A Regular Workday

Tablescape Thursday~ A Regular Workday

     It's Tablescape Thursday and we're linking up to Susan's party at Between Naps on the Porch. Thanks, Susan for hosting one of our favorite events each week.


      This week just completely got away from me. It seemed like every time I THOUGHT I was getting caught up (or at least doing something), I would run into something else that needed doing. I didn't even know it was Wednesday till almost 10 o'clock this morning! I was thinking we'd have to skip this week, but then I started talking to myself (I do that a lot- I seem to be the only one around here that listens to me). 
    I managed to convince myself to invite all of blogdom into my inner sanctum. No, not my bathroom, though I have been known to blog from there. My husband thought I was nuts when we moved into this house and he caught me dragging a chaise into the bathroom. "Who DOES that??" says he. "WHO puts furniture in the BATHROOM??"

   Sometimes I'm very smart. 

Somehow I knew that I'd need a hideout from the insanity around here and the brilliant person who designed this house must have known it too

My chaise was made for this spot

    Anyway, the sanctum I'm inviting you all into this week is my office. Now, I will freely admit to drooling when I see pictures of beautiful home offices, decorated with beautiful things and abounding with empty surfaces

You won't see that here

This is a working office. Three businesses and a large household are run out of this room. 

    Depending on the time of day, you may stumble on a dumbbell or a roll of fabric or a stack of cookbooks or a pair of sneakers attached to the feet of the child who is using his father's computer to play Combat Arms

Or maybe not attached to anyone but just laying there so Mom can trip over them in the high heels she's wearing in an obvious attempt to look professional for the client meeting

It never works.

I simply must have pictures of my favorite people on my bookshelves-they're the reason we do what we do

Note the exercise mat in front of the fabric rolls next to the flooring samples stacked on the cookbooks

I'm a very organized person

Grandma's buttons, trims, fabrics, and gravel

Gravel??

Really, I am organized in the fantasy I've created in my mind

On the rare occasions when I need to take a break (20 or so times a day), hold my head in my hands and stare aimlessly, I want to see things that make me smile

Like this

and this

(the babies in my life and the monkey fabric drapes that make me smile even though I spent a fortune on silk and didn't use it)

Because monkeys make me smile

That's why I have 6 kids

and this

and this

(We had to make this a rule. It was getting pretty rowdy around here)

and some light reading

Today I had a meeting scheduled with a design client. I was serving a light lunch and decided, since we were both pressed for time, to serve it in the office while we made some decisions

And get our story straight before we tell her husband that the fabric she wants for her windows will cost roughly the equivalent of several mortgage payments

I LOVE old snack sets and have quite a few

I use them often, but never with my boys

Snack sets are not meant for boys

        This is a combination of two sets. I found the plates at an estate sale and the owner told me they belonged to her mother. She had no idea what had happened to the cups. So, I borrowed some glass cups from another set and I think the carrot ginger soup is pretty enough to make them look good.

Buttermilk Herb Biscuits with Basil Mayonnaise and Shaved Ham 

 Carrot Ginger Soup

Heirloom Tomatoes on Mixed Greens

I LOVE that burlap on the bottom. A future tablescape??....

Paint samples- how many shades of taupe-y gold are there??

What IS taupe-y gold??

Always a vintage mat

Be sure to wander over to Susan's. Sit a spell and enjoy the creativity of Blogland's best tablescapers

As Always,

Buon Alimento, Buon Amici,

Pattie and Allie