Totems at Stanley Park

The nine totem poles at Brockton Point are BC’s most visited tourist attraction. Because many of the original totems were carved as early as the 1880s, they have been sent to museums for preservation. The totems you see at Brockton Point today are new ones commissioned or loaned to the park between 1986 and 1992.

Luke Marston’s sculpture, Shore to Shore, stands at the site of his family’s ancestral village site X̲wáýx̲way, and celebrates Portuguese adventurer Joe Silvey (“Portuguese Joe”) as well as his first and second Coast Salish wives, Khaltinaht and Kwatleemaat. The artist Luke Marston is the great-great-grandson of Portuguese Joe and Kwatleemaat.

Joe Silvey was born and raised on Portugal’s Altantic Azores Islands, though after several adventures, Joe found himself on the Pacific, and an early pioneer of Vancouver’s Gastown.

The sculpture honours the link between Portuguese and Coast Salish First Nations cultures, marks the land’s rich heritage, and symbolizes unity for the Vancouver’s present-day diverse inhabitants. The large bronze sculpture is surrounded by engraved Portuguese stone, prominently installed in Stanley Park’s Northeast shore, overlooking downtown. You can read more about Shore to shore here.

The Skedans Mortuary Pole is a replica as the original was returned home to Haida Gwaii. In the late 1980s, the remaining totem poles were sent to various museums for preservation and the Park Board commissioned and loaned replacement totems.

In March Dear and I had an overnight trip to Vancouver B.C. and we were able to spend a few hours in Stanley Park on March 18th. We stopped at the Totems at Brockton Point for a while. You can buy an all day parking pass for $6.00 which worked well for all our stops. I’ll share our other stops at the park soon.

I’ll be linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveller.

A Bright Fall Table…

I used 2 different cameras for these table scape shots and you’ll be able to see the difference.

I bought the tablecloth at Target and set the table around it.

Josh and Laura were going to come over to help eat my latest test recipe for our new Mennonite Girls Can Cook book coming out next May.

A lot goes in to creating a cookbook. I’m glad I have 9 “sisters” to go through this process with.

It would be daunting to do a project like this on your own.

It was fun to put together things I’ve collected here and there to finish off the table setting.

Stemware, dishes, flatware and linens from antique malls, thrift stores, discount stores and on huge markdowns from major department stores rounded out the table.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal at this table with Josh and Laura. Everyone gave my recipe a thumbs up and I’ll be sharing the recipe in our new cookbook.

The day was cold, clear and sunny and it was fun to see how the sun added it’s brightness to the setting.

I’m looking forward to enjoying many more meals with family and friends in November and December. I find enjoying fellowship around food to be so satisfying. It feeds me physically and spiritually.

Yesterday I went shopping for a new pair of jeans and some boots. I forgot about Monday being a holiday and didn’t anticipate the crowds at the stores. Thankfully I had success. I find it difficult to find jeans that fit right and was happy to find some that will work and at a good discount. What did you do on our Monday Remembrance Day /Veteran’s Day holiday?

Tablescape Thursday ~ Blue-Green

It’s time again to see lots of fun tables around the bloggy world. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is our hostess for this weekly event.

I’m in Seattle this week with my table set right now for dinner. My kids are all going to be here for a sit down meal. This table I’m showing you is not tonight’s but one from my Condo in Southern California. I’ll try to add some descriptions tomorrow, but right now I’ve got to run get dinner on the table. Happy almost Thursday everyone…

For more Tablescapes visit Susan here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Yellow & Blue

Welcome to Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. The table I’m showing you today is set up in the living room of my home in Washington State.

I’m using an off white cloth with a smaller round blue and yellow cloth as a topper. I have always enjoyed blue and yellow together.

I used my Chippendale dishes on top of my Mikasa Italian Countryside dishes. Yellow napkins with white rose china napkin rings.

I ended up using several of my pewter pieces for the centerpiece instead of the vase with the hydrangeas…

To see more Tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Pink & Green

It’s time for Tablescape Tuesday again hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

I have always really enjoyed pink and green together so it was fun to set this table.

The pink dishes are some Vernon Ware I found at Goodwill. There were only 4 dinner plates, 3 cups and saucers, and a creamer and vegetable bowl. I bought them all because I enjoy this older California ware. The depression glass bowl was from a little thrift store I frequent as are the Bavarian cups and saucers I added to make 4 place settings. The square green plates are originally from target that I bought in a box of 4 from Goodwill.

The clear pink glass salad/dessert plates I bought from Fred Meyer a few years ago when they went on clearance. I have several of them so I can use them for showers. Most of them are at my home in Washington but I brought 6 to have here in California. The pink goblets that I only have 4 of were purchased at the little thrift store, too.

The striped napkins I bought at the little thrift store and the outer napkins were purchased at Sur la Table. The sliverware is 1847 Rogers with a B engraved on each piece. Believe it or not I bought the set of 56 pieces at Goodwill for $29.00. That was a few years ago and I haven’t seen as nice a set available since.

I already made my confession about this tablescape on my Pink Saturday Post but for those of you who don’t participate in Pink Saturday here it is again… My table cloth was a shower curtain and my napkin rings were shower curtain hooks originally!

To see more tablescapes head over to Susan’s!

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Bar Scapes for Two

Time flies when you are having fun! It’s almost Tuesday again and time for some more Tablescaping fun. Today I’m showing two variations on table settings at our bar in our little condo. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is the hostess for this fun event. Click on over and see the variety of fun, romantic, elegant, practical table settings that have been created.

I’ve been away from the computer for a couple days so I’ll be playing catch-up on Metamorphosis Monday and Blue Monday.

The chargers are from TJ Maxx clearance. I used my everyday white dinner plates and then added the salad plate that I found at Marshall’s on clearance. I love plates with country scenes on them. The martini glasses, that I use for pretty desserts, too, were from target a couple years ago.

I changed up the tablesetting at the bar with these square grey chargers and square white plates and a small decorative plates that are “White Russian” plates. I love the little cocktail glasses I found with the Russian Cossack dancers on them. The napkin rings were a gift from my DIL and Son last Christmas.

My true confession for this week is that we did not eat at these settings. Don’t judge me too harshly, though.

Now head on over to Susan’s for more Tablescape inspiration.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Silver & Black that Sparkles!

Welcome to another Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. This week I’m sharing a silver and black table with lots of sparkles. There are snowflakes and mirrors and sliver mirror garland that adds to all the sparkle.

This was a fun table to put together. I was cleaning out cupboards when I was home in Seattle and found a bag full of silver accessories that were left over from a January Dessert I helped decorate for our church several years ago. I got out a small folding table and set this table for 4 in our guest room with stuff from the bag and added goodies from my entertaining stash.

My table confession for this week is that I didn’t have any black or silver cloth napkins so I used a white cloth napkin that was a bit too white by itself for the look of the table so I added a black paper cocktail napkin to soften it up. :0)

The Snowflake candle is sitting on a small raised serving piece with silver garland underneath.

The little plates with a Stratford on Avon scene are on top of a cut glass plate with a silver doilie below it. The tablerunner is a silver shimmery piece of fabric.

The Sterling is from Dear’s mother Verna that got passed along to us. The Pewter goblets were a purchase Dear and I made in England the summer before we were married (1974). The etched glass goblets were a find at Goodwill. The cut glass plates with a fleur de liss pattern on them were a clearance purchase at a specialty grocery store we used to have in the Seattle area called Larry’s. The sterling candle holders are also from Verna. The napkin rings are silver ribbon with a sparkly embelishment hot glued on them.

To see more Tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on a Porch.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Black and Gold

Welcome to another round of Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Today I’m sharing the table I set for an early birthday dinner for our two sons. Both of their birthdays are in January and Dear and I will not be in Washington on their birthdays so we decided to celebrate with them while we were still in Washington last Friday night.

I bought these great black and gold dishes at Target Christmas clearance. I got 8 dinner plates and 8 salad plates for under $30. I thought they had a more masculine feel than some of my other dishes for the guys!

The heavy black iron candle holder for the centerpiece with the Fleur de lis design was a find at Goodwill a while back. Again, I liked the heavier bulkier look for the guys.

Christmas clearance at Target was great. I went on the day everything was 75% off. The Fleur de lis napkin rings were under $5 for 8 of them. The little gold cocktail napkins were $1.24 for a 4 pack. The two pack of goblets that I decided to turn into candle holders were clearance also but I forget how much. The shimmery gold tablecloth was originally from the Pottery Barn that I bought at Goodwill. Now the really great thing about this tablescape is that we actually sat down and ate dinner at it. It was a great time of celebrating Josh and Dan’s lives and thanking God for them and how they’ve enriched all of our lives!

Josh is married to Laura and all four of these young adults graduated from Inglemoor Highschool in the Northshore School District of Washington in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. They chuckled at the fact that Black and Gold were their High School colors! Go Vikings! My sister Lana G! was able to join us for our dinner celebration, too. Fun times….

For more Tablescapes around the blogisphere visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday!

Since we had a blue and white tablescape for our daughter Katie’s birthday on Saturday I’m combining Blue Monday and Tablescape Tuesday this week! My sister Lana G! was over and helped with the details on the tablescape while Dear and I prepared dinner for the party. Dear made both soups we were serving for the dinner. His famous Tomato Rice Soup is one he’s been making since his college days from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. The second soup was a Potato Leek Soup with Bacon and Havarti cheese that we used the best of 3 recipes to come up with. Both soups were yummy and well received.

My daughter Katie gave me the star bundt cake pan for Christmas so I decided to make her the Bundt Spice cake she enjoys. Here are the thick hearty soups we served along with bread and salad…

For more Blue Monday posts visit Smiling Sally and on Tuesday for more tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Condo Christmas Table

Welcome to Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

This is the Christmas Tablescape I came up with for the eating area at the Condo.

The Chargers are from T.J. Max on clearance for a dollar each. The dinner plates are from Marshall’s, the salad plates are from a thrift store originally from Mervyn’s, and the crystal dessert cups are from Goodwill. Believe it or not the full set of silverplate for 8 with the letter B engraved on them are from Goodwill in Washington that I found a couple years ago. The full set cost me $29.00.

The tablecloth, runner, and napkins, goblets, reindeer, and brass candlesticks are all from the thrift store.

Merry Christmas everyone!

To see more Tablescapes visit Susan.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Tuesday Tablescapes