You Call This a "Dusting"?????

How did this beautiful "dusting" of snow........

turn into THIS????

If you've seen the national news, you've heard about Snowmagaedon in Atlanta.  I thought I was terribly inconvenienced when it took me 3 hours to make what is usually a 15 minute drive, but when I hear about people who were 22 hours getting home and children who never did get home from school, I'm done whining.

I thought I was going to do a sweet post about our snow and get a little humor about how Atlantans panic at the thought of a wee bit of snow.  

This photo that I took yesterday is the only photo I have ever taken of our whole house from the driveway in the snow.  The few times we have had measurable snow, I've never gotten this view.  This was taken on my cell phone as I came up our driveway after that 3 hour drive, so it is not very good quality!

I'd like to give a great big hug to every teacher who comforted a scared child, every policeman who tended to the many, many accidents, every snowplow driver who made pass after pass on those treacherous roads, every store manager who opened their property for bathroom breaks and aisles to sleep in, and every school bus driver who sweated delivering that precious cargo.  Bravo!

There's no way Atlanta can prepare adequately for this kind of weather.  We just don't have the resources.  This will scare us into orbit next time bad weather is expected! 

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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New Year's Eve 2014

Happy New Year to all of you! 

The table I set this year is very similar to the last two years, but because I got an amazing new toy, it sports a few new touches.  Yep!  I got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas, and I couldn't resist making some little projects for this table.  First, let me thank my very sweet friend, Amy Barfield for taking time out of her medical practice to teach me the basics of this machine.  She is truly a wonder!  And a thanks to Robin at "All Things Heart and Home" blog for offering a really good bargain for the machine.  I passed it on to several of my friends, and at least two of them purchased one as well.  Now......group lessons! 

While I could have cut this out of vinyl and stuck it on the plate, I elected to cut it from cardstock and simply put the red cut-out on top of the silver glittered circle and sandwich it between the Lenox dinner plate with a platinum border, and a clear glass dinner plate.  You can't see the glass plate, but it's there.  Then I served dinner on the glass plate and that's all I had to wash, and the cut-out stayed nice as well.  (Not like I could re-use it, though.)  The silver chargers are inexpensive plastic ones, but they look better than some.

This is the table: white and silver with just a touch of red.

We almost never have snow in Georgia, so for some reason, this snowflake tablecloth seems silly at anytime other than New Year's Eve, when I pair it with lots of silver.

I added more snowflakes from the dollar store as little coasters under the Waterford goblets.

And, again, in the placecard holder.  I used my favorite mis-matched silverplate.

These cute little bread and butter plates came from the grocery store a couple of years ago. 

Ta-dah!  My other Silhouette project!  I made these napkin rings from the same red card stock.  I'm a little bit proud of this project, as I designed it myself, as my first project and I really, really, really didn't know what the heck I was doing.  You'd never believe how long it took, but I was learning as I went along.  (Sort of a steep learning curve!)  Then we had to have some noisemakers. 

I picked up a dozen red roses from the grocery store and split them into two square clear vases.  A few more flowers would have been nice, but this isn't bad.

Then I positioned this heavy antique silver tray with a mica snow covered scene in the middle of the table, but perpendicular to the length of the table to make it feel more intimate for the three of us.  ( My mom is visiting and at 89, she is too old to go out on the town........come to think of it, so am I.)   

Here's a close-up.  Some of these object are old and precious, and some are from the Dollar Store.

These are my Juliska knock-off white salt and pepper shakers and they look almost like they have snowflakes on them.

And for a little more sparkle, I used this Waterford wine coaster. 

Here's our table.  If I were a good blogger, I would have photo shopped that outlet and cord out of the picture, but I'm keeping it real at A Toile Tale.

May you be blessed beyond belief in 2014!

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More Stags and Plaid

See anything new????  Yep, my sweet mom gave me these awesome antler plates (from Pottery Barn) for Christmas!  How did she know????

Oh, yeah, baby!  I LOVE them!

I used many things I already had out from previous tables this season, and since I love stags and antlers and faux bois, these were fantastic.  I even already had the plaid tablecloth (from Homegoods) on the dining room table.   I added plaid plates from Target, and wicker chargers from World Market.

I promise that these napkins were not this sickly green that they photographed, but a classic hunter green.  Of course, I used these stag napkin rings from Boxwoods.  You can see another table I set with these earlier this season here.

This hardworking flatware was super with this.

And this glassware just begged to join the party.

Even though there were only three of us, I couldn't resist using these placecard holders.  Mr. Pressed Pants pretended to look and look for his seat!  

These faux bois salt and pepper shakers and the black forest bear were naturals here. 

I slid the pointsettia and candlesticks around ninety degrees to make the end of the table seem more intimate. 

Of course, these stags were added.

My mom will be here a few more weeks, and since she loves to play with dishes more than anyone, that's exactly what we'll be doing.  Nothing like Mother/Daughter bonding, right?

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