Pretty Peonies

People love Trader Joe's here in Utah.  I personally love a few items, but find the store to be a bit dated and generally smells of rotting fruit when you walk-in, not to mention the abundance of fruit flies that are circling the non refrigerated fruit and flowers (sorry Trader Joe fans, don't mean to offend).  But they do have some very inexpensive items that I just can't resist.  Namely their frozen chocolate croissants and their flowers.

It was time for our annual Giro dine-o-round and I wanted to make some inexpensive table setting that were springlike and fresh.  I found these beautiful peonies and other flowers at Traders for a very reasonable price.  And four days later, they're still looking fresh.

I split a $3.99 bunch of flowers to make 5 bud vase table settings.

 2 bunches of $3.99 sunflowers brightens the laundry room turned bar.

I finally hung some drapes to hide the washer dryer.  You may recognize them from my clients' family room makeover.

Another couple of pictures of the outside.

We were the final house on the Giro tour and hence served yummy deserts, cocktails and coffee.

I'm becoming a bit of an expert on making Pavlova.  So easy to make but never fails to impress.  I bought those cute ice cream cups and teeny tiny spoons & forks from Crate and Barrel.  We've hosted this dine-o-round thing for a number of years now and I thought it was finally time to ditch the plastic plates and silverware.

Our fellow hosts made this lovely flour-less torte and served it with framboise.

 Lots of gratuitous cake shots!  But they all look so wonderful I couldn't chose the best one.

Afterwards the flowers came inside to brighten my kitchen table.  I love how they work so well with the kids' pictures.

Hope you all had a great holiday week-end!