A Quite Moment

Can you tell I am longing for a quite moment at the beach.  I am about as far away from that as possible.  Landlocked in the Midwest with an ice storm moving in.  I will post all the week's post now because I may lose power.  I will come back and link them up later if I am not able to on time.

But, I can dream.....about the beach.

Real French pressed glass goblets.  I found these at Marshall's last fall for $2.00 a piece.

Thanks for joining me down at the beach for a quite moment.

Pewter seashells by Wilton Armetale.

China by  Imperial pattern Whitney

I will link to:

 Tablescape Thursday  at Between Naps on the Porch

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Feathered Nest Friday at My French Country Cottage
My Favorite Things at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie 

Go and visit these lovely blogs.

Sigh.....textures...

I have to totally credit Kat at Low Tide High Style for the tips on where to find these textures.  I have been looking of textures for awhile now and these work wonderfully.  The texture is anything you can scan and superimpose to the photo of your choice to get this effect.  The French postcard was from Sophie G*'s Flicker Photostream.

Kat's post on textures is at the link above.  She made her photos in Photoshop.  I used Picasa.  Picasa is a free download.  Once you download and edit your desired photo here are your next steps:

• Hit the tab create a collage
• Choose picture collage
• Go to settings
• Where it says picture pile choose multiple exposure
• pick the two photos you want by choosing get clips
• if you have photos on the layout you don't want just hit reset 
• and select all and then remove what you don't want as a group or you can remove each one individually by clicking on that photo on the layout and hitting remove
• When you get two images superimposed you hit create collage and you will have your texturized image

The vintage lace texture can be found at this link and was created by Kat at Low Tide High Style.  

Kim Klassen provided this texture today and has a video on how to do textures.  This texture was called Nature's Beauty and she has it free here.  Kim also sells many textures and has a gallery of images.  Check with the place you find textures and make sure you are free to create with them and what limits may apply to their use.

This was from Sophie G's photostream texture 011.

Lizzie_Anne's Flicker Photostream is where this texture came from.  It was called green background.
Textures are my new favorite photography edit.  Lovin' these!
I will join Laurie for My Favorite Things at her site Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie.  Go and visit her for lots of fun.

Tabletop Zen

I always want to say, "and now for something completely different." (old Monty Python fan here)  This table is very different.  I am doing my best to copy Asian style in the garden tonight.  I have never been to Asia, although, I would love to go, but using my imagination this is what I came up with.  In a word simplicity captures it.  The beauty is in nature.  Crisp, clean white linen tablecloth, and napkin. Very little on the table.  

My centerpiece is very simple.  Only gravel to hold and anchor the candle and  the hurricane shade to keep it from blowing out.

Zen, as defined by the Urban Dictionary, is a total state of focus with mind and body.  A zen garden is created by taking gravel and raking it into patterns.  Here is a picture of one.

Image from scaredsites.com

This is a famous zen garden at a temple in Soami.  It is 15 stones in a small white bed of gravel.  This is called the "garden of emptiness."  The people here are meditating.

The china dinner plate, plain, simple, and white.  The salad plate only adorned with a blush of color and a spring blossoming tree.   

Dinner plate is Royal Worcester pattern Classic Platinum.
Salad Plate is Royal Stafford.

A fan because it is so hot.  

The goblets have a swirl that mimics water.  A plainer goblet with no pattern might have been a better choice.

The lanterns glowing in the crabapple tree.

There are so many ways to adorn you tabletop. Escaping to another culture was a fun way for me to create a table tonight.  Thanks for joining me.

I will join:

Centerpiece Wednesday at the Style Sisters

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

My Favorite Things at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

Vignette Friday at Color Outside the Lines

Ghirardelli Chocolate

When I visit Walt Disney World a visit is never complete until I have gone to the Downtown Disney Shopping Center and visited Ghirardelli.  If you don't know about Ghirardelli it is some wonderful chocolate made right here in America.  This picture of the outside of the shop shows Domingo Ghirardelli; an Italian immigrant, and his chocolate making history in San Francisco.  When you turn the corner to the front of the store the feature attraction is the chocolate.

This marquee on the outside of the building shows my favorite chocolate the "Drinking Chocolate."  I will get to more about that in a minute.

Step inside the door and a person hands you a square of chocolate free!  Yes, free chocolate.  Do I need to say more.  This is one reason this has become one of my favorite stops.  This wall display has some others.  Here you are looking at chocolate drops and chocolate covered fruit.  The saleslady's hand is on the chocolate covered blueberries,  right next to it is chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered apricots.  We have bought these in years past and they are delicious!

Check this out!  Shelves of chocolate squares in cellophane bags tied with satin ribbons.

Okay now we are getting to the serious chocolate lover's display.  Here is what you are looking at, chocolate lava cake, triple chocolate brownies, chocolate dipped strawberries, a fondue set, chocolate caramel fudge sauce, bittersweet chocolate fudge sauce, hot cocoa (in these flavors) double chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, and white mocha, and a cookbook opened up to the chocolate lava cake recipe.  But that is not all....

this little golden tin has drinking chocolate, just like the picture in the marquee out front.  I did a Foodie Friday post on this back in the winter.  You can view that here.  What is so special about this drinking chocolate is that is isn't hot chocolate.  It is true liquid chocolate.  It reminds me of the movie Chocolat when Vianne (Juliette Binoche) makes chocolate for Roux (Johnny Depp).  The best part is you can make this at home with the recipe in my Foodie Friday post.  I got the recipe off of Ghirardelli's site and you can visit that here.  You can also order most of things you see here at their website. 

 This store is also a working soda fountain shop.  They can make you almost anything.  

The lady behind the counter on the left is making the homemade waffle cones.  They smell amazing.  

So, your wondering what did I buy?  When I headed toward the store; leaving the van, the teenagers were shouting buy chocolate, lots of chocolate!

 So, a bag of the little chocolate squares with the satin ribbon made it back home with us.  If it had not been packed deep within my suitcase it might have been on the endangered species list.

But, through 1,000 miles of highway, growling teens, potty breaks, and fast food from hell; these fabulous little chocolate squares made it home in my suitcase for me to break in two and slowly savor each delectable bite. Ghirardelli a Foodie stop in heaven.:)
I will link this to Michael Lee's Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.
I will also link to Laurie's My Favorite Things at her site Bargain Hunting and chatting with Laurie.

Tony's Town Square Restaurant

There is this wonderful little restaurant as you walk inside the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.  It is called Tony's Town Square Restaurant.  This is a view inside the main dining area.  But, that isn't my favorite place to eat.

Peak through the lace curtains into the conservatory area.  This is where you want to eat.

 It may look hot with the glass roof catching all the Florida sunshine, but it isn't.  It is air conditioned and cold.

The secret to this restaurant is that you can usually walk right in (no reservation) at around 1:30-2 PM ET.  The reason you want to do that is this great view.  

and this 5 year old has one of the best seats in the park to view it.

 Let's go step out on the porch of Tony's and get a closer look.

Enjoying the magic is one of my favorite things because kids are only five once.

The parade is over and we are off.  Rounding the corner of Adventureland, I snapped this beautiful hanging basket for Pink Saturday. 

I will link this to:

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

My Favorite Things at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie.

Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. 

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