Time for a Blue Monday Supper for Two

Blue and white china was on my mind today. I have many pieces that I have collected over the years and I will show them all to you in one of my future blogs. However, today I am using only enough for an intimate supper for two.

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Blue and white china is popular all over the world - I can certainly see why!

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The blue and white dinner plates are Alfred Meakin’s “Edinburgh” pattern. This is near and dear to my heart, because my great-grandmother was a Cameron and I love all things Scottish. The Scottish theme, also, will be another blog – probably one of our Motif Mondays. Edinburgh is a wonderful place and I have had the opportunity to visit the city on my travels, but I have never made the pilgrimage to the Highlands. I am looking forward to searching for my Cameron roots there some day and, perhaps, I can search for more blue and white, as well!

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The cobalt blue charger is from Horchow and the lovely white plate is a dinner plate in the Lenox “Opal Innocence Carved” pattern that was bought at Dillard's.

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The cobalt blue goblets are from Horchow, also.

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The bread and butter plates were made by EIT and were designed by Will or William Mellor (1851-1931), who was an English painter. The plates show a picture of “The Old Curiosity Shop”. I really do not remember where I bought them, but I feel sure that it was in an antique shop or at an antique show. The butter paddles were a discount store purchase.

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The table is covered with a rose colored tablecloth. I have always loved the way that blue and white china looks against that color. On the matching napkins are blue and white porcelain napkin rings, which were purchased at an import shop. I have only four of them and so wished that I had bought more!

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The small crystal and sterling compotes are from Duchin Creations. My mother gave me one years ago and, recently, my daughter found a matching one for me. I was thrilled!

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The flatware was part of my grandmother’s silverplate collection. It is “Presentation” by S.L. and G.H. Rogers Oneida. I chose it for these place settings, because part of the pattern looks like tiny blue (!) bells to me.

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It is wonderful that the silverplate collection included iced tea spoons. We Southerners love our sweet tea!

The centerpiece is a blue and white vase with the simplest of flowers – the first blooms of the season from one of our Bradford pear trees.

The crystal candle holders were bought at a Mikasa outlet, before the company closed all of their stores.

The table is set and, now, I just hope that I can find a recipe to cook for supper that will do justice to the pretty settings!

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Fifteen-minute Frosted Potpourri Experiment

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I have heard people get roses for Valentine's Day. You might be one of those lucky people. What are you going to do with them as they die? Just throw them out? 

Maybe not this year. Why not try to make your own potpourri? 

Being that I had no handy rose petals lying around, I bought these rose petals at Kroger. There they sat, unused on the shelf after Valentine's. Pitiful. So, being a person who has never made potpourri, I decided to would see if I could do it JUST with what I had around the house. Let me preface this by saying I know that there are better and more professional ways to accomplish this for potpourri aficionados. However, the goal of this post is for those of us who sort-of want to save the flower petals but who aren't going to elaborate expense or effort to do so. :)

There are many websites that tell you how to dry roses or make potpourri in the microwave or just by hanging them somewhere out of the way like your laundry room. They require - or strongly suggest - silica gel, (which I don't happen to have saved from my shoe boxes), or orris root powder, (which I didn't bother trying to buy). Salt was suggested in addition to either to help flowers retain their color.

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 Also, I had read an article about achieving a glossy look with high-gloss hairspray. I had hairspray, believe it or not. ( I have children who perform on stage - dance, theater, etc.) But, I still didn't have a drying medium other than the microwave alone. It seems the experts think the microwave needs some help. The idea of glossy rose petals made me think of frosted, glittering rose petals. So, thinking about what I had on my shelves, I decided to see what would happen with salt by itself.

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I removed the rose petals from the box and placed them in a bowl. I poured salt over them - maybe a third of a cup. I confess. I didn't measure. (That's what makes me a great cook of main dishes and sides and a terrible baker; in baking, measurements MATTER.) Anyway, I threw away the petals that had any obvious brown or dry areas. That turned out to be a good decision. The parts that I missed had to be removed later anyway.

I put my mixture in the microwave, for 30-45 seconds at a time. 

I ended up with something like this after about 4-5 rounds in the microwave. At this point, any brown parts I had missed earlier were pretty obvious as they were mushy. So I removed them. I tossed between each round, separating petals that were stuck together by their own moisture. (This made clear to me why the experts recommend only drying a few at a time and the need for a desiccant.)

At this point, I shook out almost all of the salt and separated the petals onto a paper towel. One more round in the microwave.

Surprisingly, even with the salt, the petals smelled great! But I wanted to add something else. From my reading and available stock of scents laying around the house, I had perfumes and diffuser oils to choose from. I grabbed the nearest one, sprinkling the oil onto the almost-dried rose petals.

I tossed the now fairly brittle petals and shook the salt out in a bag, carefully removing the sparkling petals.

I placed the rose petals in a crystal bowl. They glistened in the soft afternoon light. I never tried the high gloss hairspray, but I bet it would make an especially nice touch around the winter holidays.

Surprisingly, the roses still smell wonderful!  I have let them sit a few days, and they have retained the scent. I doubt they will last months on end, but I could always add more oil or perfume later. 

My little project took about 15 minutes would only cost about a third of a cup of salt and a little diffuser oil - IF you had been given some roses!  :)

- Andrea

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It's So Very Cheri

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A Great Day at my Grandmother's

So, for Valentine's day, I created a tablescape at my grandmother's house. I used my gradmother's four seat table in her kitchen because I was at her house when I did this table, (hence, all of the things on the table are hers). (I love the word hence.) Doing this was the most fun I have ever had at her house!  She let me go through everything she had!

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In the center of the table lies a Cupid candle holder with a dark red candle , with clear (fake) diamonds scattered around him. 

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The plates I used were my grandmother's Yardley china. It's by Mikasa. The silver used was her Presentation by Oneida. It was some family silver plate. I really like this pattern. The mini-compotes holding the strawberries sit beside the name cards on the plates. 

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The water glasses holding pink lemonade, (it was quite good!), sit on the white doilies. They are casual crystal, but I didn't write down the pattern. A cute, home-made idea is to decorate a ribbon with a design and make a bow tie around the upper stem of a glass. I painted the ribbons in the pictures with a paint pen, but it is hard to see in the pictures. I did that with my wine glasses; a red ribbon with pink polka dots. And I put the candy in the champagne glass, too. Maybe this could be a party favor.

Then there are the flower napkins. They are Ralph Lauren, I think. The main color in them is pink, but they also have subtle hints of red, blue, green, yellow, cream, and white. All of that is sitting on a red table cloth.
P.S.: If you have a candle holder like the Cupid one with holes in it, remember to put a liner under the candle. I had a little problem with that. Soon after the pictures were taken, red wax from the candle started pouring out of Cupid. After several attempts of trying to get the then-drying candle off of Cupid, we decided to put him in the freezer. After waiting a while, we took poor little Cupid out of the freezer to get the candle off. It worked! So, if you have a problem like this, put your candle in the freezer, and thaw him out a bit. Next time, I will use a liner. :)

-Emma