The “Race for the Roses” will be held this Saturday on May 4, 2024 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. If you cannot be there in person, then what better reason to have your very own Derby party. There is so much history surrounding this annual event and how fun to partake in its revelry.

A Little History

The Kentucky Derby takes place on the first Saturday in May every year, and typically draws a crowd of 155,000 people. It is the longest continually held sporting event in America, and it is one of the most prestigious horse races in the world.

Often called “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports”, the Kentucky Derby receives this nickname from the approximate length of time it takes the winner to run from the starting gate to the finish line. The Kentucky Derby is the first race within the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, where it is followed by the Preakness Stakes race and the Belmont Stakes race.

Setting the Theme

When my sweet blogging friends came to visit Bella Terra in 2022, we put together all the best tips to hosting your very own Kentucky Derby party and we want to share them with you today!

Chloe, from Celebrate and Decorate was unable to come at the last minute due to a family medical emergency. However, she did ship all the wonderful elements of a beautiful table beforehand. Using the black and white checks of a jockey’s attire, the harlequin table cloth is the perfect backdrop. Moss in a roll make a wonderful runner and adds the grassy feel of Churchill Downs.

The Centerpiece

Working with a laser cut wooden horse head, Chloe embellishes it with a Derby Day theme. Here is the Before:

And the After:

The horse head centerpiece is a clever use of craft materials and you can see the entire DIY here. Finding the wooden horse head silhouette on Amazon, Chloe covers it in moss, adds roses for the mane and adds a harlequin ribbon for the bridle. This can be used as decoration for the front door (add a hook) or as the table’s centerpiece.

Beautiful silver mint julep cups are filled with fresh red roses that I order from The Bouqs. Waiting for a 20% off promotion, I purchase 6 dozen (4 dozen would have been plenty)of these gorgeous red roses. I place 10 roses in each mint julep cup (6 cups) and surround the horse head.

If you are looking for mint julep cups, here is a resource for stainless steel ones. Silver or silver plated mint julep cups can be found here.

The Place Setting

Since the Kentucky Derby is one of the most prestigious races, it’s time to pull out the glamour of silver and crystal. After experimenting with different chargers and dinner plates, we decide a simple white plate with a beaded silver charger with a white embroidered linen napkin is the most elegant.

If you don’t have real silver or silver-plate, there are many faux silver chargers available. You can see these more affordable options here. Having a basic white dinner plate allows you the opportunity to make your table casual or more formal. Here is a good option on white dinner plates.

Chloe makes these stunning red rose napkin rings and you can see her DIY here. Even though she wasn’t physically present, we all greatly appreciate her creative contributions to this gorgeous table.

Sparkling crystal glasses, silver candlesticks and silver wine/champagne buckets add more glamour to the table.

Andrea from Design Morsels finds these small horseshoes which we scatter around the centerpiece. Adding the white slipcovered dining chairs around the table, again makes this dining experience extra special.

The table is placed under the very old date palms trees on the south side of our historic property.

Hors D’oeuvres

Even though mint juleps are the traditional cocktail for the Kentucky Derby, we dust off our best Waterford champagne flutes and serve a Thomson & Scott Noughty dealcoholized sparking rosé bubbly.

A variety of cheeses, crackers, salami, olives, nuts and fruit make a colorful, yet tasty tray of nibbles.

Icy shrimp with cocktail sauce on a vintage Fenton Spanish Lace Silver Crest ruffle edge milk glass pedestal cake stand gives some height to a small table. This is one of my favorite cake stands and as I am writing this, there is one available on eBay here.

Fresh shrimp and a wonton hors d’oeuvre create different textures and flavors. An interesting mix for your guests.

For more food and decorating ideas, see my Derby Day Fun post from 2019 here.

And a Hat, of course!

Hats are a long standing tradition at the Kentucky Derby! And what is a Derby party without a lovely chapeau!

On the Kentucky Derby website, you can download the entire Kentucky Derby 2024 information guide, the list of horses and you can even place a bet on their website. They even have an online store for your to purchase party supplies.

Thanks to Chloe’s creativity and the capable hands of Andrea from Design Morsels and Chas from Chas’ Crazy Creations, we hope you will be inspired to host your own Kentucky Derby party! What fun to put it all together here at our home and share these moments with such great friends.

10 Winning Kentucky Derby Party Food Ideas and Champion Recipes

My friend, Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse is part of a supper club comprising of very talented women. In Rachel’s post, not only does she include recipes from Shrimp & Grits to Bourbon Bread Pudding, but the following as well:

Michele from Vintage Home Design~Traditional Mint Julep Recipe with a Lemonade Twist

Jen at Midwest Life and Style- Crockpot Bourbon Meatballs

Anne and AnnMarie at Simply2Moms~The Hot Brown

Stacy at Bricks ‘n Blooms~Best Blondie Brownie Recipe

Just writing this post is making me hungry and I cannot wait to try some of these new recipes. May is just around the corner and enjoying the Kentucky Derby is a great way to welcome in the month.Are you planning a Derby day celebration?

Some of the photos are taken by Emily Supiot from Cozy Clicks.

If you enjoy this post, please share on Pinterest.

When my eldest daughter heads off to college, it is a good opportunity to update her room with a more sophisticated look.  It is painted a pretty green and has all the makings of a young teenage girl’s room. As I consider different paint colors, would you ever paint a bedroom black?

The Before

Why Black?

In addition to green, her favorite color is black.  Hmmm. I do need to think this through. Painting her room black is a bold move.  But we have light floors (Canadian beechwood) and lots of white trim (baseboards, windows, doors, crown molding)…..to help break up any large expanse of black. So I take the leap!

When you first walk in, there are two arched windows overlooking the front yard. Without altering the window shape, new replacement windows from Marvin are added during the original restoration. They open in two ways~by swinging wide open or tipping into the room for top only ventilation.

These windows face east and get the beautiful morning light with an expansive outdoor view. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the painting process, but here you can see the results.

Making Green and White work

I want to keep her green desk chair and furniture but finding fabric that combined THIS green, black and white is a bit of a challenge.

We’ve never had curtains on these windows. It took some time to figure out how to add curtains without hiding the beautiful window design.

After much pondering, I finally decide to do one big curtain panel. The large drapery pulls across both windows and tucks to one side when not in use. It has a black-out liner so my daughter is finally able to sleep in a fully dark room.

This panel is made by Smith & Noble, using their designer fabric line, Madcap Cottage.  I recommend getting a fabric sample and fortunately, this sample did match the black and green perfectly. The pattern is a bit of unconventional but playful and their turnaround time for delivery is less than 2 weeks!

The best location for her bed is in the alcove that has a port hole window.  The headboard and wall lamp are from Joss & Main; the duvet cover from West Elm.  I made the bed skirt with leftover Waverly fabric I found in the basement. The matching decorative pillow with Madcap Cottage fabric is also made by Smith and Noble.

En Suite Bathroom

Her bathroom needs a facelift too.  The original restoration is from 2001 and therefore it’s time for an update. We replace the tile countertop with a Carrera marble slab and repaint the base cabinet semi-gloss black.  The wall paint changes from green to a crisp white.

Since posting this we experience a major plumbing leak and use this opportunity to re-tire her bathroom floor with Carrera marble tiles.

Now the ensuite bathroom’s decor flows nicely with the bedroom.

Other Black Room Ideas

The Spruce has a great article about Beautiful Black Room ideas and you can find it here.

Now when my daughter comes home to visit, she enjoys an updated, more sophisticated room.  Though it was a big leap of faith to paint this room black, the overall feel is quiet elegance and chic. I am very happy with the results and glad we took the leap.

Desk and chair: Ikea

Door, window, trim color:  Van de Cane DEW354 (a Dunn-Edwards paint but created by Sherwin-Williams)

Wall Color:  Sherwin-Williams Caviar 6990

Drapery Rod and C-hooks: Smith & Noble

Fabric: Hello Hidcote/Nightfall (17910) by Madcap Cottage

Artwork: Original drawings by my daughter

I am guilty of having too many dishes. Quite honestly, I do not know how or why this dish thing got started. When I was in my 20s, I didn’t have two cents to rub together, however, I recall saving up to buy service for 12 of Royal Doulton Romance Collection in Juliet. How I love (and still love) these dishes. Since I store 90% of these dishes in a built-in cabinet in the basement, I want to make sure they are safe and do not get damaged from chips, cracks, breakage and dust.

Do Display Your Dishes

If you have a glass front cabinet or hutch where you can display your pretty dishes, please do so. Unfortunately I do not have anything like that, except our butler’s pantry. However, it is not big enough for dishes so primarily it holds my finer glassware.

Some Don’ts When Storing China

Newspaper~Newspaper is often a cheap and convenient packaging material, which is why it’s one of the first china storage ideas to come to mind for many people. Here’s the hitch — the ink used to print newspapers can bleed onto your dishes, meaning you’ll have to spend even more time washing them. The ink could even lead to damaged patterns if you have to scrub to remove it. Worse yet, newsprint could result in permanent staining. Brown packing paper, felt inserts or paper/styrofoam disposable plates work too.

Don’t Stack the Dishes too High~Bigger isn’t better when it comes to stacks of formal dishware. While it’s admirable to try to maximize space, higher stacks can result in plates getting scratched or broken if they slide. Additionally, all of those top dishes place a lot of pressure on the poor plate at the bottom. Therefore, it’s a good rule of thumb to stack no more than about eight plates. It’s also important to know that cups should never be stacked under any circumstances, unless you’re going for a look that involves chipped rims and handles.

Where to Put Your Extra Fine dinnerware

If you are like me and don’t have a beautiful hutch or extra shelves available, my fine dinnerware is stored in our basement. Make sure to place your packed-away dishes in an area that doesn’t see a lot of traffic. This will greatly reduce the odds of china being damaged while it’s stowed in the off seasons.

The wall cabinets in the basement are actually from Ikea and were installed years ago. Narrower upper cabinets rest on the butcher block counter top of the deeper bottom cabinets. Due to the lower height of the ceiling and overhead plumbing in the basement, it makes sense to organize the cabinets this way. There are 4 double door cabinets on each the top and the bottom. As a result, the countertop is not deep, but it provides enough surface to load and unload the dishes.

Smart China Storage Ideas

The sky’s the limit when it comes to containers that can help you figure out how to store china safely. You can purchase both hard- and soft-sided cases for your plates, bowls and tea settings. For my dishes, I like to get the soft, padded cases that zipper close to protect my dishes.

Hagerty has a nice collection of plate savers and my most recent purchase is this set of 4 in blue. The set fits 4 different sizes (7″, 8″, 9″, and 11 1/2″), which works well for most dinner and salad plates. I use the smaller sizes for small soup bowls or odd items. In addition, this set comes with inserts to put between your plates.

In between each plate I put the dividers which can be made from felt or packing material. This helps prevent chipping and the plates from sliding.

Labeling and Identifying

Since I have over 50 containers of dishes/glasses, it would be a small nightmare to unzip and look in every container to find the dishes I want to use. On each container, I create a tag with a color copy print of the item inside.

Once I cut out the photo, I glue it to a small card stock tag using Elmer’s Glue stick. You can buy the tags or I just use index cards cut to size (actually I have used both). With a hole punch and a piece of string, I can attach the tag to the case.

On the back of the tag, I will indicate the number of dishes in the case~for example, 8 salad plates.

This decorative twine holder with scissors has a permanent place in my kitchen as it is so handy and attractive. The scissors are conveniently attached, too. Each tag gets a piece of twine.

With strings on all the tags, I can now label each container. I tie the string onto the hole in the zipper slider. This system makes identification of the type of dish and quantity available very simple and easy.

When planning to entertain, I first determine how many people, then go and see what dishes I want to use. Dishes and glassware are already clean so no dusting or re-washing is involved.

What About Cups, Glasses and Stemware?

There are many different style containers and I have a few that I use for my vintage stemware and finer coffee mugs.

There are padded cases for stemware storage where you can safely put 12 glasses in the same container. Investing in good storage containers is well worth protecting my cherished pieces.

Overall, I am happy with this system. All the seasonal and special dinnerware is in one place. Sometimes I moan that I need to go up and down the basement stairs, but it is another form of exercise, I suppose. If you don’t use it, you lose it, right?

How do you store your fine dinnerware and china? I’m always looking for new ideas that will improve my current system so please share what you are doing for this type of storage.

Can you believe Easter is this coming Sunday, the last day of March? After having two VERY busy weeks, I am now finally shifting my focus to my Easter/Spring decorations and the holiday meal. Will you be hosting friends and family for dinner? We are expecting about 10 for an Easter brunch after we attend sunrise services at church. Today’s post is inspiration for your Easter weekend~ from easy Easter DIYs to family traditions at the table. If your children are on spring break, some of these ideas would be fun to keep them busy and entertained.

Decoupage Easter Eggs

With a plethora of pretty seasonal paper napkins and hand towels, you can easily make these decoupage Easter eggs with your children or grandchildren. All you need are neutral colored eggs~either plastic, wooden or actual eggs, Mod Podge, paper napkins, and a paint brush. If you are using real eggs, you can find instructions on how to do this here.

What’s nice about these decoupage eggs, is that they keep from year to year and you can use them in a multitude of ways. This sweet lady bunny has a space for an egg on her yellow coat.

Or in a basket of straw as an Easter/Spring decoration or part of someone’s Easter basket.

Of course, you can use your decoupage eggs at your Easter dinner table too!

Think of all the possibilities depending on the color and style of your napkin! To see the complete post on How to Decoupage Easter eggs, click here.

Making Easter Nests~a fun DIY project

The joy of spring brings new nests all over our property. Instead of using real nests (not sure how sanitary that would be at the dinner table), I make faux nests. Back in 2020, I use Royal Worcester soup bowls at my Easter dinner table. However, the table is lacking something. So I whip up these cute nests using items I readily have on hand.

Since I have never made these before, it is fun to experiment and try something new. The supplies are simple~shredded paper (from our paper shredder but you can use whatever you have), Mod Podge, disposable styrofoam bowls, a few colors of spray paint, glue and moss.

Don’t they look so pretty on the Easter table?

To see the entire post on making DIY Easter nests, click here.

Easter Table Ideas

If you haven’t starting setting your table for Easter, here is a plethora of ideas from centerpieces to place cards. Today I will be going through the Easter boxes in the garage to come up with a theme for our table this Sunday. It’s a bit like Christmas because I seem to forget year to year what I have collected over time. We hope to set a table outdoors (weather providing) in the palm orchard, like we have the last few years.

Many of my Easter pieces come with wonderful memories. My dear friend, Gwen, gave me these porcelain lamb napkin rings over 30 years ago.

The Easter menu

Since we will be having a brunch, it will be easy to serve a homemade quiche, both green and fruit salad, hot cross buns and perhaps a smoked ham (husband is figuring that out).

The hot cross buns are so tasty, however, I am still struggling with getting the crosses correct. Here’s the recipe from Sally’s Baking Recipes, as I have good luck with her content. The crosses are made with a flour/water concoction and orange icing is added after baking.

The annual family dessert is a lamb cake. Easter lamb cake (known as agnuszek or baranek wielkanocny in Polish) is a traditional Eastern European dessert. As a child, I looked forward to my mother making this for Easter as it signaled the beginning of Spring.

To read more about this cake, check out the original post here.

Please share what you are doing for Easter and any family traditions you enjoy. Happy last week of March! I cannot wait to share pictures of our newest family member, a 9 week old Akbash puppy. More to come on that, but have a glorious week!

If you enjoy this post, please share on Pinterest.

Another rainy and chilly few days here in the Valley of the Sun. My garden is very happy about the additional moisture and of course, the cooler temperatures are always appreciated. Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend! Tonight we are hosting a dinner party celebrating our daughter, Julianna’s 27th birthday. I will be serving my two favorite recipes which I did share with you this week. Welcome to another Saturday Meanderings, where we chat about all good things this week.

Hosting a Cocktail Mixer

As you may know, I sit on the board for our neighborhood association. This week we hosted a cocktail mixer to introduce people to the association and recruit new board members. With about 40 people attending, I am hoping a caterer will help out with hors d’oeuvres, however, my favorite person is not available.

Using the large round wooden board from Sur La Table, with the help of Costco and Safeway, I create a charcuterie board using cheeses, meats, fruits, nuts and crackers.

Nasturtiums are abundant in the garden right now, and it’s amazing how a pop of color can take your charcuterie board up a notch.

Store-bought French macarons from Costco and lemon yogurt covered pretzels from Safeway make for a colorful Spring dessert tray.

This is the first time buying the Green Chili Chicken Firecrackers from Costco. A quick bake in the oven, it’s always nice to serve a warm/hot appetizer. By cutting them in half, this became a one-bite finger food. I didn’t try them but the tray was nearly empty, so I’m guessing they tasted good.

No photographs but in addition, there is a vegetable tray with hummus dip, fresh shrimp on ice with cocktail sauce, small bowls of cashews, garlic herb almonds and salt and vinegar potato chips.

All in all a very productive and fun meeting.

Gardening Update

This week I plant 6 brand new San Marzano tomato plants. I love this variety of tomatoes as it makes the best sauce. Five out of the 6 plants are missing….just gone. What? For years now, I have grown tomato plants and the critters have never expressed any interest in them. Who/What is eating my tomato plants?

Scattering seeds this week in the garden. I love growing chamomile for its delicate flower and scent~wonderful to dry or make tea. Even though the growing season for chervil is short, it makes a tasty salad.

The castor bean seeds are a new experiment and not even sure it will grow here. Now in doing some research apparently the seed and leaves can be really toxic so I may pull the plants if they grow. Here I thought castor beans = castor oil, all good for you, right? Geez. Not the brightest thing I’ve done.

Do You Take Magnesium?

Gaia Herbs posts an informative article about magnesium. Do you take this mineral that supports muscles and bones, energy, brain function, and so much more? Here is the article and it appears I need to do further research about this.

Currently, I take Magnesium Lactate as this was recommended to me after having low magnesium via a hair mineral analysis years ago. Taking a bath and using Epsom salts is another way to absorb magnesium into your body. Will do a deeper dive and let you know what I discover.

From the Internet

With warmer weather prompting Spring growth, it is also weed season. Stacy from Bricks ‘n Blooms has a very informative post about Homemade Weed Killer and other natural ways to kill weeds.

If you are using weed killers with glyphosate, there is evidence of its connection with cancer. With so many chemicals in our gardening world, please find an organic way to control weeds.

This time of year I love to tackle small Spring cleaning projects. Barbara from Mantel and Table will get you motivated to clean out your linens drawer(s) with her post on Storing Napkins~How to Organize a Beautiful Linen Drawer.

Do you stop for roadside freebies? I am guilty of doing so with this set of Adirondack chairs. Check out how my friend, Rachel from the Ponds Farmhouse transforms these resin planters into DIY faux Concrete ones. It’s probably good that Rachel and I do not live near each other! Ha!

Since my goal is to always post beautiful things, I consider this next post valuable to keep all of us safe. Since I drive a very old car, I don’t have a wireless or remote starter to the ignition. But since many of you do, please read this very informative article for your own personal safety and to prevent your car being stolen while pumping gas.

Mary’s Must Haves

If you have the sourdough bread making bug, then this starter set is a must have for your baking. It is 27% off this week at $39.99. Not baking sourdough bread yet? This is also a great gift for someone who does.

Speaking of bread, my sweet friend and neighbor, Tevia, ordered some dehydrated sourdough starter from the internet and shared some with me this week. Yes, you can order starter from around the world and rehydrate it.

There is one that is several decades old from San Francisco, and with it I make this nice looking loaf of cheddar, rosemary and garlic bread. I will post this recipe shortly~it’s a family favorite. It is fun to experiment with different starters.

Cake Pans

After purchasing my favorite cake cookbook, Layered, I realize that I do not have good cake pans. Yesterday, in making the London Fog cake (a request from my daughter, Julianna, for her birthday), I want to share these cake pans that I love.

The cake recipe requires three 8″ round cake pans and these from Fat Daddies do not disappoint. It’s amazing that just having the right equipment makes such a difference in the success of the recipe.

I am in the process of trying to consolidate all my Mary’s Must Haves. There will be tab at the top of my home page where you will be able to find all the items and their associated links. Hope to have that complete in a week or two.

Tonight, for the birthday celebration for our daughter’s 27th birthday (which is actually on St. Patrick’s Day), I am busy in the kitchen making 2 Guinness beef pies, a Bailey’s Irish Creme cheese cake, my favorite arugula salad and of course, the London Fog birthday cake.

On Sunday, I am doing a 5k/10k with said daughter in order to work off some of the calories from the night before!

Next week, we are heading to Virginia to pick up our new puppy. I am not sure if I will have the opportunity to post, but I hope to share pictures of our journey (and our new little fella) along the way.

Until we chat again, have a wonderful weekend, a fun St. Patrick’s Day and we will connect soon!

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