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!!!

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The Happy Scraps

A Tribute to the Dogwood Festival

Many, many people in Atlanta look forward to the Dogwood Festival each year.  It was held this past weekend, and it was full of music, art, food and celebrated the lovely dogwood trees we are so privileged to have here in this beautiful city.  I put together this table as a tribute to the many volunteers that it takes to hold this event.

We have lots of dogwood here, both as specimens and many wild ones in the woods.  They made beautiful fillers for these old blue Ball jars.  I kept the white linen cloth and the burlap runners that I had on the table for "Bunnies and Burlap" (here).

I posted a very similar table to this before, when the dogwood was blooming.  It was probably my favorite table ever.  You can see it here.

I love the colors of taupe, turquoise and white together.  Can you see the faux bois design on the salad plate?

The light wood on the flatware seemed just right with the burlap, and I used these white linen napkins with turquoise linen flower napkin rings.

I put bread sticks in these glass lined, birch covered votives.

The glassware was plain Tiffany stems with turquoise glass tumblers made by Martha Stewart.

I love this easy, easy centerpiece.

These birch-like candles never even got lit, as it is staying light so much later these days.

I knew we are headed for a full week of rain, so I grabbed my clippers and cut a huge bunch of limbs for this granite bucket by the front door.  Is it too much to mix the dogwood and the forsythia?  Oh, who cares?  I'm so into spring!

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Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Clean and Simple

After the excess, flash, and color of the holidays, I feel ready for a neutral, calm look.

We had some new friends over for dinner, and I didn't know their taste, so I decided to keep this clean and simple.

These dishes are from Z Gallerie and they are so versatile.  I picked these natural rough linen napkin rings up at the Atlanta gift show from a beautiful booth by Tourmaline Home.  I also bought them in a pale aqua linen, and a beautiful rust colored velvet.  I'm so tickled with them and I could have ordered everything in their booth.  Check out their site here.

These very fine linen placemats are used over a white cotton caterer's tablecloth because they are so sheer and the embroidery doesn't show up on the wood. I chose this dark wooden-handled flatware again.  It has somehow become my go-to choice.

These tortoise colored  water glasses and raffia covered stemless wines added a little weight to the table.

In place of a bread and butter plate, I chose these little square fluted dishes and they added a bit more interest.

Doesn't this say "stay a while and re-group with us"?

Marching down the table, I placed three single potted hydrangea blooms.......

placed in birch covered pots with reindeer moss over the dirt.

I thought they looked fresh and were a nice change from poinsettias.

Antique barley twist candle sticks with simple white candles gave interest but subtlety.

A simple white porcelain covered butter dish,

and these faux  bois salt and pepper shakers are some I use everyday.

It made for a serene table where the food was the star.

Don't you love it when casual acquaintances put their feet under your table and become friends?

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Dogwood Days

I'm recycling this post done with nests to join Cuisine Kathleen's  linky party featuring birds, eggs, and nests!  Be sure to see her many posts and inspiration from lots of bloggers.

 

Our dogwood trees have been so beautiful, especially the specimen down on our lower terrace.  I've wanted to do a table featuring the dogwood, and I almost waited too late!  The petals are starting to fall and they are definitely past their peak.  

The table is serene with a narrow color spectrum of taupe and white with just a tiny hint of pale robin's egg blue.  Sort of an anti-bunny table!!!  You can see the sideboard decorated for spring in the background.  I posted a tutorial  last year on how I put it together here.

These great place mats were the basis for the color selections.  They are a very light weight, loosely woven linen with this embroidery in each corner.  I found them at Boxwoods in Atlanta, and I'm expecting I'll use them often.

The glassware is a high/low mix that I love.  The wine glasses are from Tiffany's basic line, and the tumblers are from Martha Stewart's line for Macy's from several years ago. The pale, pale aqua color lends just a touch of color.  They are very thin, so I've already broken a couple of them.

I'm using these white faux bois plates again. My last post with them can be seen here.  They look like the cross section of a log.

I added a small bird's nest from Michael's with an aqua speckled faux egg and a fresh dogwood blossom.

The bread and butter plate is a very thin wood grained plate and I added individual butter spreaders that have twig handles.

This light colored, wood handled flatware seemed appropriate for the light colored table.

This  taupe and white checked linen napkin was placed between the plates to give them a bit of contrast.  We brought them back from a street market in Aix in Provence.

These little velvet birds were placed at each place just because I love them so much and I thought they "went with" the eggs and nests.

As you can see, the dogwood was almost past it's prime.  We had a rain the other night and that seemed to give them a case of the spots!

But, when you back off a bit and look at them en masse, they look pretty good.

This birch bark vase seemed to pull the natural elements together.  I couldn't help adding this tiny metal nest with turquoise robin eggs.

It echos this nest on each plate.

The salt and pepper shakers sort of sit in a nest, too.

This seems like a serene table where one might enjoy a refined meal with grown-up conversation with your sophisticated friends, right?  Well, that probably won't be the case here.  Not that I don't have any sophisticated friends, but they aren't coming over tonight, and the conversation will probably be about finding a new yardman and having the driveway resurfaced!

That's ok.  We need to get on top of spring clean-up and repairs sooner rather than later.  May I have your list of dependable repairmen?

Let's eat!

Wish you could be joining us!

The birdies on the window bench are coming!

I'm a little late, but I'm posting here:

and

Tablescape Thursday