Details

Okay Shari, this is for you... Shari asked for more details about the HGTV shoot. I would love to be able to tell you everything but for obvious reasons I can't. I think I'm safe just giving you a few minor details about the day. Dan arrived at 10:30 am and surprisingly I wasn't very nervous. He came in and started setting up right away.
Once I was in front of the camera I started to get a little nervous but decorating is my passion so it's probably one of the easiest things for me to talk about so it didn't take too long for me to relax a bit. I noticed at first that when I spoke my hands were down at my side and then part way through when I started to relax my hands were moving everywhere! I hope they aren't flying around too much when I see the show!
Next thing I know it's lunch time and I made us some turkey sandwiches on sourdough bread. Then back to work to shoot some more. Only my downstairs living area was filmed. I told you that I decided not to set the table after all but you can see in these photos what I did. I just put shells in my tiered dish and two sets of crystal candlesticks. I added some small shells around one of the candles. (Last weekend, after the shoot, I moved my table parallel to the hutch. I sure wish I would have done that before the shoot. I think I like it better this way.) I think it was about 3:30 when we finished and Dan left for the airport and I went to pick up Beau at the kennel! Poor Beau he does not like going there at all!

I also wanted to thank all of you who rated me a couple weeks ago on Delightful Blogs. The comments didn't show up then but I went there yesterday and I couldn't believe all the wonderful comments! I had so much fun reading those last night! Wow you guys are incredibly nice! One comment cracked me up...she was referring to all the white I have in my home and she said "Honestly, if I was living in her home, I would feel like an eskimo in an igloo" To me, my home doesn't feel cold at all. I guess it's all a matter of personal taste.

One last thing...every time I post pictures of this tiered dish I get a ton of emails asking where I got it. My mom bought this at a shop in Disneyland when I was little, maybe 7 or 8 years old. I still remember her buying it and I'm sure if I went to Disneyland I would be able to point out the shop. It was in the New Orleans area on a corner. It was filled with ceramic lemons and I remember my mom and the sales lady removing them. I'm amazed how vivid my memory of this is but even at that young age I appreciated the beauty of this piece. That was 40 years ago and my mom paid about $100 which was a lot of money back then. It was made in Italy. This piece was always in our dining room when I was growing up, either on the buffet or as a centerpiece on the dining table. A few years back, out of the blue, my mom gave it to me for my birthday. I was so shocked! It's one of my favorite things in my home and has so much sentimental value.