Heellloooo Summer……

 

I’m glad you came, I’m glad you came!

 

I am a summer person.  Maybe it is because I grew up in the Fingers Lake area of New York State and summer usually only lasted one day, 4th of July!!  You still had to find some jeans and a sweatshirt once the sun went down.  How can you call that summer?

Now I think you could call me a Floridian since I have been here on the Gulf Coast since 1977.  And I still love summer.  The hotter the better!! And I love all the citrus that we have available.  Even for centerpieces along with some palm fronds from the front yard.

I picked up these palm salad plates a few months ago from the clearance table at Beall’s Outlet because they just screamed FLORIDA!!

Add a few shells and it is summer!! I had seen this idea of adding the shells to the lanterns at Pottery Barn and loved it!

Don’t you just love the vibrant colors of the lemons, limes and oranges!

Chef Gar got into the spirit also and we celebrated the summer solstice in style!  Crab cakes and salad…just feels like summer, don’t you think??

Dinner was outstanding.  So tasty, refreshing and healthy too!

Local blue crabs with a light yogurt based sauce served over baby spring mix.  And a summer salad….

But not just any salad!!  Watermelon, cherry tomatoes, slivers of red onions and a few chucks of feta cheese drizzled with a light vinaigrette. 

Chef Gar can COOK!! We had a wonderful evening to celebrate the arrival of summer.  Hope your solstice was wonderful also!! 

Till next time….Santé,Resources:

Green Woven Placemats: Old Time Pottery

White Napkins: Restaurant Style: Old Time Pottery

White Dinner Plates: Corning Pyroceram, The Corning Store

Palm Tree Salad Plates: Beall’s Outlet

Silverware: Twilight 1881 Rogers Stainless by Oneida

Wine Glasses: Gifts

 

This week I’ll be sharing with:

The Tablescaper Seasonal Sundays

Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures Monday

Boogie Board Cottage's Masterpiece Monday

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life's Tabletop Tuesday

Cozy Home Scene's Your Cozy Home Tuesday

Cuisine Kathleen’s Let's Dish

Style Sister’s Centerpiece Wednesday

Ivy and Elephants' What's It Wednesday

Faded Charm's White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

The Stone Gable’s Tutorials, Tips and Tutorial Thursdays

Between Naps on the Porch'sTablescape Thursday

No Minimalist Here's Open House Thursday

Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday

French Country Cottage's Feather Your Nest Friday

My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

At the Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

The Charm of the Home's Home Sweet Home Friday

On Blue Bayou

A few weeks ago, we were lucky to have our friend  Lisa join us for dinner with her fiancée, John.  Lisa moved to Colorado about 5 years ago and this is the first time we had seen her since she left the beach.  The weather was perfect and dinner on the dock was the only way to entertain our landlocked friend.

Evening started with chilled Spanish cava and a toast to Lisa and her new partner.

The contrast between dark blue and sparkling white always makes me happy and I use this combo often.  Chef Gar is a stickler for serving food on white dinner plates so I can only get a little crazy with the rest!  But he is an awesome cook and I can live with white plates.

One of my favorites, the hydrangea,  was blooming nicely and made a simple and delightful center piece.

Just have to love Old Time Pottery and their inexpensive wine glasses!!

Life is good on the bayou!  Wrinkled table cloth and all!

I love this little guy.  Great for appetizers or all the goodies for pan tomaquita.  Chef Gar did a country paella for dinner.  So busy talking I forgot to get any pixs of dinner. It was great!

Till next time….Santé,

Resources:

White Linen Tablecloth: Whitney Plaid by Whitmore House, Beall’s Outlet

Rattan Chargers: Pier One

Napkins: Restaurant Style: Old Time Pottery

Napkin Rings: Pier One

White Dinner Plates: Corningwear Pyroceram from the Corning Store

Blue Salad Plates: Gourmet Basics by Mikasa, Old Time Pottery

Blue and White Fish Plate: Beall’s Home

Silverware: Twilight Burnished, 1881 Rogers Stainless by Oneida

Wooden Steak Knives:  New World Knife Works

Blue Wine Glasses: Old Time Pottery

Champagne Glasses: TJ Max

This week I’ll be sharing with:

The Tablescaper Seasonal Sundays

Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures Monday

Boogie Board Cottage's Masterpiece Monday

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life's Tabletop Tuesday

Cozy Home Scene's Your Cozy Home Tuesday
Cozy Home Scene's BBQ, Picnic and Grill Party 

Cuisine Kathleen’s Let's Dish

Ivy and Elephants' What's It Wednesday

Faded Charm's White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday

No Minimalist Here's Open House Thursday

Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday

French Country Cottage's Feather Your Nest Friday

My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

At the Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

The Charm of the Home's Home Sweet Home Friday

Memorial Day…Lest We Forget

The official start of summer!  If you are a warm weather person, it doesn’t get any better.  Because we live in a community with a large military presence, this day to remember the sacrifice of those who perished to insure our freedoms is even more evident. Ours was a quiet one this year.  Lots of yard work and time together. 

I have always been a big fan of primary colors.  And red, white and blue is about as good as it gets.








Recently found these fun red salad plates on the sale rack at Kmart.  Think they were calling my name. 

Love these blue wine glasses from Old Time Pottery!

Stars and Stripes coastal style!  Decided that some beach stars would be a perfect accent for my Memorial Day table. Hope y’all had a beautiful weekend.

Till next time….Santé

Resources:

Napkins: Restaurant Style: Old Time Pottery

Napkin Rings: Pier One

12” White Dinner Plates: Pyroceram, Corning Store

9.5: Red Salad Plate: Country Living, Kmart

Small Blue Bowl: Unknown

Silverware: 1881 Rogers Stainless by Oneida

Wine Glasses: Old Time Pottery

Flag Stripe Placemats: Summer 2012, Kohl’s

 

This week I’ll be sharing with:

The Tablescaper Seasonal Sundays

Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures Monday

Boogie Board Cottage's Masterpiece Monday

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life's Tabletop Tuesday

Cozy Home Scene's Your Cozy Home Tuesday

Cuisine Kathleen's Let's Dish
Ivy and Elephants’s What's It Wednesday

Faded Charm's White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

The Style Sisters Centerpiece Wednesday

Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday

No Minimalist Here's Open House Thursday

Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday

French Country Cottage's Feather Your Nest Friday

My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

At the Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

The Charm of the Home's Home Sweet Home Friday

Walking in a Wicker Wonderland...

.....from waste to wonderfull!!!!!!





On the day we closed on Foxy’s and moved into The Hood, I had a U-haul truck full of wicker furniture and tropical plants from Lowe’s ready to put on our wonderful new dock and outdoor living area.  We closed at 9am and by 6:30pm we were ready for our first party at the newly christened Foxy’s Too, after our favorite BVI watering hole.  Old lattice had been torn down to open the the gorgeous view down the bayou, benches built, plants and furniture arranged and we were ready to roll.  And things haven’t slowed down since that first party in May 2000.

During the intervening years, we built a wonderful rustic bar from the picnic tables the previous owners left. The living area has expanded to include an outdoor cooking area for Chef Gar with wonderful seating area for me so I can be a back seat cook, and the dock itself has been reworked and re-decked to a more party friendly design.  And through it all, the same wicker pieces have been cleaned, re-stained, cushions recovered and re-arranged. 









Waiting patiently for their turn for a spring facelift!


Minwax PolyShades is a life saver when you live on the water.


Bar stools re-stained and painted.  Ready for another season.


Time to pull down all the old frames, repaint them and put up some new photos.  Thank goodness we only have to do this every four or five years.  Return visitors love to find their photos from a previous trip hanging from the rafters at Foxy’s!


Some new Sunbrella chair cushions completed and ready for duty at Foxy’s Too! I have been sewing since I was a young teen so pillow and cushion covers are something I can almost do in my sleep.


I found this dining table and chairs on Craigslist a couple of years ago for $100.00.  Table was really dated bronze tones but new stain on the wood and some black spray paint helped a lot.  Recovering the chair  seats was a snap and the Sunbrella is fabulous.  Cleaning after a party now just entails a spray down with the hose.





And I also discovered that I have a little Fred Sanford in me.  I have a difficult time passing up a piece of wicker that has been discarded and is waiting to be taken to the landfill.  My first find was a wicker and black iron cocktail table looking pretty forlorn in a pile of wicker a neighbor was tossing.  Before you could say Abracadabra!! it was on the dock ready to do party duty.   All it need was some new stain and a a new glass top from my wonderful glass company!  It is perfect for late afternoon wine and cheese with Chef Gar!



 

When Chef Gar was picking up the glass table top for the cocktail table, the owner was curious as to what we were doing now and Gar explained that I had become a dumpster diver and was rescuing wicker in distress.   Low and behold, he had a settee, chair and small table that he was throwing out!  We had just completed the outdoor kitchen area and it was the perfect place for my cozy little grouping.  Once again, Minwax PolyShades came to the rescue along with some new cushions. The first pix is a before of one of the pieces.  I find that I usually forget this part!  You can see the corner of the little table in the top right corner that is already completed.





Just recently, I refinished two cute little wicker pieces that our next door neighbors has put out in the trash.  They were white so the PolyShades wasn’t going to work.  But numerous cans of black enamel spray paint did the trick.  Again, forgot to take a photo of the first chair. 



They came out so cute and again, it is just one more place to sit and enjoy all there is to enjoy in The Hood! At the Pig Fest last weekend, it was amusing the see my neighbors discovering their discarded trash turned to Treasures on the dock at Foxy’s! 

This is the bar that we made from the cedar picnic table wood, some old fencing material and parts of an old floating dock. You can see the weirdness along the top of the bar from the wood being in the water.

Love to repurpose stuff! And in case you might have missed it… We are Gator fans!


The sink on the bar is an old enamel dish pan that I found at a local antique store.  It was the perfect size and works well with all the other rustic aspects of our bar.


We built this cook top a couple of years ago.  Chef Gar has a couple of different propane burners that he can switch out.  His paella cooker is probably his favorite.


The perfect Sunday morning…bayou view, coffee and rocking away while reading the paper.  Miss my New York Times crossword now that we have gone digital but it is still a great place to spend the morning.



This is Foxy’s Too as it is today!   Who knows what tomorrow will bring. 



Till next time….Santé,

This week I’ll be sharing with:

Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures Monday

House in the Roses Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Boogie Board Cottage's Masterpiece Monday

Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life's Tabletop Tuesday

Cozy Home Scene's Your Cozy Home Tuesday

Ivy and Elephants' What's It Wednesday

Faded Charm's White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

The Style Sisters Centerpiece Wednesday

No Minimalist Here's Open House Thursday

Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday

French Country Cottage's Feather Your Nest Friday

My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

At the Picket Fence's Inspiration Friday

The Charm of the Home's Home Sweet Home Friday