Upcoming Anniversary and Giveaway Party

August 23, 2010 will mark the 1st Anniversary of The Little Round Table

It's been a fun ride and I've learned so much, seen so much,

and met so many really nice bloggers and readers.

A couple of months ago I asked for advice and input from

readers regarding a lot of blogging issues, including

advertising, music, content and memes/parties/anniversaries.

I thank all of you who commented and emailed with your thoughts.

Here is what I've decided.

It will be a low key event.

It will be a:

1st Anniversary Giveaway

Trying to keep it simple:

1.  To qualify you must be a PUBLIC FOLLOWER of The Little Round Table.

(That means you must be one of the "Guests Sitting At The Little Round Table" on the sidebar)

You may become a public follower beginning right NOW,

so that you are ready to enter the giveaway beginning

August 16, 2010.

2.  To qualify for the drawing you must leave a comment on the

ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY post, which will appear on The Little Round Table

on Monday August 16, 2010

Your comment must be posted prior to midnight Pacific Time on

Sunday August 22, 2010, when the drawing for prizes will take place.

You may leave as many comments as you wish, but your name will be

entered into the drawing pool only once, with FIVE chances to win.

Level playing ground for all public followers.

3.  A list of winners will be posted on Monday August 23, 2010 here on TLRT

Winners must contact me at: Happenstance@hughes.net no later than

midnight Sunday August 29, 2010 to collect their TLRT Gift Dollars.

In the event that winning participants do not contact me within the stated

time frame, alternate name(s) will be drawn.

So please grab a chair at The Little Round Table by becoming a follower between today and midnight Pacific Time August 22, 2010, when I will draw the NAMES** for the giveaway prizes:

The First NAME drawn will receive $25 - TLRT Gift Dollars*

The Second NAME drawn will receive $25 - TLRT Gift Dollars*

The Third NAME drawn will receive $25 - TLRT Gift Dollars*

The Fourth NAME drawn will receive $25 - TLRT Gift Dollars*

And the Fifth NAME drawn will be for $100 - TLRT Gift Dollars*

*TLRT  Gift Dollars will be dispensed in the form of a check or direct payment

in US dollars to your PayPal account whichever you prefer

** All names will be put into a BIG FIESTA BOWL and drawn by Mr. TLRT

Recap:

Become a public follower of TLRT

Comment on the ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY post 8/16 - 8/22

Check in on August 23, 2010 to see the winning names

Contact me by 8/30 to claim your winnings

The Rose Circus

Thursday always means a great get together over at Between Naps On The Porch.

It's time for Tablescape Thursday, come join the fun!

This vintage tablecloth always reminds me of a circus tent and with its pink roses I think

of it as "The Rose Circus".  I've used Post 86 Fiesta in Shamrock, Rose, White and Sunflower

paired with vintage depression glassware and vintage Deauville flatware.  The candlesticks are vintage Metlox, the carafe holding roses from my garden in Kenilworth from Homer Laughlin China.  The handpainted rose design on the carafe seems to fit right in with the tablecloth design.

The Antique Gold salad bowl is vintage Ironstone Fiesta. Napkins came from Home Goods.

Happy Tablescape Thursday!

Be sure to check out the details on the upcoming

1st Anniversary Giveaway

And a couple of new features here on TLRT:

Tablecloth Database

Read more about this tablecloth, click the image below

Shapes and Colors of Vintage Fiesta

Vintage Yellow

I'm joining all the vintage lovers over at Coloradolady again today for

Vintage Thingies Thursday!  Bring your vintage goodies and join the fun.

Over the last few weeks I've shared some of my vintage Fiesta collection.

Ivory Vintage Fiesta

Turquoise Vintage Fiesta

Red Vintage Fiesta

And I've also been building a reference database of the different

Shapes and Colors of Vintage Fiesta

This week it's all about Yellow Vintage Fiesta.  Some of these items have already been

shared in other colors, some are new to this post on Yellow.  I'm also showing the different

plate sizes and bowl sizes/shapes this week.

8" Vase

Utility Tray (aka Relish Tray)

Divided Relish Tray

Water and Juice Tumblers

Disc (disk) Juice Pitcher, which is just a smaller version of the iconic Disc Water Pitcher

Ice Lip Pitcher

Fiesta Drip Cut Syrup Pitcher

4 3/4" and 5 1/2" Bowls that mimic the design of the classic Nappy bowls

Dessert Bowl

Deep Plate (aka Rimmed Soup Bowl)

The above bowls shown on their custom made display rack.

Tea Cup and Saucer

Bread and Butter Plate and Salad Plate

Luncheon Plate

Dinner Plate

And the plates shown on their display rack.

Coffee Pot

So that's it for another one of the vintage colors and some of the shapes it came in, Happy

Vintage Thingies Thursday!  See you next week I hope.

Be sure to stop by the following link for details on the

1st Anniversary Giveaway

Rednesday and Wordless Wednesday - Carpodacus mexicanus

I'm joining in on REDNESDAY over at It's A Very Cherry World, bring some red and join the fun!


And be sure to check in on Wordless Wednesday too!

Carpodacus mexicanus - Male House Finch


See more birds over at This Week In My Garden

This Week In My Garden: For The Birds

I'm joining all the Outdoor Wednesday lovers over at A Southern Daydreamer for

this week's party.  Please bring your outdoor images and join in.

Last week I shared the new finch feeder I had just installed and it quickly became apparent

that it wasn't going to be enough to feed the whole flock of finches that live in my garden.

So they now have a new feeding station that is gravity fed from the plastic container on the top.

As they eat the seed from any of the four socks it is automatically refilled.  As the single sock

from last week became empty it became saggy and few birds could hang on to it, which caused

a lot of bickering and complaining from the whole flock.

Last week's "sock" feeder. (Click image to enlarge)

And the newly expanded feeding station!

All of today's images were taken on Monday through the kitchen windows.

The 3 dozen or so hummers that live in the garden keep me busy making sure they have enough to eat and will screech and cry if their feeders are empty.  They go through a minimum of 2 quarts of their sugar water per day and are a constant source of amusement with their aerial acrobatics.

The quail still visit the garden, but have mainly stayed outside the garden wall since Spring, while raising their broods of chicks.  Now that most of the chicks are getting bigger they sometimes bring the whole family to the garden late in the afternoon.  On this particular evening only Mom and Pop appeared at the feeder.

The Acorn Woodpecker flock that lives in the oak trees at the back of our property have become regular visitors to the garden, feeding on many of the blooming succulents in the garden, but they also take full advantage of the seed bowl.  They are always on the lookout for the garden bullies .... the Scrub Jays, who think they own the garden and all its contents.

Above is a female with the black stripe between her white face and red topknot.

And a male who has a white forehead with no black stripe between it and the red topknot.

Below is another of the female members of the community.  Only certain females

breed in a given season and the rest of the flock of Aunties and Uncles help with

the care and feeding of the chicks.

And she lets out an ear piercing alarm call as one of the bullies arrives on the scene.

She gives the bully a piece of her mind and then gives way.

It was very windy yesterday, blowing Mr. Blue's feathers all askew.

In addition to all these show offs we have lots of smaller equally charming little birds that

come for their several meals a day.  They just move out of the way until the more aggressive

members of the bird population move off.

Some of the little guys have also been taking advantage of the new finch feeder,

but they generally stick to the seed bowl.

Male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

And the Bullock's Orioles that have until recently been the shyest of all the birds

living in the garden.  They generally hang out in the Canary Island Palms and

flit away at the least bit of movement or noise.  With all the feeding activity going on

lately, they have been coming closer and closer to this easy source of food.

They've tried without much success to feed from the hummer feeders, but the perches

are too narrow for their big feet and they spend all their time trying to balance.

 Pecking on the glass didn't seem to bring about the desired result.

OK, now I've got the balance part of it down, but still can't get a drink!

And the hummers were not pleased with the intrusion.

So yet another feeder was added to the garden, but the problems began almost instantly.

The hummer feeders have ant-guards on them and  without them the ants will

instantly invade the feeders.  The green plastic is impregnated with ant repellant and 

is supposed to last just one season, but these have been in place for 3 years and 

are still very effective.

This poor male is being berated by not one, but two females about the ant problem.

The ants were biting his feet and she just never shut up!

The females got exasperated and left.  I went and cleaned up the ant problem

and the poor guy finally got his drink!

This post is "for the birds" and for all the enjoyment they provide each and every day.

Thanks for coming by again for a visit to my garden and Happy Outdoor Wednesday!