Trendspotting at the New York Wedding Salon Show

This week saw the New York Wedding Salon Show at the Metropolitan Pavillion in the famous Manhattan gallery neighborhood of Chelsea. What caught my eye was this display from Pat Glenn Productions. Pat and Glenn are renowned for their spectacular event settings, from weddings to Bar Mitzvahs, and more.

Pat Glenn Productions at the New York Wedding Salon Show

This table setting is chock full of important trends! Let me point them out:

• Color scheme: Green, multiple shades of purple, silver.
• Overall Vintage look
• Reflective surfaces
• Depression Era Glass - the translucent green dinner plate would be right at home in a collection from the 1930's!
• Mercury Glass vases  holding small clusters of flowers - the Mercury Glass adds shine and mirrors the colors around it. The small bouquets distribute the flowers around the table, allowing each guest to enjoy them up close.
• More Mercury Glass - candlestick holders, drinking cups, and centerpiece.
• Vintage-inspired  colored glass - wine and water glasses with an antique look, embellished with etching.

 At Luna Bazaar we pay close attention to trends. We are either setting the trend or making sure our product selection reflects current trends. Our savvy team is on top of this! You can find all of the above trends in our store at www.lunabazaar.com.

Color Scheme

Fashion Forward Color Scheme: Assorted shades of purple: lilac, plum and Bellflower, with a green accent: Lamb's Ear.

These colors are so pleasing together! Inspired by the Hyacinths, Hydrangeas, and Irises  in the bouquets, they work so well for Spring. This season our in-house color designer added Bellflower and Lanb's Ear to our palette of product colors. Use our paper lanterns to carry out your color scheme around your reception space. Parasols and hand fans are available in the same colors for a very put-together look. All can be found in "Shop by Color" on our website. Find Find Bellflower here, and Lamb's Ear here.

Mercury Glass Vases

Mercury Glass Vases for Small Clusters of Flowers

You really feel like you're at a special occasion when the table shines with these bud vases brimming with colorful blooms. Measuring from 4 to 6 inches in height, these vases give you an idea of the variety of choices available from Luna Bazaar. All of our silver mercury glass vases are also available in gold mercury glass.

Mercury Glass Candlesticks

Sleek or ornate, as a centerpiece or scattered around the table, our Mercury Glass candlesticks add a touch of opulence. They range in size from 7 to 7 1/2 inches tall.

Depression Era Glass

To evoke a feeling of family tradition include Depression Era inspired glass.

One of the features that makes Pat and Glenn's table setting so striking is that it is drenched in color. Picture it in your mind's eye with clear crystal stemware. Not doubt it would still be lovely, but cooler and less celebratory. Of course, nothing looks more elegant than clear crystal, white linens, and a touch of gold or silver. But the colored wine and water glasses in their display not only looks festive and elegant, but I'm sure guests will be reminded of getting out the "special glasses" to celebrate family occasions in the past. Our glass tea light holders and vases based on popular Depression Glass designs are not suitable for food consumption, but will add the nostalgic touch that will make your table complete.

Decorate & Celebrate!
from Dorothy and the team at Luna Bazaar.

Capiz Candle Holders - From Seaside to Tabletop

Capiz Candle Holders have been a favorite at Luna Bazaar for a long time. Why is that? Because they evoke an atmosphere of exotic, far-away places, and bring to mind sea, sand and palms. At the same time, the smooth sleekness of their iridescent surface is elegant and timeless. This makes them extremely versatile - usable in a wide variety of settings!

Now our new Silver-Edged Capiz Candle Holders join the gold-edged version in our product line-up. Silver is a lovely accent for cool colors, such as our Turquoise, Grass Green, and White.

With warm jewel tones like Purple, Red, and Mango, silver edging makes these colors pop.

You may be wondering, how does our new Silver-Edged Capiz compare with the popular Gold-Edged? In terms of price they are the same. However, we do have some candle holder shapes that are only available with a gold edge - the Cube design, and the Full Bloom. The timeless Lotus Flower Design is available in both.

Gold-Edged Capiz Candle Holders with White Gilded Fan from Cultural Intrigue
Photo: Deborah Dempsey

Great for weddings, events, and home decorating, the Capiz Candle Holder truly works best in a casual seaside setting. In the dream-inspiring tropical location below Fuchsia Capiz would  be perfectly at home, picking up the color of the blooms.

So where and what is this mysterious place called Capiz? It's one of the islands of the Philippines, in the Pacific Ocean. The countries it is closest to are: Indonesia, VietName, and China. From the East Coast of the US it is literally on the other side of the world. It is described as calm and peaceful. So, if you REALLY want to get away from it all, Capiz is your place. Also, don't go there is you don't appreciate seafood, because it's the Seafood Capital of the Philippines.

(I've always confused Capiz and Capri. They couldn't be more different. The Isle of Capri is off the coast of Italy, and is crammed full of luxury villas and casinos. Now I know!)

The shell from which Capiz products are made is translucent and opalescent. It is cut by hand to make a wide variety of products, including our candle holders. Wind chimes, lampshades, and jewelry are also made from the Capiz shell.

Capiz Shell in its natural state.

If you're planning a wedding with an exotic, tropical theme, you may want to add our silver-accented glass votive candle holders to the mix. The colors coordinate, and they can withstand the heat of a burning tea light, whereas Capiz candle holders are too delicate, and therefore require battery-operated tea lights.We also have hand-painted glass candle holders with hand-painted elephant and henna-like designs.

Go exotic with these silver-accented and hand-painted glass votive holders!

Writing to you from land-locked Vermont, this is the team at Luna Bazaar wishing Good Luck and Congratulations to all our brides and grooms. Our message to you is:

Decorate & Celebrate!

Depression Glass is Still Delighting After All These Years

From the Depression Glass collection of Luna Bazaar

  At some point in time, on a visit to Aunt Edna's or Grandma Mimi's, you may have seen a plate or candy dish made of pink or amber glass. If so, you were probably looking at Depression Glass. This easily recognizable glassware was manufactured during the Depression in a variety of colors including Coke bottle green, deep red, and cobalt blue, light blue, and clear.

My great-aunt had a candy dish just like this one on the coffee
table in her the sitting room. It was always filled with pepper-
mint and butterscotch candies.

  The Great Depression was a time of such economic stagnation, that companies were giving away glassware to encourage people to buy their products.  Gas stations, furniture stores, and Quaker Oats were among those who took part in the giveaway.  Quaker Oats would hide a piece of glassware at the bottom of the box of oats, like a prize in a Cracker Jack box. In fact, another name for Depression Glass is "Oatmeal Glass".

Why would anyone buy any other kind of oatmeal when
you could find a glassware "prize" at the bottom of a
Quaker Oats box?

To get customers to continue buying their product, companies created sets of dishes that could be accumulated over time. Movie theatres started having weekly "Dish Nights" in which a cup, saucer, or plate was given to anyone who bought a ticket for the picture show. Few people could afford going to the movies, and households were cutting back on luxuries like new dishes, so "Dish Nights" were a big hit. Customers kept going back in order to complete the set.

It would take a lot of trips to the movies to collect this set of Depression Glass.

 How could businesses afford to give away this attractive glassware? It was actually very inexpensive to manufacture. Almost all Depression Glass was mass-produced in the Midwestern United States, where raw materials were readily accessible, and the cost of power was low.

The Capstan Glass factory in Connelsville, PA which later became Anchor Hocking,
a major manufacturer of Depression Glass.

 The quality of the glass itself was low. For example, it could not be compared with fine leaded crystal. The glass was poured into a mold, and oftentimes there were rough edges or extra glass where the sides of the mold came together. With finer glassware, the rough edges are smoothed by hand after the glass cools. There was no additional hand work on Depression Glass, This made it even more economical to produce.

The ornate patterns of Depression Glass are raised.

How do you identify Depression Glass?

• It is translucent glass, with the exceptions of Milk Glass, Jadeite, and Black, which are opaque.
• It will be one of these colors: clear, pink, Coke bottle green, emerald green, topaz yellow, amber, cobalt blue, light blue, deep red, amethyst. The rarest color is orange.
• It is ornately patterned.
• The pattern is raised - you can feel the pattern on the surface of the glass.
• The glass is pressed in a mold, not hand-cut or etched.

Depression Glass-inspired candle holders and bud vases from Luna Bazaar come in pink and Coke bottle green. You can feel the raised pattern on each piece. Our selection ranges from small votives to 6-inch vases.Get the complete view here:
http://www.lunabazaar.com/depression-style-vintage-glass-candle-holders.aspx

Bring in the Spring and Banish Winter with Bright Parasols!

I walked outside this morning and I was hit with the icy realization that winter has arrived! The change of season is here in full force. It may be bone chilling outside, but why not invite Spring in a bit early at your next party? Paper parasols in red and yellow send an unmistakable message of "Spring"!

I found inspiring Spring wake-up colors at Hostess With the Mostest. Her "Sunshine & Love Bridal Shower" party colors melt the winter freeze. I won't begin to try to describe all of the DIY ideas in Jennifer Sbranti's post - it is too choc full! You must see for yourself at Hostess With the Mostest. I'm just going to tell you about the parasol centerpiece she cleverly put together.

I had gotten a request from one of our customers for an example of a parasol centerpiece and I immediately fell in love with what Hostess with the Mostess did for this photo shoot.

Two vases glued together make a perfect base for this parasol centerpiece!

A 28" paper parasol has the perfect handle size for holding the parasol overhead at indoor or outdoor weddings. However, it is not long enough to work as a table centerpiece. To get around this dilemma, Jennifer glued 2 vases together, one right-side-up, the other upside-down, and wrapped decorative paper around the middle.

Vase Gems can be purchased at most crafts stores.

To keep the parasol and vase from tipping over, our Hostess drops vase gems into the top vase.

The Spring color theme is continued above the table by hanging paper lanterns. Jennifer uses red and yellow lanterns with parallel ribbing, and a white eyelet lace lantern.

You can check out these colors at the Luna Bazaar store. No need to limit yourself - we have more than 60 exclusive designer colors!

A Spring Palette: basic red, orange, and yellow...
Plus our exclusive Luna Bazaar designer colors!
Begonia and Lemonade.
Eyelet paper lanterns are available in a variety of styles and colors.

So until Spring returns again, get a few of our paper parasols and lanterns in bright yellows and reds to liven things up! Set up your table and gather your friends together to have dinner and drinks and forget the cold!

- Bethany

The LED Alternative to Candle Light: Here to Stay.

Tired of candle light at the table?

I know that sometimes it isn’t feasible to have a lit candle at the table. It may be left unattended, or get knocked over by little ones.  We have found a few alternatives to allow you to celebrate fire-free, but keep the same ambiance.

Add LED lights and make your centerpieces glow!

We have several LED light options to help you do this.  I found this centerpiece of silk flowers done by Linda Sawyer to be a great example of something to jazz up the table flame-free.  We have similar LED Garlands available that are battery powered.  Therefore if you use one of these strands, all you have to do is hide the battery pack. Linda commented on her photo that “you could use real hydrangeas if you make sure the battery pack is hidden in the flowers and ABOVE the waterline. You can also put the hydrangea stems in their own water vials before building the centerpiece.” I am very happy to find her posts on FLICKR.

LED Garlands from Luna Bazaar

Another item that you could use instead of the LED Garlands would be our LED Accent Lights in White, Blue, or Amber.  I find these fun and fantastic. The lights are attached to a copper wire that is very thin. You can find ways to position it so the wire is virtually invisible. The lights themselves are really tiny, but the glow is intense!
The white LED accent light is my favorite. The glow that comes off of these is cool in tone and they are definitely eye catching!  Last year at Halloween, New England was hit by a fluke storm that shut down A LOT of power, (including mine for an entire week!)  So, not to be detoured by lack of electricity, I hung these and the Blue LED Accent Lights from our front door to attract trick-or-treaters.  They looked amazing!  They are battery powered just like the LED Garlands and also have a battery pack at one end of them.  So, if you want to decorate with any of these strings, you have to find a creative way to hide the battery pack, which, depending on the garland, might be the size of a small card deck.  Here are the Amber LED accent lights shown in our small etched glass fluted hurricane candle holder.

The small battery pack for these LED accent lights
 is easily concealed inside our fluted hurricane candle holder.

You can see the battery pack is hidden in the bottom of the vase and is hardly noticeable.  The copper wire of these lights allows them to be wrapped around or in anything. I have also added floral arrangements on top of the LED accent lights.  These lights are not waterproof so I usually stick to dried floral arrangements.  LED lights never get hot at all so that won’t be a fire hazard, (since the whole point of this blog is to provide you with alternatives to fire on your table).  So, put away your fire extinguisher and get out your batteries for a flameless table topper accessory with Luna Bazaar’s help.

Decorate and Celebrate!

- Bethany.

New Year's Party Pizzazz!

Everyone wants to ring in the New Year in a special way. I know I want to! However, no one seems to have the time or the budget to dress up their home after Christmas.  I know I am not the only one that leaves their tree up and considers that decoration enough for the New Year. This year is different!  After finding these gold foil stars, I am determined to put them up to celebrate 2012.  They are fun, festive, and affordable.

Gold foil garlands that match the stars will add to the festivities. Both stars and garlands are collapsible and easy to hang up.  I am planning on putting these up with gusto before our New Year’s Eve party. As everyone sips some bubbly these foil decorations will help put them in the mood to welcome in the New Year.

 

  NEW YEAR’S DAY DINNER?                                                 

Not everyone celebrates New Year’s Day. Given that New Year's Eve is one of the most popular days of the year for having a party, few people throw one the day after. However, there are some people that do, like me.

A few years back I started making a special dinner to celebrate the first day of the year. A traditional meal for this holiday is ham, black eyed peas, and cabbage.  Each element of the meal represents good tidings for the New Year.  I'm game for anything that may bring me good luck!

Why are the foods in this meal considered to be good luck? Cabbage represents "green" money. It is said that black-eyed peas were the only crop left in the South after the North burned the fields during the Civil War. One explanation for ham being good luck is that pigs root in the dirt in a forward direction. Other animals push the dirt behind them. So eat some ham for a forward-looking attitude in the new year!

This year I am planning on sharing this meal with friends.  As a result I have been planning and imagining my tablescape.  Mercury glass has been a hot trend lately for home décor. Luna Bazaar has some great pieces of mercury glass votives at low prices.  The best thing, (and my favorite part), is that these votives look expensive.  There are also a lot of other votives available from Luna Bazaar that you can mix in with the mercury glass for fun.  You can pair in your favorite color or one for luck for this special day.  I think everyone could use a bit more luck, don’t you?

Mercury Glass Collection from Luna Bazaar
Silver and Gold Votives, Vases and Candlesticks.

Happy New Year, and Happy Decorating!

- Bethany

Creative Ways to Decorate with Ornaments

Beautiful ornaments inspire us to get creative. Decorating a tree with them is all well and good, but there's no reason to limit yourself to the branches of a pine tree when there are so many other possibilities!

I searched around the web to put together the most interesting decorating ideas, and grouped them into these categories: Chandeliers, Mobiles, Windows, Props and Branches. Leave a comment and a link below if you'd like to add your idea.
Chandeliers

Suggested ornaments for decorating chandeliers - vintage-inspired mercury glass all in one tone, either silver or gold.  Note that these ornaments are heavy, so only hang them from a very secure chendelier!


All Gold Mercury Glass Ornaments or
All Silver Mercury Glass Ornaments



Blogger Lauren, of  "A Fabulous Fête", wanted to dress up her chandelier, so she hung sparkly ornaments on baker's string from the "arms". There was a very large space between the chandelier and the table. Lauren spread the ornaments out, both vertically and horizontally, nicely filling the space.

Ornaments suspended from a high chandelier

fill the space above a holiday table.

Another take on hanging ornaments from a chandelier comes from Vanessa and Valentine. Her sense of style is so inspiring! She claims that the chandelier itself is too embarassing to show in the picture. (It's vintage 80's.) But the ornaments look great hanging from ribbons in a tight cluster. Nice photo collection, Vanessa!

For a smaller space, hang ornaments closer together in a cluster.

Ornament Mobiles

My personal favorite is this virtual Christmas Tree made entirely of ornaments and invisible line.

It takes patience to hang so many ornaments
but the stunning effect is worth it.

This idea comes from "Not Martha" - the name being a great idea in its own right! The tree has caught the attention of other bloggers around the web, so you may have seen it elsewhere. "Not Martha" is at the top of her game when it comes to organization and clarity of description. Not only does she meticulously explain and illustrated every step, but she even explains how take the tree apart and store the components for easy reassembly the next year. I was most curious about what the ornaments were hanging from. It's a steaming rack purchased at a restaurant supply store. You can get the full directions for making this virtual tree here.

Steaming rack from a restaurant supply store.

A simpler, yet very attractive, mobile comes from Elle Decor. Wire rings fwith hooks for hanging the ornaments can be found in craft stores. Fishing line, which is nearly invisible, is recommended for this decoration.

Photo: Elle Decor

I would like to see this idea executed with a mix of small, glass silver and turquoise baubles and icicles. Our little place card holders shaped like ornaments have been a surprise hit this season because they're so versatile. It's not always easy to find smaller ornaments, which are so crucial to filling in gaps between larger ornaments.



These little glass baubles available at Luna Bazaar double as place card holders.


There are lots of devices for hanging and displaying photos that can double as ornament holders. Here's one from Good Housekeeping. Each wire has a little clip for holding a photo. The clip can be used to hold the top wire loop of the ornament. It's important to use small, very lightweight ornaments with this type of hanger.

Photo Mobile idea from Good Housekeeping

It would be fun to turn this into a mobile for a child's room by substituting hand-painted paper maché ornaments for the traditional ornaments shown above. Star, Butterfly, and Bird designs are all lavishly covered with floral patterns. (The bird in the lower right corner is covered with silver stars.) Add one of our popular hand-carved Mermaid ornaments for a touch of humor, and a mobile decoration that can stay up all year.

Some of the hand-painted and hand-carved ornaments that can be found at Luna Bazaar.

The photo mobile below would be fantastic for hanging a lot of small ornaments at varying lengths. Just be sure the ornaments are not too heavy!

Photo Mobile that can double as an ornament hanger.

Ornaments in Windows

There are some tricks to making this look good. Use some attractive ribbon to suspend the ornaments. Hang the ornaments at varying lengths, so they fill the space behind them. For example, if the ornaments are hanging in front of a large window, they should be spaced in such a way as to occupy the full area of the window. There should be a big difference between the length of the shortest ribbon and the length of the longest. To give the arrangement a finished look, adorn the curtain rod itself by wrapping some festive fabric or evergreen roping. The perfect example of this comes from Salvage Savvy.

The spacing of these ornaments is just right for
gracefully filling the window space.

Ornament suggestion:

Heirloom Glass Snowflakes

 

Ornaments and Props

Picture Frame Prop - Shabby Chic mirror frame supports wire tree holding ornaments.

Source: Inspiration for Home.

A huge mirror frame as prop. Paint the frame to complement the colors of the ornaments. I like the two-color scheme. Use ribbons or invisible line to suspend the ornaments.

Source: Inspiration for Home

The Utilitarian Prop - Warning: High ceilings necessary! The ornaments are hung from the strings of lights wrapped around the ladder.

Source: Apartment Therapy



Hanging Ornaments from a Branch
Not every branch has to be evergreen during the holidays!

Source: Desire to Inspire

Branch + Ornaments = Instant Chandelier! Now we've come full circle.

Source: The Decorologist.

I hope this post has shown you one or two ideas that you haven't seen before. Just remember, Luna Bazaar has the most unusual selection of ornaments and decorations for parties and the home because we go to the far corners of the world to find them for you!

Happy Holidays from Luna Bazaar!

Decorate and Celebrate!