A Toile Tale: January 2016

Monday, January 25, 2016

Eddie Ross' Table at the Americasmart

It was Mart time at Americasmart last week. It's the largest gift show in the country and I saw so many wonderful things that my head was spinning all week. One of the best was a demonstration on table top design by Eddie Ross. I absolutely love, love, love this colorful table that he did. Just LOOK at all of the color and pattern that he brings together.

Actually, if you look at each element by itself, it is quite classic and traditional. BUT, when you use them in combination, magic happens, and it becomes a fresh, happy, fun, modern table.

Here's Eddie......

and his partner, Jaithen as they were packing up. They charmed everyone and took so many questions. Then Eddie signed copies of his new book, The Modern Mix.

Here's the bucket of fresh flowers they used to make these gorgeous arrangements.

The real stunners for the table are these white pelicans from Fitz and Floyd. Imagine how many different ways you could use them.

.And just look at those crystal stems. I sure wish I could remember where they came from! Oh, boy! Are they beautiful? How many different colors are on this table? They sure do work well together, don't they? I'm gushing, aren't I?

I also don't remember the name or manufacturer of these dishes that bring this all together. I think they look like Rosenthal. I do know that he said the teal plates are vintage from an estate sale. I wish I had beaten him to that estate sale!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

White, Birch, and Antlers

Sometimes, a table just comes from nowhere. Many times, I sort of "percolate" a design and think and gather and play with options. Today, this started with a quick errand that inspired me to set this table.

Sort of woodland, sort of winter, and sort of serene.

These latex birch placemats were left over at Pier One from their holiday line. I never saw them at Christmas time, but spied them in the clearance area last week. I mean clearance! They were originally $5.95 but were 90% off. Yep! Fifty-nine cents. I sure wish they had more than four.

With the wood grain of the placemats, I decided to add wood grain plates. These came from Boxwoods in Atlanta, my favorite table-top store. (Maybe my favorite all-around store.)

I thought I'd pick up the grey in the placemats with these ikat napkins from Pottery Barn. I never saw them in the regular store, but found them at the outlet. I used them to separate the dinner plate from the salad plate.

Then, for some more grey, I chose this twig flatware that Michael Aram designs for MadHouse. Beautiful!

I tried several different combinations of stemware, but settled on my trusty Waterford. I like rustic/elegant, high/low combinations.

Whole Foods was on my errand list anyway, and their flowers are often so interesting. This week was a bonanza of glorious spring blooms. I don't even remember putting these in my cart, I was so fast. I had this white washed birch vase that seemed perfect, so into it they went. I'm not too good arranging flowers without oasis to stick them into, but these soft stems do not want to be jammed into oasis, so this arrangement is sort of sketchy! I did add some river birch twigs from the yard to give it a little more interest.

Just look at these feather edged Dutch tulips!

And I truly wish you could smell these fabulous hyacinths. Heavenly!

Without a runner, this arrangement seemed sort of lonely and puny, so I grabbed these silvered antlers from the living room to extend the interest.

They helped, didn't they?

Then I remembered these silver antler candleholders that I've never even used yet.

They are a little small for these white faux bois candles, but even if the proportions are a bit off, I think they worked just fine.

A Waterford crystal wine coaster seemed to be the best choice, since I have the Waterford stems on the table already.

Because it's so cold out, I knew we'd be drinking coffee after dinner, so I sat the cream pitcher, sugar bowl, and a small custard dish with sweetener onto a fluted tin plate. Grey and white again, get it?

I can't wait to sit at this table, smelling these spring blooms, while we await the "snow event" here in Georgia. We've been hearing about snow for days. It's ok. We'll light the fire and cozy up reading tonight. I need to finish my book for book club by Tuesday!!!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps on the Porch

Share Your Style (Wed.)

Show and Tell Friday

The Scoop (Mon.)

Inspire Me Tuesday

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Table It (Sun.)

Rustic and Refined

Home Sweet Home (Fri.)

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

French Country Home

Wow Us Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Monday Funday

All Things Heart and Home

Make It Pretty Monday

The Dedicated House

Fridays Unfold

www.nancherrow.com

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Share It One More Time (Sat.)

designthusiasm.com

The Inspiration Gallery (Thurs.)

Craftberry Bush

Share Your Cup (Thurs.)

Jan Olson

Share Your Style (Thurs.)

21 Rosemary Lane

The Creative Exchange (Thurs.)

The Happy Scraps

Monday, January 11, 2016

Retro Pine Cone Dishes

It was a good time to host our neighbor for dinner last night. He always is appreciative and is entertaining to say the least. Even though it is just the three of us, I always try to make the table interesting and the food plentiful.

I've been wanting to use these retro pine cone dishes that I found at a garage sale years ago. I paired them with these pine cone chargers that I bought at Walmart at Christmas time, and picked up the emerald green from the pine in the linen placemat from the Ballard outlet.

I have the perfect stemware to go with these dishes. Can you see the pinecones etched on them?

The brown napkins from Target are in a tortoiseshell napkin ring with a bit of pine stuck in them. ( I regretted using the pine needles, by the way.)

Here's the placesetting.

Does anyone know anything about these dishes? I think that they were probably made in the '50's by the shape of the cream and sugar pieces.

This is all it says on the back.

I also used these pinecone dishes from Michael's for the salad.

There was no time for a trip to the florists or even the grocery store, so I grabbed this bowl of pinecones that are always on our coffee table in the upstairs tv room and added some fresh pine.

I got these guys from the same room and put a bit of pine around them on this cream runner.

They crack me up. I can't look at them without thinking of our very close friend, Bury!

One more bear on the table wouldn't hurt a thing, right?

Then, I used another pine cone item for butter.

It's finally getting cold here, so I thought this was the perfect winter table. I love a good garage sale find!

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps on the Porch

Share Your Style (Wed.)

Show and Tell Friday

The Scoop (Mon.)

Inspire Me Tuesday

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Table It (Sun.)

Rustic and Refined

Home Sweet Home (Fri.)

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

French Country Home

Wow Us Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Monday Funday

All Things Heart and Home

Make It Pretty Monday

The Dedicated House

Fridays Unfold

www.nancherrow.com

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Share It One More Time (Sat.)

designthusiasm.com

The Inspiration Gallery (Thurs.)

Craftberry Bush

Share Your Cup (Thurs.)

Jan Olson

Share Your Style (Thurs.)

21 Rosemary Lane

The Creative Exchange (Thurs.)

The Happy Scraps

Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Perfect Evening

Downton Abbey and Pinterest!!!! It's been so long coming!!!

The holidays were great and we made many precious memories, but watching a great tv program and viewing what Mr. Pressed Pants calls "decorating porn" is just what I want to be doing. Ahhhhhh.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

A Cozy New Year's Eve '15

After being away for Christmas, home is where I want to be to ring in the New Year. Mr. Pressed Pants concurs, so we are having a cozy, intimate, boring New Year's Eve....just the way we like it. I hadn't given the evening much thought until I was in the grocery store picking up dinner. I spied these flowers in one of those variety packs in the floral department. I usually pass those by, but since I had a murky plan to use gold on the table, I picked these up.

Can you see the gold dust on these? Sort of cheesy, but I like it. Then to top it off, the plastic champagne bottle takes cheesiness to another level, but hey, it's kind of fun.

For the two of us, I decided to set the table in the keeping room. I really wanted to set it up in front of the fireplace and the Christmas tree, but it is so warm that we'd never light a fire, so why bother. Just white and gold keeps it simple. I haven't used gold much for a very long time, but it is certainly trending now, and so I thought I'd jump on board.

A gold charger is topped with some white Juliska-like china that I got at that very high end store, Kroger!!!! I bought every bit of it they had.

The most interesting thing on the table is this sweet little bowl wishing "Happy Holidays". I bought them last year at Homegoods, but this is the first time I've used them. A cute little gold doily added a bit more sparkle to the look. I thought they would be perfect for peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce, a Peterson family tradition.

The flatware I chose was my favorite mis-matched silverplate with these ivory handled knives.

And the napkins are a gold, sparkly fabric that doesn't show up very well in this photo.

These napkin rings were a gift from a dear, young friend as a thank you for giving her wedding shower. Aren't they wonderful? They are a bay leaf design from Art Tables.

Here's a prime example of what makes a high-low table. The champagne flutes are from Tiffany, and the wine glasses are Waterford........

but these white spotted tumblers are from Old Time Pottery. One dollar apiece. Yep. I love the mix.

We needed some candlelight to set the mood, so I chose these faux bois tapers that I even forgot I had.

I set them in these Baldwin brass candlesticks that I haven't used in almost a decade. I probably have a dozen of them from the days when my decor was Williamsburg, or wanna-be Williamsburg.