Thursday, July 14, 2016

Some Enchanted Evening - Imagined

 
we've all been to places we simply cannot forget...
& I'm about to tell you about one of those places,
visited a few years ago, and which has just been brought to mind...


I was a guest at this splendid old home in the French Quarter of
New Orleans, complete with a greenhouse roof, like the one above,
but their roof retracted!!   Will you please come play with me....
Imagine this room as it is and the floor-to-ceiling
glass wall on the right leads out to a beautiful interior courtyard
filled with flowers and tropical plants

and on the far wall, facing the dining room is the most exquisite
wall-mounted fountain, it's water creating lovely sparkles


and for one night only, for Valentine's Day, we are having a
 beautiful dinner party with a few of our beautiful-people friends
who will all be dressed formally.

All us girls are interested in making a beautiful table,
complete with our finest china, crystal, & silver,
along with beautiful flowers, music & conversation.
So I thought it would be fun to imagine our party,
set the table and decorate the room
for everyone to see.

The room looks too bare to me, so I think installing this
huge canvas opposed to the opening to the courtyard
would be perfect...


I love the glass table, but for tonight


  these chairs slip-covered in gray/silver shimmering silk
I love the lucite ones, but not for tonight's dinner...I think
we need a more intimate & cozy look...because it's a formal  
dinner party...

the flowers, hi-lo arrangements with many column candles of
various heights marching down the table



and now for the china.


1st, this Arte Italica Crystal Charger
which I happen to own in beautiful inlaid silver

I dreamed of these so much that my husband's daughter & son
gave 8 of them to me for Christmas many years ago.

with this beautiful Versace Arabesque Dinner Plate

& the William Yeoward Avington Magenta Salad Plate


\\

the magenta plate will fit exactly inside the gold border of the Versace

Of course, we will need beautiful crystal wine glasses,
like these old Varga Raspberry red wine stems.


& these beautiful William Yeoward "Orleans" water stems





Dessert Plate with be this Versace Butterfly Gold,
brought to the table on the same crystal charger...
one can recognize Versace china anywhere it is so beautiful


and this is the dessert
a ribbon-wrapped 2-tiered cake
made entirely from fresh flowers...
see the little green chrysanthemums



so we shall all celebrate

with a lovely champagne
(has anyone tried Coppola's "Sofia" - it's very nice)
served off a silver tray
in various vintage crystal stems



and the hostess wore this nice little
New Orleans-appropriate
Oscar de la Renta gown



Splenderosa's
(my jewelry-design studio)
Tourmalines & Green Amethyst
Earrings


won't you join me ?

:)'S3

Photobucket

6 comments:

  1. Dear Marsha

    Do you know where i can get such gorgeous slip covers from?
    A lovely post, full of beautiful photos.
    Many thanks
    Deb

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  2. Entertaining is special to me. I never invite anyone for dinner unless I'm prepared to make the entire evening a happy one. I have a collection of beautiful dinner and glassware, and love to set a beautiful and interesting table. But, entertaining doesn't have to be lavish, just well thought out and purposeful, from the menu, to the table, to the environment. Nothing is haphazard...I'm a list person, right down to the timetable for when things need to go into the oven. For some, this may sound like too much of a chore, but I love creating a scene that relaxes everyone and fosters conversation. By the way, those stems are gorgeous. Angela Muller

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  3. What a beautiful evening that would be!!! I looked for your post about France and it says it doesn't exist anymore? Did you take it down? My heart is broken over these events. XO

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  4. Lovely post, Marsha. These are my favorite posts and I haven't seen them for awhile..full of imagination and play and dress up. Thank you for the treat...

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  5. Having been in the table linen business for 30 years, table settings are very close to my heart. Yours is magnificent and I love it.
    Enjoy.......
    Love,
    Audrey

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful and elegant, Marsha!

    ReplyDelete


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