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!

A Little Green Never Hurt Anyone

Happy Met Monday 

and let's enjoy another 

St. Patrick's Party!

 Normally, this twin frame of a potted orchid graces this either side of the bay window, but for March...

 ... mainly for St. Patrick's Day...

I hung the stained glass clover wreath that my uber talented FIL made a few years ago over the bay window and that gave me another idea.

I wanted the rest of the Dining Room to be a part of the holiday (like most of you do it), so I turned to Microsoft Office Clipart file and found these two great Celtic Knot drawings! This whole thing, only cost me $12! Sweet and long lasting! So until the 17th, this is what part of my DR will show!

Thanks galore to our lovely hosts, Susan of "Between Naps on the Porch" and Jessa of "A Holiday Haven" for keeping us smiling every single day with all these wonderful memes! So don't forget to link up!

To tide you over, here's some:

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain is loving green!) Tables are a small surface to play with, so why not have fun with it? Imagine that each table is your own stage even if it's just you that will be eating!

Celtic Knots Attempt

Continuing on with the "A Holiday Haven" St. Pat's Party, I decided to try my hand at

CELTIC KNOTS!

Let's see how I did...

 This is my latest design that I free handed from the base design below.

 Before that, I was quite happy that I managed to make my own celtic clover knot! My favorite!

 This one below is the predecessor of the clover knot. I was getting bored from trying when I realized what I did after. Eureka!

 Before that, I managed to copy this from a YouTube site featuring different celtic knot designs. Cool!

 And of course, I had to start somewhere and these below were my first four decent ones. Believe you me, I couldn't do any for the first few days watching anyone on YT doing tutorials on this. Then, it just clicked! Just in time for St. Pat's!

This party is getting my pretend Irish blood pumping for more ideas! I even lucked out tonight in finding 2 silver plated with gems, 8x10 picture frames that I can use to tie in my next craft for my fireplace! Will feature those later on. Tomorrow will be what I found on my own Office clipart collection!

See you at your blog!

You didn't think I'd end without some...

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain asked, "did you?") Immersing yourself in another cultural holiday is a great way to stretch your skills and your appreciation for said culture. Therefore, think like that country's people and imagine how they would set their table for such a holiday, and then... stamp it with your own style!

Clover Wreath on Canvas

Hello everybody! It's time to party, St. Patrick's style! I wanted to do something a little more "me" this year since it is not a holiday I normally decorate for. But with all the parties for it, how can I resist? Thanks to "A Holiday Haven", we get to do one until the 17th!

First, what to do? I decided to use one of the old canvas I bought for my daughter who's now in college. She never used it so I took it back. I'm also not a patient artist so I used my only clover stamp that I picked up from Michael's several years ago and after tracing a big circle on the canvas, I flooded it with the stamp to create my wreath.

I also drew some "rogue" clover leaves which just couldn't play nice and just floated their day away.

Then... I thought, "it's too plain" and I really didn't have anymore desire to just keep stamping more clovers on so I traced the "wreath" with my never-used-but-was-on-clearance-so-it-was-bought set of embroidery floss. I chose three colors. I don't know if the stitch I did has an actual name but it held the shape perfectly.

 I used green, yellow and yellow-green. I tried to do a rough simulation of a round celtic knot by doing a simple over/under stitching.

 Here's the first two colors perfectly forming the wreath.

 To secure each color, I did three different kind of stitches and as you can see, they are all secured at each braid, keeping the shape intact.

The wreath looked great but it was still too plain so I decided to sew "gold" (yellow) and "emerald" (green) coins (buttons). I played it up as if the clovers caught some on the wreath.

 Then it inspired me to color those ones in with colored pencils.

 I gave the rebel clovers different shades to simulate more sunlight caught on their leaves.

 The others, I followed the "yellow on yellow" and "green on green" scheme to give the wreath more depth.

Then I used a green and gold foil ribbon, made some freehand celtic knot (I hope) and climbed it up the wreath.

This is not for the quick crafter; but this was also done on a whim, So in total, I spent almost 12 hours over 2 days.

Tomorrow, I'll share my first crack at real Celtic knots!

Thanks for looking! Keep the party going! My turn to go see yours! 

This wouldn't be a tablescape blog without some...

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain is seeing green) There are very few holidays that automatically ring "fun" such as St. Pat's so why not have fun with your table? Use lots of live greenery to simulate the Emerald isle and you're set! Green, white, gold, yellow, yellow green, doesn't matter! Use them all and just have fun being Irish for the day!