Early St. Pat's Dinner...

HAPPY (EARLY) ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

We had a back to back celebration in three, count it, three days. So I've been busy. But I'm joining in the St. Pat's parties at Cuisine Kathleen's and A Holiday Haven so here I am!!! I'm also linking up at Leigh's Thrifty Thursdays meme at Tales from Bloggeritaville. Thanks for hosting this much fun, ladies!

First, last Saturday, my son turned 10, so we had the house looking like this:  We used blue, green and black, but I wasn't paying attention to the colors of the balloons and I accidentally picked up purple ones. lol

Dining Room turned birthday party central!

Then, we had our church missionaries come over for dinner and I wanted to participate in Kathleen Cuisine's St. Pat's party, so I had the Dining Room looking like this!

THEME:

Dreaming of Ireland

INSPIRATION:

Ireland's Lush Green Hills

I wanted a more organic feel to my St. Pat's table, an homage to the luscious green that is Ireland rather than just the holiday so... I used real greenery from my own front yard! The necklaces adorning the chandelier were from DT. I got 5 of them since it held 2 each.

Here are what I used:

PLATE: Canopy "Golden Wheat"- $1 each, Walmart, 2009

BOWL: Ikea Earthenware Beige- 86 cents each, 2010

GLASSES: Anchor Hocking "Classic Smoke" - $1 each, Target, 2010

TABLECLOTH: Fabric Shower Curtain-Unused- FREE, GIFT, 2010

RUNNER: Ross, 2009

NAPKINS: Ross, 2009

RIBBON: Dippin' Dots (Green/Brown) - $2.97, Walmart, 2012

UTENSILS: BHG "Embossed Scroll" - $1.25 each, Walmart, 2012

 These branches came off our trees in the front, the runner is an upside down of a regularly Fall runner and the vases were from the DT, $1 each. The whole look gave me a sense of being on a hillside in Ireland during a windy, muggy day... Which was how it was that day for us outside!

 If you notice the middle of the centerpiece is a nice gap so I saw my DH just fine and our guests loved all the green!

 There's the gap...

 The chargers, called "Emerald Green" was a great find at Goodwill near where I work. And for $1.50 for 6, it was perfect!!! The glass stones were also from DT.

 I didn't get to light the candles, but that's ok, it just added to the "green-ness" of the whole table!

We started with a hearty, creamy soup, "Potato and Crab" (Ireland is known for their seafood markets and potatoes and beef) and the traditional "Brown Bread" or "Irish Soda Bread".

This is not a great picture of the delicious "Irish Beef Stew" I made. This is what's left over after serving 6 people.

For dessert, I made a pretend "Irish Coffee" mousse without any alcohol but from the vanilla. The whipped topping is freshly made, too. It had mock coffee because we don't drink any.

That whipped cream was so perfect that it suspended two big raspberries!

We also served them ice water and "Green" lemonade! Lemonade with 5 drops of green food coloring. So cool!

We get to use this table again this Saturday, but with a different look. Until then, thank you for stopping by and let's party like the Irish! Erin go bragh!

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain is seeing Green) No need to go to the grocery store to make centerpieces. Just use the local greenery and bring it in to cozy up the holidays!