Mrs. O Sets The Table

Here's a little something to look at and read about while you're waiting for the turkey to cook.


While Michelle Obama is the brains behind it all, there is an official White House florist to execute her ideas. That honor has been bestowed upon Laura Dowling.
The White House scrambled to say “yes indeed, Laura Dowling began quietly working at the mansion last week. Apparently, the Parisian trained Alexandria, Virginia florist was the front-runner for the prestigious position, after trying out with two other designers.
I would love to know what the try-out involved and who the other two designers were. Laura has a blog, but she hasn't posted since September. I guess she's been busy.

Laura Dowling White House Floral Designer

Visit her blog and her web site

Paris will not be the focus of Dowling’s first big gig. Rather, food, flowers and guest list will be India-inspired for a state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Nov. 24. On a technicality, the event will be called a “state dinner”, even though the largely-symbolic title of president of India belongs to Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Laura's advice for designing an event:

- Choose an earth-friendly theme — such as a garden-style party, a woodlands fête, or a seaside soiree.

- Celebrate your event outdoors. That’s a challenge out of season but we will adapt.

- Select a color scheme that incorporates earthy shades of green and brown. Punctuate with bright colors of early spring. This is not the strategy in the photos, where monotone pales are gorgeous. We forgive.

- Choose linens made of natural fibers, avoiding plastic or disposable items that crate waste.

- Fine vintage items at the flea market or thrift store for sustainable reuse.

- Make your own centerpieces and decorations using locally grown, sustainable materials, including a wtreath made out of vegetables, an herbal topiary tree, or green bouquets set in natural containers of leaves, moss and twigs.

Hours before guests arrived and in keeping with tradition, Mrs. Obama previewed the glamorous table settings in the State Dining Room. That's often the venue for such dinners, but not this time.

Preview in the State Dining Room

Instead, in an effort to show Singh how much the U.S. values relations with his country, the Obamas decided to serve dinner in a huge white tent on the South Lawn, with views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial through clear panels.




It wasn't your everyday tent: This one had chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and beige carpet on the floor.



President Barack Obama, in his dinner toast, said the setting conjured images of India, where special events are "often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent." Singh, in turn, told the president he was overwhelmed by the Obamas' hospitality and said the president's election last year had been an inspiration to millions of Indians.




Guests were seated 10 apiece at round tables (there were 338 for dinner) draped in green apple-colored cloths and napkins, offset by the sparkle of gold-colored flatware and china, including service and dinner plates from the Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush settings.


Floral arrangements of hydrangeas, roses and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuschia evoked India's state bird. Magnolia branches native to both India and the U.S. adorned the tent's inside walls, along with ivy and nandina foliage.




Mrs. Obama brought in award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in New York City, to help White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and her staff prepare the largely vegetarian meal. Singh is a vegetarian.

Samuelsson said being chosen to help whip up dinner was both "overwhelming and humbling."

The culinary offerings included potato and eggplant salad, arugula from the White House garden, red lentil soup and roasted potato dumplings or green curry prawns. Pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin were for dessert; the pears were poached in honey from the White House beehive.


The Obamas want this dinner to make a statement at home and around the globe.

An official at the White House said, "Well, I think this is their first State Dinner, so they are inviting the world into their home by way of the Prime Minister of India and it really is the time to put that outstretch hand of America here at home," Schwartz said.

"The Obamas have been traveling quite a lot this first year, which is very exciting. It's good for America. It's good to be involved. But this is the first time these honors are given here at home. The people's house right behind me," she added.

"Is it customary to honor the guest of honor - in this case the Indian Prime Minister - with the food or in another way?"

"Absolutely. What happens, about two months before now, one of the delegation members have come over from India, they sit down, they talk about the likes and dislikes of the Prime Minister and the spouse and any food allergies. In this case the Prime Minister is a vegetarian."

"And then the White House wants to highlight the best of America," she continued. "So they're bringing Marcus Samuelsson into work with the White House chef, Christina Comberford, who is fabulous in her own right and she still will oversee the entire dinner. But Marcus Samuelsson will definitely add a little zing."


The Obamas chose from the White House's historic china collection to set the tables for their first state dinner.

Selections include:
Service Plates: Castleton China, New Castle, Pa., (Eisenhower administration, 1955)
Service Plates: Lenox, Trenton, N.J. (Clinton administraion, 2000)
Dinner Plates: Lenox, Kinston, N.C. (Geroge W. Bush administration, gift of the White House Acquisition Trust, 2008-2009)

I gleaned all these photos and tidbits from various news web sites, the best being CBS News HERE






Once upon a time when I was about Laura Dowling's age, I had the honor of doing flowers for another First Lady. We were both alot younger then.
You can read about it HERE.

And of course, a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from Alberto, Cholo, and the Visual Vamp.

I Heart Hillary

Chelsea looking chic and beautiful
introduced her mother tonight
at The Democratic National Convention

Mama hit it out of the park tonight
She looked radiant in her Hermes orange suit,
or as she put it: The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants Suit

Bill was proud of her

An eerie and magical moment
A year ago this picture,
would have meant something so different

So now we gotta do what we gotta do
Vote: Obama

Please go HERE and HERE

These were among my first postings on this blog
And I posted them on my mother's birthday

Hillary Clinton Inching Up When Size Does Matter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has moved into a significant lead over Barack Obama among Democratic voters, according to a new Gallup poll."
Not that a fine brother (even if he's not really my brother), with the gift of gab, wouldn't be swell in The White House, but I want Hillary to win. I know it's a slim chance, because she doesn't have the delegates.
I'm a feminist, and I guess a sexist, because I would like a woman to be president, and in particular this woman. Would I feel the same if a Republican woman was running? Maybe, because she certainly would have pelotas to bust through that good ol' boy stronghold.
And I guess I am racist too, because I think Barack is a fine brother.

National Press Club Lunch for Hillary Clinton

Here are a couple of more photos of Hillary Clinton taken at an event I designed for her at The National Press Club in 1993. It was a luncheon, followed by a broadcast on C-SPAN, sponsored by Conde Nast's SELF magazine. The topic of that day, of THE day was health care. Just think how things might be better for so many of us had Hillary's Universal Health Care Plan become a reality, instead of being bashed to pieces by the good ol' boys.
The National Press Club is a dreary old place, stale and un-fresh. My crew and I traveled by truckload of flowers, linens, and props from my studio in NYC to DC, to "paint" the hum drum dining room with the colors the First Lady loved. We left in the middle of the night, to do an early morning load-in. With just a scant couple of hours to transform and clean up the room, we pulled off an English country house setting, hoping to make it look as if Hillary had opened her own home to her guests for lunch.
Chintz tablecloths with coordinating stripe napkins tied with French wired ribbon, gilded bamboo regency style chairs, and chock full centerpieces, replaced the club's daily routine. We also rented a better grade of china and glassware for the table top.
Super huge bouquets in urns on pedestals were placed around the room, along with a few perfect ficus trees in rustic baskets, to add fresh oxygen to the space.
Flower choices included several varieties of English garden roses, dahlias, hydrangea, Gloriosa lilies, euphorbia, and Laura lilies. The centerpieces were placed in large containers that looked like moss covered bird's nests. Place cards from Mrs. Strong with hand calligraphy done by my then assistant, Michael Pelkey added a personal touch for the 100 lucky lunch guests.
After lunch, everyone moved to another room that we set up as an interview stage. A large bouquet of white Dendrobium orchids graced the coffee table on the set.
Mrs. Clinton loved it, and made sure to let me and my crew know this, with a handshake and a few personal words for each of us.

Flowers for Hillary

What is wrong with Barack Obama? Besides being full of the sound of his own voice? Besides always preening in his manufactured inter net "rock star" glow? Besides acting like a spoiled brat when the idea of a Clinton-Obama ticket is proffered?
He screams that Hillary does not stand for change, that he's the only one who stands for change. Selfish, selfish, selfish. Millions of us stand for change. Hillary was standing for change when Baby Barack was being changed. Sorry, that's low and age-ist, but if he is really as good and gracious and smart as he likes to portray himself, then surely he could see that grooming himself IN THE WHITE HOUSE with Hillary (who is his elder, and senior in every way to him) can only be a great career move. He can learn and avoid the major wet-behind-the- ears learning curve we will all have to endure along with him. Grade B preacher ranting and rhetoric can only go so far in this country, and you can imagine how he and it will go over, over there.
Can he beat McCain alone? This is the crucial question. He thinks the Hillary campaign is tough. The Republicans will chew him up and maybe steal the election AGAIN. Hillary is no push over. She is tough, she is experienced, she can be dirty and still be a lady and the President. The two of them together would be the spectacular one-two knockout punch!
BO thinks just because he is winning the Democrat popular vote by a hair, that he has already been elected. Not everyone wants the "change" he is offering. And those people not wanting the BO change are no slackers when it comes to getting their way.
No one likes to talk about the way the votes are coming down. Shhhhhhhh - It's not PC. But the fact is that African Americans are really turning out the vote for BO. Women who should be voting for Hillary are voting for BO.
Wake up women! When again SOON will there be another woman presidential candidate on deck? The older gals who have been supporting women's rights for years, and paving the way for the younger ones who benefit from their struggle, deserve Hillary in the White House. And shame on those of you senior ladies who forgot the way it used to be, and are not voting for Hillary. Plenty men are voting for Hillary too. Why? Because she's great, she's qualified light years beyond any man or woman in and out of her league. The girls on SLN got it right - we need a bitch in the house!
We want change, so what better candidate than someone who might be going through THE CHANGE! Men have ruled the USA for so long. Blah, blah, blah, it's just the best PERSON for the job, no color distinction, no gender distinction - yeah right - why do we lie with a wink and a smirk in the name of being PC on the record in the kingdom of good ol' boys? History shows us that women make strong heads of government, and great and productive leaders.
The photos that accompany this rant, were taken in 1993, at an event in Washington DC that I did for Hillary at The National Press Club. We were all so much younger then. Hillary was First Lady. It was pre-Monica; pre-911; pre-war Iraq; pre-recession. We were as fresh as the lovely flowers she loves so much. I share these photos with you all in hopes that some of the younger ones out there see Hillary in another light.
We were all you once upon a time. Please don't be age-ist when you see Hillary.
BO has his Obama Girl, so won't someone please step up and be the top cougar's Boy Toy? You Tube is awaiting!