White, Birch, and Antlers

Sometimes, a table just comes from nowhere.  Many times, I sort of "percolate" a design and think and gather and play with options.  Today, this started with a quick errand that inspired me to set this table. 

Sort of woodland, sort of winter, and sort of serene.

These latex birch placemats were left over at Pier One from their holiday line.  I never saw them at Christmas time, but spied them in the clearance area last week.  I mean clearance!  They were originally $5.95 but were 90% off.  Yep!  Fifty-nine cents.  I sure wish they had more than four.

With the wood grain of the placemats, I decided to add wood grain plates.  These came from Boxwoods in Atlanta, my favorite table-top store.  (Maybe my favorite all-around store.)

I thought I'd pick up the grey in the placemats with these ikat napkins from Pottery Barn.  I never saw them in the regular store, but found them at the outlet.  I used them to separate the dinner plate from the salad plate. 

Then, for some more grey, I chose this twig flatware that Michael Aram designs for MadHouse.  Beautiful! 

I tried several different combinations of stemware, but settled on my trusty Waterford.  I like  rustic/elegant, high/low combinations.

Whole Foods was on my errand list anyway, and their flowers are often so interesting.  This week was a bonanza of glorious spring blooms.  I don't even remember putting these in my cart, I was so fast.  I had this white washed birch vase that seemed perfect, so into it they went.  I'm not too good arranging flowers without oasis to stick them into, but these soft stems do not want to be jammed into oasis, so this arrangement is sort of sketchy!  I did add some river birch twigs from the yard to give it a little more interest.

Just look at these feather edged Dutch tulips!

And I truly wish you could smell these fabulous hyacinths.  Heavenly!

Without a runner, this arrangement seemed sort of lonely and puny, so I grabbed these silvered antlers from the living room to extend the interest. 

They helped, didn't they? 

Then I remembered these silver antler candleholders that I've never even used yet.

They are a little small for these white faux bois candles, but even if the proportions are a bit off, I think they worked just fine. 

A Waterford crystal wine coaster seemed to be the best choice, since I have the Waterford stems on the table already. 

Because it's so cold out, I knew we'd be drinking coffee after dinner, so I sat the cream pitcher, sugar bowl, and a small custard dish with sweetener onto a fluted tin plate.  Grey and white again, get it? 

I can't wait to sit at this table, smelling these spring blooms, while we await the "snow event" here in Georgia.  We've been hearing about snow for days. It's ok.  We'll light the fire and cozy up reading tonight.  I need to finish my book for book club by Tuesday!!!

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A Cozy New Year's Eve '15

After being away for Christmas, home is where I want to be to ring in the New Year.  Mr. Pressed Pants concurs, so we are having a cozy, intimate, boring New Year's Eve....just the way we like it.  I hadn't given the evening much thought until I was in the grocery store picking up dinner.  I spied these flowers in one of those variety packs in the floral department.  I usually pass those by, but since I had a murky plan to use gold on the table, I picked these up.

Can you see the gold dust on these?  Sort of cheesy, but I like it.  Then to top it off, the plastic champagne bottle takes cheesiness to another level, but hey, it's kind of fun.

For the two of us, I decided to set the table in the keeping room.  I really wanted to set it up in front of the fireplace and the Christmas tree, but it is so warm that we'd never light a fire, so why bother.  Just white and gold keeps it simple.  I haven't used gold much for a very long time, but it is certainly trending now, and so I thought I'd jump on board.

A gold charger is topped with some white Juliska-like china that I got at that very high end store, Kroger!!!!  I bought every bit of it they had.  

The most interesting thing on the table is this sweet little bowl wishing "Happy Holidays".  I bought them last year at Homegoods, but this is the first time I've used them.  A cute little gold doily added a bit more sparkle to the look.  I thought they would be perfect for peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce, a Peterson family tradition.

The flatware I chose was my favorite mis-matched silverplate with these ivory handled knives.  

And the napkins are a gold, sparkly fabric that doesn't show up very well in this photo.

These napkin rings were a gift from a dear, young friend as a thank you for giving her wedding shower.  Aren't they wonderful?  They are a bay leaf design from Art Tables.

Here's a prime example of what makes a high-low table.  The champagne flutes are from Tiffany, and the wine glasses are Waterford........

but these white spotted tumblers are from Old Time Pottery.  One dollar apiece.  Yep.  I love the mix.

We needed some candlelight to set the mood, so I chose these faux bois tapers that I even forgot I had.

I set them in these Baldwin brass candlesticks that I haven't used in almost a decade.  I probably have a dozen of them from the days when my decor was Williamsburg, or wanna-be Williamsburg.

This simple little glass pedestal held our dinner rolls.

It doesn't look too charming here, but trust me, when the sun went down and the candles were lit, it was exactly where I wanted to be.

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Old China and Warm Chatter

Sometimes you just need a day to catch up .  My dear friend and I have recently been on similar pathways but they haven't seemed to converge.  We both experienced a loss of someone in our immediate families in the last couple of months, and while we tried to be there for each other, we just never seemed to be able to get together to privately share.  So, today, we set aside the day to lunch and get caught up.  

I wanted to make her feel extra loved, so I tried to set a table that was just a little special.  It recently feels a bit like spring, so I tried for a fresh, crisp table.  I started with this organdy embroidered cloth layered over a white linen cloth and set at a small table in our breakfast room.

Isn't this a pretty cloth?

Then I chose this old china that has a maidenhair fern pattern on it.  I often use it for St. Patrick's Day because it reminds me of shamrocks.  It's made in England by John Haddock and Sons, but I don't know the pattern name.

It was a simple, but pretty table, using green handled flatware from World Market.

The napkins were a grass green cotton, layered with a fine, white, hand-embroidered linen one, then I settled on a simple white wicker napkin ring.

These water goblets might be the deal of the century.  They are a knock-off of some exquisite William Yeoward fern-patterned ones at about one twentieth of the price.  Our daughter chose the real things for her wedding crystal, and they have become so expensive that I declared her collection complete.  Then I found these and I scooped some up for her and added a few for me.  Hope she isn't reading this, as I'm planning to surprise her with these for her anniversary.

This delicate green swirl glass was picked up at Scott's Antique Mart years ago.

This china came with lots of extra pieces and I couldn't resist using these tiny little butter pat plates .

For the asparagus soup, I layered a green depression glass plate, a white paper doily, and a small soup tureen.

This white azalea in a white urn, topped with bright green moss reigned in place of flowers.

It fed my need for spring! 

This little salt and pepper holder came from Pierre Deux years ago.  Don't you miss that beautiful store.

The Waterford cream and sugar rested in another piece of the china.

I make it a policy not to photograph my friends when I blog about a get-together, but I wish you could begin to know the beauty that my guest brought to this table.

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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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