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!

Stop to smell the roses today, even if you have to go buy them yourself

Happy Sunday!

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!

Remember this stash of Heather Bailey fabric I showed you?

Well here are some of the results although I’m still making more things with it too

And these coasters out of the scraps left over.

I’m always so happy when I’ve used up a batch of fabric, a great sense of accomplishment and I can actually see my results. What I do is very rewarding and makes me very happy and I feel really blessed by that.

If you are interested in having any of these items for yourself, you can find them in our Etsy shop or click on the photos above and it’ll take you to that item in the store.

While in JoAnn’s I became enamoured with this sewing book (Making Children’s Clothes available on Amazon) on children’s clothing.

Now mind you my youngest is 16 and the smallest child I have happening around here is my 5 year old granddaughter. But so many ideas are in this book, oh and the patterns are included!

So my granddaughter just turned 5 and I made her up a few dresses as gifts, including one similar to the cover of the book. Ok, mine isn’t quite as cute.

I had a remnant just sitting around, kind of  a seersucker pink with white daisies. And yes, I love pom-pom fringe.

I also whipped up this one that is a bit more detailed and frilly with lace and princesses and castles and all things Aria loves!

I am giddy to share this article with you today. People will ask me what I do and it is so hard to explain. “Oh I doodle, then color the doodles on the computer, rearrange them, and viola…it comes out as a design for paper products.” So when I ran across this article written by Jan DiCintio, I thought, oh my God this is exactly what I do to create my artwork for paper companies (oh how I would LOVE to be creating fabric designs). Jan articulated and demonstrated it so well. Yes, this kind of stuff excites me.

From Doodling…..

To This! Go read her write-up and you’ll see what it is I do when I create too.

Her new collections are smashing and wish I could afford to buy them.

The whole collection side by side. Amazing how color changes can make each into a whole new collection. Just yummy fabric! You can purchase them here if you are interested.

You should also check out the anatomy of drawing art at Jessica Swift’s blog

February is ending and March is near. The crocus and daffodil bulbs are peaking their little heads out of the ground. Soon, dear friends, soon we’ll see color on our landscape once more.

Happy Sunday!!!