Brown Bottle Fall Centerpiece

It's the middle of November and we've been incredible lucky to have 3 weeks of Indian Summer here in beautiful Romania. The weekends were warm and sunny and we had a picnic every Sunday. I got home with a lot of fall clippings and wild herbs. Their colors are amazing: silver grey, soft honey brown and subtle lavender - so I decided to use them in a Fall centerpiece.

Let's take a normal look at the dining room table. That's better... The light colors of my clipped herbs needed some contrast, so I put them in brown bottles. The earth tones arrangement goes so well with the glowing Autumn light! I reached into my cupboards for the perfect companions: small brandy glasses in tinted hues, traditional pottery from my country and a tiny brown apothecary jar filled with spices.

Of course, an all-neutral-decor is too much for me to handle. I just can't do it. It may be classic, timeless, effortless and perfectly elegant, but it just isn't my style. So I added a little twist to my brown bottle centerpiece: a kiss made of pink and orange felt letters. Now we're talking!

This little DIY can be made and re-made in so many ways! For my friends in the USA, the letters could say "THANKS" - it would make a great centerpiece for Thanksgiving! For my European friends, you could spell "AUTUNNO" or something similar. Spot the differences in the 2 images from above! You can leave the bottles standing solo, as well as decorate with additional items - either way, the centerpiece still looks great.

Styling tip: play a little with the height of the bottles. Make the arrangement more interesting and invite the eye to travel across the table by assorting slightly different items. As you can see, I used 3 different sizes. Also, play with the height and dimensions of the flowers / fall clippings. You can create the WOW! effect if you vary the bouquets (some larger, some taller, some smaller) instead of repeating the same bunch of flowers in every bottle. 

Brown bottle centerpiece tutorial:

1. Choose your felt in one o more colors. Trace the outline of your letters, using a marker. The thicker the marker the better (felt is not easy to draw on!).

2. Cut the felt letters with a sharp tool. Make sure that the marker outline is not visible on the final letters. 

3. Use a needle & thread to make a chain around each bottle, each one holding a letter. You can also glue the felt letters directly on the bottles, but I like the thread better, because it looks more loose (and I can simply re-use the brown bottles later).

4. Stick the fall clippings in the bottles and enjoy your Fall centerpiece!

Valentine Breakfast

This is just a little exercise for a sweeter than sweets Valentine's Day breakfast. Caution: do not try this at home, it might send your glycemia through the roof :)) Start with the pomegranate in order to jump start your digestion for the day. Continue with whole grain bread and plenty of acacia honey. Add sweet kisses and do NOT eat the flowers.

My romantic breakfast is a great solution for all sorts of lovers, especially for those who stayed indoors under the blankets and forgot to go shopping for groceries (like I did...). Just open the fridge and the cupboards and see what you can put on the table. Anything will do, really, as long as as it is sweet and intoxicating. 

Edible Place Cards For Halloween

It seems that I will go to a little Halloween party, after all :) I thought it would be nice to bring something for the table: place cards! Easy to do and a pretty addition to any tablescape. To kill two birds with one stone, I will make these place cards edible, so that when you are finished admiring them you can also eat them (for desert, if you are well-mannered, or before the main course, if you are still a child at heart).

A Mad Tea Party

The Mad Hatter and the March Hare were sitting at the table, fighting over the marshmallows. "Why don't you just eat them?" asked Alice. "This is what I would do, in any circumstances." The March Hare answered in a pedantic voice: "There is science and method in eating these marshmallows: we must choose the toppers carefully in order to always leave on the plate an even number from each design". Alice looked closely and she saw three types of Mad Hatter's hat cupcake toppers.

"Why is the cat smiling like that, from one ear to the other?" she asked. "Because she was drawn by the talented Charles Santoso, that's why and she is famous now all over the net. Celebrity will do that to you." Alice thought the cat must be crazy, because she drank her milk first and spilled the tea on the ground.

"What are those flowers in the teapot?" wondered the little girl, because she had never seen them before. They looked like a combination of a hedgehog and a purple cloud. "Oh, those are immortal flowers, they transform into a flower mummy and stay like this forever", replied the Mad Hatter. "They are perfect for us, since The Queen beheaded Time and there is no time to grow new flowers of any kind."

"Beware of the Mushroom, it bites!" they both cried, as Alice approached the red mushroom with her hand held in the air. "There is no Mushroom here", she replied. "All I see is a lamp in drag. I bet that she can swirl and dance like no other. Let's play a cotillion!" So they all quickly gathered around, ready for the dance, but the March Hare kept glancing at the minty mints from the jar.

Update: Thank you so much, Homework, Uncommon, Tales Of A Trophy Wife, The 36th Avenue, Katie's Nesting Spot, At The Picket Fence, 5 Days...5 Ways, Little Inspiration, It's Overflowing, Destination: Craft Alderberry Hill and Cherished Bliss, for the feature, you just made my day!

                   

Happy Easter!

The Greeks, The Russians and The Romanians' religion is mainly Christian Orthodoxy and we celebrate Easter at a different time from the rest of the world. So today we've got a traditional Easter tablescape, featuring what you usually call Ukrainian eggs (but they are hand painted eggs right here in Romania, following a six century tradition that has now become the art of painting eggs).

To all my dear Romanian readers,

Hristos a inviat!