Come sit with me for awhile . . .
and see what I’m bringing to the table ®

When casual is all that you ‘got’.

Sometimes hunkering down at home, with some fun friends over Chinese food, seems to be just the right ticket! You know .   .   . it’s when you want the closeness of your friends, and  the comfort of your cozy kingdom, but without the actual slicing, dicing, chopping, and shopping!  Sooo .   .   . what’s left? I’ll tell you what’s left .   .   . time on your hands. All that time you saved shopping, schlepping, driving, parking, chopping, slicing, dicing, and         oh ya .   .   . cooking!!!  Now before all you fab chefs out there get tooooo upset, hear me out.

I brought out some of my  wonderful remnant pieces that I stumbled upon in Shanghai, as shown in the photo above. Oh no .   .   . not the blinking neon high risers of today that resembles the sky line of Hong Kong, and Tokyo. The Shanghai of yore had side street stalls filled with what I consider diamonds and gold .   .   .  aka textiles painstakingly woven by hand, or lovingly patched together from bits and pieces of family histories. I have used these treasures in so many different ways, but this particular time the strips and pieces were used as place markers instead of place mats, or table cloth. Fun .   .   . yes!

Now the piece of fabric in the forefront of the photo below, is again a remnant, and was a super find in Malaysia in an obscure off the beaten path location. Silk screened bamboo and bird design on yummy cotton .   .   . I then added soup bowls on glass plates, Chinese soup spoons, chopsticks, and pops of red machine washable napkins. But just to throw everyone off balance I threw in a couple of upscale thing-a-ma-jiggers, such as short crystal  glasses for wine, and tall stemmed glasses for water. Lots of candles of all shapes and sizes. What can I tell you? Every artist paints their canvas differently! I guess you had to be there .   .   . hmmm .   .   . maybe next time?

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Last week .   .   . sisters, Emily and Abby made an appearance in England, at this years London Book Fair .   .   .   .  with their 3 books I AM SOOO LUCKY!!!  … Now available on Amazon in hardcover, Ebook, Kindle, and free reads!!! AND… Guess what??? These little girls are winging their way to the windy city, Chicago for the BOOK EXPO AMERICA 2016, and Combined Books.Com immediately following  BEA! Sheeesh … these are 2 very busy little sisters! Sooo for those of you reading this note about Emily and Abby, take a second think about buying a gift for some wee one, and then write me a review… Thanks!!!

Sharon Insul is the former owner of the popular Beverly Hills boutique Candle light and… Beverly Hills, California, as well as an ongoing contributing columnist for the Beverly Hills Courier Newspaper.