I NEED SOME PINK DISHES................

                               The Saturday before the big snowstorm, I had a mission.  I really
wanted to find some pink dishes and I wanted to find old ones.  I decided I would start
out at Jackson Mall in La Grange, Illinois where there are many wonderful dealers touting their wares. Two floors of everything and anything.   You can almost always find something quite special, as it is loaded with every collectible you can imagine.  If I didn't walk in the door and find exactly what I was looking for and almost immediately!  I wanted no design, I wanted a soft pink tone and I didn't want to spend a lot of money.    There they were, I didn't think twice!  Can you believe 6/$14.95 ?  My guess is they are probably from the 40's or 50's.  I just love them.

I love to set a table and I love to create ambiance.  I had just had my dining room walls painted a Farrell and Ball color called Hardwick White.  It is actually a very warm and soft gray.  I am getting ready to paint my old French Chairs and recover them.  In fact, this was the last dinner party for them.  They will be picked up next week and the changes will begin.
Because of my new gray walls it was time to add a color that would welcome spring and summer and one of those colors would be pink.

The centerpiece is actually the French tubes that I first bought in New York.  I learned that they were made in France and when I attended Maison d' Objects in Paris, I found  the vendor and I bought them for the shop.  We sold out immediately.  You usually see them in my kitchen in front of my mirror and over my sink.  I gathered them into a circle and used them as a centerpiece on my dining room table.  Loved that too!  I then added Baby Tears in antiqued grey miniature urns on either side......not too much, but a great balance with the green.

 Over sized wicker chargers, dishes are from Casafina, the lace and linen napkins are about 75 years old with hand cutouts of lace which have been hand sewn.  I chose not to use my handy dandy silver napkin rings, because I wanted the beautiful lace to show.

                Note the bay window with the French doors................I am struggling with

what to do at those windows...................I want a very simple drapery treatment.  I think I will do  a white silk tailored  balloon treatment......panels are tough because of the sofit.  Any ideas?

               
     I purchased this sideboard a few years ago after I had sold the huntboard to my original dining room set.     It was a matched  set and I was ready for something new.  Painting the matching chairs to the set will give it still another whole new feeling.  It took some talking to, to you-know-who, but he said, I am sure it will look wonderful AND I just know that it will!   I will show you the before and after pictures when complete.

Bought this side board in a resale shop.   All of the carvings have been done

by hand.  I have no idea of where it came from or where it was made.  Nothing

on the drawers to indicate.  My guess on the vintage is  somewhere early Ninteenth Century and I would guess European.

It was fun playing with this table the morning after the blizzard.  I put this table

together just for you.................and then I had an idea.  I picked up the phone and called

dear friends on the spur of the moment and VOILA a dinner party was born.

I prepared a brisket of beef, with potatoes, lots of sweet onions and carrots.  The brisket and onions

cooked for 6 hours at 275 degrees, covered tightly.  I added the carrots and potatoes

the last hour.  I made a Baby Arugula salad with a sweet/sour vinigrette and popovers!

Our friends brought dessert:  Fresh Apple Tarts with homemade Ginger Ice Cream, served at fireside in our Great Room.    Our guests loved the table...............with a laugh, I said

it was originally created for my friends all over the world.  Now, wouldn't that be

a dinner party of magical proportions.

Enjoy your weekend..................I will be in touch next week.

Mary Anne  ox