Late Night Foodie Pleasures, thanks Trader Joe's

Is there anything better than chocolate? I think not. In this particular case; chocolate truffles, accompanied by a yummy dessert wine. The wine is "IPSUS" Pantelleria Passito Dessert Wine. The chocolate truffles is a Trader Joe's brand, very inexpensive, but quite smooth and chocolaty. The wine and truffles are a wonderful combination. A very little goes along way, which is good news for my hips.


Aren't they just cute, there were three at the beginning of this shoot, but I had to keep my strength up so I thought I would test one out just to keep me honest. And honestly, it was gooood!

As I had mentioned above, the truffles and wine came from Trader Joe's. It's a good thing the store is in the neighboring town otherwise I would be there alot more often! I love visiting on a Saturday, I look forward to leisurely sampling the food they offer, the coffee, and the occasional wine tasting. While I was off last week at such a tasting at "Joe's" I discovered a new dessert wine as you see pictured, so I plopped that baby in my cart along with the chocolate truffles and called it a day.

Do any of you have foodie favorites that you can share with me from Trader Joe's? Getting personal recommendations is almost as good as tasting it in real life, at least I will know what to put on my list for the next visit! You can even suggest something healthy..my hips will thank you!

Giving importance to your featured item in your Vignettes

I hope everyone's holiday was wonderful, mine was! I had a lovely dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend. And yes, I will be posting photos LOL

I played around a little with my coffee table vignette, I love changing up the look, especially since the holidays go away so quickly!

I thought I would pass along a little tip for you all that I use in many of my tablesettings/vignettes.
Most of the time I like to make sure my featured item in a tablesetting is set apart/highlighted, and given importance. In this case the coral is the main subject. To give it more visual importanance I placed it on a large upside-down glass candle holder. The photos make the items look smaller than they actually are, the items really are quite big. By placing the coral on top of the raised candle holdler, I think it gives the item the attention that I wanted to convey. Just to make sure the coral was going to sit correctly I placed one of my glass beaded edged dishes directly under the coral on top of the bottom of the glass candle holder.

Don't you think the candle holder looks like a fishermans net that has turned into sparkling glass?

The idea is to think outside of the box, always ask yourself what other use can a particular item do.



A closeup of the coral sitting on the glass beaded plate.




A little closeup....my interpertation of "jewels of the sea".


I hope this little tips helps you in your creation of your own tablescape/vignettes!

Christmas "Lady"

Oh my, this Christmas Lady post took me forever, I have lots more photos but I kept getting "booted off".
Here she is all jeweled up, along side with my tiny collection of magnifying glasses and my decorated cake plates. Pretty much everything shown here came from Walmart or Marshalls over the years.

Below, she was wearing her "naughty" necklace, but she still will get gifts, naughty or not ....

It is quite easy to decorate stacking plates, I have used these plates for years with the different color schemes I use. Just use a coordinating color scheme, add in a few sparkles and related items and you are good to go.

Inside the top sundae cup, supporting the tree topper is simply a string of pearl garlands cut up bead by bead to fill in the void and support the topper. I have also used the pretty flattened glass marbles you can purchase from Michaels or Walmart to support the tree toppers.

My crystal and cream Christmas tree will be posted on Tuesday. See you then!

Dinner and Dessert Tablesetting in front of the Fireplace

I just wanted to put up a quick shot my my dinner tablesetting tonight in front of the fireplace. It was pretty simple, a salad, chicken and rice with a sweet muffin and hot chocolate for dessert.

I've had the plaid plates for quite a few years, they came from Target. These were very inexpensive but the enjoyment from them has been priceless. I have been able to mix and match many christmas holiday dishes with them. For tablesettings I like to use the same color theme as my surroundings if I can. In this case I used dishes and accessories with whites, reds and some black, basically the same color theme found in my fireplace mantel decorations. I find alot of times the "road map" for your color scheme is right in front of you. Of course I have been known to use colors that don't match the room at all, in that case the tablesetting is the star. Not very helpful am I ??? ;)

Santa Christmas Mantel

I finally finished my Christmas mantel and tabletop tree in my den/library/tv room. It came together fairly easy, considering I have the worst cold I have gotten in years. I would have had a tablesetting but since I am sick, I really did not feel like eating anything (quite unusual for me), I will be showing some of my tables later though. Most everything (greens) on the mantel came from Michaels Arts and Crafts store. They are having a 50% off sale right now on very realistic looking greens.



I want to paint this room red, the grey/white walls are just not the comforting color I am looking for, but I am having a hard time finding the right red, I want something more blue-red-rich rather than an orangey red, if anyone has any paint suggestions please let me know.



I love using plaids in my faux english/scottish decor, I think upholstered walls would be great in this room, but way too much work for me to do alone so I shall have to settle for paint instead.

Just a little detail about the mantel. I do like an abundance of greens. The key to acheiving a full and realistic look is to try to vary the kinds of greens you use. The base pine greens in this case were very realistic. All it took was 2 strings/ropes of this pine greenery (1 "string" for the left side of the mantel and 1 "string" for the right side, 8 large picks of hanging/drapey greens, and 1 piece of a drapey lacy cypress type of green. A mixed rope of white hydrangeas and roses (from Walmart a few seasons ago), pine cones (free), faux feathers from Michaels. I held them together with some pipe cleaners, everything was just placed on top of the mantel and simply stuck in the greenry picks, no need for Styrofoam, some glass icicles (from various stores, but I know that Target and Kmart has them) and that was it!

Oh, yes, I am a mad collector of Santas, so I added in this particular one, keeping in with my more woodsy relaxed feel. Closer to Christmas I will go out into my garden and place some Nadina berries into the arrangement for a bit more realism.

Fall tablescape

I am finally able to post my Fall tablesetting, I have been having major computer problems getting online. Well, better late than never? :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I am still full! Now I have to figure out my Christmas menu, since I am hosting this year.

Fall Fireplace Mantel decorating

Hi all,

This is a sneak peek of my Fall decorated fireplace.

I know I have not been around for AGES! I am finally feeling up to par, and ready to join the world again.

Hopefully tonight I will take a full shot with small voltive candles lit.

I love decorating "overkill", I just can't help myself, I start out simple, and just like I can't take one bite of chocolate, I have to just keep going. Luckly, this was very inexpensive to do. One strand of fall leaves, faux feathers, strands of other draping type of greens. Orangey pods, xmas greens and tureen (not shown) from Walmart, nest, and dogs from Marshalls. Real apples from the grocery store. Pinecones FREE = Pricesless LOL

I'll be doing a Fall tablescape in a couple of days.

Late Christmas additions

Yikes, for those of you that just seen these pics without words...well, I hit a wrong button, it came up with no words, so here I am editing... (blush).

Anyhoo, Yep, these photos are way past Christmas, but since I don't believe in working on a deadline for a "hobby" I hope you will forgive me. I have way to many deadlines at work, and I promised myself that my hobby blog would be stress free (most of the time any way :)

This little snow/angel person, is something I picked up a few weeks ago, the little face just spoke to me of sweetness, it is by the artist Bethany Lowe, she has some really cute items.

I have a collection of Swarovski snowflakes, some my DD has given me, and I bought a few for my self, I am always tempted to leave them out all year, the sparkle is just unreal when the light hits them. The little camera effect I did here is now popularly called bokeh, but it is really just a photo set up utilizing something called "depth of field". I am embarrassed to admit, that I did not use a tripod here, I got a new camera from Santa/aka: Me ( I decided I was a really good girl this year, that's my story and I am sticking to it). Anyway, I wanted to see just how far the camera could go without a tripod, hmmm, still need one LOL.