An Orange Birthday

Well, if you visited my blog last week, I hinted that I will be doing an "Orange" themed birthday for my DH's big day. Well, here it is!

I'm joining Marty's Tabletop Tuesday, Susan's Tablescape Thursday, Leigh's Thrifty Thursday & Michael Lee's Foodie Friday. This will be a fun week!

THEME:

"Orange you Happy, it's Your Birthday!"

INSPIRATION:

My dear wonderful husband of 14 years and his love of orange

Mr. Man turned 40 last Saturday and since he needed to work that night and the following morning, we really didn't have much time to plan for anything more elaborate to celebrate his big milestone. But I wanted to make sure that he knew we wanted him to feel special, so I honed in on his favorite color-ORANGE. But how to make it fit his personality?

Mr. Man, my forever love

I decided to find a shade of orange that also reflected how he makes us all feel... At home and loved. Cozy and Protected. Happy and Warm.

So I looked to the warmer shades of rust, red-orange, and orange-brown and a color scheme was born! We dug up my old 12x12 scrapbook papers with old-time prints, construction and origami papers. We made paper chains and origami birds and hearts. We hung them up on the mirrors, chandelier and bay windows. We put them on top of the plates and table.

We used my son's current sheet set to set off the color scheme. It was perfect. The only thing we had to buy for this theme were the Capri "Mandarin Orange" scented candles and water pitcher by Home Essentials and Beyond's "Bumblebee Collection" that I found at Marshall's. Total, $19!

My DH is a very simple man that has a multi-faceted personality. He loves a good sense of humor and he is incredibly smart and handy. But even though he loves skiing, RC cars, computers, 80's Techno music and puppies (and me and the kids, of course), nothing makes him happier than being at home, relaxing, so... that's what I focused on!
The table is not fussy, it's clean, monochromatic, warm and definitely inviting. We layered the different shades of warm oranges that we could find without sacrificing elegance and a little bling. lol
He taught our son how to do origami cranes and now, our 8-year old, I-Dude is the Origami Prince of the house! He made these cranes and eagles. He also made the hearts hanging on the chandelier and a big 5-pointed star on the food table. My napkins had enough warm shades that it was a perfect match for this table. It gave just enough layer to make it more romantic and so my hubby!

I just love how the camera picked up on the sparkles of the flames. Now that's what I call, blingage! lol
I used Nandina leaves and berries to punctuate this table that held all the food choices he made: Seafood Pasta, Creamed Peas and Potatoes, and a Chocolate Cake I made from scratch, on the fly. Why? Because originally, he chose a Milk Choc BC variety but it was so moist that they crumbled out of the pans! Grrr! The one I made, he loved much better!

We are both from California, so these shades reminded us of the sunsets there. It was a perfect choice. The smile on his face while we dined by candlelights and lamps were evident of his approval. I wanted it to be a perfect birthday dinner, and it was. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his birthday beverage was of course, our traditional Orange Pineapple juice cocktail!
I used my Ikea Fargrik Beige Dinnerware, Studio 33 Autumn Harvest salad plates, and Homer Laughlin Oatmeal Wheat J-63 saucers. The napkins were from Kroger back in 2009 called, Bayfield in Blue. I got 6 for less than $3.00 on clearance! This is probably the 2nd time I used them, I'm so glad I picked them up even though I had to hunt from 6 different bins!
I love these candles, it was almost like they knew I wanted a perfect table-each shot has each one sparking brightly!

I think this is one of my favorite tablescapes of all time...
Our two little ones, J-Pony and I-Dude, all smiles with their dad after a great meal and cake, of course!
This pitcher is so cute! It came in green, off-white and this burnt orange color. The candles and this pitcher were the only shade of orange pieces at Marshall that weren't broken, chipped or too bright. They were meant to come home with me to celebrate my DH's big day. Even the Nandina berries were a deep shade of orange rather than red like the last ones I used for Christmas.
Did I mention I love aerial shots? This one turned out wonderfully!

Thank you all so much for visiting and taking a peek at my hubby's birthday table. Hope you have a great week!

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain is so ready for all the holidays) January & February straddles New Year, Birthdays, Chinese New Year and Valentine's Days. Why not scope out your collection and isolate those pieces that can be used for all of them? The more common choices are white, gold, blue red and pink. Why not use gold, red and blue to have a more upscale Americanized celebration of these holidays?