May Your Crayons Always Have a Point! Let’s Dish #77

Good evening, Dishers!  Hope these waning days of August find you well and finding dish bargains.  :)

Thank you to all who took the Summer Fun Challenge last week.  Some of you really got into the swim of things!  More about the challenges next time.

Tonight, in honor of all my teacher friends who are dusting off their chalk, and all the little ones, sharpening their pencils, a little table for you!

Our menu is on a dry erase board I trimmed with duct tape years ago.  Nothing gets out of this house without a fight!

I started with a blackboard black cloth on top of a to the floor checked one.

Some marble notebooks are scattered and glue sticks added.  A pencil encircled vase holds some susan’s and asters.

A small chalkboard reminds of the school year.

Yellow ruffled charger, and red plate, CTS.  I liked  the scroll work on the plate, $1.80.

The yellow square plate is from the $1 sale at Pfaltzgraf, they haven’t had one of those in awhile!  I have the dinner plates in yellow, and red from there too.  Come on Pfaltzgraff, time for a good sale again!

The napkin is orange, from CTS, .26, as well as the blue bakers which I believe were $1.99.

Swirled blue and green flatware by Cambridge, also from CTS.

I wrote the name on with chalk on the “black board” cloth.  It is just a cotton cloth.

Each place has a new box of crayons and a green apple.

I think I got all the colors of a box of crayons in, the basic box, that is  !

Crayon colored red and blue candles , green Antropologie glasses, via the .99 store and blue hobnails via CTS.

I can’t resist the school supply sales this time of year.  Notebooks, filler paper, all for a penny.  I pack them up to give to my dil to use for the kids during the year.  The pantry at church is always in need of school supplies for the needy, and for pennies you can afford to be very generous.

I wish all those headed back to the classroom, a good year.

I will sit on the porch and toast the school bus as it rolls by, then have a second cup of coffee and read the paper, things I never did during my 33 years of teaching!  :)

An abundance of sale peaches inspired this quick week  night dinner.

Pounded and breaded in Panko chicken cutlets, topped with sauteed peaches.  Slice the peaches, saute them with some butter, scallions , apricot brandy, and a splash of orange juice.    Serve with rice, broccoli and snow peas. 

Same rules to link up…

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BLOG NAME first, and one TABLE related link.  It can’t be just food.

Let’s see what you have been up to this week!

Thanks so much for visiting and commenting!

I am joining Gollum for Foodie Friday and Diann for Thrifty Things Friday

Summer Fun Challenge! Let’s Dish #76

Tonight is another Let’s Dish challenge, a table that represents SUMMER FUN! 

A few weeks ago I chaired our beach community COVERED DISH Supper.  Tables and chairs were rented to add to what we had, and ice and soft drinks . coffee etc, were provided.  Guests were asked to bring a main, and dessert or salad, sufficient for their group plus 2. We had a wonderful assortment of chicken dishes, lasagne, salads, etc

You may remember the fabric I showed you from Duralee.  I made 9 tablecloths from it.

Each table had 3 vases, (actually large glasses I got years ago in KMart) and 2 ceramic sea themed votive holders and a salt and pepper shaker.

In the background you can see blue and white striped cloths.  I made those 2 years ago, and we used them this time for the food tables.  The blues were a perfect match.

I found colorful bowls in the .99 store, and I made a spinach strawberry feta salad for each table.  Small bowls were placed on the table to serve it, that way no one had to smush salad in with their meal!

I wrapped stainless steel utensils in white cloth napkins and tied the with blue ribbon.  

Small colorful buckets of Swedish fish kept the little ones happy!

We made New England Clam Chowder and Chili to feed the crowd, as well as cupcakes and a blueberry whipped cream cake.

The weather was perfect, and the so was the company.  It was wonderful to see Grandparents, children and grandchildren sharing an evening in this very special community. My son spent all his summers here, and now his children are enjoying this piece of heaven.

Just a few yards away , the summer fun continues on the Bay!

Oh to be young again!  My gkids love riding Super mable. 

So although some of you are embracing Fall a full month early, we will be holding on.

Some schools don’t open here till Sept. 9th. so we have many good summer fun days ahead.

See you at the beach!

To link your SUMMER FUN challenge table , please be a follower.

Mention somewhere in your post that you are doing the SUMMER FUN CHALLENGE.

Blog name first, one link per week with no word id.

Visit as many as you can, and please leave a comment.

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you are enjoying lots of Summer Fun!

Let’s Dish #75 ~Lime Polka Dots with a Twist of Yellow

 

Good evening dish devotees, and glad you are here!

I enjoyed visiting all the entries last week, so many pretty tables!

I am helping with a party at our beach here this Sat.  It is the 75th Anniversary of this community, and we will have dinner on the beach and dancing on the pavilion.  All these benches will have to be moved to make room for the tents and tables.

  We usually have 130 tops, for these parties, but I guess because it is a special anniversary, we are at 270!  I have just finished doing all the name tags in calligraphy, and then a seating chart has to be done.  They are having tents, but rain will complicate the matter, so I am hoping for fair weather.

I will post pictures afterwards.

Last Sunday, my family came for dinner.  There are 9 of us, and only 4 are adults.  It was a beautiful evening, so after a day at the beach, a simple dinner was in order.

I used a to the floor cotton polka dot cloth.  It came from a thrift shop, and I did overpay for it at 15.00.  It had a stain on it that took me hours to get rid of, not sure if I got it all out.

I used the white chargers from Pier One Alma gave me, yellow polka dot plates from the clearance at CTS for less than  $1.00, and a cream soup cup by Hutschenreuther, that was $1.00.  :)

A wicker watering can filled with pee gee hydrangea and some yellow portulaca is the centerpiece.  Yellow stems , (CTS)with a lacey edge are from Horchow.

The dotted flatware is from WS Outlet, and the other is Fiesta.

I got it a few years ago, I have blue, yellow and green.  Good price, should have bought more!  I was still sane then, so I just took a few of each.

Little picket fence votive holders.  They are 13 yrs old, bought them for son’s rehearsal dinner, and they were .99.  I have a lot of them! 

Keeping it real, I set that, and then unset it for when the kids arrived!

This is the table after is was kidified, lol.  Notice the plastic glasses for the kids!

I set up a table for all the appy’s.  Cocktail meatballs, Sausage Bread,

you can search the recipe in the sidebar, baked clams, chicken salad on crackers and shrimp cocktail.

Love these big plastic bug domes from the .99 store.  I have had the smaller mesh ones, both from the .99 store where I found the Anthropology glasses and Luigi Bormioli compotes I had in my last post.  The mesh ones rust if you leave them out, even in the cabinet on the porch, so the plastic are more practical, and cover bigger platters.   Not bad for .99!

Dinner was London Broil, carmelized onions, pierrogis , and a big salad.  I made brownies, iced them, and the kids made Brownie Sundaes. 

The youngest guest,my son and dil’s 5th,  complete with bug bites on his legs, enjoys the PB wicker rocker his Nana picked up on the side of the road several years ago.  It was brand new with a free sign!

A pan of Peach Crumb cake, emphasis on the Peach and Crumb. very little cake.  I forgot to take a picture of a cut piece.

Make your favorite yellow cake recipe.  Substitute the liquid with the juice from the macerated peaches.  Cook the cake till it is firm enough to hold the sliced, sweetened , (sugar, cinnamon) peaches.  Put a thick layer on, and then lots of crumbs, bake till the crumbs are done. 

Serve it with some vanilla ice cream. Perfect summer dessert, and it is peach season here!

Summer fun challenge is next week, hope you will join in!

Oct. is the Fall Let There Be White.  ONLY WHITE DISHES, and one other color for linens, etc.  Start gathering your ideas, it should be interesting!  Off white dishes are fine, but no other color. :)

I always remind you to please visit at east 5 other entries and leave a comment.  I see you when I visit, and I am so glad so many of you are generous with your visits.

A get well shout out to Alycia Nichols, she is one of the best commenters out there, always so generous with her words!

A special request to say a prayer right now for one of our weekly linkers, a real sweetheart, who is going through one of the most difficult things in life right now.  I am sure she will tell you in her own time, but please pray for her.

Same rules, one table related post with a link back to this party, blog name first, and no word id.

Please be a follower to link up and leave a comment.

Have a wonderful week, it will be summer here till Sept. 21st.

School starts here on the 9th, so we are enjoying these last few weeks of being able to see our gkids.

Lots of beautiful beach days ahead, so don’t even mention pumpkins, I am not rushing it!!  There’s plenty of time !

Thanks so much for stopping by or joining in!  Love hearing from you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Let’s Dish # 74~ Pastel and Flowery

Hello Ladies, welcome to Let’s Dish!

Thank you to all those who took the challenge for the ALL WHITE DISH party, with the addition of one color for napkins, flatware, glasses, etc.

Some had a hard time sticking to the theme, but  many really nailed it.  It was was fun visiting all the  beautiful entries. 

In October we will do the challenge again, ALL WHITE DISHES, and the addition of one color for a Fall scape.  Fair warning, start thinking!  No dishes other than white, so keep your eyes open at the thrift shops and yard sales.  I know a few of you are moaning, but I got several requests for it!

Tonight my scape has very little white.  On the contrary the cloth is loaded with colors!

I bought 3 of these on ebay years ago, from a rental place.  They were like new, and a cotton poly rather than the all poly that are sold now, which I don’t really like!

I was having 12 for a birthday party for my oldest sister, (I am the youngest of 4), so I did 2 tables of 6.  On one I used these pretty shell shaped felt mats from BBB, pink flatware from Bealls, dinner plates from Reading China that Alma picked up for me, and lavender napkins.

The other table I used pink straw mats from CTree Shops.

Both tables had bowls of hydrangeas as centerpieces.

I kept it simple as there were men guests and I didn’t want it too crowded with “stuff”, as they feel uncomfortable.

We had Baked Clams, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, my special chicken salad, Shrimp Cocktail, Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Asparagus Salad with basil and Mozzarella and homegrown cherry tomatoes.  As it was a special occasion, we had Filet Mignon with carmelized onions, and sweet potato fries, my sister loves them!

For dessert I made a fresh peach crumb cake, Blueberry Cheese Cream Cake and a Banana Loaf.

I used a MaryAnn pan for the cake.  It was a white wedding cake recipe. Then there was a layer of cream cheese icing, fresh blueberries and then fresh whipped cream piped on.  I used the rest of the blueberries on the top.  It was a hit!!

I’ll save the Fresh Peach Crumb cake for another post.

A word about the napkins.  I bought them on line, and I am not happy with them.  The serged edges look chintzy and although I soaked them right away, and for 2 days, some of the stains would not come out!  I am sticking with cotton napkins from now on, even though they need to be ironed.  These frayed after one use.

I guess they are good enough to “play” with, but I am swearing off the polyester kind!

ANNOUNCING the challenge for August…

Although many of you are thinking Fall, school here only ended the last week in June and doesn’t start in some places till 9/9.  Summer is very much still here! 

8/21 Challenge will be Summer Fun.  Beach, picnic, pool party, luau, camping, anything that definitely denotes fun in summer activities.  That’s an easy one, hope you will come up with something and join in!

Alma, The Tablescaper and I went on a 12 hour bargain hunting marathon yesterday.  I am exhausted today.  If I have time I will post some of the results of the hunt. 

This is the best thing I found…

Made in Italy, Luigi Bormioli.

I got 12, but thank goodness there were 12 left for Alma.  She was driving and she may have left me there if she didn’t get hers! :)

They were .99!

The pretty white tray from Portugal was a hostess gift from my cousin.  Don’t you love it when people bring  something that is perfect for you!? 

Your turn!

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