Spring has Sprung, the Tablescape is Set!

April 10, 2024 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

It’s time for another tablescape to celebrate Spring. I can’t remember where the tablecloth came from but it was probably HomeGoods several years ago. I like the trellis and flower design and there are even a few bunnies on this tablecloth.

These Bordallo Pinheiro geranium leaf plates were some of the first plates that I started collecting when I started tablescaping. I bought them a few at a time on Ebay several years ago. You can still find them for sale there. I like that the leaf design covers this entire salad plate.

This dinner plate is a great anchor for any Spring themed salad plate. The rim leaf design really sets off any smaller plate.

This is a large heavy charger and another great plate to anchor the plates on top of it. The three matching plates together makes an eye catching plate stack.

I wanted to show this cute design along the side of the tablecloth so I finally remembered to take a photo before I added the dishes! I am still looking for napkins to match the pink roses on this tablecloth.

I used my Madeline Green frosted green flatware on this table setting, I bought it at World Market several years ago. I really like the frosted design on the handles. After red, I think green is the most used color flatware on my tablescapes.

I bought the white plastic napkin rings on Etsy several years ago. The pink gingham and solid pink napkins came from Amazon a few years ago. I don’t have a lot of pink items for tablescaping so I am trying to add more of that color now.

I have had these bird cage tea light candle and place card holders for a few years. I can’t remember where I bought them online but I think it was a wedding supply store. They were cream and Hubby spray painted them white for me.

The green goblet on the right was made by Noritake and it is called Sweet Swirl in light green. These were made between 1985 and 2005, I bought them on Ebay a few at a time several years ago. The blue and green goblet on the left came from Horchow online several years ago. They are called Bormioli Rocco Group Bahia goblets.

This wire wicker type cake stand is one of my favorite centerpieces. We found it in an antique mall up the California coast in Cayucos several years ago. I can’t remember what color it was originally but Hubby spray painted it white for me. It usually sits on a table on the back patio with various flowers inside and he touches it up for me every Spring. I put some flowers inside but I didn’t want to detract from the design so they are small. I really love this thing!

I bought this small creamer at Juliska online a few years ago. I was attracted to the raised design on the sides.

Hubby brought this small hand painted bird house home to me from an Estate Sale. The colors match this tablecloth perfectly!

I found a set of these small open salt cellars at an Estate Sale last year. I suddenly realized that they would be a good match for this table too with their blue and pink flowers. I love the tiny birds! There is a mark on the bottom but it is faint and I haven’t been able to identify it.

Hope this table sends a bit of Spring cheer your way!

To see 220+ other tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

This blog post was featured at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, https://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.com/ and Life and Linda, https://www.lifeandlinda.com/ Please visit these blogs, you will enjoy them!

Greatest Spring Tablescape Ever Toad

April 04, 2024 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

I did a Frog Spring tablescape two years ago but it was green and white. You can see that tablescape here. But I wanted to use all my frogs again and do something different so I searched Spoonflower online for a frog tablecloth and when this one popped up I knew I had found exactly what I needed. And before someone points out the difference between frogs and toads, yes, I know the difference, (after looking it up…always the librarian), and these are all probably toads and not frogs but for the sake of this table setting I am using the word frogs.

This tablecloth is such a happy one and the colors are perfect for Spring. It could easily be used on a Tropical themed tablescape as well.

I really wanted a frog shaped salad plate for this table setting but as sometimes is the case I could find five that I liked but not the sixth one so I went with these salad plates that I had already. I bought these Bordallo Pinheiro frog salad plates on Ebay a couple of years ago. I love the raised design of little frogs on lily pads on the lip of the plate and there are also small butterflies among the flowers.

The true pink color of this dinner plate shows more accurately in the previous photo. My phone camera sometimes washes colors out a bit. I found these pink stoneware dinner plates at Pier 1 online last year. Other than this pink flatware set I haven’t had much pink in my tablescaping collection for years so I have been trying to increase items in that color for a while now. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying dinner plates here.

This is a Mikasa Color Spectrum Charger in the color Alpine White. I have this charger in several different colors and I bought them all on Ebay as I saw them over a few years. The Internet says that this pattern was only made between 1992 and 1993. I am not sure that is true but in any case they are no longer being manufactured. I have been trying to get six of this color and pattern for years with no success until this last month when suddenly I found six at different places online after occasional google searches. You need to have patience when you are looking for things for tablescaping, that’s for sure!

This pink frosted flatware set was made by Bugatti for Vietri and the pattern was called Aladdin Brilliant. I bought the set at Macys several years ago. I have several sets of frosted flatware. These are 18/10 stainless, and I really like the frosted design. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I felt sure that I had a pink napkin set that I could use on this tablescape but none of the pink napkins that I have were the right shade of pink to match the tablecloth so I found these pink cotton napkins on Amazon a few days ago. They are nice casual napkins and they survived the washer and dryer and ironed well so I may buy some other colors. I found the metal frog napkin rings a few years ago at Hobby Lobby and Hubby painted them green for me. To read about the What, Where and How of napkin rings please click here.

I found these frog tea light candles on Amazon a few years ago. I love that little face! I have them sitting on my Oleg Cassini clear glass place card holders. I bought them at HomeGoods several years ago when I first started tablescaping. They are heavy and solid and I really like the simple design. I often use them as a stand for place card items. I see them for sale on Ebay from time to time. You can read my blog post for ideas about how to store napkin rings and place card holders here. Just looked back at this and realized that I forgot to add the place cards!

The green acrylic goblet on the left came from our Pier 1 store before it closed a few years ago. I bought the pink glass goblet on the right at World Market four years ago. True pink goblets are hard to find, they often are called pink when they are actually a coral color. When I saw these I grabbed them and then they quickly sold out so others were looking for them too! You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I found this frog figure at a Grocery Outlet store while we were on vacation two summers ago and it was really inexpensive. When I am out and about I am constantly looking for centerpiece ideas. Hubby was dragging his feet about buying it but when I told him I had been looking at frog cookie jars for three times the price he quickly changed his mind! I love the expression on this frog’s face, his eyes, and his feet. He is sitting on a small white plastic stand that probably came from HomeGoods several years ago.

I have so many candle holders and candles so I decided that this year I would try to use them more often. Then I saw this Venezia Smoke Green glass candle holder at Crate and Barrel online and the shape reminded me of a lily pad so I bought two to add to this tablescape on each side of the centerpiece. It comes in three different sizes but I bought the shortest ones. They have this candle holder in Deep Blue and Clear as well. They can also be used for flowers. They are really delicate glass and I love them.

We have had tiny frogs in our garden the past few years although I have only heard them once this Spring so far. I think it has been too cold for them. They are about the size of two thumbnails. I love hearing them croak although it doesn’t sound like a croak, it’s a loud weird scratchy sound. I hope they come back and stay a while!

To see over 270 different tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape and Table Settings Ideas Facebook group for lots of tablescaping inspiration! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape and Table Settings Ideas or click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2553689988183392

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Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks. Here is that link, https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

My Nana, Joanna Pruitt Leonard, and her Interesting Life

March 30, 2024 by Beth Wilson in Genealogy

My Nana, Joanna Pruitt Leonard, my mother’s mother, died when I was nine. I have no memories of her that I can remember. She became senile during the last years of her life and she lived in a rest home. We lived 300 miles away when she died. Joanna was born in the morning on 19 February 1881 in Princeton, Indiana at her grandfather Elisha Jones house. (Her grandmother Susan was a midwife.)

Entry in Elisha Jones’s Journal about his granddaughter Joanna Pruitt’s birth.

Joanna’s father, Joseph Pruitt, had died the previous July 1880 in Owensville, Indiana and her mother Emma had then moved back to Princeton, Indiana with Joanna and her older sister Helen. According to Helen, Emma was a very independent woman, as was her mother Susan, and Emma didn’t live with her parents very long. In January 1882 she took her two young daughters, Helen and Joanna, and moved to Kansas to live with her brother Alfred Jones and learn the millinery trade so she could support herself and her two daughters. While in Kansas Emma met James Howey and he finally convinced her to marry him in 1886.

Joanna Pruitt, April 1883, 2 years old, probably in Kansas

In 1887 James and Emma and the two girls moved to San Bernardino, California where James worked as a bricklayer for the rest of his life until he died in 1918.

Helen (Nellie) and Joanna Pruitt, September 1888

Joanna attended school in San Bernardino and had an active social life while she was in high school. The local newspaper mentions her several times attending various events and singing at a few of them.

Joanna Pruitt, August 1896, 15 years old

December 24, 1898, San Bernardino County Sun Newspaper Joanna was 17.

January 1, 1899, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper, Joanna was 17.

After graduating from San Bernardino High School Joanna took the examination for teachers and became a teacher.

January 5, 1900, Daily Times Index newspaper

Joanna was appointed to be a teacher at Oro Grande School and she moved to Oro Grande to teach.

August 11, 1900, Daily Times Index newspaper

Joanna continued to participate in social events in San Bernardino from time to time.

May 12, 1901, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

July 7, 1901, Queen’s Court, Joanna Pruitt, bottom row, second from right

By 1902 Joanna was teaching 2nd and 3rd grade at Mt. Vernon School.

September 4, 1902, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

In 1903 Joanna was granted a year’s leave from teaching to attend college at Berkeley University.

May 12, 1904, Daily Times Index newspaper

in 1904 Joanna was granted an additional leave of absence from teaching to go back to Berkeley for another year.

June 2, 1904, Daily Times Index newspaper

As she did in San Bernardino Joanna took part in social activities while at Berkeley as well.

April 12, 1905, Oakland Tribune newspaper

Joanna didn’t return to Berkeley for a third year and in 1906 she returned to teaching in San Bernardino at Fourth Street School and participating in local social events.

September 6, 1906, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

March 29. 1906, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

A family keepsake from Joanna, her Saturday Reading Club, a precursor to today’s Book Clubs.

Joanna apparently loved to travel and the newspaper is full of descriptions of her travel throughout California and also to New Mexico to visit relatives in the early 1900’s.

During this time Joanna lived with her mother and step-father at 802 Fifth Street in San Bernardino. She continued to teach at Fourth Street School during the 1908-1909 school year.

Joanna on the porch at the Fifth Street house about 1909.

In early 1909 Joanna was planning to move to the Philippines to live with her sister Helen and Helen’s husband and teach. But something happened and she decided to stay in San Bernardino and marry Willis E. Leonard. Willis was 46 and he had 5 children, his oldest child, daughter Florence, was only 5 years younger than Joanna who was 28. His wife Henrietta had died in November 1908. Willis and Joanna were married December 27, 1909 in Joanna’s home on Fifth Street in San Bernardino.

December 28, 1909 San Bernardino Sun newspaper

After the wedding Joanna and Willis left on a 6 week wedding trip by train across the country and back. While on their wedding trip Joanna collected sterling souvenir spoons from several cities that they visited.

Five sterling souvenir spoons that Joanna collected on their wedding trip in 1909 from some of the cities that they visited.

January 26, 1910, The San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

April 19, 1910 United States Census, Willis, Joanna and son Frank are at the bottom of the page, the rest of the family is on the next page

The rest of Willis’s family is at the top of the page, daughters Edith, Margaret, and Dorothy. Daughter Florence was already married and daughter Helen had died young. There was also a servant living in the house in 1910.

Willis Leonard had owned a small department store in San Bernardino, and then one in El Paso, Texas. He then returned to San Bernardino with his family in 1900 and opened another store. Later he sold the store and became manager of the Insurance, Loan, and Land Company. He was involved in a very successful real estate business in San Bernardino for a few decades until the Depression hit and he lost much of his real estate wealth.

May 24, 1910, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

January 1, 1913, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Over the years Joanna was very active in San Bernardino’s social life and a member of various clubs.

April 25, 1913, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Leonard Home, 427 Magnolia Avenue in San Bernardino, built in 1915 by Willis E. Leonard. Elisabeth Leonard Gardner was born in this house in 1916. (This house still stands and was completely renovated and then sold in 2022.)

Probably 1918, Joanna with daughters Elisabeth and Lois

16 January 1920, United States Census, Willis and family near the bottom of the page, by now 2 other children have joined the family, Lois and Elisabeth.

Leonard Family about 1924, Joanna back row 2nd from right, daughter Elisabeth in front of her

April 3, 1930, United States Census, Willis and Joanna Leonard with their daughters Lois and Elisabeth and Joanna’s mother Emma Howey.

When the Depression hit Willis Leonard lost much of his real estate wealth. They sold the Magnolia house and bought a smaller house on Pershing Avenue in San Bernardino.

June 1937, Pershing House, 3233 Pershing Avenue, San Bernardino

April 5, 1940. By the 1940 United States Census Willis and Joanna were living alone in their house on Pershing Avenue in San Bernardino.

Willis and Joanna in front of the Pershing Avenue house

Leonard Family, Christmas Day 1937, Joanna back row left

Willis Leonard died October 14, 1944 at home of a heart attack. Daughter Elisabeth was there and remembered that because of war time it took the doctor quite a while to get there but Willis had died instantly.

October 15, 1944, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

October 18, 1944, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Joanna continued to live in San Bernardino after Willis died until she became senile and was moved to a rest home in Pasadena where she died in 1960.

November 8, 1946, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

July 25, 1954 San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

August 13, 1960, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

A Bee Bedecked Spring Tablescape

March 28, 2024 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

I did a bee tablescape four years ago, and then a different one three years ago, and then another different one two years ago as well. But when I saw this bee tablecloth at HomeGoods a few months ago I flashed on all the gray tablescape items that I already have and I decided to do another bee table setting. This tablecloth has a label that says The Farmhouse, Rachel Ashwell. Gray is an unusual color for a Spring tablescape but after completing 220+ tablescapes I need to branch out a bit and go beyond the norm sometimes.

These bee themed salad plates came from Wayfair online. They came in a set of four with four different designs. The plate designs were created by artist Susan Winget and the plates were made by Certified International. When I saw them I knew that they would be a perfect match for the tablecloth.

This is a Fiesta dinner plate in their newer shape Bistro and the color is called Daffodil. The Bistro shape offers a wider food surface and deeper well and it looks a bit more modern than the Fiesta Classic plates. I bought these Fiesta dinner plates online at Everything Kitchens LLC three years ago. You can read about what you need to think about when you are buying dinner plates here.

This Gray stoneware charger or dinner plate came from Pottery Barn. I love this plate, I also have it in other colors. The pattern is called Cambria. It is the perfect size to be either a dinner plate or a charger plate, I love plates that have that kind of versatility.

I have had this frosted Light Gray flatware set for several years. The flatware was made by D & D Inox in Italy. I bought it at Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales during a major sale several years ago. This pattern is called Vietri Aladdin Brilliant (not Antique). There are similar frosted patterns available online now. I have this set in other colors too because I really like the frosted design. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I bought these yellow gold cotton napkins at World Market several years ago. I found the bee napkin rings on Amazon last month. They are such a good match for the tablecloth. To read about the What, Where and How of napkin rings please click here.

This beehive place card holder went through quite a metamorphosis. I found them online at Oriental Trading a few years ago. They were in the Easter section and they were lemon yellow. Inside was a plastic bumblebee. I bought them because I knew Hubby could paint them for me and then he attached a wooden base so that they could stand. I already had the tiny bumblebees so I added a few just for fun. I set them on a small square bronze place card holder. I can’t remember where they came from. To read about the what, where and how of place card holders, please click here.

I can’t remember where the smokey gray glass goblet on the left came from. I have had them for several years. They were made by Greenbrier Glass. The gold Poly/Carb goblet on the right was made by Le Cadeaux and the pattern is called Fleur. We found them at a gift shop on one of our trips up the coast several years ago but they were really expensive so we only bought a few of them. I had been looking for that color for a long time and after we got home, I found them much cheaper online so I bought a few more. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I found this white porcelain honeycomb cookie jar at Williams Sonoma online last month. I love using cookie jars as centerpieces, they are always the right size. I set it on a small white cake stand that I found at HomeGoods several years ago. The two wood bees that I placed on each side of the cookie jar came from a local gift shop. Looks like they were just made for this tablescape.

If you look very closely you can just see this tiny glass bee to the left of the centerpiece on this tablescape. I have had it for years, I don’t remember where I got it but I knew it belonged on this table. It is a favorite of mine.

I am not a real fan of bees although I know we need them and I try to plant flowers for them but I had fun pulling this table together.

To see 220+ tablescapes that I have created, please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

This blog post was featured at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, https://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.com/ Please visit this blog for lots of great recipes!