Easter Dinner

This past weekend, I hosted Easter dinner for six and thought I would share it with all of you via the weekly Tablescape Thursdays at Between Naps on the Porch.

I was tired of the white tablecloths I have, so I went to Pottery Barn and got this beautiful tan paisley cloth. It has tiny specs of green in the pattern that match the green linen napkins I already had.

I used my white sanssouci plates for the main course (roast lamb and vegetables) with some pretty antique plates by Ernst Wahliss with a red floral pattern for the salad course (waldorf salad).

The serving pieces are an antique pattern by Minton that I rarely get to use as they're so big! I dream of having a dining room someday so I can hang that huge platter on the wall!

I chose 2 small bunches of ranunculus on either end of the table, leaving the main course as the center of attention (family style).

I had to have a fun party favor to embaress my guests with. These candy suckers in the shape of a bunny snout will come in handy for ransom someday as I insisted each guest had their picture taken 'wearing' them!

I hope you enjoyed my Easter dinner tour!

Look up!

While visiting the cherry blossoms this past weekend, I dropped into my favorite building on the National Mall, the Freer Gallery. In the main entry hall, I had to stop to take a picture of the most beautiful plaster coffered ceiling I've ever seen. So intricate, but I think the plain white keeps it from being too busy.

The unusual round bronze chandelier breaks up the straight lines of the ceiling admirably. Next visit to the National Mall, stop into the Freer. If not to see the beautiful building, stop to see a gorgeous collection of Asian arts as well as select pieces from the Aesthetic Movement (including Whistler's famous Peacock Room!)

End of the blossoms

This past weekend saw the last of the famous cherry blossoms here in Washington. Despite that, the crowds must have been record breaking as I've never seen so many people. Lets blame the gorgeous weather!

At the top you saw the Washington Memorial reflected in the tidal basin, surrounded by the beautiful pink blossoms. On the mall across from the Jefferson memorial, many families had set up picnic blankets: such a great idea!

Sadly, the primary walkway surrounding the Tidal Basin seems to have structural problems and will hopefully be fixed in the upcoming year. Signs posted occasionally warned of that fact. The walk is sinking into the water! See it dip down into the basin on the right hand side?

Here is a pretty closeup of a cherry blossom branch. I think I like the end of the cycle best, when some green leaves are grown for contrast.

I think everything is prettier when framed by the blossoms. This year, fewer paddle boats seemed to be out on the water, despite the beautiful weather, but you see one above.

The Roosevelt memorial, probably my favorite here in DC, was a little less crowded than other parts of the Tidal Basin. The quote from Roosevelt above reads:

Men and Nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of Nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.

One of the many fountains. If you haven't been to the Roosevelt Memorial, make sure your first visit is at night or dusk, when it is dramatically lit through the water.

Weeping cherry blossoms or just heavy branches?!

While not a cherry blossom, I couldn't resist taking a photograph of this stunning tree's bloom. Does anyone know what this is?

I hope you enjoyed my photographs!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone who celebrates Easter has a magnificent day! Cherry blossoms are just on their last legs here in Washington as you can see above. Beautiful weather though which brought out tremendous crowds to the Tidal Basin yesterday. Picture above shows the Jefferson Memorial through the cherry blossoms.

Chinese Room

While reading 'The private world of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor" by Hugo Vickers, I noticed these fantastic mirrored doors in the Chinese Room of the Duke's bachelor quarters at York House (St. Jame's Palace).

These are not your developer grade sliding mirrored closet doors. I think they help what would otherwise be a rather dull but undeniably beautiful room come to life. I think this room looks very current, don't you? Do you like the idea of mirrored doors?

Why don't you?

Why don't you refashion your chipped or broken china as beautiful desktop accessories? Here I'm using a chipped Wedgwood jasperware creamer to hold paperclips on my desk at work.

Waste not, want not; Definitely cheers up my day!

My New Camera

You may remember I broke my old camera a few months ago and was on the search for a replacement. My replacement is a Canon Powershot SD1200 is and I can't say enough good things about it. I think the photographs have been excellent at 10 MP (judge for yourself though, the last 2 months worth of posts have used this camera); it's tiny and fits into my pocket and is super easy to use. My previous camera was also a canon powershot from 2002 but the difference is really amazing; Technology has come so far!Recently at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, I got a chance to see just how far camera technology has advanced. Above you see a number of cameras from the last century in all shapes and sizes.

This Ansco Cadet has the most enormous flash but is basically the 1960s version of my canon amateur powershot. You need luggage to tote this thing around though, definitely NOT pocket size!

This Thorton-Pickard Mark III Aerial gun from 1915 was used during WWI to spy on the enemy. I wouldn't advise this for everyday use unless you want an adventure in prison!

This little promotional velveeta camera was probably my favorite; so cute! I don't know if you had to save up UPC points from boxes or not to earn this, but it was definitely worth it!

Sidenote: this is not a paid advertisement of the Canon! Actually, the camera did have a fault in that it did not include a memory card and so was not 'ready to use' ! This is a very annoying thing to find out after you get it home and can't even try it out till you find an SD card!!! Canon - include basic memory cards with your cameras, please!

Taste of spring

Just a short post to share this taste of spring with you. Cherry blossom time is finally here and tourists are crowding the city to see our beautiful springtime.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Don't fence me in

Unless it's a beauty like this one! After yesterdays post, celebrated blog commenter Toby Worthington contacted me with this fence he designed for his own house.

Toby based the design on a fence in upstate New York found in a book by a local architect. The design complements his 1860s Gothic painted brick house; Now THATS something I'd want to see, how about you? Thanks for sharing, Toby!!

Fencing

Washington is a city of fences. Most townhouses that have any garden at the front inevitably have an antique iron fence guarding their plants and hard work from passerbys and dogs. At the 'patina' house I spied this neoclassic design, seen below, very unusual here in DC where a more Victorian approach is typical, like seen above.

Do fences make for good neighbors? Love to see examples of fencing in your area!

Click my images to see detail.