Fun in Nashville

Last weekend my Dallas sister and I flew (separately) to Nashville to visit our baby sister and her family -- and to see our amazing 15-year-old niece as the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof.  It was a jam-packed, less-than-48-hours trip, and SO much fun!  Besides eating at some fabulous places and seeing the terrific production of Fiddler, we also shopped a little.  Okay, a lot!  One MUST on my to-do list any time I'm in Nashville is visiting the shop Color, which has wonderful gifts, dishes, jewelry, decorative items, and a delightful staff who are happy to help shoppers.  One staff member showed me a new idea for using placemats and napkins to set a pretty table.  I managed to get my purchases into my carry-on suitcase, but just barely!

Usually, my tables are all about the dishes, because I love different patterns of china and I usually start by choosing a pattern or two, then go from there.  In fact, I didn't even own any plain white dishes until about a year ago.  This time, however, I started with the new placemats, layering these fun twig ones over some lime green round ones.  Yes, those are real twigs!  Just picture me wrestling those placemats into a small roll-aboard suitcase!

I added a plain white plate and a matching lime green hem-stitched linen napkin in the clear napkin rings my daughter bought me -- also from Color! -- for Christmas a couple of years ago.   Here's the placesetting.

Here you can see the green stemware I chose to go with the placesetting.

Here's a better look at the napkin ring, which has an opening to hold water for flowers.  I used these pink-tinged yellow roses from the grocery store along with some rosemary from the back yard.

I like the juxtaposition of the sterling silver and the rustic placemat.

After using roses in the napkin rings, I only had a few left, so decided to use the bottles-in-a-wire-carrier that I used for another recent table, adding a few rosemary sprigs.  This is how the roses looked on Saturday.

By Sunday afternoon, they had opened up beautifully!

Here's a view of the whole table, taken before the roses opened.  Very simple, but I like simple!

And one more look at the roses!

If you get to visit Nashville, plan to stop at Color -- tell them Tricia sent you! Thank you for visiting my table this week, and be sure to visit Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish and Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday!