Dreaming of Summer Table

The weather is heating up and it has me dreaming 

of summer and swimming and fun, so today's 

table has all of the elements to bring summer 

into the home.

We have been holed up in St. George, Utah for 

three weeks now.  We came to help our youngest son 

and his wife make it through finals weeks, and take 

care of their 16 month old while they were working 

and studying.  Almost everyone in our family has 

been able to continue working from home.  Two 

lost part-time jobs, but are doing ok.  

The aqua and shell and fish dishes just make me feel 

like summer.  St. George is three and a half hours south 

of where we live and tomorrow it is supposed to reach 

98 degrees.  That is a little warm for this time of year. 

Because St. George is warmer, we have lots of 

summer dishes here. 

I have had these shell embossed plates for over 20 years.  

The star dishes are something we have had for awhile too.  

The star plates and fish plates are from Home Goods.  We 

wonder when that store will open again.  

These glasses were from Tai Pan.  

A simple silver knot napkin ring goes with the 

silver and cream placemats. 

I just love these seahorse plates.  

And this lobster bowl.  They were both from Home Goods. 

These large candle holders always stay on the dining table. 

The view from our place is of the pool.  It is there to tempt us, 

but is closed.  Rumor has it that it will open May 1st, but not 

sure how we will feel about being around a lot of people yet.  

St. George has had only one death and has had 48 cases of 

Coronavirus, but we are still a little unsure about being 

around many people.

Of course, there is more yummy food being made around here.  

We hadn't gone out for anything since isolation began, 

but we felt a little safer down here, so we have visited 

Nielsen's Frozen Custard a few times.  

I imagine you are looking forward to summer and 

a little more freedom, although careful freedom, like we are.  

Stay safe and stay healthy.

I will be posting with 

Tablescapes Thursday

MacKenzie-Childs at Lake Powell Table

Houseboating at Lake Powell during summer

has been a big part of our lives for 27 years.

This is our third houseboat, but the first time

that MacKenzie-Childs has been invited to come along!

Miss Madi K was very generous to

carry all of the fun table items from home.

The table is set in the main salon at the bar.

Black and white Courtly Check scalloped plates 

are mixed with frosted starfish plates and 

white wooden chargers to create a fresh summery table.

The setting outside the windows is quite stunning.

At Lake Powell we offer a variety of plates and 

flatware including paper plates.  The person 

in charge of the dinner that night chooses whether 

they want disposable plates or regular plates. 

The barstools are new this year.  I love how they lighten 

up the place. 

This fun pineapple flatware adds to the summer feel.

I love these large pewter napkin rings.

The silver and white polka dot placemats blend well 

with everything.

Just a little touch of fantasy adding a 

MacKenzie-Child's tassel draped on a mercury jar.

Sometimes we go back down to close up the 

houseboat and put all of the outdoor cushions away,

but this year we employed everyone to create 

a human chain, taking everything from the top two 

levels and storying the cushions and pillows in 

the lower cuddy level.  It was all done in 30 minutes!

I think we have found a new tradition!!

Goodbye Lake Powell until next summer.

We have had a crazy busy summer, but September 

and October aren't looking any less busy!  

See you soon for our Tales of the Traveling Tote 

on September 1st!  Be sure and come back to see 

where my tote and I were off to. 

It was a Bucket List item

I will be posting this on

Tablescapes Thursday
and
Love Your Creativity

                                     

Fun in the Sun Tales of the Traveling Totes

Welcome to a special edition of

Tales of the Traveling Totes

Fun in the Sun.

I am a sun girl!  I always say I was dropped by 

the stork in the wrong state - I was meant to go 

to Hawaii, or someplace tropical, not Wisconsin! 

Sun is in my blood and I am happiest when I 

am somewhere sunny.

As many of you know, we had a home in 

Cabo, which we tore down two years ago, 

and it has been under construction since then. 

There is nothing fast about building in a 

foreign country, but we have tried to make it 

fun by staying in a lovely place when we go 

down to check on construction.

Miss Madi K is always invited along for 

the plane ride.  She quite enjoys the sun too.  

We lucked out by choosing Villa La Estancia on 

Medano Beach in Cabo.

 It is 

beach front, which is easy to find in Cabo, but it 

looks out at the famous arch and is convenient to 

our construction site.  What we really love about it 

though is that it is a fractional ownership resort, 

so it isn't overrun by timeshare owners.  It never 

seems crowded, and they keep the pool at a wonderful 

90 degrees! Nobody does that.  I love it.  

There are three properties right next to each other 

that make up The Villa Group, and we have checked 

out all of their pools - the other two are much colder, 

and they are much more crowded.  They are both 

timeshare properties.  

Hubby beware - because I have gotten used to 

someone else taking care of me, rather than me 

taking care of a houseful of people, and I really, 

really, really like it.  There is something magical 

about swimming up to the bar, or motioning over 

a waiter and having delicious shrimp nachos 

served to you.  There is no making the pico or 

guacamole, grilling the shrimp, shredding the 

cheese, or blending the smoothies!!! 

I could get used to this kind of life down in Cabo!!! 

Every room has a view of the ocean, which we love.

I just couldn't resist creating a tablescape

with a view like this!

I just grabbed the tableware and table decor

 in the condo

to create this fun summer table. 

Of course Miss Madi K wanted in on the party!

Notice the checked ball on the table; that looks 

a lot like Courtly Check.

Imagine my surprise to find this cute ball 

in the condo that coordinated beautifully with 

my traveling tote.  

Even the plates coordinated perfectly with 

Miss Madi K.

This is the view from our lot!  It still takes my 

breath away, and I am sure 

it will end up being worth it.  

Here are a couple more sneak peaks - 

this is the garage.

This is part of the slide.  It is being covered 

with rocks and steps are being added to

reach the top.

Although the construction has been painfully slow, 

we have had fun along the way, and 

Villa La Estancia has made it a great journey. 

Of course, several full weeks of our summers are spent 

in the sun down at Lake Powell, and Miss Madi K 

always gets invited along.  She really loves to 

carry so much for me!!!

But we are getting ready for a backpacking trip 

to Havasupai in Arizona, and she just doesn't 

qualify weight wise for backpacking, but I 

might be able to sneak along a MacKenzie-Childs 

mug, even though it weighs a lot more than my 

backpacking cup - we will see.  

My pack is getting heavier by the day.  

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, as it has 

become almost impossible to secure a permit 

to hike Havasupai, but we were lucky enough to 

get permits, but I won't be back in time to 

include it in this post.  Stay tuned for more 

Fun in the Sun!  I hope you are having lots of 

fun in the sun!  Summer always passes too quickly.

Visit the rest of our fabulous

Traveling Tote Group 

to see what fun they have been having in the sun.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Katie with Miss Daisy @ Preppy Empty Nester

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Linda with Miss Rosie @ More Fun Less Laundry

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 
Ricki Jill and Countess De Monet @ The Sketchy Reader

Cherry Kay and Carrie Ann Hall @ Entertaining Women  

Come back again on September 1st 
for our next adventure of 
Tales of the Traveling Tote
and a fun MacKenzie-Childs giveaway.

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