Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!  We will be just three around the table this year, as our children are celebrating with in-laws, but a lovely relaxed day is one of my favorite things.  My table features my Grandma Rachel's wedding china, Heinrich H&C's Admiral with colors perfect for the season.  Bronze and burgundy mums add a late fall touch before our thoughts turn to Christmas decorating.

On the menu:  stuffed turkey rolls (from boned thighs), cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, green beans, yeast rolls, and a new-to-us cranberry compote that includes BACON! (How bad can it BE?)  For dessert, I've made a browned-butter pecan pie and mini chocolate chess pies, with lots of whipped cream available.

Enjoy your day and count your blessings!

Planning for Easter

This table is something of a dry run for Easter.  We may have as many as ten around the table this year, as our son and his family are moving to the Austin area the week before Easter.  I will finally have all my chicks in one state -- yay!

I knew I wanted to use the pretty Castleton Gloria china that my mother surprised me with two years ago.  You can read the story of that surprise here.  Gloria has a thin robin's egg blue band around the rim, so I pulled out these coordinating placemats, which were a gift from my sister.

I also wanted to use these cute dessert plates, as well as some pastel gingham napkins, all from Pier 1 this year. I added egg cups in colors to match the napkins and some paper mache eggs I've had for years.  Here's the pink version . . .

the lavender version . . .

the green version . . .

and the yellow version.  I was pleased with how well all the different pastels worked with the robin's egg blue. 

 For a simple centerpiece, I pulled out two nests and added robin's egg blue eggs.  (Is that redundant?)

For Easter dinner, I will remove the candles and add fresh flowers, more placesettings and real eggs in the egg cups as placecards.  And the grands might "need" a chocolate bunny at their places, don't you agree?

Thanks for stopping by!  I will be linking to the party at Cuisine Kathleen, so hop on over to see other tables featuring eggs, birds, and/or nests!

Thinking Green

I wanted to join the fifth annual St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl at Cuisine Kathleen this year, so I started by pulling out my vintage green glassware.  The water glasses originally belonged to my husband's grandparents, and for Christmas this year, my mother surprised me with the little "liquor cocktails" to match.  The pattern is by Anchor Hocking and is called either "Burple" or "Inspiration."  I love the deep emerald green.

For last year's St. Patrick's Day table I used the same glasses with my grandmother's wedding china, so I wanted to do something different this year.  I remembered some Williams-Sonoma salad plates with a green and gold pattern, so pulled those out.  I layered them on top of a plain white dinner plate and a larger gold ceramic plate.  I used plain white placemats and white napkins with a simple cutwork design and added our silver flatware.

For a little more green, I added a gold-trimmed green glass piece from my in-laws' collection.

For flowers, I found two small pots of yellow kalanchoes at HEB and decided they could be "pots of gold."  They were just starting to bloom in this photo.

Here's a "diner's view" across the table:

 Here's a view of the table set for four:

As the week went on, the kalanchoes opened up a bit more.

No shamrocks, leprechauns, or other traditional St. Patrick's Day elements on this table, but I hope all the green plus the pots of gold will qualify it for Kathleen's party!  Thank you for visiting my table this week!

Happy Texas Independence Day!

There's a lot going on this week -- our son's birthday, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday, but we can't forget Texas Independence Day on March 2nd.  What?  You don't celebrate that holiday?!  Well, I must confess that we didn't either until a few years ago.  As transplanted Texans, we didn't learn Texas history in school, so we were woefully ignorant of the fact that March 2nd marks both Texas' declaration of independence from Mexico (178 years ago) and Sam Houston's birthday.

But now we know, and so it was time to set a table honoring Texas.  This year I paired my Texas salad plates with some blue and white bordered plates in my collection.  

The little red star dishes and the Texas plates are from HEB, our grocery store, and the blue bandanna napkins were a gift from my Nashville sister.  The blue ribbed glasses were a gift from Marigene who blogs "In the Middle of Nowhere".  Aren't tablescaping friends the best?

For a centerpiece, I needed more red, so I bought some red gerbera daisies (again at HEB) and cut the stems short so I could use them in my pansy ring.

In the following photo, you can see over on the baker's rack the two Texas flags that my friend Michele, who blogs at Adventures in Thrifting, surprised me with this week. 

Here's a better view of the daisies.

I like the way the napkin's design goes with the blue bordered plate.

The daisies close up. . .

One more!

Thanks for stopping by!  I will be linking to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch, so stop by to see other tablescapes.  I wonder if anyone else is celebrating Texas Independence Day!

An Easter Table

We aren't actually hosting Easter dinner this year, but when my husband brought home a large bunch of daffodils from HEB, they practically demanded that I set a festive Easter table.

I've been wanting to use the pretty Castleton Gloria china that Mama surprised me with last year, so I pulled it out of storage.  As you can see below, it has a thin robin's egg blue band inside the gold-trimmed scalloped edge and taupe roses in the center. 

The placemats and napkins from my Nashville sister work perfectly with this pattern.  This photo shows the "lizard" pattern in the placemat.  Belvedere is the silver pattern.

I added a single daffodil to my bud vase napkin rings to bring a little yellow to table level.

Couldn't resist this close-up!

To add a bit more yellow, as well as an Easter touch, I remembered some faux eggs I've had for several years, so added one to each coffee cup.

Then I remembered a couple of small nests I'd picked up when my mother and sisters and I visited Salado a few years ago, so I added those to the table, along with some eggs to match the placemats.

Here's what a placesetting looked like after I added crystal and silver.  I think these shades of blue and yellow play well together!

Here is a diner's view across the table:

Here are the stars of the show, the gorgeous daffodils:

Here's the table, set for four. 

Thank you for stopping by this week!  I will be linking to Cuisine Kathleen's Let's Dish and Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday, and you will see many pretty spring and Easter tables there.

Easter Breakfast for the Grands

I haven't been organized enough to link to Marty's Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life in a long time, but this week I finally have something to share.

My inspiration for this tablescape was a set of orange-checked napkins I picked up on sale at a Sur la Table recently.  I decided to set an Easter breakfast table with my two grandchildren in mind.  The table is set for three, in part because I bought only three of the polka dotted plates at Target a year or two ago.  (I know, The Tablescaper would be horrified!)

The highlight of the placesettings for the grandchildren, is, of course, the candy-filled "carrot"!

Other elements include a green placemat, white plate as charger, and dotted melamine plate, plus our everyday stainless, the checked napkin, and a plastic goblet.  I found only two of the goblets at Tuesday Morning, but they are made exactly like my blue Villeroy and Boch "My Garden" glasses, and I was surprised to pick them up and discover they were plastic.  I wish I could find more of these for outdoor use! 

Here's a closer look at the centerpiece.  My daughter gave me the cute little chicks last year.  I set them in a nest of shredded paper along with some faux eggs.  As you can see, the eggs have begun to hatch, and the chicks are starting to explore their new world!

Another view of the escaping chicks:

Unfortunately, we won't be with our grandchildren this Easter, but I promise to save the "carrots" for them!

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  I hope you'll leave a comment before you visit more fun table tops at Marty's A Stroll Thru Life!

Texas Independence Day

As a transplanted Texan, I must admit that I could not have told you the date of Texas Independence Day.  But this year, March 2nd marks the 175th anniversary of the day that Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836.  After increasingly strained relations with the Mexican government and with the Alamo in San Antonio under siege, the authors of Texas' Declaration of Independence wrote the document overnight, proclaiming the Texas to be a "free, sovereign, and independent republic."  The Republic of Texas lasted until 1845, when Texas joined the Union as the 28th state. 

When we moved to Texas in 2000, it still felt a bit like we'd moved to another country.  Texans are very proud of being Texans!  It took us a while to learn the words to "Texas, Our Texas," which is sung immediately after the national anthem at football games.  Everyone else in the stands seemed to know the words and sang enthusiastically.  Anyway, celebrating a 175th anniversary suggested a tablescape!

Last year, the Texas grocery store chain HEB sold these melamine plates and star-shaped bowls, and when they were finally marked down to fifty cents each, I bought some! 

The placesetting also includes plain white dinner plates and red salad plates, my red Georgian-Ruby goblets, everyday flatware, plaid placemats, and my mother-in-law's red napkins tied with striped ribbon.

Here's a closer look at the cute melamine pieces.  We'll use the star-shaped bowls for extra barbecue sauce!

I didn't have any red flowers on hand, nor is it time for the bluebonnets to bloom just yet, so I made do with a red lantern as a simple centerpiece. 

Here's a view of the table, set in the breakfast area. 

And one from a different angle. . . .

We have enjoyed living in Texas, and have found the natives very friendly.  For example, shortly after we moved here and before we'd gotten our Texas license plates, the woman who took my groceries out to the car (I told you HEB was great!) spotted our out-of-state plates and said, "I see you're new in town.  Have you found a church home yet?"  She then invited me to hers!

Here's to the great state of Texas! 

Thank you for visiting my table this week!  I will be linking it to Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch, so be sure to check out other tablescapes there tomorrow! 

Thanksgiving Tables

I've been out of town this week, so didn't have time to set a table for Tablescape Thursday.  Instead, I'm posting some photos from past Thanksgivings, before I joined the tablescaping tribe.  I didn't take many pictures of my tables back then, so this won't take long!

This table is from 2007, when there were just three around the table -- my husband, my son, and me.

This was a super-simple centerpiece -- a glass bowl with yellow apples anchoring yellow-striped alstroemeria and hypericum berries.  I've had the tapestry runner for years.

The placesetting included my wedding china, crystal, and silver, and I dressed up the napkins a bit with a sheer ribbon and sprig of faux berries.

This was last year's table.  We had eight around the table, with my father-in-law and my daughter's family joining us.  The centerpiece is again a simple one -- my favorite kind!  I used two types of mums and hypericum berries in a silver-and-glass piece from my in-laws' collection.

I used my grandmother's wedding china, Admiral by Heinrich H&C, and I set the dinner plates on gold pottery plates from Pottery Barn to highlight the gold in the design.  The embroidered linens were also my grandmother's.  I do not look forward to ironing that tablecloth this year!

In this view, you can also see the small silver bowls holding Seckel pears, which I found in a large container at Sam's.  They are so little and cute -- not to mention tasty!

You can see more of the pears in a glass bowl on the sideboard, which held dishes we needed for dessert.  Salad plates allowed us to try more than one dessert!

 And, finally, here's one more super-simple fall centerpiece idea.  The wooden candleholders are from the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos.  I hope to get back down there soon!

Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for visiting my table this week!  I hope you will leave a comment before you leave to visit all the wonderful tablescapes at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch!