Candlestick Recycle and Dinner

Welcome, Friends, to the Blog today. I am so excited that you are here. I’m going to be using a newly thrifted candlestick in a slightly different way. This lovely shabby chic wooden candlestick would certainly be beautiful with a pillar candle…but let’s do something a little different with just a few things found around the house and some fresh flowers and greenery from the garden.

I started with these four items. The candlestick, a small flower pot, some floral foam and a plastic bag.

The floral foam was soaked in water and then. placed in the plastic bag. Then both were set in the flower pot and placed on the candlestick. The candlestick had a spike in the center of the top and the drainage hole in the flower pot fit nicely over the spike.

I gathered a selection of flowers and ivy from the garden and began to arrange them in the floral foam.

I began to build up the arrangement by starting with ivy and then adding flowers to the mix. I allowed the ivy to trail gracefully down the sides of the candlestick concealing the outline of the flower pot.

The flowers and the ivy make a very nice combination. The ivy trails down the candlestick with some lovely tendrils that soften the look.

This little vignette was created with the candlestick decor and some lovely fairy books by Cicely Barker, famous for her beautiful drawings of flowers and fairies with accompanying poetry.

The illustrations are charming and looking through her books is a delight. The different flowers are drawn from life and are very accurate renditions of the flowers she wrote about. She published a whole series of books throughout her lifetime. In the picture above you can see a sampling of her publications.

For dinner I used the candlestick flower creation as a centerpiece. Tonight we are having a simple meal of portobello mushroom burgers, fresh green beans and a very nice red wine. A pretty centerpiece always makes the food taste better.

I started by caramelizing some sweet onions in olive oil with some salt and pepper. The portobello mushrooms were de-stemmed and cleaned with a damp cloth. Next they were marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. You just drizzle enough olive oil and balsamic vinegar to cover the top and bottom of the mushroom. Then gently rub the marinade into the mushroom cap and let sit for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms were then placed under the broiler for about 7 minutes on each side. You can also grill them on the barbecue for the same amount of time per side. Feta cheese was added to the center of the caps after the mushroom were flipped over. The cheese melted nicely by the time the mushrooms had finished cooking. You can use other types of cheese, if you prefer.

The portabello mushrooms were placed on hamburger rolls. The caramelized onions were added to the buns and a slice of lovely, fresh red tomato was added to the burger. Fresh green beans were prepared as the vegetable side dish.

The wine was poured through a newly thrifted wine aerator that is held over the glass while the wine is poured through the aerator. The red wine complimented the portobello mushroom burger nicely and was served in some thrifted balloon glasses by Mikasa. The lines and dots decorating the glasses add a touch of whimsy to the setting.

The simple dinner was served on a round branded place mat in two-toned grey with a grey, high-rimmed dinner plate. The shabby chic candlestick blended right in. White and black checked napkins in wrought iron napkin rings added to the setting. My everyday flatware, Fiddlehead, purchased at Pottery Barn years ago, was used for dinner. We enjoyed a very tasty and simple meal prepared in under 30 minutes. The centerpiece added a lovely touch of the garden to dinner. After dinner the candlestick was returned to it’s little vignette.

We enjoyed our simple summer meal and it was quite a fun project to turn the candlestick into a flower centerpiece to enjoy with our meal. Thanks so much for joining me. It’s always a pleasure to have you visit.