Happy Monday, Did you have a good weekend? Mine was good but hot! I spent some time puttering around the Potting Shed, trying to keep everything watered and from wilting in our 90+ degree temperatures. I’m trying to stay cool and usually dashing back inside by noon to avoid the afternoon heat.
Our Limelight Hydrangeas are blooming and thriving in the sun and summer heat. . .
unlike me. ;)
Blue and white always seems so cool and refreshing in the summer and I enjoyed some time playing with dishes and flowers in the Potting Shed. I had a reader ask if I had air conditioning inside the shed. . .that would be no. ;) We usually benefit from a lake breeze so I can open the front and back doors of the shed and enjoy some cross ventilation, so it’s pleasant inside in the mornings with a breeze blowing.
I had a little tabletop fun in celebration of the hydrangeas in bloom with a few Ball jar bouquets in the window and on counter top of my Potting Shed.
Blue and white vintage transferware pieces were picked at a favorite antique mall over time. Pieces without a pedigree, with crazing and chips . . .
Tureens and sugar bowls with missing lids, but perfectly imperfect for serving up flowers or a collection of blooming flatware.
I had a Pottery Barn gift card burning a hole in my pocket and a set of blue and white vintage floral salad plates flew home with me last week. The crackle glaze and transferware-inspired floral motif has a vintage look without the price tag.
A pair of garden gloves hold a napkin and provide a pocket for assorted vintage flatware, a fun addition if you’re having a garden party or for lunch with your garden club!
Reversible napkins, serve as placemats, adding some blue and white ticking stripe and floral pattern, layered over a jute runner.
I pulled out some stamped spoon markers: “In the garden my soul is sunshine”.
Favorite stamped spoon marker and garden metaphor for life: “Love what you grow and what you love will grow”.
Table Details:
Bird Floral Salad Plates / Pottery Barn
White Dinner Plates / Paula Deen Whitaker
Galvanized Chargers / Pier 1, this spring
Flatware / Assorted vintage, antique mall
Assorted transferware / antique mall
Blue Goblets / Dollar Tree
Garden gloves / Target, last year
Jute Runner / Pottery Barn, several years ago
Napkins / Bed, Bath & Beyond, several years ago
Stamped spoon markers, Etsy
Keep Calm and Garden On!
Thank you for your visit, sharing with:
Metamorphosis Monday, The Scoop,
Wow Us Wednesdays, Tablescape Thursday, Home Sweet Home, Feathered Nest Friday
Foodie Friday and Everything Else Link Party
Just simply gorgeous!
Just love the gardening gloves as utensil holders. I’m stealing the idea!
I love Blue and White anything especially dishes! I agree, Mary your vignette of blue and white does look cool and refreshing! And the limelight, so lovely! Cross ventilation is wonderful in the Carolina heat and humidity! Stay cool! Beautiful as always!
You are my favorite blogger and I am daily blessed by your inspiring creativities. Thank you so much. It’s a ministry to our hearts. :) JW
After coming back from the cool Colorado temperatures to the Texas heat, your pretty tablescape with the limelight hydrangeas makes me feel cooler already. Those PB salad plates sure fooled me with their vintage look, Mary! I’m glad you’re playing in your potting shed in the morning hours.
You are something else !! I adore seeing all the things you post on your Blog. Thanks you so very much for taking all the time and effort to share with all of us. I will be serving the Quick & Easy Layered Cake for my Ladies Charity Circle Group. I can’t Wait to see there faces when they bit into this one.
Smiles,
Cher Rogers
Arizona
“Keep calm and garden on”. Is the perfect thing to do in this Summer heat. Even if it’s hot the blue and white setting cools thing down. Keep playing. I love your post!
The tableware is precious with the blue and white theme along with the hydrangeas. I love the cute gardner’s glove holding the napkin and silverware! You always have such a creative side about you! I read Stonegable’s blog and she always gives her guests a gift to take home, which would be perfect hosting the gardening club as you mentioned. My gardening gloves are just boring…unlike the pretty floral cloth on your table.
Very pretty!! Love the glove display. I have cross ventilation in my Potting Shed but no breeze from a lake…..just hot heat. I was at your favorite antique mall yesterday (The Depot at Gibsonville)….I thought of you as I was enjoying all the pretties. That mall is set up so nice! I found some treasures at another mall (White Owl). Stay cool in this heat but keep playing in the Potting Shed….love seeing your creative pretties.
So pretty Mary! I love all the different flower flatware and tucking them into the garden glove is sweet! Well, hubby loves my brown wicker rocking chair with red cushions which sits on the garden shed porch so I made some changes to the porch. Because we’ve had so much rain, I’ve moved my flower pots which were in front of the shed i moderate shade to the sitting area around the fire pit area which really dresses that area up and gives them more sun, I put Uncle Sam and the fire crackers where the flower pots were and I brought up out of the basement the small wicker love seat that matches the rocker and placed it on the porch so now I have a spot to rest. I love how the red cushions pop against the white of the shed. Turned out darling! A win-win for all! :)
I love your new PB plates Mary, the vintage feel and blue white is so perfect with Ball jars, garden gloves and hydrangea blooms~ and your stamped spoons are so much fun! I bet it is delightful in your shed with both doors open and a breeze blowing through, old fashioned Southern A/C! That’s why we enjoy the coast so much in the summer, there is always a great breeze off the gulf making porch time very pleasant even when it’s hot. Happy week!
Jenna
Mary, it’s just beautiful. I’m drooling!
Love the quote,” In the Garden my soul is sunshine”, although I’ve been bitten by wasps for the second time in two weeks!
Delightful post with your beautiful limelights. Can’t wait to have enough blooms to cut although with little sun I probably won’t get my wish. Your blue and white calls my name too.
Everything you do is always beautiful and inspiring.
Thanks Bonnie! I got stung twice Saturday morning by wasps when I accidentally uncovered and disturbed a nest…the hazards of gardening. My arm is still swollen and hot!
P.S. Mary, I have an orange flowered Black Eyed Susan Vine, wanted a yellow one but they were all sold out. Yesterday, I was shocked to discover the “eye” is actually a hole in the center of the flower! I thought it was a solid black center. What an optical illusion! Does your yellow Black Eyed Susan Vine flowers have a hole in the center?
Hi Cyndi, Yes, my yellow Black-eyed Susan has a dark throat that looks like a hole, rather than a solid center. It was a surprise to me too when I first realized it :)
Wonderful way to begin the day…reading your inspirational blog. Brings a little ‘cool’ to this hot, humid South Louisiana air…many thanks for sharing…:)
Lovely, as always, Mary. The garden gloves holding flatware is darling.
As always, I just love your table details. We have been away a few days so I am wondering how my garden is doing in the heat (never quite the same when someone else waters, right?). Before we left I also pulled blue & white out to set a quick table. It’s so calming, I don’t know why I don’t have/use it more. Yours – both old and new – looks wonderful with thw limelights. I love those stamped spoons, and the garden gloves are a great touch. Happy Bloomday!
Beautiful! I do have a question for you about all your beautiful dishes. Where do you keep them? Do you keep them? You have so many, I was just curious about storage.
So, so very beautiful Mary! I have just cut the remaining limelights from my bush after the deer ate most of them!…so enjoying them indoors! Your floral displays with your amazing collection of dishes are always so very incredibly beautiful!!
I love blue and white and decorate with all things blue and white. The hydrangeas are beautiful.
The garden glove…what a cool idea!!! Pretty, pretty, pretty! I want to look into those limelight hydrangeas for a sunny spot here, too!
So beautiful Mary. These beautiful things from our gardens do satisfy the soul. Thank for all the inspiration. Your work is amazing. My hydrangeas are blooming also.
Hi Mary, would you mind sharing the stamped spoon Esty site? These are the best I’ve seen & would like to purchase a few for gifts.
Thank you for your lovely, creative blog. it is always a pleasure to read and enjoy.
Thanks Terri! The Keep Calm & Garden On came from MonkeysAlwaysLook. The other two garden quotes came from LazyLightningArt several years ago. It looks like they’re doing more woodburning than flatware stamping these days, so if they don’t do them any longer, just put ‘stamped garden quote markers’ in the Etsy search box.
You’re a jewel! Thank you!
As always, I’m borrowing another of your ideas…..the garden glove idea…..I garner at least one idea from each post but I give you credit and your blog address each time I get a compliment! Thanks for keeping me inspired! With the heat I’m into fairy gardens…..It is cooler and easier to haul!
Everything is so lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Marion
Elegant is the word that comes to my mind.
Joan
What pretty dishes ,I love the blue and white. The flowers are so pretty.
Marilyn
I love blue and white too!!! there is just something about that color combination that makes me feel nostalgic!!! love all of your settings; can hardly wait to see what you are going to do for Fall….your weather must be very hot so you probably aren’t thinking Fall yet!!..thanks for all your receipes…..you are the best!!
Love everything you have done here! Just breath taking but then everything you do I love!
~Mary~
I too love blue & white together ! Love your dishes so pretty !! My limelights are just now opening :) Yes , watch for those bees,wasps and yellow jackets !! they always put their nests in the oddest of places too.
The birdhouse next to your table setting is so darn neat !!
Keep cool Mary !
Paula
IN
Ahhh, this really makes you feel coolerr just seeing it. Our temps are in the 90’s also with very high humidity so feels AWFUL! Your table is beautiful. My limelights are at peak on one bush and 2 others are just starting:) Nice to have a succession of blooms to enjoy!
Mary, blue and white always makes me smile. Lovely vignette with the transferware and pretty linens! Your limelights are gorgeous. I love them for their big blooms.
Beautiful as always!!!
Simply stunning, Mary! Your tablescape is pretty enough with the blue and white china, but when you add the limelight hydrangeas it’s over the top gorgeous!
Thank you for sharing. Maybe Santa could bring AC for next season- I know you’ve been good :)
Adorable! As always! You are the QUEEN of decorating!!
Very pretty – I was drawn to the transferware ;) Stopping by from Feathered Nest Friday. Hugs from Australia♥ ~Pernilla
I absolutely adore the pattern you chose for your dishes. This all came together beautifully.