Pinecones and Friends

Even though this table is more seasonal than Christmas, we were definitely in a Christmas mood on Saturday night as we entertained some folks who have grown very dear to us.  It was a rollicking,  laugh-filled evening and we lingered at this table with some conversation that you just had to be here to believe!  Enough said about that!

Brunswig and Fils makes some beautiful fabric, but none prettier than this pattern.  I've made it into runners and cloths, so I can be versatile with the way I want to use it.  Here, I used it in three runners.  Sometimes I use red transferware with it, but I chose to pull the image of the pinecones out of the design and feature them in this table. 

Here's the way I used the runners, since there were only six of us.  Excuse the fuzziness of this, as I didn't photograph the entire table until dark.

I used real pinecones, pinecone glass ornaments, mosses, small beaded fruit, and tiny glass balls to fill this glass cloche, and used it as the centerpiece.  Look for a tutorial on this soon.

It sits in this interesting terra cotta saucer.

Here's a close-up. 

And an overhead of the table.

I didn't get a closeup of the wooden candlesticks, but I did get this photo of  the birch covered votives that I added.

This red plastic charger is available everywhere.  It's not really as bright as it shows here.  The dinner plates are from Crate and Barrel and are embossed with acorns and oak leaves.  I use these constantly in the fall and winter.  The napkins are a rather sheer linen embroidered with this beautiful pinecone.

I don't remember where I got these bread and butter plates, but I used them with these horn-handled fruit knives which I use as butter knives.  These Christmas butter shapes are made from some rubber mint molds that my Mom gave me years ago.

The wine glasses are etched with pinecones..... 

and these salad plates from Target (last year) are embossed with them, too. 

This Royal Dalton Santa character jug is also a gift from Mom.  Well, actually, I am "storing" them for her.  You can see the place card I made here with a rubber stamp and a thin red ribbon.  It always makes people feel especially welcome when they see their name on the table, and I try to do this, even for a small group. 

These are some of the serving pieces I used.  Can you see the stags carved on two of the horn handles?  Aw, man!  I love these!

See?  (You can also see the electrical outlet......lucky you!)

This is the way I set up the coffee tray this time.  I have four dozen of these plaid cocktail napkins and I love to use them, since I'm not a fan of paper napkins.  Not that I never use paper, because I do, but I just really don't mind washing and ironing napkins, so I pull cloth ones out whenever they work.  I also have about six of these tin Christmas trays and they come in soooo handy.

And I made chocolate/peppermint spoons to serve with coffee.  Just melt milk chocolate chips, dip in your spoon, add crushed candy canes, and cool on a foil lined plate.  Even those who passed on coffee took one and ate the chocolate off of it.  These are sweet for any holiday, especially for a tea party, just change out your garnish according to the season.

The glasses set out in the bar.  You probably can't quite see the stags etched into the high-ball and low-ball glasses.  The tall ones came from World Market this year.  I think the ones I use as low-ball glasses are really votives, but who's policing that?????

Z Gallerie had these last year, and I love to use them on a buffet to identify the food, as well as as a place card holder.  Aren't they handsome?

I'm going to post a tutorial on this VERY easy appetizer.

I set out cordials and liqueurs, but we were all so full that no one bothered to indulge.

I always put out this cute little cocktail recipe book in the bar, as our last name is Peterson.  It was a thoughtful gift from a dinner guest several years ago.

And I took one more opportunity in the powder room to use the pine cones that I seem to collect.  Candles and finger towels are more subtle items for the evening.  (See?  I do use paper products!)

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Cuisine Kathleen

White Fall Bridge Buddies Luncheon

I always look forward to having my bridge buddies here for lunch. They have become such sweet friends and they make the best guests. 

Here's what greeted them at the gates.

The front door decor has a lot more color than last year. 

But I set the table in a much more subtle palate of green and white and brown.

We first went to the bar for drinks.  Here's what it looked like before the food was put out.  Cider and iced tea and wine were offered.

I lined these pumpkins filled with mums up in a row as a backdrop.  These were take-home favors for the guests.  These will last about four or five days and then the pumpkin gets a bit soft, but the mums can be planted outside.

It was such a beautiful day that we started outside with appetizers.  I served Double Cranberry Crostinis.  I'll do another post about the food in a day or two.

Every beautiful day at this time of year is such a gift.

When we went in for lunch, this was the centerpiece.

Our last home had red silk walls in the dining room, so when fall came around, orange did not work at all.  So I collected these white paper mache gourds to use in place of orange pumpkins. I add nuts and grapes and some bleached wheat and placed them on an olive linen runner.

I used natural colored flat woven place mats on a bare table and then cream plates bordered with embossed acorns from Crate and Barrel.

These bowls with figs on them held pumpkin risotto...........

And these plates were for Fig/Arugula salad.  One of my bridge group gave them to me, since she knows how I love acorns.Can you imagine how thrilled I was.  And another friend gifted me with the matching platter that I used for appetizers.  How lucky am I?  Both the bowls and the salad plates are from Sur la Table.

This flatware from Kmart is made for Martha Stewart.  I like the way the cream color matches the place mats and the gourds.

I used two types of napkin rings with these olive linen napkins.  This one is antique carved bone, and I also used a cream color celluloid style.

The apple green wine glass is from Swoosie's and the etched brown water glass is from Bobby Flay's line at Kohl's.

I tied a cream tag embossed with an acorn onto bleached wheat for a name tag.  Mary Janet would have sat here, but she had to cancel due to illness.  I am so sorry that she didn't make it, especially since she was the one who gave me the salad plates that inspired the whole table!!!!

I like to add a menu card with an appropriate quote.  This one by George Elliot says "Delicous Autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird, I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns."

These sweet acorn salt and pepper shakers came from Michaels last year.

I didn't choose this wine entirely for it's pretty label, but it did play a part!

 Here's the wooden box lid that I used as a coffee tray.  I used the coffee cups that match the dinner plates.

This pretty tea pot was a gift, too.  I guess I am one lucky girl.

My favorite thing on this tray is this black forest bear that holds sugar.  Isn't he cute?

More acorns on the water pitcher!

This all makes a serene fall table. 

I also use these colors because they look good in my dining room, and I use them a lot all year around.  These fruits and gourds and grapes used as a centerpiece just seem to represent the bounty of fall.

And then we played bridge.  We didn't do so well, did we Kay?

I'll do another post on the menu and recipes and house decor in the next couple of days.

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Cuisine Kathleen