Our New Caribbean Light Comforter & Biking at Sea Pines Resort Bike Trail

July 14 was French Bastille Day and due to that Yves Delorme Outlet was offering a 20% off...

That was the perfect time for investing in our new Carribbean Light Comforter, the lightest down duvet they offer! We had already the Mediterranean but that was still too heavy for our summers here in the South.

Happy with the purchase and even if they did not have it at their store, they offered free shipping as part of the Bastille Day Offer.

So we went to our Hyatt Place Hotel and had a lovely dinner at 201 Seafood Restaurant which is within walking distance.

 Happily eating my Tuna Steak with Carrot-ginger purée, seasoned red rice, cucumbers and carrots!
A rather oriental flavor.

Forgot to take a photo so I'd already eaten a bite...

Pieter enjoying his Seafood Risotto

Fresh scallops, shrimp, mussels, tossed with vegetables and risotto dancing in a hot wok with a saffron sauce, a pepper aroma and a touch of parmesan cheese...
You sure don't mind walking a little after such a meal!

French Bastille Sale was a good one for us!

Our New Queen: Caribbean Light Down Comforter from Yves Delorme and probably the down came from Eastern Europe...

They shipped it out FREE and it arrived with nice card enclosed.

You bet, we slept like roses under them already!

The weather forecast was excellent!

On the 15th of July, it was just one centigrade cooler than in Dublin... where it was 37ºC or 98.6ºF

We went biking on Sea Pines Resort Bike Trail...

Here we have our break with some chocolate dessert and mandarins; nice combination!

 There are benches and you almost constantly bike in the shade under a canopy of trees.

I did walk to the beach...

This is along the bike trail a Great blue heron fishing for his noon snack!

It feels so lovely to be in nature!

A very lovely route we biked!

It was exactly 15 km so not too much... or 9.3 miles.

Back to our Hyatt Place and you can see our bikes on the bike rack, parked opposite the hotel's shuttle bus.

Lazy afternoons at the pool and swimming. Then a shower and our walk to 201 Seafood Restaurant again and next day we drove home after a lazy morning at the pool...

It is great for having this within 1 hour and 45 minutes driving distance and that is also where we depart for our flights, from Hilton Head/Savannah Airport - so convenient!

Thank you for your visit and comment.

Related links:

Sea Pines Hilton Head Island, South Carolina BIKING | previous post by me

Sea Pines Resort Bike Trail, South Carolina | previous post by me

{Cooking Dinner for Twelve at Our Home}

Only one week after we got our new Miele Dishwasher installed I had to prepare a dinner for 12 at our home.

For Pieter's Monday Night Club as we were to host the 3–course dinner...
Imagine, cleaning all that mess and having a neat home, shopping for the ingredients and cooking...
Shopping means a 2 ½ hour drive to Atlanta, one way!
This is one table setting, in our dining room for 9.
Tabecloth is French Le Jacquard Français.

And 3 more in our bay window section in the kitchen.
Tablecloth is French Yves Delorme.
Monday, January 25...

At Costco Wholesale we did buy this great and very healthy salad.
It comes with dressing, variety of nuts and seeds!
That helps for making things easier...

These delicious wheat rolls are from Whole Foods Market

Snow Flake Rolls they are called...

(Added this photo later)

Tira-mi-su I made the evening before... A favorite dessert at our home.

I would prepare a German style dinner and as meat choice I had Pork Tenderloin, baked in the oven.

Red potatoes, just pre-boiled and then pan fried.
I did keep them warm in my 30" Miele Convection Food Warming Drawer with dual heating system. drawer in the staircase area.
It is great, getting things out of the way and ready to clean up the cook top and kitchen counter.

From Cost Plus World Market I did have this Red Cabbage Salad from Lowell foods.

And yes, I did for once cover the Le Jacquard Français tablecloth with a soft plastic that I have... This is a HUGE tablecloth, I've added a small table at the end, from the Rose Suite downstairs.
Not easy for ironing such size so this saved me from doing that.
My Pillivuyt Sancerre serving plates combined with Cream Colour on Cream Colour by Wedgwood for salad and later also the bigger round dinner plates for the main course. I kept those in my Miele plate warming drawer...

Cups & saucers from the same Wedgwood Cream Colour on Cream Colour and dessert plates for the Tira-mi-su.

Table setting for 3 in the kitchen.
Often I use the round teak table from the balcony for ourselves, set also in the kitchen.
Here no Wedgwood china is used but instead the Pillivuyt Sancerre dinner plates.

Those Pillivuyt dinner plates also went inside the plate warming drawer for the main course.
   Seltmann Weiden Mirabell White plates for the salad.
I've also learned not to use my French Baccarat crystal but instead a cheaper crystal for glasses...

Hard to capture such a longer table from above...

Flatware is Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet and for dessert spoons silver Alvin Bridal Rose.
Sorry there are no further photos as it was only Team Vedder that did wait on these guests and no time for snapping any pictures from main course and such.

My French trolley from La Redoute, France that Pieter used in the veranda for creating a little bar...
The Baccarat crystal ice bucket with thong always comes in handy.
So that's my duty for Pieter's Monday Night Club as it is our turn to host the dinner.
The maximum I've done is cooking for 15.

I was sure glad when all was done and I also enjoyed the compliments about the food.
Next day I had severe back pain. That was mainly because that entire week, since our Miele dishwasher got finally installed and working, I had done the cleaning etc.
It is as I said above, for our home and garden, only Team Vedder!

{GIFT from Blogger Friend Hayu - White & Roses}

On December 21, 2013 I had to sign for a registered parcel from Rome, Italy. Blogger Friend Hayu from White & Roses did send me her Giveaway Gift that I'd won. You can see the announcement here: Welcome for Baby C where she mentions me for guessing it right that she would get a Baby Boy.

Poor Hayu, who by the way is from Bali, Indonesia, had severe sciatica problems around the delivery date. Hope she is doing fine now! She also has to abstain from blogging for a while. You still can visit her and leave her a note of course! 

Look what she created with her 'GOLDEN' hands...

Lovely ribbon roses on a door knob pillow that hangs down from a linen twine.

This registered parcel needed 12 days for traveling from Rome across the Atlantic Ocean to Georgia... But Hayu and I were both happy that it did arrive in perfect condition!

Out came the GIFT that I won from her post on August 31, 2013: Love from Brazil and Give Away for You just scroll down to see the door knob pillows she offered to select from.

Look at her beautifully hand created gift card and tag... Hayu is quite an artist!

The door knob pillow with the ribbon roses and its hang tag.

My Unic Own Tag shows us that she does hand paint them in water color...

This Balinese girl is incredibly talented!

Closeup of her unique water color tag with roses...

With a lovely note card with roses and pink ribbon.

I used our French Rose Matelassé coverlet from Yves Delorme as back ground...

Hayu's hand writing is even 'ART'...

THANK YOU Ayu! - written in her third language

GRAZIE MILLE - written in her adopted language

BANYAK TERIMA KASIH - written in her native language

MAISON

A word that means a lot, especially to 1st immigrants like Hayu and myself.

Home is where the Heart is!

Hayu Maselli's signature label sewn onto the back of this lovely door knob pillow...

Here it proudly hangs from the bedroom door of our Rose Suite...

Don't you think this is a lovely dream of a pillow with artful ribbon rose embroidery?

Related link:
Hayu Maselli's online website: Hayu Maselli for browsing her many talents...

{In 1886 on October 28, The Statue of Liberty got Inaugurated}

Again I read an interesting story in the French Linternaute.com (see below) that the Statue of Liberty will reopen on October 28, after some interior renovations. That is exactly on the 126th birthday, as it got inaugurated in 1886 on that day. The Statue of Liberty offically known as: Liberty Enlightening the World and is a gift from France as a sign of friendship. It is so special in many ways. Who does not know the Statue of Liberty? 

This is a photo from part of  a French Yves Delorme tea towel.

LADY LIBERTY

A sonnet by poet Emma Lazarus:

“The New Colossus”

 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, 

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883 

{Our Rose Suite Bedroom}

Finally you get to see one more room of Our Rose Suite: its-Bedroom! 

Before, I did show you the entrance, outside and inside. 

Links to those previous posts you find below. 

Now we open that door into the bedroom... Please, come on in!

That's our Rose Suite Bedroom!

Queen size bed that we bought in our next city, here in Georgia. 

The night stands in the USA are way too wide for fitting, so we bought them in The Netherlands and had these solid-oak night-stands 'cherry' stained, to match the oak veneer bed.

Same Spanish Volcano beige tile floor with pearl grout, as throughout the entire Rose Suite.

Pure cotton Vista rugs from Solutions, in natural.

Silver rose frame was a steal on eBay. It was lacquered YELLOW... Husband Pieter removed that layer and voilà a perfect silver frame. My precious worker bee of this very Rose Suite, deserves to be framed inside a silver frame! Angel watches over him with a rose-lamp. Limoges porcelain pin dish is from France.

Crocheted filet lace is done by me.

The builder of the Rose Suite is quite pleased with the fruits of his hard labor!

Can you imagine that this once was a mount of 60 metric tons of dirt?...

The pin dish matches the all cotton French Yves Delorme bed linens.

Another oak-night-stand just fits in there! (Darn those Text-Enhance words; I hyphenate words to avoid them... in case you wondered).

The entire Rose Suite is precision-work, using every square inch of space.

Those pulls  are from the ceiling fan... sorry for that!

Antique lamp with roses, of course! Found a new lampshade and finial for it and it was ready to go.

For the love of roses.

The green-duvet-cover reverses to white; with roses on both sides. We use a down duvet and four down-pillows.

The silver rosary, hanging over the white cross, is made of rose beads! Both come from the Pilgrimage place of Kevelaer ←(click link and select English), in Germany. That is near my birth place of Horst, The Netherlands.

Angels and Roses...

A treasure found at TJ Maxx

We almost have come full circle now. 

The quilt rack is made by my best friend's Dad. 

He has passed away but this is a very nice piece to remember him by.

Above the quilt rack you see the Praying Hands by Albrecht Dürer 1471-1528.

We especially love this piece of art from such a great Renaissance artist who created many lovely woodcuts and engravings. Read more about Albrecht Dürer's Bio at Artsy.net (click on pink hyperlink).

The vanity is from Spain, we got it at Home Expo in Atlanta, it was a showroom model.

It was exactly what we were looking for, with one hole for our Danish Damixa faucet!

Next to the door, beside the vanity, are nice shelves, built in above the pillar foot.

Remember those huge concrete masses that Pieter had to wack off?

This is how we utilized the space. Narrow pillar above gave room for shelving.

Porcelain light-switch-plates with roses!

We got them made for us. Don't know if this lady still makes them but I have her old email address, provided it still works after eight years...

Better view of the shelving next to the door and the vanity.

Small size for American standards but this Spanish vanity was perfect for our purpose!

Just between two pillar feet we could place the shower. 

You see the vent for the air-conditioning above the mirror? That's the cooling and heating. Pieter did build all the ducting in-between the ceiling and the floor of the upstairs home. Quite a job.

The Apollo, one handle faucet, the wall lights, soap holder, glass holder, towel rings, towel hooks, Aquaspray Plus handheld shower-set with one handle shower faucet, toilet-roll holder, small faucet for little sink in toilet. All that was brought back inside our suitcases on our trip to Mom & Dad's 55th Wedding Anniversary in The Netherlands. All our chrome pieces are from Damixa, Denmark. The entire house we got those Danish faucets etc. and we love them. 

Clever Pieter did make a pull  for the wall light, to use as a switch, which is built in behind the tiles.

He did so much thinking out for all the details; incredible job.

Yes, the vanity shelf is also Danish and it came home inside the suitcase with us!

The chrome holders for the mirror are Danish too but the beveled glass mirror we had custom made here in Dublin, Georgia.

Do you like it so  far?

Cute chrome hook for hand towels; also Danish.

All that Danish chrome came home inside the suitcases...!

When visiting my French-Canadian friend Hélène in Montréal, Canada I found these towels in the magazine: CHEZ SOI. 

CHEZ SOI est un magazine de décoration haut de gamme illustrant les plus belles résidences du Québec.

CHEZ SOI is a top of the range decoration magazine showing the most beautiful residences in Québec.

Of course, I had to have these towels; brodée de boutons de roses...

Got them at Décoration 25 and too bad they no longer had the face cloths. They were entirely with tiny rose buds embroidered. I was so in love with them!

Sissi - Rose Pink is the Yves Delorme bed set from the outlet.

Palais Royal changed into Yves Delorme.

But to us, Our Rose Suite is a Palais Royal and most guests are very happy here.

Pieter's brother Toon was our very first guest, with his Wilhelmien.

We finished it in a hurry, so we could accommodate them. 

So what do you think? 

You like this French/Danish/Spanish romantic Rose Suite look?

Eagerly I am awaiting your comments - thanks for taking your time!

Related links:
{Welcome to Our Rose Suite - Entrance} | previous post by me
{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part II} | previous post by me
{The Construction of Our Rose Suite - Part I} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite with Angels + a REQUEST} | previous post by me