Cozy Fall Fireside Tablescape for Two

A few days ago my hubby and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary.
So I thought it would be fun to feature a cozy romantic tablescape for two by the fireside for Tablescape Thursday.

A few touches of Halloween decor for a little fun as well!


Brown and white transfer ware dishes, Waverly napkins,
iron napkin rings spray painted with the famous
Krylon oil rubbed bronze spray paint,
and etched crystal stemware, all T/S treasures.


Sunflower centerpiece on carved iron candle holders
and checked tablecloth for a bit of that
French Country feel.

A cute little Halloween ghost and pumpkin on the chair in the background

that I made with my jigsaw a few years ago.

A little wine and candlelight to set the mood.

I'm so glad you stopped by for a peek!

Please be sure to visit
Sweet Susan at

Between naps on the Porch

for

Tablecape Thursday

and more tablescapes,

also,
please visit
Leigh

from Tales From Bloggeritaville, for Thrifty Thursday
for more thrifty finds and ideas.

Have a

FABULOUS FALL

sweet friends!!

Hugs, Sherri:)

Blue Monday ~ Taylor & Ng Collection

Happy Blue Monday!

Todays event is of course hosted by Sally @

Smiling Sallys

Please be sure to visit her and the list of other paticipants to see all their bluetiful things they have to share today!

*******

Today I would like to share with you, my little collection of

Taylor & Ng stoneware.

I already had the coffee mugs shown below, when I discovered this baking dish with the cobalt blue glaze at a local antiques shop.

When I looked inside it and discovered the booklet with the Taylor and Ng insignia I got really excited.

I had never seen any other pieces of theirs except the coffee mugs!

Speaking of the mugs... here they are!

They come in other colors, which I also have too, but I'm only showing the blue one's for todays theme. My mom gave me my first mug, the "Le Lapin" and of course I loved it because of the french words and the rabbit on it, but little did I know the real reason she gave it to me was to see if I would notice what those naughty little bunnies were doing in the background!

See what I mean!!

This mug has of course become my husbands favorite mug! He likes to use it as a signal to let me know... well you know!!!

Hmmm....I've seen these sell for a pretty penny on ebay.

I think maybe I'll sell it!

~ My French Country Kitchen~

 Hi there,  and welcome to my french country kitchen! 

Grab a cup of coffee and I'll tell you about how I removed some cabinets and redecorated it on a budget!

The photo below was how the kitchen looked before... 
very closed in by the

overhead cabinets above the peninsula.

My apologies for the poor quality of this photo but it was taken before I had a digital camera!

 
After many years of wanting those upper cabinets removed over the peninsula,

 I decided one day out of the blue to loosen the bolts that held them to the ceiling and discovered that it might be fairly easy to take them down.

(NOTE: I don't recommend trying something like this when you are home alone)! 

I got them half way down and discovered that they weighed a ton, and had to make an emergency call to hubby at work to hurry home an help me before they came crashing down!

(Can you picture a scene from I Love Lucy..lol!!)  LUCY you did what?!!! 
Oh... you've got some splaining to do!!

At any rate the cabinets finally came down.

 

Here it is after all opened up and looking much better!  
The open cabinet you see in the photo below was where they were attached.  
Which left half open and a door on the other side, 
also a whole lot of holes where the other cabinets had been attached. 

 Now, I couldn't have that!
Solution...  Add trim moulding and stain it to match and voila!! 

Cute open display cabinet, and open kitchen!

I had always wanted a pot rack to hang my copper from,
so I transformed a white wrought iron light fixture that we had taken down
from outdoors and removed the light fixture,
 then spray painted it in flat black.

Above I added more wood appliques below sink

Above is my

   black antique reproduction Swedish Mora clock I bought on sale from J.C. Penney. 

(sorry, it's no longer available)

My old hutch above...

now replaced with this one below that I found on Craigslist!

  

I found this great designer (Robert Allen) fruit motif fabric at Wal-Mart for 3.00 a yd. 

So I bought the whole bolt and made window treatments, chair cushions and recovered this office chair that was a thrift store find, giving a cohesive look to the kitchen area.

I also built the farmhouse table to use as a desk, from a set of table legs found at a resale store
and bought the top and apron from Home Depot and stained them to match the legs.

The wallpaper above the paneling (which I intend to change or paint eventually) was a solid olive green grass cloth.  I primed and painted over it and applied a border that matched the fabric.  Then stenciled the design below it by making my own stencil using posterboard and a fleur de lis design.

I made the window treatment on kitchen door using the same fabric.

*****

Some day I'd really love to have some new cabinets and granite countertops and new flooring, but until then I've tried to make my kitchen as charming as possible on a budget.

I'm so glad you could stop by, and hope you enjoyed the tour!!
Sherri :-)