Leanne Shawler, Artist

My theme for this year was "Call the Midwife". While the hubby was a bit worried that I'd decorate the table with bloody babies, I went far more sedate. You see, in the current season of "Call the Midwife" (season 3 I think) they've used this service a number of times. So I just had to. Around the edge I decorated with hankies that belonged to my grandmother, my mother-in-law, and myself. I think the lace square in the middle belonged to my great-grandmother. The lace tablecloths are antique store bargains (because they have holes and are stained but who cares about that?)  Hot air balloons can wait until next year. So the centerpiece is a sedate carnations in a pearl filled jar, on top of a stack of Cherry Ames books (about a WW2 nurse and after), which I'd read as a kid and which belonged to my mother (not quite these editions though). A couple of rosaries -- one Anglican, one Catholic -- to symbolize the nun-midwives and we were off...

Venice in Winter was the theme I came up with for my table's design at my church's High Tea today. hubby took this photo. He folded the napkins into bishop's hats too. Only fitting for a church tea! Although -- folks didn't take too close a look at the images to recognize that they were Venetian buildings. Only one managed to see it straight off and she'd spent time there. (*sigh*) I was telling my hubby I spent $30 on this (flowers and 4 napkins) -- but then I remembered that um, I bought the sea-blue lining and those clear beads on the table. So it's probably closer to $50. Much better than the year I bought plate chargers from Pottery Barn, that's for sure! seafoam-colored trim found at Paper Tales. I was going to cut out the windows but realized how much work that was going to be. I made the gifts (handmade books decorated with Ann Voskamp's "Journal in a Box" images) with stuff from my stash. I'll show the covers of th...

This is the third year my church has held a High Tea. The first one I was too sick to go, last year and this year I've hosted (hostessed?) a table. (You can see last year's tablescape here .) I had grand plans as you might guess by my Pinterest board , but then I agreed to host a group of friends. They were all friends of a parishioner who passed away since the last high tea, and she loved birds, so my table design took a certain focus. You can see that focus change on the same Pinterest board as the pins go from various ideas to a bird theme. I mixed a bunch of elements from different photos together. I also got to reuse certain elements from last year's table too, so the only thing I had to buy were the flowers (and they were from Vons)! Royal Doulton blue & white china, Noritake china, bird's nest chargers from Pottery Barn (might have finally gotten money's worth!) teapot from Ebay, little birds nests from Pottery Barn (eggs bought at an etsy sh...

Ok, so now that Blogger has stopped doing its maintenance thing, or whatever glitch it was, and now that I actually have time to type.... I thought I'd start with the most recent event and then backtrack to posts that have been waiting in draft mode. So over a month ago, I posted about planning for a high tea . To be precise, my table that I was hostess for. (Hmm, that was a poorly worded sentence.) I took the inspiration from the Spring issue of Victoria magazine (April 2011, I think?), of their woodland table setting. And here's what I came up with. The ferns were gifts for those who sat at my table. I made the wreath based on Miss Mustard Seed 's tutorial on HGTV . (I should have used more glue, it got bumped around during the break-down part and I have to reglue some moss --- although it looks kinda shabby-distressed... I got the bird's nest chargers from Pottery Barn and they were my biggest expense, by far. I had the grape wreath on hand, the moss (although I got...