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!