Tuesday's Tablescape

As you know, Saturday was the beginning of the Chinese New Year. It's the year of the fire rooster, so I decided to set a table for the occasion!

The place settings incorporate the rooster's colors.

This rooster (well, actually I think it may be a chicken, but we're going with rooster!) is from my mother and is  a remnant of the 1970's Plaster-of-Paris craze. He's usually on display in a kitchen cabinet, but strutted out to take his place on this table!

Red envelopes with gold Chinese characters are traditionally distributed for Chinese New Year and contain money for the recipient...but this one's empty!! It came from Panda Express and did have a coupon in it!😊

Would you like a fortune cookie?

Happy Chinese New Year!

Route 66

We took a little "field trip" Saturday to enjoy the Route 66 exhibit at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, St. Louis. Free admission and open through July 16 of this year, Route 66: Main Street Through St. Louis focuses on how the famous road impacted our local history. It is well done!

As it is at the Route 66 state park in Eureka, MO, this exhibit provides visitors the opportunity to see real artifacts as they learn about the iconic Main Street of America. We had fun poking through the Eureka museum one hot day last August (click on Get Your Kicks on Route 66 ). Wouldn't it be fun to travel Route 66 in its entirety, from IL to CA?

As Route 66 wound its way across America, it changed the way people lived. With the influx of cars and people  came the demand for additional restaurants, lodging, "filling stations" and vacations attractions/destinations. Not only were these additional establishments needed, they had to be designed for convenience. Travelers wanted to eat quickly and have a place to stay that was an easy in and easy out. As a result, fast food and motels (combination of the words motor and hotel) began dotting Route 66.

Fast food allowed travelers to eat their meals quickly and get back on the road. Carhops, in uniforms as shown above, delivered hot food directly to your car!

Motels provided the comforts of home to weary visitors!

Some people took their "motels" with them by pulling travel trailers. This authentic Airstream was nicely appointed with a kitchen and bedroom.

The demand for gas stations grew.

Numerous new attractions were designed for people to visit and it's interesting that some are in existence today. Although this St. Louis amusement park is long-gone, it was very popular it its day. In fact, it was at Chain of Rocks Park that my husband learned to swim! My in-laws spent happy times there and at the close of the school year, the kids would walk the mile from their elementary to the park for an end-of-the-year celebration!

I'm sure those traversing Route 66 were pleased to find the occasional payphone! We wouldn't know how to make any trip today with our trusty cell phones, would we?

These pictures don't do justice to the display and what's shown here is just a "tease". If you're local, you may want to consider enjoying this exhibit to get your kicks on Route 66!

Show and Tell

After showing my disorganized drawers yesterday, I decided to share the actual  piece of furniture today. You've seen it in many pictures and while I always refer to it our "hutch", it's really not. It was my mother who politely asked if it wasn't technically a "sideboard" and it is! 😊

It's still decked-out in January décor with a snowman and wreath, but I am starting to put out a few

things for Valentine's Day.

We bought it when this house was under construction and I was smitten with it when I first laid eyes on it! I loved the wood and style. The antique dealer was nice enough to write-up a short description of it which I kept. Do you see something yellow under the creamer in the picture below? That's the hand-written document, which I keep tucked in the drawer.

The description reads that it is an oak tall sideboard from around 1900. It also explains that the supports are tobacco twists, on urn bases, with applied decorations on the doors.

The hardware is original.

Being drawn to the history of pieces, I've often wondered about this sideboard. How many families have owned it? In how many dining rooms has it been used? I'll never know for sure, but what I do know is that we enjoy it!

Have a blessed weekend, everyone!

A Mishmash

Have you ever been accomplishing one task when you suddenly become sidetracked by something else that demands your attention? That was my experience last Monday when I was creating Tuesday's Tablescape. I wanted to use some teacups so I opened the drawer where I stash them and was met with a mess! I have two drawers in the hutch that contain a mishmash of tea cups,  a childhood tea set, small plates and other family pieces used for decorative purposes. How did I let those drawers get in such disarray?

Perhaps if I opened them on a regular basis, I would have stayed on top of the disorder since I can't stand unorganized drawers! I don't even have a kitchen "junk drawer" for this very reason.  So, the tablescape was temporarily suspended. Rather than fishing out the teacups, I decided to tackle the clutter right then and there. After removing everything, I used sheets of my Victorian rose drawer liner and began arranging the contents. A couple of the items were assigned new homes in a different spot.

With my mishmash a bit more together, I was able to complete the tablescape. Thankfully, the rest of the hutch compartments were in order and didn't need attention. Do you have drawers of mishmash? If so, I'll bet they're more together than mine were!

Make it a great day!

Terrarium Planter...or Snow Globe

At the risk of sounding like a Dollar Tree addict (although I sort of am!), I wanted to share a new find. I am not a shopper and I don't consider it enjoyable to shop without a purpose. However, I have dashed inside many area dollar stores lately in quests to locate particular items for specific reasons. Merchandise and quantities vary from store-to-store and so, for example, I had to shop three different locations before acquiring the 13 matching 4 by 6 frames that I needed for a gift project. Now I am trying to locate a large quantity of something else for an endeavor and so when I happen to be near a Dollar Tree, I run in to take a look. Even when  on a mission, though, something else can catch your eye as you breeze past it. That's exactly how I found this terrarium planter. It's a perfect size, affordable and a good idea in theory. It is, of course, plastic so I wonder if it would be suitable as a terrarium. I understand that this is likely geared toward air plants so maybe it would be fine.  Also, don't you wonder if the plastic might discolor in constant sunlight? When I saw these lined-up on a shelf with the spring floral merchandise, though,  I immediately saw them as larger-than-usual snow globes.

It's about 5 inches tall.

I can envision it containing a snow scene at Christmastime, for example. For now, I placed my little snow owl in it. There is a hook for hanging, so I added a simple raffia bow.

Displaying the little owl seems appropriate since the owls in our backyard have been quite vocal lately! We enjoy hearing them each night.

I can switch the scenes to reflect the seasons and maybe I will even try another air plant. I haven't had one since I was growing up.  At the time, they were popular and I got mine on a family vacation to Florida where they were sold.

What do you think? Do you envision this more as a terrarium or snow globe?

Enjoy your day!

Tuesday's Tablescape

It's tea time! A cup of hot tea on a winter day can hit the spot. Without intending to do so, this table is a creation of family pieces.

This teapot belonged to my maternal grandma. She received it from her brother who bought it for her when he was in the service.

The platter, which is holding the teabags, was a wedding gift to my paternal great grandparents.

It was the color of these two family treasures which persuaded me to select teacups displaying various shades of blue for the place settings. Oh! By the way, the table linen was a wedding shower gift to my mother and you may recall my highlighting it in the past when I "saved" it from the stack of Goodwill donations and brought it home with me. 😊

This teacup belonged to Randy's grandma.

This one was my maternal grandma's...

and this one came from my paternal grandmother's collection.

This one, with a blip of blue is my mother's and she gave it to me many years ago.

Would you like a cup of tea in one of these

pretty little cups?

Crockpot Sesame Chicken

Whenever I prepare a crockpot recipe, I consider it a treat! Isn't it nice to be able to go about your daily schedule and find dinner awaiting you? You may want to try this sesame chicken in your slow-cooker.

Crockpot Sesame Chicken

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt and pepper

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup diced onion

1/4 cup ketchup

2 T olive oil

1 tsp. minced garlic  (I substituted with 1/4 tsp. garlic powder)

1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes

2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3 T water

sesame seeds

Start by seasoning chicken lightly with salt and pepper and placing in a crockpot. In a bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic (or garlic powder) and pepper flakes. Pour concoction over chicken and cook on low for 4 hours or until chicken is done. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken and leave sauce in crockpot. Dissolve cornstarch in water and pour into crockpot. Stir to combine, replace lid and return chicken breasts to sauce. Cook for 10 minutes on high until the sauce has thickened. Serve chicken breasts on bed of rice or pasta and top with sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

**As an alternative, you can remove the cooked breasts and shred them with two forks, Return the meat to the crockpot after thickening sauce and warm for 10 minutes on high. Serve on bed of rice or pasta. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

We  enjoyed our chicken on rice with a side of roasted cauliflower and a fresh spinach salad, so it went together quickly. If you try crockpot sesame chicken, I hope you'll enjoy it!

Happy Monday!

Mini Shadow Box

Shadow boxes are a good way to display special mementoes and keepsakes. A few weeks ago I found this mini-shadow box at the dollar store.

I believe it was brought out as part of their Valentine line since it was nestled-in among seasonal merchandise. It has no glass and was manufactured with a little string and mini-clothespin across the top for a clothesline effect. It's an odd size--I think 5 3/4 by 6 3/4. For a dollar, I think it has many good possibilities! I happen to have some little hankies from my childhood, so I dug out the Valentine one to display for now.

I think this little frame will be a good way to showcase things from time-to-time.

Have a blessed weekend, everyone!

Inside Snowflakes

This was the post slated for yesterday, but it was postponed when I featured my freshly-blooming amaryllis.  As I had mentioned, today's subject is polar opposite! We're going from yesterday's  inside flowers to today's inside snowflakes!

Did you ever make your own snowflakes? You may have done this activity growing up. Inside snowflakes are good to make with children, but require constant adult assistance since boiling water is involved in the process. You need pipe cleaners, a glass container, Borax and boiling water.

First fashion a snowflake from pipe cleaners. Remember that you need six points to mimic the real thing. I snipped two standard pipe cleaners in half before I began creating. Using three of those half-length pieces, I connected them together at the center. Then I cut and used the remaining piece for the small spokes at the ends. Everything is twisted on; no glue is used.

Most people attach the string to the end of one arm so that the snowflake can be suspended in a glass jar. My snowflake is larger than the mouth of any jars I had on hand, so I opted to use a stainless steel bowl. Due to the boiling water, of course, plastic wouldn't be suitable. Since the length of the snowflake is greater than the depth of my bowl, I looped my string around the center point of my snowflake so that it would lie flat when immersed.

Dissolve 3 tablespoons of Borax in 1 cup of boiling water. I repeated this process so that I had a total of 4 cups of water and 12 T. of Borax in my bowl. I gently dropped in the snowflake (be certain that it doesn't touch the sides or bottom) and tied the two string ends to a yardstick that lay across the bowl.

Leave your snowflake soaking overnight. In the morning, you  can lift it out of the Borax solution and allow it to air dry. I hung mine from a kitchen cabinet door knob until it was dry to the touch. You will now have a lovely snowflake!

I put mine on a wreath.

Even on a cloudy day, these are pretty. In sunshine, though, they really sparkle when they catch the light. Some people like to hang them in windows. You need to secure them tightly, though, as they are heavier than you'd think.

Now I have to ask. Do you prefer inside flowers or inside snowflakes?!