Ready for Some More Tables from the Big County Fair?

I've shared my baby shower table and the More Creative Bee's fair theme table, but I know you want to see some of the other entries, so here goes...

First up is a dinner for two on the Titanic.

 Lovely details on this table and on the gentleman's side a faux cigar glowing adds to it's elegant charm.

It includes a few Titanic documents and photographs (reproduction, I'm sure).

 The second table I'm sharing with you today is a Tuscan Sun Dinner Table.

 Love the colors and her linens were just beautiful.

 I really like her chargers too.  I got to chat with her briefly.  I think this might be her first time entering the fair competition.

 Her place cards were charming - the wine cork is a nice touch.

 Aren't the lemons a sweet touch?  I really like them!

 Another table had a floral fantasy look.  I'm afraid I can't remember their exact theme.

It had some pretty colors. 

The fourth table for today was an interpretation of the fair theme, A Passport to Fun.  (Yep, they were our competition.) 

It's funny because the MCB and I talked about doing a place setting from four different places around the world and this is exactly what he did.  (We got to meet his mother, but not the clever man that put this table together.)

There were place settings from China, 

from Spain, 

from France,  

and from Italy. 

 Don't you just love the centerpiece?  Cute little suitcases filled with little items from around the world.

And, it just wouldn't be the Big County Fair if there wasn't a Halloween table!

Why, yes, a Ghostly Glamorous Gala!

All the colors were black, silver, and white. 

They added a nice touch with the sparkles they glued to the rim of the plates.   

 The skeletons were a nice touch on the corners of the table.

And the centerpiece was a lovely murder of crows. 

 (Yes, I had to look up what a group of crows is called and how could I resist after I found out that little fact?)

I have a few more tables to share with you and I haven't even talked about the Christmas trees yet!  So much to share!  Plus Baby Bee and Reader Bee entered the junior table setting contest too.  I can't wait to share those with you!

Thank you for buzzing along with me and I'm working on a fun 3rd blogthday giveaway!  I think you're going to love it!

Another Fair Table - A Baby Shower!

One of my sweet Teacher Bee friends is having her first baby in December and I'm having a shower for her at Sweet Bee Cottage.......so......brilliant thinker that I am.......I thought why not make one of our Big County Fair tables have a baby shower theme this year.  

Wanna' see?
Oh, and please don't adjust your monitors - everything does have a slightly greenish tint to it. The Home Arts building at the fair had green curtains covering the windows and I just don't know how to adjust the colors to make it look right.  

This is the bedding for my friend's nursery and I used it as inspiration.

I decided to use lime green as an accent.  

 The More Creative Bee sewed ribbons onto a white tablecloth we picked up at Anna's Linens.  

 The Sewing Bee was kind enough to sew these gorgeous lime green napkins for us.  The flatware is an old pattern from National Silver called Adam.  It's silverplate and it was a steal at our local consignment store.  Do you see the blue chargers?  MCB picked those up ages ago at Crate & Barrel.  (Shhh....don't tell her, but I'm hoping that they accidentally hop in my basket when we pack up in a couple of weeks. Do you think she'll mind?)

 I knew I wanted to draw in more of the blue and green combination and I found some lovely digital scrapbook paper in a little etsy shop called Shery K Designs.  The colors and patterns were perfect!

The placecards are some silver frames that I bought about 10 years ago at Michaels.  It was like going on an archaeological dig of old table settings as I unearthed old name plates, menus, and other things in the silver frames I used.  

Why this gorgeous glassware?  Wanna' know more about that?  Well, all I can tell you is that they belong to the MCB's mom.  We know they're at least 40 years old, but they might be older.  Have you ever seen any glasses like these?  Do you know the pattern?

The dish information was also on some more of the digital scrapbook paper.  

And now – my favorite part – the centerpiece.

I knew I wanted to make baby blocks but my painting skills are less than adequate.  (Okay, maybe they're adequate, but they're not great.)  So I found paper mache cubes at Hobby Lobby.  I removed the lids and turned them upside down.  I painted them white and then used that lovely scrapbook paper (oh yes, I went through an entire color ink cartridge printing these sheets out) and printed out squares.  Then I used my cricut to cut out letters and shapes to put on the blocks.  I love how it turned out!  (And I have to be honest, when my original idea on how to make these didn't work I came up with this about 9 AM Saturday morning, the day we had to set up for the fair.  Do you work better under pressure? I think I do sometimes.)

 We are going to the Big County Fair on Saturday!  I can't wait to see how we did!  

Still wanting more table settings?  Well, I'll be sharing all the other tables soon.  Hope you can come back and see them.  Do you have a table setting division at your county fair?  You should check it out!  I know a lot of you would LOVE it!  

Buzzingly,

Linking up to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch

A Passport to Fun!

The More Creative Bee and I have entered our Big County Fair in the Home Arts Table Setting division for several years now and this year I think we outdid ourselves.

We always try to have one of our tables reflect the fair theme and this year the theme was "A Passport to Fun."  After our annual meeting of the minds at Panera Bread, we decided to take it in a travel vein.  We called it "Around the World in Four Courses."

(I must apologize for the greenish cast to all these pictures.  The building has green curtains hanging in front of the windows so it was bright, but definitely greenish.) 

The MCB's parents are thrift shop experts!  They found the wonderful chargers, plates, and bowls all at a thrift shop.  The chargers were from Macys and the dishes were unmarked - but they do look familiar to me.  Do you know the pattern?

The More Creative Bee made the cute little passport books.  They are glued on to a little brown book we found at Joann's. 

Each place setting has an "airline boarding pass" I made on the computer.  I google searched  boarding passes and found this free image to use.  The only problem was it could only me modified by using photoshop.  Do I know how to use photoshop?  Did I have time to learn photoshop?  NOOOO!  So I used the wonderful Pages app from apple and put little tan boxes over words already there and typed in what we wanted it to say.  Each boarding pass also has a different course and destination.

We put different spices into clear glass bowls for add some world flavors. 

I found a nice (and cheap) frame at Walmart and I again used Pages to add images and a green text box around the menu.

Worker Bee and the Singing Bee's husband (we call him Right Wing Bee) all donated vintage globes for our centerpiece.

The pearl handled flatware is a set I picked up at Home Goods several years ago for about $20. 

Our linens were from JC Penney.  The tablecloth was a blueish color and the napkins were brown.

Now I'm going to be showing you all of the other table settings in another post, but in my opinion, this one is BEST OF SHOW!  We are going to the Big County Fair on Saturday so I'll know the results then.  

Thanks for buzzing along with me!  Now you know where part of my energy has been focused for the past few weeks.  Please come back because there's LOTS more to show you!  

Linking up to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch.

A Sneak Peek from the County Fair

At last.....I feel like I have some breathing room.

Yesterday the More Creative Bee and I set up for the Big County Fair.  I can't show you too much yet, but together we had two table settings and two Christmas trees.

My favorite projects to work on are for the tables.  The Christmas tree ornaments, tree skirt, garland, etc. all have to be handmade and I just don't love making the same thing over and over again.  Apparently I am not good at assembly lines (as evidence by my career testing way back in high school).

Now, I won't tell you how the MCB got chewed out for taking pictures (but she did) and how I got away with taking pictures of all the trees and tables (not sure how I did get away with it - believe me I'm not that surreptitious).  But anyway, I don't want to get banned from the fair, so I'm just going to show you some snippets from our tables and trees.  Full report to come AFTER the Big County Fair has started.

Our first tree is a snowman tree...

It was filled with hand beaded snowflakes and some of the cutest snowmen you'll ever see in Central California!  It's adorable (if I do say so myself).

 Our second tree was our interpretation of the theme of the fair, "A Passport to Fun."

I'll show you more soon, but the MCB made a gum wrapper garland out of maps!  I love how it turned out.  Travel was definitely way we saw this year's theme.

Our first table is for a baby shower.   

Conveniently I'm hosting a baby shower at the end of October so I'm decorating two events with one table setting.  (Do I need to explain it - killing two birds with one stone???  Please don't groan too loudly.)

 And this is our second table.  

Notice part of Worker Bee's globe collection now on display for the world to see.  I LOVE how this table came together, but you'll just have to wait for details on that story for another day.  I guess I should tell you it also follows the fair theme again – "A Passport to Fun."

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Thank you so much for hanging in with me during this hectic time.  I miss visiting with so many of you.  Things will slow down a bit after Baby Bee's carnival this Friday, but it's just going to be a hectic school year.  

And can you believe I missed celebrating my birthday and blogthday with you?  I just celebrated my prime number (take your pick of prime numbers) birthday earlier in September and my third blogthday at the end of September.  You just know I'm going to have a fabulous giveaway just for you!  

Hugs,