A Time to Celebrate!

I'm a little late posting my Cinco de Mayo table, but with good reason.  Not long after my last post, my daughter gave birth to her first child, a beautiful little girl named Gianna Rose.  All is well, and the transition running as smoothly as it can when a new precious human being upends the lives of first-time parents.  She is our eighth grandchild (now 6 granddaughters and 2 grandsons) and the thrill of welcoming a new member to our family has not dimmed; it is still as exciting and miraculous as the first time, and our hearts cannot be more full of joy and gratitude.  So, this table is dedicated to the happiness we feel, and I hope it reflects the sense of celebration our family is experiencing.

Here's The Whole Table:

Here's How It Was Created:

When my husband and I were married 25 years ago, we ventured to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for our honeymoon.  So, for this Cinco de Mayo table, I shopped the house for components for my tablescape. I started with this colorful sarape to use as a tablecloth.

I have used this placemat before, and thought that the colors and painted beads were very celebratory and reminded me a little of a sombrero, perfect for a Mexican holiday!

Next came my go-to staple dinner plates:  my yellow Portuguese Metaceramica plates from HomeGoods.  Because my next layer of plates are smaller, I am actually using these plates as chargers.

This colorful Melamine plate is simply labeled "Summer" and I found it at Target.  Its colors just sing summer to me, and with CA temperatures edging towards 90 all this past week, spring seems to have
slipped by.

For the top layer of my dish stack I am using my Le Crueset mini-cocottes.   They are tiny stoneware casserole dishes and perfect for individual soup servings.  I figured my menu for Cinco de Mayo would be chicken tortilla soup, followed by tacos, refried beans and rice;  with the meal ending with a flan.

The place setting is completed with napkins from Target (they were sold with the plates, and mirror the colors in the plates), napkin rings from Pier One, blue Mexican glass martini glasses from Pier One (I don't have margarita glasses, but I figured they would taste the same , despite the shape of the glass!), red water goblets from HomeGoods and flatware from Target.

My centerpiece was anchored in a chili pepper wreath I got several years ago at a church craft fair.  Sitting on top of a glass cake stand that I found at Tuesday Morning is a vignette composed of a colorful rooster I found at the Shinoda Design Center when I first started tablescaping last year; a salt and pepper set of roosters I purchased on our honeymoon; and, the final component of the centerpiece vignette is a tile whose saying, "Mi Casa Es Su Casa" (My Home is Your Home) is also a souvenir from our honeymoon.  The saying has been a founding premise for our home and reflects the atmosphere in our home that began 25 years ago with our marriage, and has welcomed everyone as our blended family has grown.

One of the accents on the table is a stone molecahete or pestle and mortar that belonged to my husband's late mother.  It will be used on our table to mix together the ingredients for guacamole (essential for a Cinco de Mayo celebration when tacos and chips are around!)

Another accent piece is the padded tortilla holder I bought at a county fair (it is WONDERFUL for keeping tortillas warm) and a pottery taco holder which is very handy for holding tacos once they are put together and is very convenient as a serving piece.

The final accent piece on the table will surely be used on this upcoming holiday and celebration (we have to toast sweet Gianna Rose, after all!).  This shot glass holder also found its way home from Cabo San Lucas, as well as the Mexican pottery tray on which it sits.  The mini tequila bottles were retrieved from a friend's birthday party and will be shared as part of our typical Cinco de Mayo meal.

So, the table is ready, the food is almost prepared and we await our guests who will help us celebrate Cinco de Mayo as well as the birth of our sweet granddaughter.  It is sure to be a wonderful time. !Salud!

I'll be joining Susan at www.betweennapsontheporch.net for Tablescape Thursday and 
Alma at www.thetablescaper.com for Seasonal Sundays.  I'll also be joining www.rustic-refined.com for a Flash Link Party. Please stop by these wonderful parties to see what others have to offer!  And, thank you, ladies, for hosting!

If you'd like to leave a comment, it would be gratefully appreciated!!    Rosie