More dishes ?

I found these cute anchor dishes at Tuesday Morning and debated with myself about buying them - love won out over need.

I didn't argue with myself over these little square dessert plates because I will be using them at my Mad Tea Party.

But, it is difficult to justify the purchase of more plates when our limited cupboard space is taken up with rarely used dishes.

The winning argument of "silly self" over "practical self" was that the anchor dishes are perfect for a beach house and if I passed them up, I would never find them again.

Last week, I did a simple red, white & blue table setting and used the square blue plates for our dessert.

This week I stopped in at Paper Source (never a cheap move) and spotted this anchor stamp.

My thought was, "how cute would anchor napkins be with those anchor dishes!" so I brought the stamp home, made napkins and stamped a couple little bags.

From one Friday to the next, the table setting changed considerably even though the same dishes were used.

I frequently use dish towels for place mats and like the horizontal stripes on these towels.

Of course the wine bottle doesn't exactly go with the anchor dishes so red napkins were used to hide the graphics.

I usually have flowers as the centerpiece, but yesterday I went for a sea theme.

Starfish candle sticks came out of the cupboard, bits and pieces of my shell collection filled up some fish containers I just purchased for my upcoming tea party and the base was another dish towel with horizontal stripes and no graphic.

You might be asking, what about the anchor stamp and the napkins?

Well, the ink on the napkins was the wrong color and the bags just didn't work, but

I just found these cute sailboat dishes (which I couldn't pass up)

and some new pasta bowls so I know the anchor napkins will be used soon.

 I had a lot of fun playing house yesterday.

Once the table was set, I began moving things around the house.

Pitchers from the entry way ended up on the dining room shelf and

wire baskets from the dining room ended up on the entry way cabinet.

The dining room is definitely sporting a blue and white motif and

the entire house is looking ready for summer.

Yes, this little seaside cottage is definitely ready for a Mad Tea Party on Monday.

And, as I sit at the dining room table putting the finishing touches on this blog post, I am struck by the message on the dining room table -

"if you are lucky enough to live at the beach, you're lucky enough" - and yes, I am lucky enough.

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