Tartan Christmas Table

When I first saw these tartan plates at Target, I knew I wanted to do a dinner party mixing them with my good Christmas china.  I planned a nice party with several couples, but life got in the way!  My brother's life, in fact.  He learned that he needed open heart surgery and I hurriedly left to be with family in Pennsylvania.  The night before I left, I had a simple dinner with Mr. Pressed Pants on the table in the bar and I used the tartan plates in a much more simple way than I had planned. 

This plaid fabric remnant was in my fabric stash.  I just ironed the edges under.

            

Here's a place setting.  It turned out pretty informal and I really like it this way.

I've used it with rattan chargers and this Lenox pattern that my mother has bought for me for years.

Remember this guy in the fall centerpiece?  Well, here's the Christmas variation.  Fresh greens, some small ornaments, feathers, and green silk hydrangeas stuck in styrofoam make a generous surround. 

Up close.

More details.

This flatware is just plastic on the handle and not terrific quality, but I use it pretty often.  I'm sure it is discontinued by now.

I chose this Imperial pattern for my wedding glassware many years ago.

These wonderful old wooden candlesticks show up again and again.  I chose faux bois candles to keep this sort of rustic feeling.

I've had these tartan napkins for years...

and these napkin rings are some that I made years ago when I was doing a lot of counted cross stitch.

I bought six of these cute ornaments with plaid on the package as favors.  Since we didn't have any guests for this meal, I'll have them on hand for next year.  It was worth missing this dinner party to see my brother's successful outcome!  Here's a party on hold! 



Pine Cone Christmas Table

I had my bridge buddies for lunch and after a bit of debating, this is the table I put together for them.

This was the inspiration for the tablescape.  This is a Bunswig and Fils fabric that I've had for a while.  I made it into runners for my Christmas table.  I really fussed with the main runner, using two different plain fabrics for trim, and such, but the two perpendicular

runners are more simple.  I love the pine needles and the cones, and the red transferware in this.  I have used it with transferware before, but I am going a different way here.

Yikes, did that charger ever photograph bright red!!! It is really a nice mellow, but not cranberry red.  You can see the main runner here.  Here's the place setting I used.  This dinner plate is from Crate and Barrel some time ago.  I've used this flatware over and over.  I honestly forget where I got the napkins, but aren't they great with this theme?  

I made these cute little place cards with a rubber stamp and then embossed it and added a tiny bow. 

Don't these glasses just make you drool?  They are not old, but I did get them at an antique shop in Cashiers, North Carolina when I was on a bridge trip with this very group of girls.

The bread and butter plate is from Pottery Barn, I think, but it's been several years.  These horn handled knives are antique.  They are really fruit knives, but I use them mostly for butter spreaders.

Here's the way it stacks up.

This centerpiece is so simple, but has won me great raves.  I took it to a church dinner and it was a big hit.  It's just pine cones, ornaments, silk hydrangeas, some small pieces of fresh greenery, and moss carefully placed in a cloche when it is upside down. After I flipped it, I surrounded it with moss.

The saucer is pretty neat.  I got it from Boxwoods in Atlanta.  It looks old, but it is not.

Here's a close-up.

These bark covered votives are from Pottery Barn last year.

Man, that charger is bugging me.  I promise that it wasn't that red.  This dessert dish is from Target and they have them right now in salad size and dinner size.  So perfect!

Aerial view.

Here's the whole table.  Hope you can't see the kitchen counters!!!!

I carried the theme into the guest bathroom. 

These sweet pine cone candles were a gift from my young newlywed friend.  (She must have learned the art of choosing the perfect gift from her mother.)

Caspari makes these hand towels.

Menu

Cranberry Spritzer ("Mistletoe Magic")

Pine Cone Cheese Ball

*Tomato-Avocado Ribbon Salad

*Seafood-Artichoke Casserole

*served over oven cooked rice

Honey/Dill Carrots

Rolls/Butter

Nancy's Coconut Cake

topped with white fondant pointsettia

*The casserole, rice, and salad are from a beautiful cookbook, "Susan Mason's Silver Service - Elegant Savannah Cuisine".  Susan is a caterer, so her recipes are great for fixing ahead.

It was a beautiful lunch with special friends.  It is so much fun to fix a meal for people who appreciate it.  Who's your most appreciative group of guests?

I. Love. This. Gift.

I hope that you all have a person in your life that from the moment you met, GETS YOU.  I have that friend, and even though we haven't lived in the same town for a long time, we still share all our good shopping sources, design info, and favorite blogs, among many other things that I better not mention!  I have blamed her for introducing me to many additctions hobbies and passions.  When a package comes to my house with her return address, I'm ripping into it madly.

Here's what I opened today.

You haven't figured out what it is yet, have you?  I really must learn to photograph glass better.

Can you see it better?  Knowing my obsession of faux bois, she somewhere found a clear glass faux log with indentations for votives!!!!  I. Love. This. Gift!!!!

It is open on the ends, so I filled it with fresh greenery.  Don't you love it?

Here it is with the candles lit. 

I wish you all had a friend like mine!!!

This is the beautiful accompanying note.

This beautiful person has a business of really special stationery designed with old French engravings.  Check her company out at Somerset Manor Designs. 

It would be really something if she like her present half as much as I love mine.  Thanks, friend.

French Ticking Christmas Table

I found some fun plastic plates at Pineapple Park, a new store in our town, and I just had to try my hand at a Christmas table with them.  I took only a few minutes to put this together, but it turns out that it is one of my favorite tablescapes that I have ever done. 

I have been wanting to use this wonderful antique log cabin in a tablescape for months and this turns out to be the perfect post for it.  My best friend and I once owned an antique business and this piece was purchased at auction for resale.  We both loved it so much that we placed a ridiculously high price on it so that it would not get out of our hands, but looked good on display.  Well, when we liquidated the business, it came home with me!!!  The little trees and animals are not old, they are just pieces that I have acquired to add to the "look".

In order to keep it simple and almost monochromatic, I used white pointsettias in place of arranged flowers.

I placed them in birchwood covered pots that I found  at the floral wholesaler.

Here are the new plates.  I think they are so charming with the French ticking and French graphics on them.  This is a close-up of the salad plate.  You can bet you that I'll be using these out in the garden come spring.

And the dinner plate is even better!

The tablecloth is a cream linen one, and I have used this light colored wooden flatware from Martha Stewart's line at K-mart.

The matching cream colored linen napkins are gathered in an antique celluloid napkin ring and I added just a bit of greenery.

This simple red goblet is the only shot of strong color.

These votives have the same feel as the pots with the poinsettias.

Christmas usually calls for lots of color and I usually go for it.  Maybe that's why I like this so much.  It is a bit of a departure for me, but these plates told me they wanted restraint for once!!!  Nothing here really says Christmas.  No candy canes, no Santa, and no twinkly lights.  It really is more seasonal than Christmas.

I'm linking up with Between Naps on the Porch for Susan's Tablescape Thursday blogparty.  Be sure to visit her and see a great selection of awesome tables.

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com  

Please feel free to leave a comment.  I appreciate the time it takes, and I treasure every one of them.