sandi, thank you. We waited as long as we could for him, but he had to work late, and you are right, they had already had their day together, he has to work extra hrs sometimes, but DD and I were OK with this. patty, oh that is so aggravating to get home and find the items broken, that has happened to me too. The only place I have seen the candle holders like mine have been at Macys. Once Walmart sold out of them after Xmas, they did not bring them back, I suppose it was a Christmas "type" of item rather and a regularly carried thing in their store. Mary, thank you. I had purchased the lotus candle holders at Walmart during the Xmas season, figureing that I would use them for a few different things, they look pretty holding a small cake or holding decorated cup-cake too. In this case I just used them as a charger/throne for the footed bowl for the shrimp cocktail. I like to think of ways I can use something for a different use. You can even turn them upside down for a different "footed look". luvs, thank you for the complements too. Work and it's issues sometimes gets me down and I just have to step back a bit, retirement can't come soon enough LOL I'm not sure what you mean by 2 chargers. I used the round mirror placemat and the silver flower edged tray as a charger, and the rest were just my china plates (probably hard to tell by my photos). Believe me the candle light really adds immeasurably to the atmosphere, and the real flowers make me happy too. purple moon, thank you, LOL, they are all easy to clean, if not then it would be a whole other situation, even the silver just gets washed in hot soapy water, a good rinse and dry and WaLa, done! In fact washing china is easier than washing stoneware, china is very light, but sturdy. Yachter, thank you, I have aquired alot of things over the years and interchange them alot. Plus, I tend to put my "extra" money into dishes and such, I don't have an extensive wardrobe and such, and most of all the DD is finally out on her own, so I have a few more pennies to spend than I had in the past, but even I have to slow down, I have some major house fixing to do coming up. As far as storage, well I can take over all the closet and shelf space I want LOL, since I'm alone now. I do plan on doing some major shelving in the garage this summer for the less delicate things.

purplemoon, thank you, well, since this treatment is going to last at least until Aug, I have to deal with good days (few) and not so good days, but I try to not have the bad days totally run my life...they just slow it down LOL Paintingfool, you just gave me a good belly laugh (Godiva) ha, only in my dreams, especially lately LOL I am glad that the tablesetting bug has gone to your family, there is nothing more pleasing than people actually using their "treasures" rather than making a shrine to them. To be lovinging touched and sharing a food event whether simple or elaborate is what makes the dishes special, because they were used with love. And each time the dishes are used they acquire a new patina of love every time they are used, now that is "priceless". And wow, 6 sisters, that means 6 opporutunites of beautiful tables and fun! dining delight, thank you too for your sweet words. I do hope what thoughts that come streaming out of this head (especially lately) are of some help to everyone, I defineatly do not have a claim to "engaging prose", I do the best I can, but of course if anyone has any questions I am always glad to take a poke at it. I do not consider myself an expert in any way. As I had said in the main forum under another thread, I do follow certain rules, but I do put up alot of others for grabs LOL, at this stage of my life I try to please me and others, the whole idea is to have fun, bring in color, excitement to what is a normal routine in most of our lives. My ears are burning in a good way, thankyou :) luvs, the Party Planner seems to be way behind on posting the photos, but if you go to her most recent comment about being busy...I think, you will see people that participated with comments, click on there blog sign and their blog will come up and you will see their teaparties.

This is a cross-post from last year, but opened up old hard feelings. These people are on the West coast and we are on the East coast now. Couple attended a couple of parties at our home. Husband was a joke-teller and consumed quite a bit of time doing so. His DW was in my "girls group" and opined at one time how difficult it is to have a holiday dinner w/o grandkids, etc. since most people have them and we don't. On that cue, I invited them to our house for Thanksgiving. They were going away for her birthday but thanks. Weather there turned lousy and they came home. She called the day before Thanksgiving and asked us to her home. I said that I had already bought everything so why not come to ours. Well, they had already asked others to theirs. We spent TG home alone. I brought this up to a GF who said that maybe the husband was uncomfortable at our home, but I said that he didn't seem uncomfortable telling jokes to our other guests for an hour or so.... Fast forward; her sis and BIL were visiting from Europe. She called and asked my DH to schedule a golf game a few days hence, which he did. Then, since I hadn't heard from her in the meantime, I called the evening before to confirm the golf date. She said, "Oh, they aren't playing." No thanks, or KMA or nothing. The last straw was a discussion about storage of seldom used things (party items, etc.), and she said that they had just recently had a Christmas party with 60 people(we were not invited). It hurt like he!!, but at least I'm old enough to realize that $#!+ happens and I think if she ever knew how hurt I was, she would be devastated. I just think she didn't have a clue, even though they are very socially connected and well liked.

FoxesPad I am so there with you on this post. I love going all out and thinking a theme thru and then executing it wonderfully. Not only do I decorate to the hilt for an event but I make a mountain of food to go with and supply the guest with containers to take home all that good food. They all wonder why I bother and my mom is the worst she makes snide remarks like "no one cares about all that mess anyway they just want to eat." But the moment an outsider of the family is around she goes into bragging mode about all I do, go figure. Others in the family always complain about how much food I make but happily take it home at the end of the night. It's hurtful how they think about me and I'm still working on not letting it bother me but so far I'm not there just yet. Thank you for your post TheFoxesPad. There is one member of my family that entertains on a very different level than the rest of us, partly because she can afford to do much more than the rest. But instead of complimenting her on her efforts, I think I generally convey an air of disapproval. >> I think this is part of the issue with some in my family. I am the baby and have a little more than my siblings. I don't do these things to show others up, its just something that I enjoy doing and it comes easy for me. Making things pretty is what I do, my brain just goes there automatically. It doesn't bother me in the slightest if others don't care to go that far with decor but it does bother me that it bothers them when I choose to do so, friends seem to love it, family not so much.