Tuesday, August 9, 2011

THE BEST LAID PLANS. . . . . . .

Joy arrived a few minutes early and was greeted by my precious grand daughter, Gracie.  I was upstairs blow drying my hair as the morning had not gone as planned.  When you are entertaining a blogger friend for the first time, don't you just want perfection?  I never heard the doorbell ring and I was trying to do my RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT ACT to be ready for Joy.  My little Gracie appeared at the bathroom door and said, "Nana, your guest is here"  I told her to tell Joy to just go into the Great Room and I would be right down.  Well, as real
as children will be, she said, "My Nana is not ready would you come back in a few minutes???"  Holy Mama, I told her to go out to the car and get my friend and bring her in!!

Downstairs I came with all I could muster knowing after the night I had had nothing would be the way I wanted it to be. . . . . . . We exchanged hugs and happy to see each other and she handed me a beautifully wrapped gift. . . . A burlap bag tied with a  Tiffany blue satin ribbon from her daughters wedding, with an angel hair nest at the top!




I explained we had kept our grandson over night so our son and daughter-in-law could take a break together and be free for the night.  As a busy chef, this rarely happens!  They went to Lalapalooza at Grant Park, Chicago.   As luck would have it he spiked a fever about 3 hours after they dropped him off!  (Gracie had also spent the night because she wanted to be with her cousin).  I was in good shape and I knew I could pull this off...................................WRONG.  Didn't expect my little guy would be sick.  I was up with him during the night and the story goes on and on and on and on and on.  I held him all night before putting him down as he just wanted to be held and didn't feel good.
Joy could not have been sweeter nor more understanding.  Lunch in the garden bombed!!!
It was too hot!  So, we ate inside.

The menu stayed the same and all went well. . . . . . . disappointed as I was for everything to be as I wanted it to be, Joy said, "I am so glad you didn't cancel, this is just life and it is all real.  I would have been so disappointed had you told me not to come!"

We brought our lunch inside and our menu consisted of fresh gazpacho, followed by chicken salad on lettuce cups, watermelon slices and homemade banana bread that was to die for!

I had an abundance of peaches and blueberries and peach blueberry crumble was the dessert plan.

ESPECIALLY FOR YOU JOY. . . . . . . the way it was supposed to be. . . .




Mason jars filled with ice water/tea, served with orange wedges and fresh mint
from the garden.






A centerpiece created from hosta leaves, moss and flower frogs.
This great idea came from Eddie Ross, www.eddieross.com. When there is a center poll for
the umbrella , centerpieces become challenging.  Eddie showed us at a
Scentamental Garden event how to do this and it really is so clever.  Miniatures
of these can be used on serving trays.  If you don't know of Eddie Ross' blog, you
must visit his site.  A very clever man, kind of a male Martha Stewart!  His
partner Jaithan completes a fabulous twosome.  Kind and talented gentlemen
in every sense of the word.




Here you can see the flower frog after I pulled the moss back.



Summer at its best!





I also added some Springerei Fern that I borrowed from my hurricane
planting. . . .   



The white Astromeria are in water tubes. . . . don't try to use anything
but the hosta leaves. . . . they are sustainable without water . . . found that out
the memorable day that all went wrong (yesterday).  I had the most beautiful flower frog
arrangement, center table that look fab for about 10 minutes.  I thought, EDDIE,
WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THIS!  Wrong again!


Joy's company is perfect company and she is the Savvy City Farmer that once
only represented a blog site.  She is now my friend and I will cherish her
friendship always!  We had a ball in spite of it all and I welcomed her company
as long as she could stay.  She left at 4:00, it had begun to storm.  I sent
home banana bread and freshly made blueberry jam for Don.  It all turned out
better than I could have ever imagined.  So much to talk about and so much
to share!






4 comments:

savvycityfarmer said...

I can testify that every word of this saga is true ...
even the part where I was asked to wait in my car ....

hahaha

I chuckled all the way back to the drivers' seat ... this actually happened at our house, too just a few weeks ago. ( family arrived an HOUR early ... )

anywho ... this is now my friend forever ... design mentor and junkin' buddie ... you'll be hearing alot of tales from this end of the burbs ...
thank you thank you MA from the bottom of my little old midwestern heart.

I should've packed a bag and checked myself in for an overnight in your glorious guest room.

hahaha

still NEED the bread recipe ... !!
my bananas are getting mush-ier by the day ha

xoxoxo

Mary Anne said...

Dear Joy:

Go to the blogsite Little Clove. Her Banana Bread recipe is there.

ox m.a

Anonymous said...

Ha! Out of the mouths of babes, or something like that. It sounds like a delightful time, Mary Anne, in spite of a long night with a sick little guy and such a helpful young lady. What you share is real life and a wonderful example of how to "roll with it".

What a good idea for a centerpiece. I'll have to play around with this idea for our table on the deck. Thanks.

Gatsbys Gardens said...

Mary Anne,

Gracie speaks the truth of children! What a day you had and that staying up all night thing with a sick grandchild, I can realte to that. You are such a good grammie! Glad that you finally got through your lovely luncheon.

Eileen