Back to Gold!

Gold!!!!  It's been in, it's been out, and for sure.....it's back!!!!  Suddenly, it has a contemporary vibe and I particularly like it used with more rustic items.  These beautiful napkin rings from Art of the Table were a gift from a beautiful bride, and I stuck in a feather to bridge the luxe and the informal.

I started gathering up some gold items to make a simple fall table.  Nothing is new, just used in a different way.  

Years ago, when Martha Stewart first made gilding pumpkins popular, I found these canvas placemats with gold leaves.  I was pretty proud of the way my gilded vegetables looked with these linens.

Then I pulled out my trusty gold chargers and used them with these brown,  mottled dinner plates.  The pattern is called "Leopard".

I played with several different sets of flatware and settled on this French cream set.  I have never cared for gold flatware.  Even the contemporary gold that I am seeing now just doesn't float my boat!

I have seen these glasses for sale several different places.  This summer, my close friend in Charleston had them on her dinner table when she entertained us, and I had great glass envy!  By the next weekend, I owned some of my own!  

Phil the Pheasant made his seasonal debut.  This resin bird shows up often on the table, and is always part of our decor.  

Two of my favorite tables I ever posted had him as a centerpiece.  Look here and here.

Isn't he a handsome devil?

He is nestled in this wreath made up of natural, gold, and copper leaves.  

The old wood barley twist candlesticks that I started with were not very exciting, so I replaced them with these gilded ones.  They are heftier and the gold sort of lifts the look up a bit.

I also used gold embossed place cards.

I thought this horn salt and pepper was a good choice for this table.

I'm loving the gold!  It is certainly on trend, but remains too classic to be considered trendy.

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21 Rosemary Lane

  

Spode's Glen Lodge Pheasant

When I spotted this fabulous china pattern at B. D. Jeffries, one of Atlanta's nicest gift stores, I fell in LOVE!  I kept thinking and thinking about it and decided that I'd spring for it.  Before I went back to buy it, what did I find at Homegoods????  Four salad plates!  And then, at another Homegoods, I couldn't believe that they had four dinner plates.  I had those at the cash wrap faster than you could believe.

This guy was destined to be the centerpiece at this table.  I put him on a styrofoam base that I filled with mixed greens.

Once I added some glass ornaments, silk hydrangeas, pine cone and feathers, I was pleased with the centerpiece.

Here's the way the place setting stacked up.  I started with a light colored straw placemat, than added a bird's eye maple charger.  Then the dinner plate and the salad plate.

Here's the dinner plate by itself.  It is "Glen Lodge Pheasant" by Spode.  I admit that B.D. Jeffries had the same line with a stag as well, and I was torn.  But then when the miracle occurred at Homegoods, the decision was easily made.

Doesn't it go together well?  

I used this flatware that gets a lot of use, and on top of the hunter green napkin, instead of a napkin ring, I placed a little pheasant that I took right off of the Christmas tree!

These stems are Imperial Glass, and they have been around forever.  The wicker covered glasses are used as stemless wine glasses.  The inserts slip right out to go into the dishwasher. 

And look who else was waiting to join the party!  These salt and pepper shakers don't hold much, but I don't mind refilling, as they are so cute.

I finished the table off with these old wooden candlesticks and brown candles.  

Our grandsons call this guy Phil.  I think it suits him.

But I'm not so sure he likes it!

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Another Day with James Farmer

Well, today was a very fun day!  Months of planning and collaboration from the members of my garden club resulted in a beautiful fund-raising luncheon featuring James Farmer!  The vision and most of the work was done by Betsy Powell, a relatively new member.  Betsy thinks big! She's so creative and so full of energy that it is a rush just being with her and her ideas.  This is one of two 6' arrangements that she did for either side of the stage. 

If you were attending, the first thing you would see coming off of the elevator is a sign-in table flanked with very large iron vases filled with vibrant fall foliage.  Here's an example of the details that went into this event.  All of the signage, invitations, and miscellaneous paper pieces were crafted with these hand painted images of this beautiful season. 

The next thing our guests experienced was this beautiful table for hot cider.  Don't these copper pieces look beautiful, especially in the fall? 

Here's a closer look.

The next thing they see is this beautiful table for the silent auction.

Every table had a different centerpiece, which was auctioned off.  They were all made in a wooden dough bowl, and placed on a wooden slice.  Every one of them sold for $100-$200, and those winners got a great deal.

Aren't they wonderful?

Thank you, Betsy!  You are so talented!

Check out the table numbers.  More darling images.

James said that every successful arrangement needs to have foliage, flowers, and fruit (and feathers in the fall).  I think these have it all!

More beauties!

Every place setting had this wonderful burlap bag filled with a CD by Harrison Powell, and a copy of James Farmer's grandmother's (Mimi's) apple cake recipe, which was served as dessert.  Lee Epting was the caterer and our meal of potpie and a delicious salad was sooooo good.  You can see more about Epting Events here.

Each white napkin was topped with a cute little lady apple.

You can see the crossed burlap runners here in a pale grape and salmon color.  Sounds a little daring, but they went beautifully with the fall ingredients. Didn't it come together nicely?  

And then, James......what can I say......he is just the most charming speaker.  You can see another post I did on him a few weeks ago here.  Do you see the stuffed pheasant on the olive bucket that he started with?

Well, this is what the finished product looked like.  My sweet friend, Blanchette, won it at the silent auction and had to rent a truck to take it home, it was so tall!  I would have loved to see her husband's face!

And, just as cute as James, was our pianist, Harrison Powell.  I am so grateful to him.  He donated his time to entertain us, and also donated a CD for every attendee.  His music is original, and has much the same feeling as George Winston.  Beautiful!  Read about him here.  You'll be impressed by his mission and his talent.  And then, at the end of the day, he made trip after trip up and down seven floors to help women to their cars with their centerpieces.  His mama raised him right!

This is the location of our event.  It was held at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta.  They have been the well-deserved recipient of some nice donations from our garden club.  They have been ranked by U. S. News and World Report among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the nation.  We are very proud that one of our members founded this hospital when her son suffered a spinal cord injury in 1975.  It is now a 152 bed facility and it gives me chills to see what a superlative hospital this is and the life-changing difference it makes in their patients and their families. Read more here.

Thank you Betsy for your vision and your very hard work!

I loved being a small part of it!

Brown, Green, and a Pheasant

We are expecting guests this weekend, so I set the table today, since I have plans the rest of the week.  I'm  loving the way the items came together for this semi-casual table.  The lime green and brown polyester silk runner is from the floral wholesaler, and it comes quite a bit wider than most runners.  These seem to be my go-to colors since we moved into this house.  It's a bit rustic, a bit woodsy, and still a tiny bit refined.

These plates make my little heart sing!!!!  My dearest friend from Charleston gave me these when we moved into this house.  You know me.......they're toile.......they're lime green and brown.  How I love them!  I have two set and each set has four different scenes.  I photographed this in the evening with the lights on, so I'm afraid that I'll have a bit of glare.

I also love these chargers.  They look like birds-eye maple and give a nice bit of pattern without overwhelming the toile.

Then these dark brown linen napkins with faggoting, a tortoise shell patterened napkin ring, and a bit of green hypernicum make the napkin work with this dark wooden handled flatware.

A green wine glass and an amber water glass continue the color scheme.

Can you see the etching on this?  It is from the Bobby Flay line from Kohl's.

Phil the Pheasant was the obvious choice for the centerpiece.  He's cast resin and I use him a lot.

I set him in this wonderful wreath I found at the floral wholesaler.  It is gold, green, copper, and brown.  It really makes this table sing.

See?  

These old barley twist candlesticks are work horses around our house, too.

I wasn't going to add flowers, but at Kroger this morning, I found one bunch of these Kermit mums.  I had already purchased the hypernicum berries.  I thought these tall, birch bark covered pots would look good with the similar votives.   

Here's the way the flowers turned out.  I s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d that one little bunch of mums.

Phil's black forest friend joined the table to serve the sugar for coffee.  I'll just use clear glass for cream and sugar.

I've had these chocolate brown plates from Target for years, and I pulled out this old antler-handled server for our pecan pie.

I expect this to be a cozy evening where we sit at the table for hours.

I left this woodland scene under this cloche on the chest.

Another corner holds this chalk and cement piece with a white pumpkin.

And I left the sideboard with our white and green vegetable vignette.  

Sorry, the color is very washed out in this photo.

This is better.  

Now, I'll cook on Friday and look forward to a relaxed, fun evening with special friends.  More to be thankful about!

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