White Fall Bridge Buddies Luncheon

I always look forward to having my bridge buddies here for lunch. They have become such sweet friends and they make the best guests. 

Here's what greeted them at the gates.

The front door decor has a lot more color than last year. 

But I set the table in a much more subtle palate of green and white and brown.

We first went to the bar for drinks.  Here's what it looked like before the food was put out.  Cider and iced tea and wine were offered.

I lined these pumpkins filled with mums up in a row as a backdrop.  These were take-home favors for the guests.  These will last about four or five days and then the pumpkin gets a bit soft, but the mums can be planted outside.

It was such a beautiful day that we started outside with appetizers.  I served Double Cranberry Crostinis.  I'll do another post about the food in a day or two.

Every beautiful day at this time of year is such a gift.

When we went in for lunch, this was the centerpiece.

Our last home had red silk walls in the dining room, so when fall came around, orange did not work at all.  So I collected these white paper mache gourds to use in place of orange pumpkins. I add nuts and grapes and some bleached wheat and placed them on an olive linen runner.

I used natural colored flat woven place mats on a bare table and then cream plates bordered with embossed acorns from Crate and Barrel.

These bowls with figs on them held pumpkin risotto...........

And these plates were for Fig/Arugula salad.  One of my bridge group gave them to me, since she knows how I love acorns.Can you imagine how thrilled I was.  And another friend gifted me with the matching platter that I used for appetizers.  How lucky am I?  Both the bowls and the salad plates are from Sur la Table.

This flatware from Kmart is made for Martha Stewart.  I like the way the cream color matches the place mats and the gourds.

I used two types of napkin rings with these olive linen napkins.  This one is antique carved bone, and I also used a cream color celluloid style.

The apple green wine glass is from Swoosie's and the etched brown water glass is from Bobby Flay's line at Kohl's.

I tied a cream tag embossed with an acorn onto bleached wheat for a name tag.  Mary Janet would have sat here, but she had to cancel due to illness.  I am so sorry that she didn't make it, especially since she was the one who gave me the salad plates that inspired the whole table!!!!

I like to add a menu card with an appropriate quote.  This one by George Elliot says "Delicous Autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird, I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns."

These sweet acorn salt and pepper shakers came from Michaels last year.

I didn't choose this wine entirely for it's pretty label, but it did play a part!

 Here's the wooden box lid that I used as a coffee tray.  I used the coffee cups that match the dinner plates.

This pretty tea pot was a gift, too.  I guess I am one lucky girl.

My favorite thing on this tray is this black forest bear that holds sugar.  Isn't he cute?

More acorns on the water pitcher!

This all makes a serene fall table. 

I also use these colors because they look good in my dining room, and I use them a lot all year around.  These fruits and gourds and grapes used as a centerpiece just seem to represent the bounty of fall.

And then we played bridge.  We didn't do so well, did we Kay?

I'll do another post on the menu and recipes and house decor in the next couple of days.

Join me at:

Let's Dish

Cuisine Kathleen

Fall Pheasant Dinner Party

We had the most lovely people for dinner Saturday night.  In keeping with the fall season, I used a reproduction  Black Forest carved pheasant as part of the centerpiece, and a theme for the table.  It is made from a resin composite, but it has a rustic, unrefined quality that keeps this tablescape from being too stuffy. 

I started with a cream and taupe damask tablecloth that I got from Pottery Barn last year.  Note the oak leaves and acorns!!!!  Love it!!!  These colors keep the tablescape cooler than most fall collections.

Since I only had six taupe straw ruffled placemats, I used cream linen under the placesettings at the ends of the table.  The cream plates from Crate and Barrel are embossed with oak leaves and acorns.  They don't carry them anymore, unfortunately, because I would love to replace the one I broke.  I topped them with these dark brown pottery salad plates from Target.

Tennille and Company carries these etched glasses that I used for water.  Acorns, again!  Then I used plain stemmed glasses from Tiffany's for wine.

I've also used these dark brown linen napkins quite a few times, but this time I put these carved bone napkin rings at some placesettings and celluloid rings with others.

I love the detail on these painted metal placecard holders.  The bittersweet makes them wonderful on a fall table.  This is one guest who couldn't make it, but I really, really wish she could have.  Maybe soon!

Here's the centerpiece.  I sat it in the center of an oasis ring. 

Most of these flowers are real, but I added some artificial items like the bittersweet, acorns, velvet leaves, wheat, and velvet seed pods.

I tried to restrain the color palate to keep the tones pale and subdued, but I wasn't able to find the exact flowers I was looking for. 

This is a close up of this same "scape" I did last year, and I was more successful in limiting my colors and tones in this arrangement.  I like it much better.

These old wooden candlesticks are filled with faux bois candles.  They are actually dark brown, but look a little striped in this afternoon sunlight.

                                     

 These woven straw wine coasters are hard workers, too.

Here's the whole table.  We actually had too many guests to fit at one table, so we used the one in the breakfast room for four more.  We teased that group that they were at the "kid's table".  I'll post about that table soon.  It was another green and brown arrangement.  I promise I'm about done with those colors.  I'm afraid you don't think I can do anything other than green and brown.  I'm about ready to move on!  

I almost never use paper products, but these cocktail napkins were just too perfect to pass up. 

Here's the coffee tray.  Since we were split up for dinner, the whole group got back together in the living room for coffee.

This teapot was a hostess gift a year or so ago.  Sometimes people really hit the nail on the head.  I absolutely love it!

 

With the leftover flowers, I made a small arrangement for in one of the guest bathrooms.  Doesn't that wallpaper look like the dining room tablecloth?  It's my very favorite wallpaper pattern.  It's a classic Osborne and Little design and I've had it in three houses and in two colorways.

This black tole display piece holds more gourds and mini pumpkins in the living room.

This little arrangement went into the other guest bath. 

Menu:

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates

Topped with Walnuts

Roasted Pear Salad with Saga Blue Cheese

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Fall Fruits

Rosemary Oven Roasted Heirloom Potatoes

Carrot Souffle

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with

Caramel Sauce

I'm linking up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Tablescape Thursday blog party, and the Style Sisters' Centerpiece Wednesday party.  Be sure to visit them and you'll be amazed at the creativity you'll see.