Gasparilla Get Together!

Dress in your Pirate finest and join me for the Annual Gasparilla Festival!  Before my daughter went to college in Tampa I had never heard of Gasparilla but it's a pretty big deal here.  For those of you not familiar with this celebration, here is a description (Wikipedia):

The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is an annual celebration held in the city of Tampa, Florida. Held each year in late January and hosted by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the City of Tampa, it celebrates the apocryphal legend of José Gaspar (Gasparilla), supposedly a Spanish pirate captain who operated in Southwest Florida. The theme is an "invasion" by Gasparilla and his men, which begins when the "Krewe" (made up of residents of the city) arrives on a 165' long pirate ship, the Jose Gaspar, in Tampa Bay and land near downtown Tampa. The mayor of Tampa then lends the key of the city to the pirate captain and a parade ensues down Bayshore Boulevard, one of Tampa's major streets. The krewes throw beads, coins and other items while shooting blank pistols from floats during the parade. The average attendance for the event is over 400,000 people.

Because it is such an "adult" event, the city of Tampa hosts a children's parade the weekend before so that the youngsters get in on the act too.  After all, who doesn't secretly want to live the life of a Pirate, even for a day?  Of course it would be easy to do a "children's" table with a Pirate theme but in the spirit of Gasparilla I went with a more "adult' table for this weeks Tablescape Thursday, hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

I started with my black tablecloth (again!) and layered it with a fishnet (Dollar Tree). 

This is an advertisement for Gasparilla telling you to "Party Like a Pirate."

My place setting consists of a red charger (Dollar Tree), a black dinner plate (Walmart) and a skull plate (Ross).  You may remember these skull plates from my Halloween Table.  I knew when I bought them they would work for this too.

My napkins are really bandannas from Oriental Trading.  You get 12 bandannas in 3 different patterns. 

I think my red flatware looks perfect with it's "pearl" handles!

I googled "pirate centerpiece" (really I did, I do stuff that like that all the time to get ideas) and pretty much all I came up with was tacky cardboard Pirate ships!  I decided to go with a treasure box and I had to look no further than above my kitchen cabinets to find it (no treasure map needed!).  This box was given to me by my sister-in-law who always gives me things I love.  We shop together so she knows my taste. 

I raided my jewelry box and my Christmas stuff for the beads.  

I ordered these "coins" when I got the pirate napkins.

I used my Dollar Store wine glasses and water goblets.  To add some candlelight I stacked these red candles on top of ivory candlesticks.  

Next I took six salt cellars filled with water and floated  black tea lights in them.  

I tried hard to keep this table from looking too childish but I still wanted some fun elements.  

Add a little candlelight!

Who's ready to Party like a Pirate?  

Be sure to stop by my sister's blog at Creating Wonderful Spaces!

Decorating with a Drink Dispenser

I am taking a break from a day full of football to show you a change I made a few weeks ago.  We traveled to NJ for a short trip the beginning of January and I was determined not to return to either Christmas decor or empty counters, tabletops etc.  I got busy and put all the Christmas decor away (in a spare bedroom but out of sight!).  That was the easy part.  The hard part was coming up with things to put in their place.  I have been enjoying every one's "winter" decor in Blogland but the temperatures here are usually in the mid 70's with the occasional cooler or hotter day thrown in.  I can't see decorating with snowflakes and candles wrapped in sweaters! Still, I'm not ready to go full out spring or summer.  Hmmmm ....what to do?

My daughter gave me a huge glass drink dispenser (Pier One) for Christmas and I LOVE IT but wasn't sure where I was going to store it.  It's so pretty I decided to put it out on my breakfast bar.  Here is my "before" picture with the Christmas stuff still on it.

I have mentioned before that I don't have a mantel in this house so I substitute my breakfast bar!  This reminds me of that saying about lemons and lemonade so I went with it!

I gathered together all my "lemon" items starting with faux lemons (and a few limes thrown in for contrast).  I sat the dispenser on an oval wooden tray (Villeroy and Bock Outlet) covered with a cloth napkin (Tuesday Morning).  The green dish, candle holder, olive oil container and pitcher are all from Ross. 

Oops, a candle that's never been lit.  Isn't that bad luck?

When my daughter bought the dispenser they were all out of the chalkboard tags but I found one recently (on clearance!).

I can't wait to mix up some yummy drink to serve in my Christmas gift, but for now I am enjoying it as is. Do you have one of these? What kind of things have you served in it (besides the usual!)? I would love to hear from you!

I am linking up to the party at Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.  And be sure to visit my sister at Creating Wonderful Spaces!

Going Green!

“If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come” Chinese Proverb

Do you think the Chinese had tablescapes in mind when they came up with this one?  Yeah, I don't think so either but it sure fits my table for this week's Tablescape Thursday, hosted by Susan  at Between Naps on the Porch.  It also happens to be a beautiful proverb with a wonderful message for all of us.  It's also appropriate for this time of year when many of you may be wondering if you will ever see "green" again.  Living in Florida we can enjoy "green" all year round.  Not that I'm rubbing it in or anything.  Honest!

I picked up these appetizer plates a few months back at Marshall's.  Lime green and black are one of my favorite color combinations so I didn't think twice about putting these in my cart.   Can you see the lime green edge on the plate?  Can't get enough of plates with birds either! 

These chargers are from Ross and have a "crocodile" texture to them.  They only had 4 of them and I haven't seen them there since but I am always on the lookout for more. 

So I did a table for four in my great room using green, black and white. 

The appetizer plates came in a four pack that was taped together so I didn't realize that 2 of the plates had a white background.

I started with a round placemat (Target), the black charger, a square white dinner plate (Old Time Pottery), and a salad plate (Ross)  beneath the appetizer plate.

I found this flatware set at BJ's Wholesale Club last summer.  This is the first time I have used it and discovered that it didn't include salad forks.  I guess it's supposed to be "casual".

The wine glass and water goblet are from Dollar Tree.

I think the use of square plates makes the table look more contemporary and I love the mix of textures in the place setting.. 

I added a green candle to a black lantern (Old Time Pottery) and placed it on a candle holder to add some height.  This allowed me to tuck greens and flowers from my yard around the bottom. 

I still can't believe it's mid-January and I have flowers blooming in my yard!  These are Penas and Vincas with some greens mixed in.  The limes are fake but I have blossoms on my lime tree so I hope to have some real ones soon.

I  added  some fresh cut Rosemary so this table even smells good!  We had one frost a few weeks back and except for some brown tips on some of my plants everything came through fine.

I layered black and green napkins and used white ceramic napkin holders (Thrift store).  I am really loving this color green and it goes so well with other colors (purple, fuchsia, yellow, brown, orange, aqua etc.)  It almost works as a neutral it's so versatile but it adds a great pop too. 

Time to light the lantern and the votives.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will visit the other tables at Tablescape Thursday.  Just click on the link above.  Please stop by and visit my sister at Creating Wonderful Spaces!

3D Movie Night!

Before I get going with my tablescape for this week I just wanted to take a minute to give a big THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog.  I recently reached somewhat of a milestone when I hit 10,000 page views.  I can't tell you how much fun it is to share my home and tablescapes  every week.  It's like sitting down with each and every one of you and having a nice chat!  I hope you will continue to visit me regularly in 2012.  I love to have you stop by!

It seems like all the tablescapes for the past 3 months have been "holiday" related and while that was fun, I am ready to try some new things out.  This week was inspired by 2 recent purchases.  First one was a 3D television.  My husband has been wanting one ever since his sister and her husband got one last year.  I just wanted a new TV in our great room so I could put the one we have in our bedroom.  3D, 4D...I really didn't care.  That is until we got it and I watched my first movie trailer in 3D.  I am now a big fan.  It really is cool and with more and more movies coming out in 3D I will enjoy it even more.  Ours came with lightweight glasses that don't need batteries (like the ones they give out at the movies).  Our first movie was Pirates Of the Caribbean (don't ask me which number!).  The movie was just okay but the 3D was really amazing!

My second inspiration was these Mikasa plates (Ross) with a movie theme.  They came in a four pack and were around $8.  Each one is different.  I set the table in my great room.

I found these over sized place mats and matching napkins last year at Ross and I use them all the time.  This is the first time they have made it in a tablescape. 

I layered the matching napkins with solid black and used a metallic napkin ring.

My gray silverware seemed a good choice.

It took me a while to figure out what would make an appropriate centerpiece to this casual, themed dinner.  I got my answer at the local Dollar Tree in the form of a big bag of very yellow popcorn.  I just filled my candle trio and that was it!

Perfect for a light dinner before settling in to watch a 3D movie!  You have to save room for the mandatory movie snacks.  I set them up on my coffee table in front of the movie "screen".

I found the popcorn cups in that cheap section in the front of Target and the "movie" tray at Ross. 

I think I covered all the essentials:  popcorn, coke, the 3D glasses and 2 of my husband's favorite candies, Twizzlers and Milk Duds and two of mine, Raisinets and Mike 'n Ikes (only the original flavor!).  Time to pop in the movie (or stream it online for us!) and enjoy. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I am joining the party at Between Naps on the Porch.  Check out the other tables for this week!  Also be sure to visit my sister's blog at Creating Wonderful Spaces.