Tag Archives: Spring

Spring Flowers in the Garden

Posted on by

As soon as it is reasonably warm enough to walk safely and comfortably, I like to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden at least once a week. I am lucky to have this amazing public garden practically in my back yard — it’s only about a 35-minute drive and as a member I get unlimited entry.

With the promise of a perfect day and glorious spring flowers in bloom, I headed up to the CGB with my camera, set on manual mode. I was determined to get some practice using manual rather than program or automatic modes.

IMG_6554-001

I saw a beautiful yellow finch in the parking lot, but this was the only bird that I captured in the park.

I saw a beautiful yellow finch in the parking lot, but this was the only bird that I captured in the park.

Continue reading →

Getting Back My Blogging Mojo and Spring in My Step

Posted on by

I spent the morning wandering around Pier One, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel. I figured that if anything could perk up my dormant writing mojo, it would be Easter bunnies and pastel dishes.

Click into photo for source.

Click into photo for source.

Maybe I have some sort of seasonal affective disorder. Or maybe I’m just sick of Chicago’s whiplash weather. One minute it is 60 degrees and my tulips are coming up and the next minute there’s seven inches of heavy snow to be shoveled. Welcome to winters in the Midwest, I hear you saying. Get over it. Continue reading →

Kentucky Derby Tribute Tablescape

Posted on by

I am royalty — twice removed.

You were thinking kings and queens, right? Well, there are all kinds of royalty, and I know a prince, which makes me twice removed from the king. To be exact, one of my best friends is the son of a jockey who had an extraordinary career in horse racing — Ted was truly racing royalty. Ironically for today’s tablescape,Ted did not win the Kentucky Derby, but went on to win both the Preakness and the Belmont races in 1949. It’s just that whenever I think of racing, I think of Ted Atkinson. This Saturday, May 3, the 140th Kentucky Derby will be run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race will be televised on NBC, with coverage starting at 4:00 pm ET.

GotMyReservations Kentucky Derby Tribute Button Continue reading →

Springtime in Vienna Tablescape

Posted on by

It was pretty wet and chilly, that March spring break in Austria eleven years ago — my first trip to Europe. That doesn’t keep me from thinking about Vienna and Salzburg when I think spring. The pansies were profusely blooming and there were flowers and trees making their homage to spring everywhere, despite the weather. Nature is like that.

GotMyReservations Mirabell Gardens

Mirabell Palace and Gardens in Salzburg was one of the shooting locations for the Sound of Music.

Those pansies kept coming back to tantalize me when I started planning this week’s tablescape. I knew I wanted to incorporate the beautiful faux pansies I had seen at Joann’s, since it has still been too cold to have plants outside. I remembered the intricate embroidered cloths that I bought in Austria and voila! I had my inspiration for the week. Continue reading →

A Conversation about Tablescaping for Dummies

Posted on by

This post contains affiliate links; see my PR disclosure policy for details.

Today I’m thrilled to share a conversation about tablescaping with my niece, Jessie Weaver. Music Man and I just spent a wonderful long weekend in Chattanooga visiting family, as well as doing some touring in Atlanta. I enjoyed helping Jessie prepare for a party, and afterwards, Jessie wrote this guest post about her experiences, entitling it “Tablescaping for Dummies.”  I beg to differ. The blessing of creating a tablescape is that there are no wrong ways — or dumb ways — to do it. There is just YOUR way. And that’s what happened last weekend.

Jessie: When you are a self-confessed imbecile when it comes to home design, it’s a little intimidating to have your aunt, who blogs about tablescapes, come visit while you’re preparing to throw a dinner party. Really, though, it was a great blessing. The Expert went through my cabinets and drawers, helping me throw together a fantastic tablescape using only what I had. Continue reading →

Alycia Nichols, You Made My Day

Posted on by

I said it. I said “Uncle.”

I have spent my day in a funk after visiting my orthopedist and coming to a decision about my arthritic knee. He told me that I have to say “uncle” before he’ll consider doing knee replacement.

BandOhio

I’ve been suffering from what I call marching band knees for many years — my knees are shot from too many years of abuse and too many years of being overweight. I had arthroscopic knee surgery in 2002 and my doctor told me I’d be begging him for a knee replacement in five years. Well, it’s been eleven years, and I have been determined not to wimp out. Everyone said that it would become clear — that I would know when it was time for a knee replacement.

Sometimes life’s lemons are sweetened with sugar.

I still don’t know about the knee replacement, but I do know that I was in a bad place today. And then along came this wonderful post from my friend, Alycia Nichols of Tablescapes at Table Twenty- One.

Click into the photo to see Alycia’s amazing tablescape!

In February, when we were putting the final touches on our April 2013 trip to France, I posted about these cute placements I saw online. Then I dragged my traveling companions all over Paris trying to find these pink and green ones because my blogging buddy Alycia liked them. For those of you who don’t know Alycia, she is the kindest commenter out there in the blogging universe, and I wanted to thank her for her generosity with her time for other bloggers.

Click into the photo to see the full post.

What she created with a silly quartet of plastic placements is truly amazing and I am thankful once again for her thoughtfulness. Sometimes people outside of the blogging community don’t understand the sense of community and friendship that develops in the blog world among people who may never meet each other in person, and my friendship with Alycia is one of those connections that surpasses reason.

So, if a knee replacement will get me back to Paris, and London, and Rome, and Venice, and Florence, and Berlin, and Prague, and Istanbul, I’d better buck up and do it. My travel bucket list goes on and on… and Alycia and I need more stuff for our tablescaping stashes!

Please visit Alycia’s beautiful tribute to Paris. You won’t be disappointed.

 

 

 

Breaking the Forsythia Law

Posted on by

Where did winter go? We never had one in Chicago. This is by far the most beautiful spring I have ever enjoyed in 35 years of living in Chicago. The old joke is that Chicago has two seasons — winter and construction. In between we have about a week of fall and one day of spring.

I was so excited by our March spring (???? — when will the other shoe drop?) that I decided to take photos of the amazing forsythia that popped into bloom over the weekend. While driving through the parking lot of our newly renovated mall, I spied a well-shaped forsythia bush and stopped to take a photo. Sounds innocent, right?

As I’m focusing my camera on the perfect spot, behind me I hear someone asking, “Can I help you?” I turned around, saw what apparently was the shopping center security guard in his seekie car, and replied, quite obviously, that I was taking a photo of the beautiful flowers and that everything was fine. Still innocent, right?

Oh, no. It’s illegal to take a photo of forsythia in this particular shopping mall because if I can take a photo, so can terrorists, and terrorists aren’t allowed to take photos of anything in America. You know why.

I was very tempted to mouth off, but I said I understood and got back in my car. As I drove away, I really wanted to drive back around and flaunt the authority of “the man.” But then I thought about how getting arrested would look in the newspaper. It might just affect my credibility in the classroom, don’t you think?

I’m a law-abiding citizen and proud of it. And here’s the photo I took of another beautiful forsythia bush from a legal spot on the sidewalk. I’m really glad I didn’t get arrested for it, because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get much out of my yellow petals blowing in the breeze. Note to self; don’t use HDR when the wind is blowing.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Photo Op

Posted on by

It’s time to change my header photo to something more spring-ey. Although there’s still some snow on the ground here in Chicagoland, the microclimate on the south side of my house has little green things erupting everywhere.

Does anyone have a wonderful photo of the burgeoning spring you would like to showcase on my blog?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...