Spring Tablescape: A Blooming Celebration

Welcome, readers! Today we're getting a jumpstart on spring with inspiring ideas for tablescaping. What is tablescaping, you ask? Simply put, it's table setting in artful, decorative ways. Tablescaping can be accomplished with use of elements that complement your home's style - by event or season - or it can be with decorations created or purchased for a special occasion theme. In this case, we're getting set for spring season with a Blooming Celebration!

The spring chicks are hard at work, readying the table 'garden' for both foods and flowers. It's time for pulling out mowers and leveling out the grass lawns, often scattered with wild tufts of onion sprouts this time of year. Tools are pulled out and assessed for another season of work.

Tulips are blooming, and the promise of more flowers to come are evident with buds and foliage emerging on the twiggy branches of prior years' plants.

Watering cans are pulled from storage and back out onto the porches and near sheds, ready to quench the thirsty earth, or maybe used to house a plant or two.

Birds are happily looking at new real estate prospects on where to nest for the season..

Gardeners are planning and planting early vegetables for optimal yields: lettuce, kale, carrots, radishes, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, and tomatoes. 

It truly is a season of promise. It's a blooming celebration!

Have you caught spring fever yet? If so, I've got just the remedy for you! Be sure to see the list of table stylists' links beneath the graphic below, leading to a full bouquet of spring table inspiration! I'd like to thank Chloe Crabtree of the blog, Celebrate and Decorate, for her lead in organizing all the stylists for today's tablescaping ideas.

Home is Where the Boat Is
Panoply (you are here!)
My Family Thyme
Red Cottage Chronicles
The Painted Apron
Everyday Living

Debbee's Buzz
From My Carolina Home

Home and Gardening with Liz
Create with Cynthia

Bluesky at Home

Harbour Breeze

Living with Thanksgiving

Katherine's Corner

My Thrift Store Addiction
The Little Yellow Corner Store
Sweet Sensations
Belle Bleu Interiors

Corner of Plaid and Paisley

Zucchini Sisters
Life and Linda

Intelligent Domestications
First Day of Home

White Arrows Home

Calypso in the Country

Celebrate and Decorate

I do hope you enjoy the sense of rebirth which spring can so easily inspire. Take a walk, look for the signs, and find some joy in nature's awakening.

I like to add my source list to tables I create, just so you can see the many venues where elements can be gathered from to create a look that's varied. Many of mine are things I've had for several years, but some are recent purchases. I don't normally add links, as none of these are sponsoring vendors. 

Blooming Celebration Source List

Tablecloth - April Cornell
Napkins, Glasses, Bird S&P - Vintage Finds
Ivory Dinner Plates - Homer Laughlin "Everything Fiesta" outlet
Debbie Mumm Spring Bouquet Salad Plates - eBay
Flower Vase - Blenko (gift)
Twig Flatware, Rattan Chargers - Pier 1
Chicks with Carts, Eggs - MacKenzie-Childs
Wheelbarrow, Serving Utensils - Mariposa

Thank you for your visit today. Your comments and/or questions are welcome, and I would love it if you decide to come back and visit again. Let's get acquainted!

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thanks to Suzanne of Pieced Pastimes Saturday Sparks Link Party #366 for featuring this post!)

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Month, Happiness is Homemade, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, The Dedicated House, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Delightsome Life H&G, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Addiction

Tales of the Traveling Tote and a Giveaway!

Happy March, everyone! Mr. P. and I are popping in to greet you with another installment of the Tales of the Traveling Tote today. For a bit of the history of how these adventures began, you can start at this link, here. For my past tales, you can click on this link, here, which lists the tales in their most recent order of publishing on my blog. All my tribe sisters' current links are near the end of this post, so be sure to check them out, too, along with a cute MacKenzie-Childs giveaway!

Mr. P. and I have had a rather quiet winter, especially compared to this time last year. We've traveled very little, due to the fact that Mr. P. fell hard in late January and is nursing a fractured vertebrae (T12). It's a slow recovery, and hopefully by spring he will back to his normal level of activity.  I make sure he's getting out each day for short trips, though, even if it's just lunch out or a little shopping at the grocery or with the Scott brothers. 😉 I'm like a hummingbird, flitting around most days with pent up energy to burn. I've spent much of winter continually working on organizing things in storage and home, mostly for things to sell in the antique booth spaces. Organizing paperwork for taxes also consumes a lot of [especially] mental energy (I prepare about a half a dozen or so family member returns that vary in complexity). Just a few outings with friends and sisters kept me sane through winter and Mr. P.'s down time.

We have a really nice local theater house that's been restored near our antique mall where my sisters and I rent booth space. My sister and I took in a showing of "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" in early January at that theater. Miss Charley C loved the flooring and begged for a photo op.

At the end of January, a good friend and I, along with Miss Penny (my newest bag, read all about her, here) trekked to Blenko Glass Factory in Milton, WV to make our own water bottles. You can read more about that fun experience, here.

Miss Penny is my bag of choice lately, given that she is so lightweight and can hold so much!

Another outing with that same friend was in early February, to the Homer Laughlin Company's "Everything Fiesta" outlet in Sutton, WV. As a dish hoarder (even in downsizing), this trip could've been a lot more dangerous than it actually was. I only purchased four dinner plates (for a whopping total of $10.60, including tax).

Although winter was quiet, every day still feels like a new experience, living in our loft through our first winter. We're still loving the ease of living with less and, to be honest, although I love the gifts my landscape garden delivered each spring, I am grateful not to have the responsibility of working the garden on my "to do" list. Instead, I can visit my local sisters and daughter whenever I want to garden, or even help out on the shared garden terrace here in our vertical neighborhood. I look forward to all my blogging friends' gardens as well. So, friends, keep those garden posts coming this spring!

NOW, ONTO THE GIVEAWAY!

The Traveling Totes Tribe is offering another giveaway. Jenna at the Painted Apron is our giveaway sponsor this time. One lucky reader who leaves a comment on Jenna's March 1 post will have their name thrown into the hat for an opportunity to win this MacKenzie-Childs Flower Market Whisk! Hurry over now!

As promised, here are all the links to the rest of tribe members' travels since our December 1 post.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @ The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply (you are here!)

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie with Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Sketchy Reader

Cherry Kay with Miss Carrie Ann Hall @ Entertaining Women

Thank you so much for dropping by the blog today. I love reading your comments, and don't forget to leave one on Jenna's blog for a chance at the giveaway! Come again for our next adventure, which  will be June 1, 2020.

Rita C. at Panoply

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Month, Happiness is Homemade, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, The Dedicated House, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Delightsome Life H&G, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Addiction

Blenko 'Blow Your Own Water Bottle' Workshop

At the end of January, a friend and I took the opportunity to participate in one of Blenko Glass Co.'s workshops they offer for the public. Glass manufacturing has a long history in West Virginia, and Blenko's been manufacturing glass in our state since 1921. It's a great experience to not only tour glass manufacturing, but to take part in the process! For one price, participants are allowed to go onto the glass factory floor and work alongside the veteran glassblowers, creating one of their designated production items, and take the item home (after a week of firing in the kiln). The January workshop was to make the iconic Blenko #384 (the 4th design originally introduced in 1938): the water bottle (decanter).

The first thing you do when going to one of these workshops is enter through the gift shop doors - temptation right off the bat!

We then moved in groups onto the glass factory floor, which is basically a huge, 100 year old warehouse with glass furnaces scattered throughout, heating up to 2400° in each. We dressed in layers but most workers were in t-shirts. I went first, and my friend followed after me.

We were shown a table display of colors to choose from that day. My friend and I both chose Azure blue. The master glassblowers led us through steps of guiding a wooden spoon dipped in water beneath the glass blob to cool it, coaching us on blowing the glass into the mold, using the tool to bend the spouts, and then walking alongside us as we put the decanter onto the lehr (a type of oven that cools the glass). They handled the more dangerous and delicate steps in between of heating the glass in the ovens, rolling and breaking off the excess glass from the molds, and the handing off tools used.

A very smart marketing move on Blenko's part is giving each participant a $5 coupon toward any purchase, good only for the day of the workshop. If you bought anything, you were then given the chance to spin a game wheel for a chance at another free item. I bought the water bottle in Elderberry, and won a mini water bottle (I chose Cobalt)!

We returned a week later to pick up our water bottles. So, how did my water bottle turn out? Let me preface my answer by saying that when we participate, we are told that not all products make it through the cooling process. In that case, you're allowed to choose a 'second' from the gift shop as a replacement. Well, mine made it through the cooling without breakage, but.....

Look closely at the dimple on the front of the bottle (L frame, above), and then look at the interior of the bottle (R frame, above). Evidently I didn't blow hard enough because the glass didn't fill out the mold completely! No problem, my friend gave me hers (same color), and she chose Elderberry (same color I bought the day of the workshop). It was all good!

I love the iconic Blenko #384 glass decanter, and I have been growing my collection, using each one frequently. They are 8" tall and hold 32 oz (minis are 6" and hold 16 oz), easy to handle with indented bodies, and have pour lips on both edges, great for either right-hand or left-hand grip. They are often colorful elements featured in my tablescapes, such as the Elderberry in this tablescape.....

.....the Cobalt Blue in this tablescape.........

.....the vintage color, Antique Green, from this tablescape......

.....as well as this tablescape....

I also love using them in seasonal displays, such as the Antique Green one, below.....

.... and this one (Spring Green).

The water bottles can also be used very handily as flower vases. Below is a photo of my current growing collection of Blenko #384s: (L to R) Cobalt (including a 16 oz mini), Azure, Elderberry, Antique Green, Spring Green.

I participated in one of the earlier Blenko workshops in 2016, making Easter eggs. You can read about that here (btw, if you read that earlier post, you'll find I am 0 for 2 in success for end results, lol). If you're ever coming through West Virginia or making plans to, you really ought to check out the Blenko Glass Co. website and see if one of their workshops is being held during your trip. The workshops fill quickly, so keep that in mind! Here's a link to the official Blenko Glass Co. Facebook page also, where I first saw my workshop advertised.

Do you like Blenko or have any pieces, vintage or new? Do you think you'd enjoy a workshop like this? I love reading your comments, so do tell, and thanks for your readership today!

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thanks to Cecilia of My Thrift Store Addiction's Vintage Charm Party #221 for featuring this post!)

Sharing at any of these given parties: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Month, Happiness is Homemade, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, The Dedicated House, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Delightsome Life H&G, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Addiction

Purple Hearts for Valentine's Day

Hello, readers! Today's post is delivering inspiration for celebrating love with a tablescape - whether it's for Valentine's, Galentine's, or any other meal with loving overtones.

I've set a very simple table with a mix of masculine / feminine touches. The tablecloth is a classic paisley print, in shades of winter grays, and is my base for a start / slant toward a masculine appeal. I tend to gravitate toward less popular color schemes or themes for Valentine's tablescaping. The idea of purple hearts is a departure from the typical Valentine red or pink hearts, but they sparked memories of my father, a purple heart recipient in WWII, and my mother, who loved the color purple. For a related post, see "Love Letters From the Greatest Generation", here. Mr. P.'s birthday is in late January, so I certainly had him in mind with this styling also.

I have caught myself building a collection of purple elements over the past few years. I purchased the crackled stemware a few years ago, then added the purple placemats last year. This year, I added the mulberry heart bowls, elderberry glass decanter, and eggplant napkins. Don't you just love all the names for purple, masterminded for marketing appeal?

I am within driving distance to both Homer Laughlin China Company and Blenko manufacturers, based in West Virginia since 1903 and 1921, respectively. I called the HLC Fiesta factory outlet nearest me to see if they had the mulberry heart bowls, possibly in less expensive manufactured 'seconds' (no), but I found firsts, sale-priced, on the factory's website. Mulberry was HLC's 2018 color for new Fiestaware production.

The elderberry decanter was picked from among a lot of 'seconds' at the Blenko Visitor's Center in Milton, WV, and was their 2019 color for new productions. This decanter is the iconic #384 (the fourth design introduced in 1938), is still manufactured, and remains highly popular. It's so affordable to shop at the factory and be able to choose your own. I couldn't find any flaws with the one I picked.

The rest of the table elements were all pulled from my inventory: chargers, dinnerware, flatware, place cards, and centerpiece. My go to style is in a mix of not only masculine / feminine, but also a mix of new and vintage pieces.

My centerpiece is crystal candlesticks, flanking a crystal bowl filled with a trio of silver bocce balls, ivory buttons, an icy flower pick arching over, and little lights strung throughout. The intention was a simple, wintry look. Napkins were styled in the simplest of folds, a rose (for a links to Youtube video how-tos, click here or, alternatively, here).

For even more 'love'ly inspiration, have a look-see at all the stylists and links to their ideas, conveniently listed beneath the graphic below. I'd like to thank Chloe Crabtree of the blog, Celebrate and Decorate, for her lead in gathering all the stylists for today's tablescaping ideas.

Celebrate and Decorate
Home and Gardening with Liz
Debbee's Buzz
Panoply (you are here!)
Bluesky at Home
Red Cottage Chronicles
Living with Thanksgiving
Home is Where the Boat Is
Everyday Living
Corner of Plaid and Paisley
My Family Thyme
Intelligent Domestications
White Arrows Home
Life and Linda
My Thrift Store Addiction
Calypso in the Country
PMQ for Two
Katherine's Corner
Create with Cynthia
Sweet Sensations
Our Crafty Mom
The Painted Apron
The Little Yellow Corner Store

I hope you've found a thing or two that inspires you today. I've included my source list just below for your convenience and retail interest (no affiliations, I am a non-revenue producing blog!).

Purple Hearts for Valentine's Day Source List

Tablecloth - Tabitha Webb - HomeGoods
Chargers, Placemats, Napkins, Stemware - Pier 1
Sterling Flatware - Prelude - Auction
Cream Dinnerware - Pfaltzgraff  Filigree - eBay
Mulberry Heart Bowls - Fiestaware - Homer Laughlin China Company Fiesta Factory Direct
Elderberry Glass Decanter - Blenko - Blenko Factory/Gift Shop
Crystal Bowl Centerpiece - Tiffany (gift)
Crystal candlesticks, silver bocce balls, ivory buttons, place cards - vintage finds

I will leave you with the following history on this holiday: The origin of Valentine's Day, according to Britannica Encyclopedia, ranges anywhere from an ancient Roman, "coming of spring" festival (Lupercalia), to a Roman Catholic bishop's martyrdom for defiantly marrying couples as a means of sparing the men from war, to a modern day celebration of romance. Just so you know, the idea of Valentine's Day was largely commercialized starting in the late 1700's. It's not that I don't like the idea of celebrating Valentine's Day (Mr. P. proposed to me on a Valentine's Day!), but I am sensitive to those who don't like the holiday. For all those struggling with Valentine's Day as a holiday for whatever reason, this one's for you:

Thank you for your readership today. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Valentine's Day. Feel free to leave your comments. I try to respond to each and every one.

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thanks to Linda of Life and Linda's Love Your Creativity Link Party #31, to Julie of My Wee Abode's Tuesday Turn About #35, to Bev at the Eclectic Red Barn's Thursday's Favorite Things, and to Kathy of A Delightsome Life's Home and Garden Thursday #35 for featuring this post!)

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Month, Happiness is Homemade, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, Thistle Key Lane, Bluesky at Home, The Dedicated House, Zucchini Sisters, French Ethereal SYS, Delightsome Life H&G, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, My Thrift Store Addiction

Traveling Tote Special Edition #22: MacKenzie-Childs Recognition, and a Special Giveaway!

Hello, readers! Today's post is a very special edition of the Tales of the Traveling Tote, celebrating our tribe's 5th anniversary of travels! We are also celebrating a very special anniversary giveaway that will allow one lucky reader to have a unique connection to our anniversary, and it is sponsored by the team at MacKenzie-Childs! Please read further for the details on how to enter. I promise you it's very simple! Now, allow me to introduce to you to my latest tote.....Miss Penny!

The team at MacKenzie-Childs created tote bags for each of us traveling tote members in celebration of our five years of loyalty and travel adventures! The news of the gift coming was a total surprise to us, but enthusiastically received. The sewing team found insight as to each of our personalities through our respective blogs, and came up with unique designs for each of us. We all had a lot of fun communicating with each other as we received our totes, trying to guess whose was whose. Patti received photos of each of them from us individually, and ultimately sent out the collage photo below, asking us if we guessed correctly. It took me four tries to name them correctly! Here's a collage of each of our bags:

These bags are so easy to carry! Lightweight, yet roomy enough for a weekend stay. Mine made its first trip in early December to take in holiday festivities for a weekend away. I can't wait to take it with me in the years to come!

Cherry Kay created a poem for us to share with you, our readers, as a teaser to our very special giveaway surprise. Be sure to continue reading!

NOW, ONTO THE GIVEAWAY!

The Traveling Totes Tribe is offering one lucky reader a very special giveaway. Our giveaway sponsor this time is MacKenzie-Childs, in recognition of our tribe's five years of loyalty and travel adventures. Leave a comment, telling me one way in which you might use the tote pictured below. Up to ten readers who do so will randomly have their names thrown into the hat (with our other tribe members' random ten draws for comments left on their posts) for an opportunity to win this gorgeous MacKenzie-Childs tote made expressly for our anniversary! The winner will be chosen January 27th and will be notified by email soon after. This post will be updated once the winner is announced. Be sure to leave your email (either in the comment or by emailing me directly at Panoply) so we may contact you if you're chosen. Good luck!

You may increase your chances of winning by leaving a comment on each of my tribe members' blog posts below. Good luck!

Debbie with Miss Tassie @ Mountain Breaths
Emily with Miss Lulu @ The French Hutch
Patti with Miss Tizzy @ Pandora's Box
Jenna with Miss Hello Gorgeous @ The Painted Apron
Linda P with Miss Gigi @ Life and Linda
Rita with Miss Penny @ Panoply (you are here!)
Sarah with Miss Poppy @ Hyacinths for the Soul
Jackie with Miss Pansy @ Purple Chocolat Home
Ricki Jill with Miss Square Peggy @The Sketchy Reader
Cherry Kay with Miss Waverly @ Entertaining Women

POST UPDATE January 27, 2020: The winner of our MacKenzie-Childs serendipity tote bag giveaway was announced on Patti's blog at Pandora's Box. The winner is Rhonda, who left her comment on Jenna's blog at the Painted Apron. Thank you to all who entered, and congratulations, Rhonda!

Just as a testament of our varied travels so far, here's a graphic of where our original Courtly Check totes have collectively visited in the past five years, in the United States alone! Only seven more states (MI, WI, MN, ND, MT, NB, CO), and we have the entire US and Puerto Rico covered!

Here are the countries to which the totes have collectively traveled the past five years. They include the US, France, Italy, England, South Africa, St. Kitts, Neves, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Mexico, Belize, Bahamas, Canada, and St. Thomas: 

As you can see, there's plenty of adventure left to cover. We're coming for you, world!

Thank you so much to all my readers for following along with the Traveling Tote Tribe. We'll see you again on March 1!

Rita C. at Panoply

Sharing: Pieced Pastimes, Best of the Month, Happiness is Homemade, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, Inspire Me, Tuesday Turn About, Make it Pretty, Zucchini Sisters' Celebrate Your Story,French Ethereal SYS, Delightsome Life H&G, Katherine's Corner TFT, Grace at Home, Vintage Charm