Feeling A Little Antsy

I am soooo not ready to pull out the fall decor and dishes.  I'd love some cooler weather, but it will be a long time before we experience autumn here in Georgia.  So, I'll be sticking with some late summer tables for a while.  These linens are some of my favorite.  They are a riff on a typical gingham picnic look.  

I used a cream burlap floor-length tablecloth and topped it with this cream and black dupioni plaid edged with gingham.  Seems like an odd combination, but it works for me.  

The napkin is a regular cotton gingham embroidered with some fun ants.

Set on the upper, round white deck, this makes a great Friday night kick-off to the Labor Day weekend.  We are predicted to have rain most of the weekend, so tonight's dinner might be the only outdoor dining we get.

The flowers at the wholesaler were a bit picked over this afternoon, but I did find these fringy (is that a word?) gerbera daisies and cream astilbe.  They picked up the colors I was looking for.  I put them in this heavy black iron urn.

This black handled flatware is old, but available everywhere.  The cream charger is from ZGallerie, the red plate and bowl from Ballard's and the black rimmed salad plate is from Target.

These black stems are from Homegoods, and I use them far more than I ever thought I would.  The red ones are vintage.

This small dish is smaller than a bread and butter dish, but larger than a butter pat dish.  Here, I put only an ant from Michael's on it.  It is actually a tablecloth weight, but I unscrewed the clip so that I could use it like this, just for giggles.

 

Here's the view over the railing.  

And here's the view back toward the house.  You can see the brick chimney with its weeping mortar. 

It's hard to tell in this photo, but this is a net dome to keep bugs off of the food.  It's sort of ironic that it is decorated with bugs!  I only have two of these, so I used one over the bruchetta during cocktails. 

Then, I also chose these

 paper napkins by Elise for drinks.  Pretty cute. huh?  

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Ants at the Picnic

I've been wanting to do this table for a long time.  I love the combo of red/white gingham and ants, but I find a lot of  this type of collection rather cheezy.  Can you imagine my glee when I found this set of linens at the floral wholesaler in early spring?

I've been dying to bring it out to the cutting garden and set it up on the dining platform.

Look at this closely.  It's a polyester dupioni tan and black and white plaid edged with red and white gingham embroidered with ants.  Perfect!  Unusual, and whimsical but not too trite.  I put it over a cream burlap table skirt on our unfinished dining table that I keep in the potting shed.  You can see that here.

I bought four embroidered napkins to go with the topper.

The dish combination was easy.  Cream dinner plate from Pottery Barn, black salad plate from Target, and a red bowl from Ballard Design.

Then I chose this black handled flatware.  I think it came from Target, too.

I easily decided on these vintage red stems.

And I had a bit of fun with the Fiesta-style butter pat.  These ants are tablecloth weights from Michael's, but I unscrewed and removed the clips.

I went to several nurseries for red geraniums, but they were all out.  It's too late in the season for much planting here.  I toyed with the idea of red roses but they seemed way too fancy.  Carnations were considered, too, but I really wanted geraniums.  So, I bought a faux spray at Michael's and stuck it in this heavy black iron urn.

Here's the overhead of the whole table for four.

This dappled sun wasn't the best for pictures, but it really was charming.  I removed the chairs to take better pictures.  They were on the pathway past the gardenia bush.

The only bugs welcome here are those darling little embroidered ones.  They make me smile.

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