It’s our favorite day of the week, Tablescape Thursday of course! Me and my Mom threw together a little St. Pat’s party for our family. Very small affair but we sure had fun getting ready for it, starting with the tablescape (you KNOW how much we love to play with our dishes!).

Not quite Kelly Green, but hey I love the apple green of this set of dishes. The bottom plates are my “everyday” plates. The salad plates are deep discounts from Pier 1 and the green goblets from Kohl’s.

Green tea candles from home goods. Smell yummy too!

Love the red and blue in the swirls of this whispy floral motif.

The metal napkin rings are Pier 1 purchases too.

The floral arrangement is something I put together with two glass vases I had on hand. The pussy willow branches are snips from the tree in my back yard. Watch our blog this next week for step-by-step on how I put this floral arrangement together.

Thanks to “Tom Kat Studios” we had these cute cupcake toppers for our carrot and walnut cupcakes with green sugar sprinkles. We printed the cupcake toppers on 1.5″ stickers and placed a toothpick between two stickers before inserting into the cupcake.

The white ruffled cake plates are two individual plates set on top of each other (Costco – set of 2 for $20).

A little ambiance for the dessert table.

Pick up, “Kiss Me I’m Irish” or “Lucky You” or “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”. Trust me, they are all delicious!!!

We so wish you all could join us for dinner, but thank you for stopping by to share our tablescape with us. Please join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more terrific tablescapes!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day dear friends!!!!

Yes, we’ll be celebrating St. Patty’s day with a little Irish fair for dinner. Here’s what I’ve lined up. (PS click on any of the photos to go straight to the recipe, all courtesy of Food Network…my favorite place to get new recipes.)

Slow Cooker Corn Beef and Cabbage

Corn Beef & Cabbage

Irish Beer Bread

Irish Soda Bread

The Irish Pirate Chocolate Mint Dessert Drink, mmmm yummy!

The Irish Pirate

Want to come over for dinner tonight?

It’s time for another Thursday Tablescape with Susan our hostess at Between Naps on the Porch. Hope you will join in the activities and I look forward to seeing your posts.

Having traveled to Paris twice now, I can tell you I am in love with the city of romance and would go back in a heartbeat. Bistro table settings looking upon the Eiffel tower can be found throughout the city.

The Paris plates I bought at Hobby Lobby 50% off.  I wanted two of each type so I could mix and match. Sometimes it’s just me and Robert and I only need two, but if I have company and need to set the table for 4 they all go together beautifully and all have the French bistro look to them.

The white plates were from Mary, my mother-in-law.  When she passed away a few years ago I was blessed to receive many of her dishes and these white plates  were a basic set of dishes she used for everyday but ones I find dress up and show off special plates nicely.

I made the napkins specifically to go with this table setting…aren’t they gorgeous!

I used my black beaded place mats to begin the setting.

Added Mary’s beautiful white plate, doesn’t it look gorgeous on the black!

I used my two Paris plates with the Eiffel tower on two settings and the fleur de lis on the two other settings to complete my table of four.

Nest came the white salad bowl and I am ready for the final touches.

I gathered up candles, greenery, ceramic birds, more candles, silver, glassware and the table was ready for my napkins and guests.

Bon appetit

If you would like a set of the Eiffel Tower napkins you can purchase them at   www.creativechics.etsy.com

I’d like to take credit for this yummy dish, but honestly it is my mother-in-law’s recipe with a few minor tweaks to make it my own. But she is the one who came up with the novelty of serving this dish in real sea shells. Yes, you can put them in the oven, the microwave, the dishwasher. I’ve seen these shells at craft stores before.

Wash your shells before using and then place them on a cookie baking sheet.

I spray a light coating of Pam cooking spray into the shells just to make cleanup a bit easier.

In a large mixing bowl combine:

- 3 cans tuna (or canned turkey or chicken if you’re not a tuna fan)

- 1/2 cup chopped celery

- 1 chopped white or yellow onion

- 3 boiled eggs, peeled and diced

- 1 cup panko bread crumbs

- 1 cup velveeta cheese, diced

- 3/4 cup Light Miracle Whip salad dressing

- salt and pepper to taste

With a fork mix all ingredients together.

Take a large spoon and load up each sea shell with the tuna mixture.

Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes but keep an eye on it. Depending on how full you make the shells will definitely affect the bake time. You want the shells to get a golden tone to them and the cheese melted.

Serve with a salad and beverage and you have an easy peasy dinner that’s healthy too! Bon appetit my friends.

And a recipe card for your files. Just click on the image and print!

As promised, I wanted to share with you my favor bags and birthday stickers I used for my granddaughter’s recent birthday party. The pink paper bags were picked up at a craft store in the food prep aisle I believe. They’ve been sitting in my pantry for some time so I can’t say I quite remember where I got them.

What you’ll need:

- hole punch

- bag of tootsie rolls

- cookies, or candies to put inside favor bag

Place candies or cookies into the bottom half of the bag. Fold down the top of the bag one time.

Hole punch through the folded down portion of the bag two holes about 2 inches apart.

Slide tootsie roll stick through the punched holes to hold the bag closed.

Place sticker or other embellishment on the bag. That’s it! That simple.

So here is a set of the Thank You stickers for you to use.  Just click on the image to download to your computer to print. These are 2″ stickers.

Please honor my copyright and not redistribute this download; but I will gladly let you link to my blog so others can download it for free also.

I’ve got a recipe for punch that is sure to please your guests. I’ve made it twice now and both times my guests drained the punch bowl so fast my head was spinning!

Now I also put fresh pineapple and maraschino cherries on the little cocktail umbrellas and placed in each cup of punch for flavor and mostly for fun!

I created the napkin rings out of paper strips. All you need is a little clipart, imagination and an image editor.

Or you can download a set of these napkin rings to use for your own party if you prefer to have this already done for you Just use the solid green lines as a cutting guide. Roll paper napkin rings around napkin. Use two sided tape or craft glue to attach the two ends together.

Please honor my copyright and not redistribute this download; but I will gladly let you link to my blog so others can download it for free also.

Tomorrow, step by step on creating party favor bags and another free download of Thank You stickers.

Welcome to Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

My little grandbaby just turned 5 years old this past week and we had a grand party for her. As usual I plan things last minute but I have to admit that when I was done it didn’t look that way.

Today I’ll show you the highlights and in the coming days I’ll have more of the details along with a party favor craft ideas and free downloads, so check back.

My goal was to use only things I already had in the house (keeping costs down). The few things I bought were napkins and fresh tulips and candy for the favor bags. A great way to destash! But didn’t it turn out so pretty and spring looking?

The Hawaiian leis I had used for a party last summer. I draped them through the middle of the table to add color and softness. The tulips are nestled amongst the leis.

The pink favor bags were stuffed away in a drawer. They are filled with tootsie rolls, suckers and chocolate kisses The tootsie pop holds the bag shut (I’ll give a tutorial on this later in the week along with the Thank You stickers you can download and use.) A “Thank You” bag of treats sits in front of each paper plate (yes paper plate).

Aria is a lover of ice cream (like Grandma!) so we set up a simple ice cream bar with various toppings like gummy bears, chocolate sprinkles and multi colored sprinkles, chocolate chips and salted peanuts. The goodies were placed in ramekins and then set on top of a cake platter. In the center I used a striped vase that held spoons. The leis spread around the cake platter soften the look and add a punch of color. See the cocktail umbrellas in there too?

I had to use those umbrellas elsewhere so in each glass cup, I placed a slice of fresh pineapple and a candied cherry on the toothpick to sit pretty in the homemade punch.

Colorful, spring feeling and festive. She was so excited when she saw the pretty table when she walked in.

This was the cake Daddy bought. WOW, is there any cake amongst all those princesses? She LOVED this as any little girl would!

Happy Birthday to my grand baby Aria, not such a baby anymore. Thanks for visiting us and seeing our prettier thank pink tablescape today!

Welcome to Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to drop over there and see all the wonderful tablescapes listed this week.

Kevin and his friends had their high school dance last weekend. To keep costs down for the event, the girls decided to cook dinner for the guys at our house. To make it special, Kevin suggested we set the table real pretty. He was so cute asking how to set the table, where does the silverware go, where are the “good plates”. But here are his final results.

Daylight (getting it all ready)

Candlelight for romance.

When his girlfriend came in and saw the table, she was like “oh Kevin, you are SO sweet!!!” Yep, he earned some brownie points for sure, but he is kind of a romantic at heart too Oh and of course I have to show you the sweet couple dressed to the nines!

Thank you for joining us for Tablescape Thursday! We hope you come back to see us again soon

See all of this Thursday’s tablescapes at Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch. Valentine’s can be a bit of a pricey “holiday” if your spouse takes you out to a nice dinner. And it seems every restaurant  knows that based on their menu prices that night too, not to mention getting reservations is a bit tricky.

So a few years ago we did something different with friends.  We hosted 5 couples for a Valentine’s dinner. Each couple contributed $25 towards the food which I prepared and they all brought one bottle of wine for sharing. Lots of candles and imitation roses added the feel of Valentine. I used red napkins with an imitation rose inserted within each napkin ring.

I made up the dishes about an hour before hand and placed the food in chafing dishes to keep the food warm. Once the guests came, we were able to share a meal together that was fun and affordable. I guess the risk with this arrangement is your guests don’t like your cooking

I had an email last week from my son, you know one of those forwards you normally just hit the “delete” key on.  I was really glad I opened it up and here is why. Take a look at these pictures from a family in Quebec, Canada.

That is a serious pile of snow and they will be lucky if it melts by next winter.

An igloo looking garage, might be a little scary backing out of there.

Up on the rooftop, ho, ho, ho…can you believe it?

I can’t believe she is able to stand up for a picture after moving that snow drift.

Well after I seen these I did think I was very blessed to be here in Kansas where 8-9 inches at one time has been our snowfall…but honestly I still whine…the wind has been terrible and so cold outside…I know I am wrong to whine but hurry Spring we miss you so…

My solution to winter cold of course is found in the picture below…

Tomato soup and some salmon patties, a favorite winter treat for me!

Hope where you are it is warm and those of you in Canada maybe you want to consider Florida for the winter next year!!!  Your definitely made of tougher stuff than me!