Hi. I hope you’re doing well.
We had the pleasure of having our friends Niall and Leslie over for dinner on the Saturday of the Labour Day Weekend. Thanks to you-know-what we haven’t had more than one person over at a time to eat in 2 years and 8 months, so it was fun to pull out the good dishes — vintage Corelle, Pyrex and Oneida Community Cutlery — all made at least 50 years ago.
The pattern on the dinner plates, platter and Pyrex refrigerator dish (which we used for serving) is “Spring Blossom”, and on the dessert plates is “Butterfly Gold”. The cutlery pattern is called “Shadow Rose” and I was given the set of them from Leslie herself, who received them from the estate of her friend and neighbour who had passed. I’m honoured to have them and glad to be able to serve Leslie with a lovely reminder of her friend.
These were set on the table clad in a thrifted tablecloth (from this thrifting trip) and cotton napkins.
The napkin rings are adorned with little tea and coffee pots, each one different. I have 8 of those, which I got as a gift to myself many moons ago, shortly after first getting my own home. There were so many more important and necessary things I needed at the time, but dang, I wanted those napkin rings. They were so cute! They came from a boutique and I was (supposed to be) only browsing. Anyway, now I’m glad I spent unwisely in my youth because they still make me happy today.
The wooden placemats are ones that Nick gave me for my birthday a few years ago.
While I prefer old things, of course, not everything we have is vintage! The smaller cushion in this photo was purchased at HomeSense a few weeks ago.
↑ Our “outdoor sofa” was one of the best curbside finds ever, spotted by Nick. The sides are cast iron and weigh a ton, so I was surprised and delighted when I saw him through the window, struggling to carry it onto the deck by himself. That was a good 15 years ago — we’ve changed the wooden slats out once since then, but that thing was built for a lifetime. Thank you to the unknown person who didn’t want it any more! ↑
↑ Karate chopping pillows is very satisfying! That was the first time I tried doing it, but now I see on the internet, as I checked to make sure I was getting the terminology correct, that this decorating trend is over. Oh well, I guess I’m a little late with that look, haha. ↑
While we haven’t been able to share a meal with these good people for a while, we kept in touch throughout the pandemic and had virtual get-togethers on Skype during the worse part. And, we have seen each other in person for short periods, and Leslie and I have walked together and had ice-cream, but we’ve not had a nice relaxed afternoon together, all four of us, in far too long. It was so nice to spend time with them.
While planning this, Leslie wrote to say that, unless there was something else we would prefer them to bring, that she would make dessert. Ok, there was no way I was going to pass on a dessert made by this Baking Queen.
She made a pie with fresh local peaches and Canadian West Coast Blueberries. The crust was like a shortbread cookie. It was absolutely delicious. And, lucky us got to keep the left overs, so it was pie for breakfast the next day!
↑ Served with ice cream and whipped cream. Extra! ↑
↑ Pals. (My dress was thrifted, as seen in this post.) ↑
Thank you for reading. xo loulou
