Southern Inspirations: Summer Entertaining!

My good buddy Susan sent me a picture of some outdoor drinking glasses that she liked, and was wondering where she could find them. Having my mind on rugs, closets, ceilings, lighting, floors, and gardening, I did not have too much time to think about outdoor entertaining! This was two months ago. Susan is always prepared and organized, unlike myself, who procrastinates, and she has a four year old. The weather here in Nashville is very unpredictable--as I said earlier you can have all four seasons in one day. The two-plus years we’ve been here I’ve learned not to even think about outdoor entertaining until mid June. At any rate, I hope this helps a little with your outdoor summer entertaining.

Image from Martha Stewart Living

If you would like to use something other than acrylic for your outdoor glasses, and you are afraid your good stemware will break--a little tip --pop into your neighborhood thrift stores, and when you see miscellaneous crystal wine glasses for a dollar or two, pick them up for your outdoor collection. If one breaks--no big deal. For your tea and lemonade, try serving in small individual canning jars.

I know I’m in need of some outdoor games, and these old fashion horse shoes are something that caught my eye. We live on a corner lot and we seem to have a lot of neighbors stop by just to say hi when they see us outside. So I was thinking this could be fun way to mingle and enjoy being outdoors.

Target

If you want to do a BBQ theme, I personally think these gingham plates from Pottery Barn are perfect. They scream BBQ! Plus they are steel so you don’t have to worry about breakage and they come in different colors--I like the green too. I am waiting until they go on sale and then I will grab some.

For your corn you can try individual corn plates. I just picked some up in white at the William-Sonoma outlet store in Dawsonville, Ga, and they ship! The nice thing about the white plates are that they go with everything. I have not seen the white corn plates anywhere else other than the outlet store. If you are looking for something vintage-inspired try these earthenware ones from Williams-Sonoma.

What’s a BBQ without cobbler?! I was just in Atlanta at Crate & Barrel and I picked up a few of these ceramic bakeware pieces. One is for my neighbor, Sandy, a small gift for watching our house while we were away. I think these are perfect for your 4th of July blueberry, apple, or peach, cobbler. A great color blue, and at that price you can make a cobbler for your neighbor and leave the dish.