Peaceful Cherry Blossoms

April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 / Alycia Nichols / 17 Comments

I have perhaps finally gotten the hang of adding a wee bit of voiceover to my videos. This is my first, so please grant me your kind mercy! (In my head I sound like the very Scottish Mrs. Hughes in “Downton Abbey” when I say that !🤣🤣🤣)

April is on its way out, and I’m getting this post up just by the skin of my teeth! While Missouri isn’t exactly the cherry blossom capital of the world, we have our fair share of beauties. Our orchard when I was a kid had several that always produced the most magnificent show of color! As for the fruit…well, the birds got the lion’s share of that.🙄

The centerpiece starts with a fountain of pink and white faux cherry blossom branches assembled in a simple white cylinder. To more closely tie in with the plates, I added a number of bare branches.

There is no discernible maker imprinted on the back of the plates, but I bought them at Home Goods. They have a bit of a lip all around which makes them great for any variety of entrées. The soft pink glass chargers are from Hobby Lobby.

I absolutely LOVE the gold tone stick-thin flatware and colored glassware, all from Home Goods.

I have no recollection where I may have bought these faux bonsai, but they’re a wonderment for Asian-inspired decorating.

This magnificent monogrammed lumbar pillow is from the supremely talented **SewGracious** **Monograms**.

The goldtone pagoda lanterns are from a decor boutique here in the city of Lee’s Summit where we live called **Cameron’s Home Furnishings**. I love to go there to browse, and I almost always find something I simply “can’t live without.”🙂 The sake set is from World Market.

I love to use fabric cocktail napkins even when I’m just having a glass of ice water, and I have quite an expansive collection. These were recently acquired fromThe Robin’s Nest on ETSY, and I can’t say enough great things about the design!

This tablescape works well for cherry blossom season celebrations, National Cherry Pie Day (already come and gone this year, but will make its return on Monday, February 20, 2023), George Washington’s birthday, ladies’ birthdays, bridal or baby showers, the promotion of breast cancer awareness, or for any Asian-inspired occasion.

Interested in seeing more Asian-inspired posts on this blog? Check these out:

Really into pink like I am? Take a look at these posts!

Like big, overreaching centerpieces? Here ya go!

And this post, Life Is Just A Chair of Bowlies, is great fun if you just love cherries!🍒🍒🍒

Thank you for stopping by to say hello! I always appreciate it!

Float Like a Butterfly

May 14, 2013April 16, 2014 / Alycia Nichols / 66 Comments

The color brown has its ups and downs when summer rolls around. We don’t want brown grass or leaves hanging around, but we do want that famed Coppertone® brown skin. (As a doctor’s wife, I’ll fuss at you sun worshipers about the dangers of that at another time! 🙂 ) I don’t think brown is a color we generally associate with summer when it comes to decorating, but I hope to dispel that notion.
(Click on any photo, then click again to enlarge/enhance for fine details.)

INSPIRATION: Photo by Angie Weston of Design and Capture Studio

My work was featured in a local bridal magazine, EA Bride, a couple of years ago. I continue to marvel at the work of other designers whose work appears in the magazine with each passing issue. The photo of this grapevine ball in the Summer 2012 issue of the magazine really caught my attention, and I decided I wanted to create something similar someday. That someday finally came to pass a couple of weeks ago.

Brown. Yes, that’s what I said…brown. A brown full-length linen is the foundation of this summer tablescape. Like black, brown is a neutral that has the capacity to make other colors snap, crackle & pop.

An April Cornell table runner and napkins marry brown with vibrant, yet muted shades of seafoam blue. Two square acrylic chargers – one in an icy blue, one in a coppery brown – play off of the linens. Soft seafoam blue dinner plates from TJ Maxx round out the stack. The faux mother of pearl-handled flatware is from Target.

When I found this fabulous ocean blue color of stemware at Stein Mart a few years ago, I was absolutely smitten. Still am!

I found the large cream-colored urns at Michaels. A grapevine ball is wrapped in Smither’s Oasis MEGA beaded wire in “Ice Blue”. (This beaded wire comes in 11 amazing colors!!!) I used a dab of hot glue to semi-permanently affix softly-tinted blue & green faux hydrangea blossoms. Pretty hand painted aqua blue silk butterflies generously given to me by the good people at Beau-coup.com “float” about. (These graceful beauties also come in green, lavender and pink!) I love the way they transform the centerpiece and add to the 3-D look!

Between the two urns sits a trio of smaller grapevine balls trimmed in butterflies and beading much like its big sisters. I didn’t even bother to cut the beaded wire…it’s just one continuous string wrapped around the three orbs. (Students…remember our golden Rule of Three? Look at this picture!!!:-)) These would be so easy and economical to make for wedding reception decor!!!

Taibei Buddha figurines in seafoam blue from Burlington add to the peaceful aura of the tablescape. Mercury glass votive holders in a blue ombre design are scattered all throughout and around the base of the centerpiece to provide ambient light.

The buffet is lightly adorned to complement the peaceful nature of the dining table decor. Bonsai trees anchor each end. The center decor is made up of two brilliantly-colored Z Gallerie pillar candles flecked with similarly colored rhinestones. The pillar candles sit atop broad iron candlesticks from Hobby Lobby. A trio of votives, like those on the table, act as a visual connect between the bonsais.

It was much too cold and windy the days I worked on this blue & brown summer tablescape, but imagine it outside at dusk. Thanks to the chocolaty brown tablecloth, everything on top of the table would just kind of float in an ethereal fashion. Like sea foam gently rolling over sand. Cool, huh?

Still don’t think brown is a summer color? 😉

Other blue & brown posts on this site:
“Autumn Blues”
“Zen Garden”
“Mum’s the Word”

Other tablescapes with an Asian-inspired theme on this site:
“Peaceful Peonies”
“Mikasa Daylight”
“Mandarin Bling”
“Copper Zen”
“Morocco for Two”
“Year of the Rabbit”

I’m joining these fun link parties this week, and I hope you’ll come along!:
Jessica’s “A New Creation”
Cuisine Kathleen’s “Let’s Dish!”
Susan’s “Tablescape Thursday”

Also check me out at BeBetsy.com!

Blue & White 30th Birthday

August 14, 2012June 15, 2016 / Alycia Nichols / 67 Comments

No, silly…not my 30th birthday! We just hosted our 3rd and final child’s 30th birthday party this past Sunday. I’m putting this photo first because seeing 3 of them through to 30 deserves a celebratory drink…or two…or three! 🙂
(All photos by Sheri L. Grant. Click any image to enhance/enlarge it.)

The guest of honor requested Chinese food for her party, so cool….Asian cuisine and decor it is! As guests arrived they were invited to enjoy a virgin Mai Tai (with “fuel” provided on the side for those of us who like it leaded!!! ;-)) A mix of pineapple & orange juices splashed with cherry limeade made up the Mai Tais, and I threaded orange slices and maraschino cherries onto fun bamboo skewers from World Market to dress them up and add flavor. These beautiful cobalt blue champagne flutes from Dollar Tree were a perfect companion to our blue & white theme throughout. (Shopping at Dollar Tree and Deal$ – owned by the same parent company – is a smart way to really stretch your tablescaping dollars!) Ralph Lauren “Mandarin” plates are a decorative addition to the foyer table along with mums floating in Pier 1 white ceramic bowls.

One by one, the guests began to arrive. (My stepdaughter/the guest of honor, Robyn, is the one wearing the white sleeveless blouse.)

Because we have such a tiny dining room, we turned the family room into a casual chic Chinese restaurant in blue and white for the evening. I used white outdoor bistro chairs here, but if you can splurge on a bamboo Chiavari or Chippendale chair or even a wicker or seagrass chair…that would be beyond fabulous!!! Let your budget dictate what you use. Bamboo chairs are SO on my wish list!!!

After draping two 6-ft. oblong tables with white full-length linens to create a sumptuously long 12-foot Tuscan-style table, I created place settings using square rattan chargers from Tuesday Morning. I had my sister running all over Minnesota (the closest state to Missouri where there were more of them!) looking for enough of these for 12. Thanks, Barf! Fun monstera leaf placemats from Z Gallerie added depth and color. White square plates from the B. Smith collection (Bed Bath & Beyond) and beautiful rice bowls with a cutout for chopsticks from Old Time Pottery finish off the place setting. We kept the rice bowls on the plates as decor until just before guests were seated for dinner, at which time we moved them to the center of the table and placed the chopsticks alongside the flatware.

I never know who prefers what, so I included both Cambridge dark faux bamboo flatware (Home Goods and One King’s Lane) and stainless steel chopsticks I picked up from an Asian market in Overland Park, KS. The blue & white ceramic chopstick rests came from that same market for a very reasonable price. I bought the beautiful mother of pearl mosaic napkin rings at Old Time Pottery, but I have also seen them at Z Gallerie.

Cobalt blue goblets from Dollar Tree used for orange spice tea match the champagne flutes used for Mai Tais upon the guests’ arrival.

This large blue & white ceramic ginger jar from Home Goods served as the anchor for the extended centerpiece which also included two smaller ginger jars. All were set atop lacquered rosewood stands from Old Time Pottery to give them more prominence on the table.

To lend height, color, texture, and drama to the table, I used clear gooseneck fluted vases to hold oversized monstera leaves from Hobby Lobby that mimicked the placemats. By all means, if you have access to real monstera leaves, go for it with gusto!!! Fan palms or banana leaves would also look really cool!

I wanted the table to have an exotic Far East feel about it, so I added these cool white parrots from Z Gallerie to the mix. (To see another post with these parrots, click HERE for “Caribbean Queen”.) They looked right at home perched in the “shade” of the monstera leaves and pinkish mums.

My original idea was to hang white paper lanterns throughout the room, but the persistent pain of not one but two torn rotator cuffs put the brakes on that in a hurry. All that overhead work would have done me in for sure! So I opted to hang a few in the window (with hubby’s help!) and display more on top of the big, bulky television armoire. If you can’t move it out, decorate it!

It hit 95 degrees this day, so no one opted for hot tea after dinner. A good hostess is always prepared, though! The teapot is from Pier 1, and the little teacups are from World Market. I bought the trio of graduated size bamboo trays from a wholesaler years ago. They were stacked like this in storage, and I thought they would look cool (as well as add height) if I kept them that way.

Robyn’s favorite is chicken fried rice, so that had to be front and center on the buffet table set up in the dining room.

Appetizers included spring rolls, crab rangoon and lettuce wraps.

Another appetizer was skewered chunks of fresh pineapple and strawberries from Costco set on white miso spoons from Pier 1 and drizzled with honey. The spoons are displayed on bamboo trays purchased at Old Time Pottery.

Surely you do not think for a New York minute that I actually cooked all of this food? Ha! I leave Chinese food to the die-hard professionals who know their way around a wok! Oriental Express in Kansas City, MO, has some of the best Chinese food around, and the service always comes with a great smile from beautiful Jie (I hope I spelled that right!). Cooked to perfection every time for a very reasonable price, it’s worth the 25-minute drive from our house! Many, many thanks to everyone there for providing such a wonderful meal!!! (Full disclosure: The spring rolls and lettuce wraps were a last-minute addition from Costco.)

The back buffet was simply decorated with another ginger jar on a rosewood stand flanked by two (faux) bonsai trees (TJ Maxx) and bowls (Hobby Lobby) of fresh floating mums.

After dinner, Ramon presented Robyn with her beautiful (and delicious!!!) cake from Patrick Snuffer Cakes (816-452-7590). He free-handed a cherry blossom branch in icing to go along with our Asian theme. (Do you see how Ramon is holding that cake…making it sag in the middle??? I’m going to have to give the little Mr. a good talkin’ to! :-))

After dinner and dessert, we played a fun (and slightly naughty!) fortune cookie game called “In Bed.” One of my silly former colleagues introduced me to this game about 20 years ago. Each person opens their cookie and reads their fortune aloud ending it with the words “in bed.” Try it sometime….as you can see from the expression on the guests’ faces, it’s hilarious!!!!!!!! 🙂 (Poor Mike was sweatin’ bullets reading that in front of my husband and me!)

The birthday girl and her beau, Mike, looking like the cats that ate the canary. They have a LOT of teeth, don’t they? The teeth just go on for miles, and miles, and miles, and miles….!!! 🙂
Happy 30th Birthday, Robyn!!!