A Toile Tale: red vintage stems

After a small dinner party for friends on Saturday, we had just the two of us for dinner on Valentine's Day itself.

It's been unusually cold here, so I set the table in the living room in front of the fire place. I've thought of doing this many times, but the reality is that it is just too hot most evenings.

These dishes by Cynthia Rowley were an easy choice. I bought them before Christmas, thinking they would be a great Christmas selection, but never used them. I love that they are gold rimmed and sort of formal, but I find them fresh and a bit whimsical as well.

Especially when you add the salad plate.

You can just see the small appetizer plate that I added and used for our shrimp cocktail. Here's the napkins that a guest sent us after a dinner party several years ago. I thought they were perfect for this table.

The glasses were a red vintage stem for wine......

and these white speckled water glasses.

This mis-matched silverplate flatware showed up again. Here's a disclosure: I substituted a steak knife for these beautiful knives before we sat down to eat. Mr. Pressed Pants cooked fillets on the grill and that would have been too much for these fragile old knives.

A red bread and butter plate and some glass confetti hearts added some spunk to the table.

These flowers made another appearance from the night before. Actually, many of these items were "re-runs". The dishes and linens were about the only things different, but they change the look of the table greatly.

A simple Waterford crystal wine coaster was used the night before, too.

This touch of silver was lovely in the firelight.

I used a plain white linen caterer's cloth with this special cloth over it. My mother made it for me years ago, and I've used it for many special events through the years, even engagement parties and bridesmaids luncheons for our daughters.