I spent last week polishing and scrubbing in anticipation of our weekend dinner party to celebrate our dear friend Christopher on his birthday.
Hosting a party like this is terrific motivation to get the whole house organized, bring in new glassware and linens and stock up at The Happy Store. I had so much fun getting ready for the party but I had some help from some blogging friends...
Jennifer, who writes the wonderful blog
A Well Styled Life, wrote such a helpful post on hosting a sit-down dinner party, I loved it!
I decided to organize my party over the course of two days, taking many of her suggestions and running with them... like setting the table the night before and bringing in flowers a couple of days ahead of the party. Thank you Jennifer!
I set up this bar the day before as well, and it's a good thing I take pictures for this blog because I realized my Spode vase looked really sad without some spring-like branches of forsythia poking out of it.
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| That's better. |
When I went to my most favourite flower shop in the world,
Sweet Violets, to arrange some flowers for the table I asked for help in acquiring a house plant for a corner of the sitting room that needed a little life... fingers crossed I won't kill this plant.
They did such a terrific job with the flowers for our dining table, I asked for green, white and a bit of coral, look how perfect:
I wanted something simple and spring-like for the piano in our foyer and they came up with the perfect arrangement of branches arching their way out of a simple vessel:
I sent MrBP to search for pansies on Saturday morning which he then arranged in the urns I've popped on either side of our front door. The branches add a bit of height and drama... (you can only see half of the urn because I took this picture in my pyjamas and I thought I'd spare my neighbours my leopard print robe).
Another shot of green was the Dyptique candle in fig that anchored the cocktail table arrangement. For many years I didn't think much about candles as accessories when entertaining but now they are on my radar... wait until you see the new candle arrangements in the dining room...
But first, can we talk about table linens? I was trudging all over Hell's Half Acre last week looking for a good heavy linen or cotton tablecloth in a solid colour. It was so depressing and exhausting, I couldn't find anything. Everything is polyester or a combination of polyester and cotton and I can't stand the slippery feel.
So I trotted over to the local fabric store (which has slim pickings as far as natural fabrics are concerned) and managed to find a new bolt of thick celadon green cotton that was marked down to $5 a metre for some insane reason.
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| My helper. |
The sewing went quickly for once and I made up extra large napkins which MrBP loved.
The day before our party I went searching for brass candle holders to light up the dining room. The lighting in that room is an issue, in fact we're thinking of installing a much bigger chandelier over the table, hanging low and on a dimmer of course. Whether we accomplish that or not I knew I wanted to incorporate some gorgeous candlelight.
Initially I found some colonial style brass candle holders, heavy and from England but let's face it: Boring! Then I walked into one of the dusty rooms of the antique market and actually gasped when I saw a pair of absolutely mad candelabras:
Right there in the shop I had what can only be described as a
What Would Ellie Do moment. Ellie writes one of my most favourite blogs ever,
Have Some Decorum. Slowly but surely she is teaching me how to accessorize my home, make pesto, have a positive attitude to life even when it punches you in the face and also the importance of gilt mirrors.
Ellie has taught me well and those lessons gave me the courage to buy the Italian candelabras that I really loved... it is this kind of accessorizing that really personalizes a home and makes it interesting... yes Ellie taught me that. Thank you Ellie.
I had some trouble sourcing ivory candles but I did find some in the green shade that was a part of my theme for the evening, here they are lit early in the afternoon, a test run:
How about the food? There was no crying in the kitchen I am happy to report. I decided to make the
provence chicken that was featured in last week's NYT magazine.
What a delicious recipe and dead easy. I prepped the lemons, shallots and garlic cloves ahead of time...
...bought a few baguettes...
...and had the chicken in the oven when everyone arrived.
I made a swiss chard and kale salad with a shallot-dijon vinaigrette and asked my friends to bring the other courses: a second salad, a cheese platter appetizer tray and a cheesecake for dessert.
It was one of those parties that was slightly mad in the most fun way possible, and I think it was the candelabras. Before dinner my friends grabbed them and placed them on the table, they looked fabulous lighting up the food and the laughing faces.
I'm planning my next dinner party already and in the meantime I need to embark on some spring cleaning. The sun is out today and I can finally see the dust in the house properly, never have I looked so forward to spring and the cleaning that goes with it.
I hope your week is off to a great start Dollfaces!
xoxDani
