Wine Club at Christmas

It was our turn to host our wine club Saturday night.

In the dining room, I used these Brunswig and Fils fabric runners with pine cones and red transferware.

 

Here's another area of the design.  I made these years ago and they are my go to linens for Christmas.  I always use them at least once.  You can see a luncheon I did with a pine cone theme for my bridge buddies a couple of years ago here.

 

I re-created the centerpiece as well.  It's just a glass cloche turned upside down and filled with real and glass pine cones and acorns and surrounded with reindeer moss.  The good thing about this is that since there are no fresh flowers or greens, it lasts for the entire season.

Here's some photos of the table before the guests arrived.  Each couple brought great appetizers and they filled in the table beautifully.

I used these tartan napkins and Lenox salad plates for appetizers.  Plain red napkins might have looked better, but I didn't have 2 dozen of them.

These stag candle holders joined the party.  You can see a dinner party where I used these for a stag themed table.  It was one of my favorites and you can see it here.

 

I was really pressed for time, so my appetizers were mostly short-cuts that I just garnished cleverly!  This is crab dip from Publix.  The top is 1/2 of a carton, the middle is an entire carton, and the bottom is 1 1/2 carton.  I garnished with olives, red peppers, a carrot, black olives and a brown foam paper hat.  It's sitting on a glass plate, even though it looks like it is directly on the fabric!

Here's another quick idea.  I made this clam dip, but you could buy it.  Then I simply placed broccoli and cherry tomatoes into it.  You can't see the red pepper star too well, but I thought a yellow pepper would work even better.

I made sure that anything with seafood was clearly labeled and I used these stag placecard holders for the cards.

This is just purchased pimento cheese with whole smoked almonds pressed into it.

These were cuter than they look here.  I took a block of cream cheese, cut it into half diagonally, and put the long edges together, forming a tree.  A cinnamon stick was the trunk, and I used green pepper jelly with diced red pepper on top.

The red pepper tree was just the opposite.  Duh!

I set the dessert table up in the bar. Sorry that these are so dark, but they were taken JUST before our guests arrived. 

This tiered stand held Reeses Cup cookies and cheesecake bars topped with red raspberries.  I also made a chocolate/peppermint roll that was fabulous, and a red velvet trifle that I'll do a post on soon.

This end of the table held coffee fixings and cups. It was much prettier when the candles were lit.

 

The glasses were set up on this cool ultrasuede runner.

Do you love it?  It has stags and pine trees.  Whoohoo!

These were the red wines we served.  The whites were in a great, huge silver bowl with ice that I didn't remember to photograph.  The bowl was a giveaway from Alycia Nichols (Tablescapes at Table Twenty One blog).  It's fabulous and it's a great perk for following such a terrific blog.

Here's a quick shot of the other side of the sink with a cute bar towel that a guest brought us a couple of years ago.  Love them!

 

We're finally into a whirlwind of entertaining, so I'll be back with more soon!

 

Merry Christmas! 

Seven Barks Gift Tags

Are you looking for some special gift tags for those dog lovers in your life?  Or for those who just love the vintage feel?  Well, if you follow this blog, you probably know that I am crazy about Seven Barks Find Goods stationery, and now they have a limited edition holiday line that is really unique. 



There are twelve tags to a box, with these three designs.  Any dog lover will like all of these, but I think that beagle is just precious.  The flip side of each design has this to/from design and they come with a selection of cute ribbon ties.

I've been in touch with Seven Barks, and they are prepared to fill orders immediately for your wrapping pleasure!  Several social media etail sites carry them, or you can order directly from them at sevenbarks.com.  Check out their disposable holiday placemats and napkin cuffs, too. And who couldn't use a gift of those coasters?

A Tartan Welcome

 

Allison at The Polohouse has declared her Favorites on the First blog party to be plaid-themed this month.  Be SURE to visit her blog, not just for this party, but for all of her beautiful posts.

 

We sit way back from the road, so by the time you get up to our door, I want you to have a special welcome.  Living in Georgia, we sometimes have very warm, sunny days, and roping can get very crispy and shed terribly.  (Live and learn!)  So except for our door swag, the decorations pretty much are stationary.  Last year I chose an antique sporting goods theme with traditional red/green tartan ribbons. 

They are a little hard to see here, but I've done a simple mixed green swag and incorporated these antique skates.  Mr. Pressed Pants was a professional skater, and that's how he paid his way through college, so these old skates are of great sentiment to me.  Well, he didn't skate long enough ago that he used THESE, but it was a while ago!

These old wooden skis are usually in our family room, but when I brought them out here I just added another swag and ribbon.

 

This is another piece I've had a very long time.  This wooden top was once made of one board, but it has since split.  Again, I gathered some mixed greens and added a bow.  I buy a large box of mixed greens (kinda sounds like a salad) at the floral wholesaler, add clippings of pine, boxwood, and Leland cypress from our yard, and I have all of the greens I need for decorating.  I've decided after looking at these pictures that I'm going to use this thicker ribbon for all of the pieces here.

 

I'm looking forward to welcoming my dear family through these doors soon.  Sadly, we'll be missing a couple of them but they won't be far from our hearts.

 

Just as I thought I had this post finished, I walked into our bar room and I saw this pile of plaid!  I decided to take a very quick shot of it, as it was sitting there, just as I took it out of the linen press.  I swear I did not move a thing for the shot.

Here is the same pile with just a touch of styling.  I guess we really are tartan lovers!  The lighting on this didn't turn out to well, but I'll try it later this afternoon.

 

I had gathered the plaids, as I'm doing a table for eight Tuesday evening at our church's annual Christmas Dinner for the women.  Guess which dishes I'm using?  I'll do a post of the finished table.  I'm still mulling over the centerpiece.  Will it be the white stag?????

 

The Table is Set!

This is the way our dining room table has looked for a couple of weeks now.  You can see my gilded turkeys on the buffet and these paper mache vegetables are gathered cornucopia-style down the middle of the table.

Can you spot the real vs the paper mache in this picture?

or this?

or this?

New, this year, is this embroidered runner from Pottery Barn.  I should have taken a picture of the Soumak rug in the dining room to show how well this runner works with it.  (Sometime the silliest things can make me so happy!)

These Thanksgiving plates relate so well to the colors, that they became the star of the table setting.

Nothing bold or bright, just neutral, autumnal colors here.

The tan charger is from Z Gallerie and the acorn embossed dinner plate is from Crate and Barrel several years ago.  I broke one, so if anybody has one or two they would like to sell, I'd really love to replace it.

This barley twist flatware is my most used, next to our everyday stainless.

 

Since our meal is casual and informal this year, I used this tortoise patterned glass for water, and a raffia wrapped one for wine. 

The napkin I chose is not nearly as bright as it photographed here. Really.  And it doesn't need to be ironed as badly as it appears here.  It really is a pretty bittersweet.  On it, I placed a wishbone ornament with the cut hanger off.  I meant to spray these gold, but I ran out of time.  Maybe next year!

I ordered a dozen of these from Oriental Trading. 

We'll eat a quick meal on these tomorrow, go to the USO, and then we're eating a proper Thanksgiving meal late with friends.  No matter what the plans, Tom Turkey is the star, isn't he?

 

Joining:

 

Let's Dish

at

Cuisine Kathleen

Favorite Fall Dinners

As we approach the late fall, Thanksgiving season, I was reviewing some old posts, and I decided to do a bit of a retrospective of some of my favorites. 

Here's a wonderful memory.....lunch with a friend in the woods.  See the post here.

 

One year, I did a very bright Thanksgiving table.  See that post here.

Every fall I am dying to use a plaid blanket on a table.  This one came from a consignment store and I had the perfect brown and bright yellow to go with it.  See it here

 

Here's another brown and yellow table that I did on the same porch but with a different look.  Sunflowers usually say "summer" to me, but these with the brown painted centers took things in a different direction.  Here's the rest. 

One of my favorite groups to entertain is my bridge group.  They came to this lunch last fall.

 

And another year, this was the luncheon table I greeted them with.

I just loved this table.  I used a lot of brown and green and amber and I was particularly happy with the way these flowers turned out.  Click here to see more. 

I used a gold and white theme for another Thanksgiving.  It was a little fancier than usual, but felt just right for the occasion.  The centerpiece was beaded fruit, and the flowers were on the candlesticks.  See it here.

This table used my favorite plates.  They're a brown and green toile that my best friend gave me.  I use these colors over and over.  See the rest of this post here

Here's a night before Thanksgiving table for our very special house guests. 

Mr. Pheasant loves to be the center of attention! You'll see him at many a dinner party or luncheon.  Here's one where he sits among lots of neutrals and soft autumnal colors. 

 

And here's a table where a squirrel was the centerpiece.

Last fall I introduced the season with this screaming yellow and orange table.

 

And in the interest of full disclosure, I'm adding this post from last Thanksgiving.  It was not my favorite, partly because it seemed so lame to just have two people for Thanksgiving, and also because it seems so bland.  I was definitely going for a soft, neutral feel, but I feel that I went too far. You can see it here.  Oh well, Mr. Pressed Pants and I never travel for this holiday and our family lives too far away to travel for the weekend, so we volunteer to work at the USO at the Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson Airport.  It's such a privilege to serve Thanksgiving dinner to these wonderful men and women in the military.  That's the focus of our holiday and it has blessed us greatly. 

 

Joining:

 

I link up with The Scoop! Visit Confessions of a Plate Addict blog,Tablescape Thursday at 'Between Naps on the Porch', Wow us Wednesdays! at Savvy Southern Style, Open House Party at no minimalist here,Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage, Seasonal Sundays & Oh the places I have been at The Tablescaper, and life of the party at the grant life, and the style sisters