I have to brag about one of my dearest friends Deanna. She is not only a wonderful friend (I've mentioned her in an
earlier post about her 40th birthday and the
cake I decorated for her) and mother, she is an avid entertainer and I ALWAYS have a blast at the parties she throws. She puts so much attention to details in everything she does, and it shows!
So Deanna. came by my office the day before, as she was getting ready to set her tables at her house - for the luncheon she was hosting for her sister-in-law's birthday. She was serving sushi and Asian food, and therefore wanted an Asian theme. She came by to pick up a few things that she purchased from our store
CURIO.
She bought these FANTASTIC vintage Asian sterling silver spoons with adorable charms from our
SILVER Section.
She also purchased (my favourite) these mint condition vintage
Sterling Silver Tea Spoons. They looked SO cute when people used them to stir their sugar! I had second thoughts about selling them at that point!
ha.
But she didn't need much from me, as I soon noticed when I got to her house and saw the tables set.
Deanna had set up two extra tables in the entry, this being a game table from her family room with a table-cloth on it. This is where I sat. She borrowed her sister's chairs, and they were perfect! And comfortable! Below is the chair, which is from West Elm.
This is my seat. What I loved about the way she did her Asian theme is that they are not the traditional Red & Gold colours that you think of when you think Asian. They are fresh: lots of blues, creams and pops of orange in the roses. They also mimic the colours of the invitations, below.
Deanna had Buddha place-card holders, below. Aren't they cute? The place-cards are the same design as the invitations, above. Details!! I also love the idea of grass fans as place-mats.
The table above is in its permanent place, as it is her round foyer table. She put a tablecloth on it and it served as the perfect dining table for guests. We were all together in the same room, as the dining room is open to the foyer.
I love how she repeated the oranges and blues in the gift boxes. And the raffia ties were perfect with the grass fans. She pulled up her chairs from her breakfast table, and these too were from West Elm, as shown below. And they just so happened to be the perfect colour of blue too!
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| SET OF 1800'S DESSERT PLATES WITH CUPS AND SAUCERS IN NEW WHARF POTTERY OF ENGLAND'S LUCERNE PATTERN FROM OUR PORCELAIN SECTION |
She purchased this set of porcelain transferware cups and plates from us at CURIO, and these are the cups we sipped coffee from and the plates where we ate the most delicious Toffee & Cream Sponge cake on. I love how you really can use dishes that are 130 years old. My everyday dishes are from the 1800s and I put them in the dishwasher every day, and its amazing how well they hold up.
Each table had different chopstick rests. This table had origami birds, our table had white porcelain reclining women. Her sister-in-law Ann, the guest of honour, purchased them in China Town, San Francisco. Ann told me that every year her family goes to China Town, and they have a contest. She gives $20 to each family member, and they have to find the BEST thing in the shops for 20 bucks, and meet back for Dim-Sum and share their finds.
... Her family asked what she found, and she said "Look down by your plate!" She had these porcelain reclining ladies resting on the table, holding up the chopsticks (shown above). She said her teenage son grinned really big, and he told her that he had been staring at them and glad that they were theirs! Ha! Love that story! Of course we all told her that next time she's in San Fran, she needs to get sets for us too. They are hilarious!
Also on each table was a boxed party favour for each guest. When I opened mine, I was thrilled to find that I had my own personalized stationery. Notice how our notecards have the same colours as the table's colours, and the invitations as well? The envelope liners are the pattern from the invites and our place cards. And look at the back of each card!
These notecards come from their own company,
Cards Direct. Not only is Deanna my good friend, she also called on me to consult for Cards Direct when they moved their headquarters to a larger office in Central Dallas.
The office space was a boring, typical working environment. But they had clear ideas of what they wanted, and just needed me to bounce the ideas off of. I am not a commercial designer, but I approached this like I would any interior, and gave some options and ideas for them to look over.
This is during construction. They removed sheetrock walls, put up glass walls, and installed dark "wood" floors.
The look that they wanted was modern, clean and with pops of colours. They conveyed to me that they liked the "feel" of Starbucks, so I googled various Starbucks interiors across the country to see what they all had in common: Dark floors, bleached cabinets, and pops of primary colours: lots of orange, blue, green and red. That was our inspiration, shown below.
Cards Direct has shifted from what was primarily a card company catering to Corporate business, to a company that does EVERYTHING, including baby, birthday, thank you's, wedding, you name it. They have so many unique and exclusive designs, I picked two below to share as examples:
But back to the party, and what a fun birthday celebration it was!! Although Deanna purchased a few of our Asian items for herself, we still have lots more. In fact, we have a whole department dedicated to all artifacts Asian. It is a culture and design that I really gravitate toward, and I thought I'd share some of the product that we have currently at our store.
Deanna took the Chinese porcelain cylinder vase above, on approval from our store (it is actually part of a pair). I thought it was so unique that although it is a deep traditional reddish-orange colour, it looked really "fresh" the way she paired it with Mercury glass and a giant clam shell filled with orchids. I love to see how other people incorporate accessories and antiques into their own homes.
This chinese chest works great as a coffee table, as shown above, and does open for storage too. It also works in any kind of decorating style!
SO HOW MANY OF YA'LL NOW ARE CRAVING SUSHI? I KNOW I AM!!!
