Christmas in July

While visiting Marlis' wonderful blog, Creative Journeys, this week, I was inspired to pull together a post so I could participate in a few of this week's blog parties.  I was out of town last weekend, so didn't have time to create a new tablescape to post, but this is the next best thing!

I always enjoy setting special tables for Christmas Eve, Christmas morning breakfast, and Christmas dinner.  I try to vary them at least a bit each year, but there are also some constants.  I love the look of fresh evergreens, mixed with ornaments and candles or flowers.  So easy, but very festive!  I like this mostly all-green centerpiece I used last Christmas Eve.  (Click the link under the photos to visit the original post.)

Christmas Eve 2011

I used a very similar centerpiece for Christmas Eve dinner in 2010, using a silver sandwich tray to contain the greenery, green and silver ornaments, and white candles. 

Christmas Eve, 2010

For a more formal Christmas table, I simply removed the green ornaments and added a few more silver ones. 

White Christmas, 2010

This centerpiece is still one of my favorites -- so simple, yet elegant.  I just combined fresh greenery with white mums and green hypericum berries in a pretty bowl from my in-laws' collection.

Christmas Dinner, 2010

I continued the theme with the napkin rings -- a Christmas gift opened that morning! -- adding a mum and sprigs of greenery to each one.

I found one pre-blog photo from Christmas 2006!  You can just get a glimpse of another simple and monochromatic centerpiece using fresh greenery and lime green "Kermit" mums from the grocery store in my silver Revere bowl.

Each year I usually buy  one or two small live trees to use on a sideboard or in a centerpiece, as I did for Christmas breakfast last year.  With a couple of Santas from my mother-in-law's collection, they made for a simple but festive centerpiece.

Christmas morning, 2011

Here's one more Christmas breakfast table, this one featuring a wooden tree and red candles as a centerpiece. 

Christmas morning, 2010

Thank you for visiting this week!  I look forward to visiting YOU to see your great ideas for Christmas!

 I will be linking to:

Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish #19-- Christmas in July
Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday
Yvonne of StoneGable for the Christmas in July blog hop

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!

Primary Colors

The inspiration for my table this week was this tablecloth I found on clearance at the Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma Outlet in San Marcos last weekend.  I could spend hours in that store!  I love the border print, and the yellow goes nicely in my yellow breakfast area.

I wanted to bring out the little bit of red in the border print, so I asked my husband to bring home some red flowers from the grocery store.  (He does all the grocery shopping and cooking.  And, yes, I am spoiled!)  He came home with these red Gerberas, which were perfect for the little bottles in a holder that I got for Mother's Day.  It's from the NapaStyle catalog, if you're interested.

Here's another view.  The chicken-wire holder is set on top of a lazy susan, also from Napa Style.

Since the table was for a Sunday night supper, I set it with our everyday dishes, stainless, and stemware.

Here's a closer look at a matching napkin.

Here's another view of the table.  I thought it needed a little something.

So I added some of my Le Creuset covered ramekins.  They really pull out the blue print of the tablecloth.

I love these cheery flowers!

In this photo you can see the baker's rack, which is also decorated in blue and yellow for the summer.

And -- the rim shot!

The details:
Dansk Kristina and Florencia dishes
Towle Beaded Antique stainless
Villeroy and Boch My Garden stemware

Thank you for visiting my red, yellow, and blue table this week!  I will be linking to Let's Dish at Cuisine Kathleen and to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch this week.