ODE TO A WONDERFUL FRIEND!

My Bestie, Rosemary, is an amazing woman.  She is an accomplished artist, is about the most fun person I know, and has a heart as big as the sun🌞. She recently gifted me my first MacKenzie-Childs piece, a hand-painted ginger jar, and I can't wait to make it the centerpiece of my tablescape.  It's magnificent, and I love the colors.  Here it is:

Mac Kenzie Childs Ginger Jar, Madras

THANK YOU, ROSEMARY!

HALLOWEEN IN JULY

🎃I know, it's summertime, beach time, garden time..way too early for Halloween-time. NOT!

When I saw a vignette on Pinterest which featured a creepy witch hand, it inspired me to do some prep work for this year's Halloween haunted dining room.  I searched high and low for this hand but didn't want to overpay for it.  Finally, I found it for a decent price on Amazon.   It was perfect, a white, very pale hand (ghostly) with long black fingernails.   This is what arrived:

I was disappointed that the color of the product didn't look like the picture in the listing, but I got to work and painted it.  A simple remedy.   Here's my finished hand in a vignette I created with a (new) black lace tablecloth, a pumpkin that has held on since last Halloween, a few books, some beads, pewter candlesticks, and white candles that I painted black.  Spooky, huh?

I have a cat skeleton, but I needed a human skull.  Found a cool one, again, on Amazon:

Every year I purchase a couple items for Halloween.  2021: Creepy Hand, Human Skull, and black lace tablecloth...boom!

PLAYING HOUSE

 I love to set a table.   Mix and match. Then a photo to remember it.  Today I wanted black and white with green.    So here it is.

Chargers are from Amazon:  Koyal, French Provincial

Dinner plate: Varages France

Bread plate: Casafina Green

Goblet: Libbey Garden and Vine, Green

Stainless:  Wallace, Napoleonic Bee

THE BURNT WICK

What do I mean a burnt wick?   I mean the wick on a candle.   I found out in recent years that you should always burn, or blacken, the wick of a candle before displaying it in your home.   The origin of this practice goes back to the time when electric lighting was introduced into private homes.  The first electric lamp was perfected in 1911, and in 1926 the Electricity (Supply) Act was passed which led to the establishment of the national grid.   Initially, only the rich could afford electric lighting.  However, candles displayed in a home that had electricity were lit for a few minutes then extinguished in order to blacken the wicks and look as though they were in use so as not to embarrass those guests who could not afford electricity.  It was a matter of etiquette by "polite society".   Displaying a candle with a burnt wick continues to this day to be a symbol of warmth.  I light candles on the table a few minutes before my guests arrive because the ultimate warm welcome is a lit candle.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

 I love to do a few things for the holidays in July.   It's fun to be ready when November/December approaches.   I have four decorative deer, a tabletop sitting deer which I changed from a glittery gray to white with gold accents, and a white wall-mounted stag head both of which I bought last summer.  I got a great deal on the stag head, $10 at HomeGoods because an antler was broken which took me two minutes to fix when I got it home.  I also have two silvertone metal standing stags (I'm thinking about painting them white).  

This year I added a pair of deer, sitting and standing.  Again, I got a deal because an antler had come off the sitting deer, and again, a quick fix.   Also, they had these horrible holiday collars around their necks.  Those came off, but there were two holes drilled in the neck which I filled with wood putty and dabbed over with white paint.  So my collection has grown to six.

Deer before repair

Deer Collection (after repair)

I have a few Christmas gifts for my daughter.   I would like to send them off to her at the end of October.  So far I'm giving her a white faux fur hide, A gift box of hot cocoa bombs, and a lovely set of Godinger cocoa mugs.  After scouring the internet, Amazon, Etsy, and ebay, I decided on a set from ebay.  They match her Christmas decor, and I know she'll love them. I'll hunt for an article of clothing for her, something for her fiance, Marty, and a little something for her three puppies. Then off it goes!