A Tartan Welcome

 

Allison at The Polohouse has declared her Favorites on the First blog party to be plaid-themed this month.  Be SURE to visit her blog, not just for this party, but for all of her beautiful posts.

 

We sit way back from the road, so by the time you get up to our door, I want you to have a special welcome.  Living in Georgia, we sometimes have very warm, sunny days, and roping can get very crispy and shed terribly.  (Live and learn!)  So except for our door swag, the decorations pretty much are stationary.  Last year I chose an antique sporting goods theme with traditional red/green tartan ribbons. 

They are a little hard to see here, but I've done a simple mixed green swag and incorporated these antique skates.  Mr. Pressed Pants was a professional skater, and that's how he paid his way through college, so these old skates are of great sentiment to me.  Well, he didn't skate long enough ago that he used THESE, but it was a while ago!

These old wooden skis are usually in our family room, but when I brought them out here I just added another swag and ribbon.

 

This is another piece I've had a very long time.  This wooden top was once made of one board, but it has since split.  Again, I gathered some mixed greens and added a bow.  I buy a large box of mixed greens (kinda sounds like a salad) at the floral wholesaler, add clippings of pine, boxwood, and Leland cypress from our yard, and I have all of the greens I need for decorating.  I've decided after looking at these pictures that I'm going to use this thicker ribbon for all of the pieces here.

 

I'm looking forward to welcoming my dear family through these doors soon.  Sadly, we'll be missing a couple of them but they won't be far from our hearts.

 

Just as I thought I had this post finished, I walked into our bar room and I saw this pile of plaid!  I decided to take a very quick shot of it, as it was sitting there, just as I took it out of the linen press.  I swear I did not move a thing for the shot.

Here is the same pile with just a touch of styling.  I guess we really are tartan lovers!  The lighting on this didn't turn out to well, but I'll try it later this afternoon.

 

I had gathered the plaids, as I'm doing a table for eight Tuesday evening at our church's annual Christmas Dinner for the women.  Guess which dishes I'm using?  I'll do a post of the finished table.  I'm still mulling over the centerpiece.  Will it be the white stag?????

 

The Table is Set!

This is the way our dining room table has looked for a couple of weeks now.  You can see my gilded turkeys on the buffet and these paper mache vegetables are gathered cornucopia-style down the middle of the table.

Can you spot the real vs the paper mache in this picture?

or this?

or this?

New, this year, is this embroidered runner from Pottery Barn.  I should have taken a picture of the Soumak rug in the dining room to show how well this runner works with it.  (Sometime the silliest things can make me so happy!)

These Thanksgiving plates relate so well to the colors, that they became the star of the table setting.

Nothing bold or bright, just neutral, autumnal colors here.

The tan charger is from Z Gallerie and the acorn embossed dinner plate is from Crate and Barrel several years ago.  I broke one, so if anybody has one or two they would like to sell, I'd really love to replace it.

This barley twist flatware is my most used, next to our everyday stainless.

 

Since our meal is casual and informal this year, I used this tortoise patterned glass for water, and a raffia wrapped one for wine. 

The napkin I chose is not nearly as bright as it photographed here. Really.  And it doesn't need to be ironed as badly as it appears here.  It really is a pretty bittersweet.  On it, I placed a wishbone ornament with the cut hanger off.  I meant to spray these gold, but I ran out of time.  Maybe next year!

I ordered a dozen of these from Oriental Trading. 

We'll eat a quick meal on these tomorrow, go to the USO, and then we're eating a proper Thanksgiving meal late with friends.  No matter what the plans, Tom Turkey is the star, isn't he?

 

Joining:

 

Let's Dish

at

Cuisine Kathleen

Favorite Fall Dinners

As we approach the late fall, Thanksgiving season, I was reviewing some old posts, and I decided to do a bit of a retrospective of some of my favorites. 

Here's a wonderful memory.....lunch with a friend in the woods.  See the post here.

 

One year, I did a very bright Thanksgiving table.  See that post here.

Every fall I am dying to use a plaid blanket on a table.  This one came from a consignment store and I had the perfect brown and bright yellow to go with it.  See it here

 

Here's another brown and yellow table that I did on the same porch but with a different look.  Sunflowers usually say "summer" to me, but these with the brown painted centers took things in a different direction.  Here's the rest. 

One of my favorite groups to entertain is my bridge group.  They came to this lunch last fall.

 

And another year, this was the luncheon table I greeted them with.

I just loved this table.  I used a lot of brown and green and amber and I was particularly happy with the way these flowers turned out.  Click here to see more. 

I used a gold and white theme for another Thanksgiving.  It was a little fancier than usual, but felt just right for the occasion.  The centerpiece was beaded fruit, and the flowers were on the candlesticks.  See it here.

This table used my favorite plates.  They're a brown and green toile that my best friend gave me.  I use these colors over and over.  See the rest of this post here

Here's a night before Thanksgiving table for our very special house guests. 

Mr. Pheasant loves to be the center of attention! You'll see him at many a dinner party or luncheon.  Here's one where he sits among lots of neutrals and soft autumnal colors. 

 

And here's a table where a squirrel was the centerpiece.

Last fall I introduced the season with this screaming yellow and orange table.

 

And in the interest of full disclosure, I'm adding this post from last Thanksgiving.  It was not my favorite, partly because it seemed so lame to just have two people for Thanksgiving, and also because it seems so bland.  I was definitely going for a soft, neutral feel, but I feel that I went too far. You can see it here.  Oh well, Mr. Pressed Pants and I never travel for this holiday and our family lives too far away to travel for the weekend, so we volunteer to work at the USO at the Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson Airport.  It's such a privilege to serve Thanksgiving dinner to these wonderful men and women in the military.  That's the focus of our holiday and it has blessed us greatly. 

 

Joining:

 

I link up with The Scoop! Visit Confessions of a Plate Addict blog,Tablescape Thursday at 'Between Naps on the Porch', Wow us Wednesdays! at Savvy Southern Style, Open House Party at no minimalist here,Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage, Seasonal Sundays & Oh the places I have been at The Tablescaper, and life of the party at the grant life, and the style sisters

Back to the Beach

It's only been a week, but the zen-like days of sunshine seem like a long time ago.  Mr. Pressed Pants and I took a much deserved beach break and scooted down to Seaside, Florida for a week.  And it was PERFECT!

If you're not familiar with Seaside, click here and read about it.  For me, it's Fantasy Island, Nirvana, Disneyland, and Heaven all in one.  I. Just. Love. Seaside.  It's a planned community that celebrates the simple, good life.  It mimics a small town where you can walk to do everything and pass your friends along the way. 

 

The town is located on one side of 30A along the Gulf Coast. Then the beaches are across the street with nine pavilions that lead down to the pure white sugar-like sand.  Each pavilion is different and this was "ours".    

 

Doesn't this just beg you to hurry down and put your toes in the sand? 

It says "Hurry"!

Here's my own personal Cabana-Man!

 

Don't you just love what children leave behind? 

We had night after night..........

of perfect sunsets...........

 

and even one beautiful rainbow.

We had delicious beach food at Bud and Ally's which is always our first stop when we arrive.

And a lobster roll of your dreams at the Shrimp Shack.

And who wouldn't want to have Thanksgiving at Stinky's?

And then when we wanted to step things up a bit, we went to Alys Beach and ate at Caliza.  I did a post on Alys Beach the last time we were there.  See it here.  It's a stunning place and we loved it, but this time, Seaside was just what the doctor ordered.

 

(from Seaside.com)

The architecture is so special.  If you ever watched the move "The Truman Show", you'll know why they filmed it here.  It is so fresh and beautiful.  Lots of widow's walks, clapboard, and many, many porches.

 

(from Seaside.com)

There is a uniformity, but each house is different and has lots of unique characteristics, and lovely names 

I love this hot pink one!

And these brightly colored ones.

 

This is my favorite. 

 

 Look at the shape of those pillars. 

 

 See the three windows in the middle of the first floor?  They are concave!  Yep!  Just like a curved bay window, but backwards.  It made the porch so much bigger and prettier. And guess what?  All of the porch furniture was round, too.  Soooo cool.

I also drooled over this lattice on the side.  It's a good thing no one was at this cottage the week we were there, because I sort of stalked it.

 

And here's the charming little guest house that we rented.  It is called Moonlight Hug.  Don't you just love that?  Perfect for the two of us.

 

Every cottage is required to have a white picket fence around it, and each fence must be different from any other fence on that street.  That makes for some creative designs.  And any plantings must be indigenous to the area.

 

This photo makes me feel so good that I have made it my screen saver for my phone.  It gives me an immediate Calgon moment!

 

Linking To:

 

Oh! The Places I've Been

at

The Tablescaper