Surprise Birthday In the Garden

Today's tablescape is a surprise birthday party

for

Jann Olson.  

It is so fun when a true surprise happens!!

Some of you know her from

Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Some of you may know that Jann has had 

a rough couple of years with breast cancer 

and now brain cancer, so we wanted to spoil 

her tonight.  

The table was set in our favorite summer spot 

for our crafting group in Joanne's barn turned 

into gazebo.  But alas, we also found out that 

the barn was coming down, so it was our farewell 

dinner here.  

You have seen before how Joanne fills 

the old open-air gazebo with all kinds 

of beauties.

We always have such a grand time and hate to leave.

It truly has become an outdoor room, so when 

it slipped out that it was being torn down we 

all went into mourning.  (A few days later it also 

slipped out that they have plans for something new there,

so we can't wait to see what her husband will create.) 

Hooray!

Joanne loves to find thrift store plates to 

create her tablescapes.

And she is the one who taught us how to create 

beautiful mannequins.

We all take food assignments to create our dinners. 

Amy @-thebakeaholic made the cake.

Becky, our newest member created this gorgeous 

doll that looks like Jann with each of our names 

embroidered around her skirt.  

Karen filled the table with flowers.

I made chicken for our fajitas.  

When everyone helps, it creates a 

great party.

Natalie provided gift bags from a local store called 

Busy Biddy.

Besides surprising Jann with a beautiful doll, cake, and dinner, 

we were all surprised with Nashville's singing storyteller, 

Kate Campbell, who gave us a private concert.  She is a 

southern charmer and had us all so entertained as she told 

the backstories of some of her songs.  

Check out her music.  You can find 

her @katemuses on Instagram.

Jann took off soon after to celebrate her birthday 

with her husband by going on a river cruise.  

We can't wait to hear about that!

It was sad to celebrate our last dinner here, 

but we all know Joanne's husband is so talented, 

and Joanne loves entertaining in this space, that 

we have something wonderful to look forward to.

If you are like me, you are running so hard to 

just have as much fun as you can, that it is hard 

to do any blogging and any visiting, so I truly 

appreciate you stopping by!  It will disappear 

before we know, and here in Utah, it only arrived

the last couple of weeks - alas!  

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Garden Wedding and Party

My garden has been a busy place this summer

with a wedding reception and a few days later,

a Mother Daughter Garden party.

Since the Mother Daughter party was just four days

after the wedding reception, I used a lot of the

same decor and ideas.

It all started with this ugly green hutch that was a leftover

from one of our condo project models.  I didn't pick it -

our partner's wife did, and it had been relegated to the basement

to hold plates and things.  

The wedding reception was for my oldest daughter's niece,

and my daughter said we should paint it for the wedding 

reception, and use it for our sign in station.

I decided to paint the interior of the two glass

cabinets a pale aqua.  I used Rustoleum's

chalk paint.

It was our first foray into chalk paint, and I decided to

add a little bling with the crystal knobs that I

ordered online.

Once we finished that, I asked her what she planned

on using for the candy station, so we had to paint

another piece.

 This piece was in my dining room, also holding

plates and things.  It was a brown on brown.

I was looking for something with a lot of

detail and this one was perfect.  It went from

being the ugly duckling to the beautiful swan.

It got a little lavender bling in the crystal knobs!

After the transformations, I said these pieces

were going to take center place in my dining room.

No more basement for the ugly green hutch.

The hutch was placed on the side yard entrance

for guests to sign in. 

 Lavender was one of the bride's colors, and I

had driven into my daughter's driveway and saw

this great lavender bicycle.  I said I had to borrow

it for the wedding and they said the friend was

selling it.  I bought it that day and brought it

home.  

 The wedding was gorgeous and a much bigger

turn out than the bride's mom had guessed, but

the yard handled it well.

I had hung netting panels from IKEA in the gazebo

for the backdrop for the bride and groom.  She

had rose gold runners on the tables, so I purchased

a rose gold tablecloth and took a small seam

on one end so I could hang it too.

The wedding reception was a big success!

The bride has lots of big strapping cousins, so right

after the reception ended, I had them move the

hutch down to the gazebo.  The bride and groom had

stood here for the wedding.  Now I wanted the hutch

to be used for the Mother Daughter party as our buffet.

I was able to reuse lots of my flowers

from the wedding for the Mother Daughter

party, filling the drawers with plants and

little vases of flowers.

The cupboards were opened up to accomodate

all of the food.

We had heart shaped peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches for the little ones and chicken

croissant sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches

with a salad for the moms.

The girls had fun decorating cupcakes as flowers

using marshmallows and sugar sprinkles.

Of course I knew they would love the candy

station as much as the wedding guests, so

I repeated that where the wedding cake

had been stationed.

Both parties were made magical by my painted

garden furniture, but they are too nice to leave

outside.  Watch for my dining room remodel.  

These two pieces will be featured!

I will be sharing these parties with

Share Your Cup Thursday

Tablescapes Thursday

Dishing It and Digging It

Fairy Garden Party and Craft Night

Welcome to a fairy wonderland!

We thought we were coming to a craft night with a

light dinner, but we were treated to a fabulous fairy party

filled with flowers and fanciful treats.

As we entered Joanne's back yard, we saw that this

was an exquisite table set just for us, and our inner fairies.

Each place setting was different and each had

a flower fairy card with our initial on them.

This was my place setting.

We were gathered in her exquisite covered

seating area.

I adore her chandelier, lights and banners, done

all for us.

Everything was so beautiful, and we were all taking

photos and drinking in the atmosphere.

Each place setting was also adorned with a little

fairy for us to take home.

I fell in love with Joanne's DuBarry sterling silver.

Rachel made fabulous spa water for us.

These are the most beautiful and delicious

fairy cookies ever and they were provided

by Amy Perkins.

Amy also made these glittering cookies.

You know me, I had to try the cookies first,

and they were the most delicious, moist, melt-in-your-mouth

cookies ever - perfect for fairies.

There were even fairy mannequins adorning

our setting.

We were served fabulous food that Laura made:

 Strawberry Chicken Salad,

Brie, Turkey and Raspberry Jam Paninis

(of which Winston, the dog, stole one),

and a frozen fruit salad that Joanne made.

Now to the crafts that we came for!

We each made a fairy house, a fairy chair,

and decorated a mailbox to send letters

to the Fairy Queen.  I put mine in a garden

chair.

We each made a fairy chair by gluing moss,

bendable naturals and covered wire, and jewels

to a small metal bench, found in any miniature

section of the craft store.

The fairy house was made by turning two natural

floral containers upside down, the bottom one made of bark,

with a door opening cut out and a wooden, embellished

door, added.  Then a twig container was turned upside

down to create the roof.  We just pushed that on and them

embellished it with more twigs, and jewels.  

You can see I added a small gazing ball next to the

fairy house door.

We decorated a fairy mailbox with moss and jewels,

 to send notes to the fairy queen.  

Brenda hand painted decorations on our doors,

which do open.  J

Joanne made little fairy notecards for our little ones

to write on and post.

It was truly an event made for all fairy princesses.

Here is a collage of her playhouse in 

another corner of her garden. I adore

the fabric shades on her lights.

Thank you Joanne and Laura for treating us like royalty!

(Karen, Jann, Brenda, Natalie and me.)

I will be posting this with
Share Your Cup Thursday

Tablescapes Thursday
and
Mosaic Monday