnations are from last week's tablescape.  They are still looking so fresh!  That's what I love about carnations, all the pretty colors and they are so forgiving!

I had a quiet weekend for the most part.  The Husband has been working at home on weekends so we are at a standstill as far as going to the lake.  The work there is looming  ahead of me.  I think I have mentioned before that the lakehouse is bigger than this one in the city.  After sitting all winter without us, I know it is in for more than a good airing, but that is tops on my list.  I imagine that I really just have a lot of dust to deal with...ahh choo!

The Husband went out for his vitamins on Sunday and surprised me with the little food tent that you see here.  I have always wanted one since we have snacks sitting outside all the time at the lake.  This is so darling.  he even bought me some yummy lemon hand soap.  He loves to shop as I have mentioned before, we are a dangerous pair!

Our plans for Asheville have been all wrapped up for the most part...we are staying at the same place as last year, The Residences Of Biltmore.  I really enjoyed our room there, it had a small kitchenette {not that I was whipping up any meals} so we were always able to have a place to make our own coffee and snacks.  The Husband wanted to get a rustic place up in the mountains but that is so not me!  I suppose he will want me to go fly fishing again this year, but I hear shopping calling me! 

This weekend was rather slow.  We went out for dinner Friday, just to Chilie's because we felt like having some Mexican.  Saturday night I made a wonderful dinner from a recipe I found at Na Da Farm Life With Anne Marie.  It is chicken on a bed of fresh spinach with cream and grated Romano cheese.  This is what it looked like.  It was delicious and so easy to prepare!  I have not been baking as I am still not having any sugar.  Since I gave it up last month, I am down a pants size!  Woo Hoo!  My family is feeling a little neglected though so I think I will make something with fruit and have a few nibbles!  That sums up the philosophy of the book I just read, French Women Don't Get Fat.  I found another book by the same author called, French Women For All Seasons and I am loving this one, too.  A lot of great recipes.

This is all I have for today.  I hope everyone is having a great start to the week ahead.  I'm joining Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday!

AN APRIL TABLESCAPE

Hurray for tulips! They are everywhere {except my backyard} and I can't help but buy a little bouquet ever week when I do my grocery shopping. These yellow and pink ones were love at first sight. And they seem to last long, too.
Before I show you my tablescape, I want you to see the giveaway gift I won from Lynne at Dreams On 34th Street. It came in a little package jam packed with goodies! First, a set of very Frenchy notecards which I love...everyone loves to get old fashioned mail!
A little bar of shea butter soap called Sweet Pea. And though it is hard to see, a little friendship charm with a real crystal and seed pearl. I keep this on my glass vanity tray to remind me how important friendship is.
Lynne also included some stamped tags that I just love. What a thoughtful and generous gift. Pay Lynne a visit, she is the sweetest and her blog is so fun. Thanks, my friend!
And here is my tablescape for this week. I am joining Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen for her party called Let's Dish! At her blog you can find all the ladies participating...it's fun to see what everyone comes up with each week and to get some inspiration.
I found these carnations at the grocery store yesterday...seems like I live there, and I knew I had some dishes that would compliment them perfectly.
It's a big mix here, the dinner plates are from Anthropologie. I bought them to display on a wall in my family room around an old window I found. It's still waiting to happen as the window is up at the lake. So, I decided to use them in the tablescape in the meantime. The salad or dessert plates are from Pier 1 going back a few years. The pale green and pink just shouts "Spring" to me!
The white plates have a raised fleur de lis on them that I love. The glass candle cubes were a present from my sister in law and the runner was found on Etsy. My water glasses are from the Lenox Butterfly Meadow dishes that I have. One of these days I will do a tablescape with them.
I have coordinating dinner plates for the salad plates but I think I did a tablescape a few years back with those. I love to mix my dishes up.
So there you have it! I had fun playing around with this on another of what I call my "Me" days. Tuesday is the only day that I have 3 hours to myself with no one home. I have a stack of magazines and catalogs that I need to read before they get too old and some paperwork. Yesterday it was shopping and an early dinner for Abby and me at a Japanese restaurant. Which reminds me that I had the family over for dinner again last week. Son Kevin and Mary Clare bought a house and finally moved in last Thursday. They had to give up their apartment early so they were sort of scattered about prior to moving in. I found a recipe at Funky Junk Interiors called Japanese Chicken Wings and it was a quick and simple dinner that fed a lot of people! My wings were some big flappers at one time and definitely made a meal rather then an appetizer. We had a good time. Once they are settled in their new home, I will see if they will let me take some pictures.

I am hoping {as usual} that we get up to the lake soon. The Husband went on a shopping spree at Costco and bought some inflatable lounging chairs and an "island", a floating sort of thing that holds four people. Did I ever tell you that he LOVES to shop! We make quite a pair!

I hope all of you are having a good week. We finally have sunshine today and the rain over the weekend really greened up the grass. I love the buzzing of lawn mowers floating in my windows and seeing my neighbor prune her climbing roses. My favorite time of year is almost here! :-)

I LOVE APRIL!

We are officially over holidays until Mother's Day, and although I will leave my bunnies out to celebrate spring, I'm sort of tired of looking at them. I do love April though, even though it's only 40 degrees today, I'm letting some fresh air in right now and it smells SO good. April is also my daughter Abby's birthday month and we have been celebrating that for days it seems

She and I were off to the burbs to do some retail therapy on Friday. This is a big outdoor mall and I posted a little about it last summer, it's where I found my dress for son Kevin's wedding. The flower beds were filled with tulips of every color and I even saw a bunny crouched down in one of the beds. Abby gifted herself with a lot of cute clothes and jewelry and I popped in to Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn, but as usual, the prices just irritate me. It's fun to look though. I splurged on some body mists at Bath And Body Works, I love those in the summer to spray on when the weather is hot, I keep them in the fridge. Ooh, heaven!
We had lunch at a cool place called The Reel Club, and if you guessed seafood, you're correct. It was delicious. Abby had sushi and I had shrimp with a wonderful remoulade sauce. I mentioned to the waiter that it was her 21st birthday (sniff, sniff...she's my baby)and he surprised us with the most decadent chocolate cupcake. In the picture above it looks like Wildfire, another great restaurant, but The Reel Club is just in front of it. I'd love to drag The Husband off there one day.
This is Abby on the right, my little French girl. She looks so much like her father. We celebrated again Saturday night at my nephew's pub, Blackthorn. The Husband and I left at about 10:30 so she could hit the trail of Irish bars with her friends for her first legal night of getting in them! Fun, fun, fun!
I'm almost finished reading the book I told all of you about in my last post. I SO recommend it. It's funny and wise and filled with stories of the writer growing up in France.
I've gleaned some great tips and advice and the book is highlighted with my neon marker on almost every page. I am drinking my usual coffee, but I keep a glass of ice water with lemon next to me at all times. I'm also eating more fruit and my dinner consists of mostly vegetables. There is no deprivation in this book, just moderation. And it's quite entertaining. Once again I thank my blogger friend, Julie Marie, for sending this to me. She is such a sweetheart!
A little more retail therapy last week netted me these cute shoes. Gosh, I love shoes, even though I live mostly in flip flops during the summer. Wedges are my favorite since I am getting a little wobbly in my old age!
On my last trip to TJ Maxx I found these little candle holders...well, not so little, for the patio at the lake. I have dreams about being at the lake but it seems every weekend is filled with things we have to do here. This weekend is a wedding shower that the girls and I have on Sunday. I do love showers and parties, but I would love to be sitting on the dock looking out at the water about now.
Here's another one. Looks like I am getting into straw lately!

I hope all of you had a good Easter. We really had the nicest weather and my dinner turned out great. There is something so wonderfully satisfying about popping a ham in the oven, mashing some potatoes, roasting some veggies and having dinner on the table in two hours. My very favorite part is making soup with the bone. Yum!

Well, that's it for me this last week. We had our lawn care service do a spring clean up and my meadow now looks like a lawn. We have SO many trees. They cut, rake, fertilize and prune. I love it. I'm still a good month away from planting flowers and how I envy all of you in the South that have beautiful blooms already! I have nothing to take pictures of except some baby grass where we put seed down in some bare spots!

Wishing all of you a wonderful week! :-)

A SPRING TABLESCAPE

Daisies are my favorite flowers, just so simple with their scraggly leaves. I grow them at the lake and usually have a few vases of them everywhere I can stick them! These are from the grocery store and they are looking pretty on my table today.
I cut some tulips this morning, just the few that actually made it through the winter. I don't know why mine came up so badly, my neighbor has a beautiful bunch in front of her house. Tulip envy! See the little salt and pepper shakers...two peas in a pod? They are SO cute!
My sweet friend, Julie Marie from Idyll Hours sent me this book after reading my last post about my never ending quest to lose weight. She swears by the philosophy of this book and wanted so badly for me to not give up the things I love to eat, but to learn to eat what I love without the guilt and the weight gain. I am just a few pages into it and it really seems like a good book. I'll fill you in more as I get through it. It is on my sidebar and you can order it through Amazon or Overstock. Thanks again Julie Marie, you are truly a good friend!
So on to the tablescape. I spent a few days making this, adding a little bit at a time {I've been super busy}. I really wanted something spring~like and whimsical.
I fell in love with these little chicks made out of hydrangeas. They even have little feathers on their tummies!
The centerpiece is the huge tree I got from Wisteria. Of course it would have to be moved if we were to eat here, but I am just playing with my dishes!
The plates are from Anthropologie and Pier 1. So are the wine glasses.
My bunny showed up in my last post. The napkins and rings are from Williams Sonoma and my silver plate is just mismatched and old.
I have this set up at the table in the family room. I like that I can leave it there as long as I want. It was fun to do, maybe I will be doing more again in the future. I am joining Kathleen for her party called Let's Dish. Visit her at Cuisine Kathleen.
Today is the first day that I am home alone and am having some "Me" time. Sunday was grocery shopping and cleaning out the fridge. Monday I ran errands with Emily and we stopped in a cute dress shop. She found some cute spring dresses and I got some shoes and jewelry. Last night we had the whole gang over for dinner. I made barbecue ribs, baby red mashed potatoes, corn, salad, bread and we had Oreo cookie pie for dessert. I also mixed up some margaritas to go with the cheese ball and crackers. As always, we had fun.

So this morning I am just sipping my tea and wondering what I am going to do with myself on this gorgeous spring day. Maybe take a walk or just read my book. I hope all of you are having a wonderful week and I will be back soon! :-)