More Table Decorating Ideas for a Women’s Luncheon

Our church’s annual women’s luncheon was last Saturday.

And it did not disappoint.

Get this:  our pastor spoke.

He’s a man.

We usually have a woman speaker at our women’s luncheon.

But our pastor delivered a wonderful message on beauty, the spiritual kind, 

that God reserves for women.

It was lovely.

My mom got to come to the luncheon this year along with my girls.

I think Ellie was saying something. Or had to sneeze.

Let’s get to the table decorations.

I decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme. Less emphasis on the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion (not to mention the witch) and more emphasis on scripture with the same message of home, wisdom, heart and courage.

I set a goal for myself not to spend a dime for this table. I only spent money on lollipops and Skittles.

Wait. I also spent $.99 on a pair of shoes at a thrift store that I turned into ruby slippers.

I looked for shoes with a bow and was happy to find these.

I spray painted the shoes a glossy red.

While the shoes were still wet, I sprinkled red glitter all over them.

I didn’t even put down a tarp since our backyard still looks like the surface of the moon.

The red glitter classes it up just a teence.

I’m happy with the way they turned out. 

Except red glitter is ALL OVER THE HOUSE now.

How perfect is this scripture in Proverbs?

I brought in a picnic basket that I had to display the slippers and printed out the “There’s No Place Like Home” with a scripture about our citizenship being in heaven.

I used clothes pins to hold up the sign.

I made poppies from crepe paper and pipe cleaners. I swear we used to make these for the veterans in school but my mom said it was the other way around.

I found free printables of blue gingham and yellow brick roads that I printed and put on contact paper to attach them together for a table runner. I cut the yellow brick road to look winding.

I separated two big bags of Skittles by color and layered them in large mason jars to look like a rainbow and to also hold up large lollipops.

People had no problem helping themselves to the Skittles. 

I wish I had brought Ziploc bags so 

they could’ve taken some home.

I used felt rose cut outs as chargers that I had on hand from Dollar Tree. 

I put a lollipop at each place setting.

My friends, Sumita and Jill, threw this table together at the last minute when they realized they were short a table decorator. 

Don’t you love what you can do with china, baskets and the produce section of the grocery store?

Makes me hungry.

Look at these shadowbox flower frames! 

The little bud vase is held by an eye bolt that is screwed into the side of the frame. I wanted to ask the lady who decorated the table if she made them but I got distracted. 

It’s easy to get distracted in a room full of creative people. 

And food. 

This next table was awesome. 

A chef’s table!

Complete with a chef’s hat at each place setting.

The woman who decorated the table teaches cooking classes 

at the church so this made so much sense.

Don’t you love the centerpiece pot and utensils? How easy but totally effective.

She even used cookie cutters as napkin rings. Adorable!

You can see they had a blast with those chef hats.

Love these ladies, Sarah and Patti.
Sorry I stole this off your Facebook page, Patti!

This very elegant table included the quilt pieces of her grandmother as a table runner.

This table had a Precious Moments theme.

There was a teddy bear table.

 A tropical table.

I love how she used carrots and limes with the pineapple for the centerpiece.

The cat table honoring the cats, Lewis and Clark, of a woman in our church.

There were even cat masks!

All the tables were wonderful but I have to say, this took the grand prize in my book. 

The Star Trek table.

The attention to detail was phenomenal!

I have to admit, I have never seen a complete episode of Star Trek ever so I didn’t get all the references.

But I do know the hand signal of this cookie. 

Even if I can’t actually do it.

I love the glittery emblem on the goody bags.

Inside were these “delicacies”.

Leonard Nimoy sat at the table too.

Bullet holes in the face and all.

His chair faced mine and I kept feeling like someone was staring at me.

It was Leonard.

So there you have it.

Another year of creative ideas for table decorating for a luncheon.

Click here if you’d like to see last year’s luncheon tables.

Manly Gator Jeep

Monte got a new car.

This was not an impulse buy.

Are cars ever impulse buys for people

 other than Jerry Seinfeld or Jay Leno?

No, Monte has researched and researched and RESEARCHED a safer vehicle for his frequent business trips.

But he didn’t want a “company car” looking vehicle.

He wanted a smallish SUV that was manly.

That was a tough find. 

It took him almost a year of research and asking questions of people in the know.

Smallish SUVs are aplenty, especially if you are a 16-year-old who just got their license

and a girl.

It seemed as if every SUV Monte found somewhat acceptable was driven by every woman in our community.

Women.

Or girls.

Not men.

So Monte went on a year long journey of finding a manly car that wasn’t:

1) a truck 

(terrible gas mileage)

2) a doorless, roofless Jeep 

(terrible safety rating)

3) a Porsche 

(terrible price and let’s be honest here,
terrible image)

Although he went through a 2-week phase of entertaining the 

ABSOLUTE FANTASY of owning the Porsche SUV.

Every other night Monte would show me a picture online of a vehicle and ask if I liked it even though we both knew it didn’t matter as soon as we’d see a lady friend zoom down the road driving it a few days later.

It became a real “thing” for him.

A testosterone thing.

I get it. He’s the only male in the sea of estrogen we call our family.

Just this week a new shipment of 

sparkly headbands came in the mail.

Monte deserves a manly car.

While I was picking out paint colors and light fixtures for the house, Monte was reading consumer reviews on ALL THE VEHICLES ever made in the last year.

He emailed me last week that he thought he’d FINALLY found what he was looking for. 

The very next day we walked into a dealership to meet with a super friendly guy named Kevin who Monte had emailed A LOT of questions in a short amount of time about a vehicle called the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.

I think Monte found his manly car.

I told him if this was animated in the movie “Cars”
it would be the villain.
He liked that.
He liked that a lot.

He said the headlights sold him.

They reminded him of alligator eyes.

Get this:  the color is called a very unmanly “Mango Tango”.

This thing can tow 4500 pounds.

I can not imagine a scenario where we’d need to.

People of Jeep:  Don’t name the color of a car that can off-road and tow 4500 pounds “Mango Tango”. 

It’s confusing.

I overheard Monte tell someone it was “Burnt Orange”.

Not sure any points were added to his 

Man Card for that one either.

So we’ve settled on telling people it's Florida Gator orange.

But let me back up…

The plan was for me to test drive the vehicle with Monte and if he liked it, leave him at the dealership to fill out all the paperwork and do what he likes to do best:  negotiate way beyond my comfort level.

Monte absolutely loved the car and before I could get away,

he asked for an even cheaper deal and for “something thrown in”.

Kevin said he could throw in a hat.

I left before that choice was made.

I got this picture later.

“I’m sorry, Kevin, I asked for the hat with Jeep in
big letters.”
Not sure why Monte has the crazy eyes.
Maybe it’s all the testosterone.

It’s so different yet so perfectly Monte.

Every time I see it in the driveway, I think we have company.

I’ve been getting calls from friends telling me where they have seen Monte driving. 

I guess when your husband drives a “Mango Tango” colored car, he can not drive anywhere unnoticed.

That is a good thing.

And we’ve seen nary a woman driving one.

And that is a very good thing.

The Addition is Finished!! (Kinda Sorta, for the Most Part)

I’ve been putting off posting about our addition project because I’ve been waiting on all the “punch out” list items to get finished.

Which is taking a wee bit longer than I thought.

But we are LIVING in the new space now and enjoying running water and a bathroom on the first floor.

And having an oven again??

I’ve baked 6 batches of brownies.

Not all at once.

It’s wonderful to have meal options beyond what we can microwave and heat up on the hot plate.

But I can’t find my cook books.

And some other things that we packed away for 

the construction and can’t seem to find now.

I’m hoping they are in the basement which is a disaster from our flood and having all the carpet ripped out with all the furniture still in it.

Oy!

So here is the kitchen reveal:

Our builder has been bringing over perspective clients to see the space and they always ask specific names of colors and products and where we got things.

I’ll try to list everything while it’s still fresh in my mind at the end of this post.

Just leave me a question in the comments section if there’s something you’d like to know that I didn’t mention.

Every morning I walk in, I’m so happy it’s still here and not all just a wonderful dream.

 I love my island!! And I love that vein right in the middle. I can’t believe the fabricator tried to direct me away from it.

I wipe the counters down twice a day. The construction dust is still settling and coats everything. I love to run my hands over the counter tops but don’t love getting construction dust all over my hands.

These bar stools are so nice and heavy. They are adjustable and can spin up higher or lower depending on your preference. The seats stay still when you sit on them except one needs to be tightened. We don’t let Ellie sit in that one because she can’t sit still for a second. It’s very distracting talking to someone who is spinning back and forth.

You know what’s crazy? The stove sits right where it did in the old kitchen. Doesn’t seem possible. I love all the bright lighting and the hood!! I had them make a ledge so I can put something up there. Haven’t figured out what that something is yet.

And the three brown animals all in a row in the decorative tiles, 

TIC TAC TOE, don’t bother me AT ALL 

because I’m cooking!! On a real stove!! What is there to complain about?!

Actually, I will say this. Our new smoke alarms must be terribly sensitive because every time we use the oven they go off. Even if it’s empty and just preheating. 

I’m hoping there is just some residual construction dust inside burning off.

 It did sit right in the middle of our living room throughout the project. 

I really don’t want my meals to be smoke alarm associated.

I have SO enjoyed ALL THE SPACE of these open shelves!! I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always had open shelves rather than upper cabinets in my kitchens. But I didn’t have a ton of space so I still had to store a lot of stuff.

Now I can have ALL the plates out! I picked up a few sets of white plates at a thrift store last year to use for our women’s luncheon. I had to store them away when it was over. Now I actually use them. It’s great to have people over and KNOW FOR A FACT that I have enough plates for them and we don’t have to use paper plates. Which I vow to NEVER buy again after eating off them exclusively for 6 months!

The only new thing we bought for the kitchen were drinking glasses. We still had the thick hand blown glasses we got for our wedding with the dark blue band on the top.

I love them because they are so heavy duty but the blue drove me crazy on the shelves. It was the wrong shade. Plus, we didn’t have enough of them.

I’m keeping them in a lower cabinet so we can use them on the patio this summer.

We found these online from Crate and Barrel. Not sure you can tell but there are little bubbles in the glass.

Having a single deep sink where the entire baking sheet fits right in and whole skillets are easily washed out is amazing!

The fridge that started it all in its final resting place allowing for full door opening and usage. We added the cabinet to the right of it at the last minute to house our trash and recycling. I’m so glad we did! The drawer has become the junk drawer. So has the counter space.

The outlets on the wall above the counter have USB ports allowing us to charge our phones directly. Yet, we don’t as you can see from the photo. Interesting…

Ignore the dead tulips.

This is a view from our side door into the family room. My dad made the farm table.

We easily sat 8 people around the table last weekend. We use the chairs on the wall on the ends of the table for company.

The rest of the time, they live right here.

Our fireplace and built-ins.

The mantle is an Indiana barn beam and over 100 years old. I love the hole in the front.

The reclaimed wood behind the shelves is from a red barn and grey horse stall back in Indiana. One of the construction workers said he could smell horse every time he cut those pieces.

Organizing the shelves has been one of my favorite things to decorate.

Monte ordered that gator head on the top shelf for himself for his birthday with the specific intent for me to display it on these shelves.

Don’t you think it would be funny if we hung it 

on the wall like a deer head??

The workers and I do!

Monte doesn’t.

He takes his gators very seriously.

My friend Karmen painted that picture of Nigel and I love how it pops out on the shelf. More people have noticed that than the gator head.

Just saying…

The huge sectional that we worried wouldn’t fit.

I allowed myself to really fret over what rug to buy.

What color? 

What size? 

I went to 142 stores and looked at 4,074 rugs. 

Then I just decided one morning that it was a stupid rug that we were going to walk on, for the love of Pete!

So I bought a super neutral one on the smallish size. 

I love it.

The coffee table is our old one from the living room that I’ve painted and restained many times. One of our construction workers is going to take it. We are just using it until he does. We are going to use an old trunk in this space that used to be my great-uncle’s sales equipment trunk. It’s really neat.

We thought we wanted a round coffee table but couldn’t bring ourselves to fall in love with anything we saw. Mainly because they were all $400-$800.

For the love of Pete!

Also, I love the story behind the trunk.

We bought this big clock in my hometown in Indiana while home for Christmas. It’s the only thing that has been hung on the walls. And that’s because I had the workers do it. I’m not used to drywall. All my walls are plaster which does not require all the anchors and whatnot. It just explodes most of the wall all over your hair when you hammer.

I’m enjoying the extra brain space that having empty walls has given me. It will drive me crazy soon enough but for now…happy sigh. 

So from this:

Plastic brick archway that housed the oven and two cabinets.

To this:

From small sun porch turned into den sometime in the 70s:

To this:

I’ll take it!!

What’s left?

Our back yard looks like the surface of the moon. 

The April showers might bring May flowers but they do not help the patio go in any faster. We are hoping that starts this week.

We hope to get steps to our side door installed then too. It’s a long jump down and even harder jump back in when we take the trash to the garage.

We need the new front door installed since ours is old enough to have the three little windows staggered diagonally. The door is featured in most of the old black and white movies from the 50s and 60s.

And most of the wood surrounding the front door is rotten and needs replaced. 

We are getting new lighting too.

And we have to figure out new flooring for our basement so we can put it all back together. We’ve missed having it as an option to send the kids when they have friends over and want to be loud. We are learning that sound really carries with the high ceilings of our new space. The basement is so nice and insulated that we never hear loud giggling teenagers.

We also need to start transforming our old dining room into an office so the girls have a quiet place to do homework.

I’m thinking a barn door to close it off 

from the kitchen would look FANTASTIC!

So there you have it! I’m so glad it’s kinda sorta, for the most part done.

Details:

Counter tops:  Typhoon White or River White granite
Cabinet color:  Brie
Cabinet hardware:  Rusticware knobs and 10-inch pulls in oil-rubbed bronze from PullsDirect.com
Sink:  Vigo single-bowl stainless steel from eBay.
Faucet:  Giagni Fresco from Lowe’s
Stove Hood:  custom built. Painted Snowbound from Sherwin Williams to match cabinets. Wood corbels from eBay.
Open shelves:  custom built. Painted Snowbound from Sherwin Williams.
Backsplash:  White subway tile; Winter Grey grout
Lighting:  island pendants and over the sink:  Pottery Barn. We bought them deeply discounted over the holidays.
Bar stools:  World Market (sorry, can’t find the name of them)
Dining side chairs:  Light Walnut finish, French Bistro side chair, World Market.
Dining end chairs:  Linen Maddox, World Market.
Wall color in kitchen and family room:  Repose Gray, Sherwin Williams
Chandelier over table:  Objects for Home, local.
Built-ins by fireplace:  custom built. Painted Snowbound by Sherwin Williams.
Iron Shelf brackets:  House of Antique Hardware