I’ll be sharing lots of ideas and inspiration with you from now until Christmas on how to decorate your tabletops for everything from lunch with the girls to family holiday dinners. I look at the surface of the table as a blank canvas providing limitless opportunities for my creative expression.
Let’s start with…
Mad for Plaid
Plaid is a hot trend right now. One easy way to bring a fashion statement to your table is with a piece of plaid fabric either used alone or layered over a solid tablecloth that you use all year.
Shopping in a fabric store as opposed to buying pre-made tablecloths will give you more options and can be less expensive. I always find great choices at The Fabric Mill in Plainview, Long Island including the autumn plaid I used in this project. I finished the edges of the fabric with iron on seam binding which couldn’t be easier to do.
The plaid fabric was my initial inspiration for the look of this tabletop. I imagined this table being for a small dinner party. I kept the design very simple and easy to do yet the end result is very polished with a “designer” look.
If you missed my television segment on Better TV, check back tomorrow for more how-to’s on how to complete this look!
According to the antique experts at www.kovels.com, amber glass is the name of any glassware that has the proper yellow-brown shading. The yellow-brown shading was very popular just after the Civil War and many pressed glass pieces were made of amber glass. Depression glass of the 1930s–1950s was also made in shades of amber. Other amber glass pieces can be found in Depression glass, Pressed Glass, and other glass categories. All types are being reproduced.
Amber glass vessels look best when placed near a light source so that the color of the glass becomes the focal point of the display. Since it’s all about the amber glow, I recommend a minimal approach to the floral you use. A single stem or a few branches are all you need. Take a look at the single stem of foliage in the teardrop vase. This particular foliage also happens to be called “liquid amber.” I call this look Urban Foliage!
Four petite, colored glass bottles, each displaying a single Circus bi-color rose. These look great lined up along a window ledge with the autumn sun shining through. It’s like they’re on stage and in the spotlight!
I tend to have “collections” of things. When I like something I usually pick up various pieces as I go along and tend to display them together. I love to pull the seasons into my collections. Most of the time I have my yellow pottery collection on a kitchen shelf, but on occasion I will pull a few pieces down and fill them with bunches of flowers from my garden, a local farmer’s market or neighborhood florist. The smaller arrangements make a lovely vignette on a foyer table or in the middle of a luncheon buffet table. I use every pottery piece that I have and use them in different ways all of the time. It’s fun to see new life in old cherished containers.
I will be showcasing different collections over the next week. Each one has a different vibe and a different story to tell.
USA POTTERY COLLECTION
I’ve been collecting USA pottery for quite awhile now. You can find pieces in so many different places from garage sales and flea markets to antique stores and online auctions. Prices vary dramatically from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. There are many factors that go into determining value, but I have never collected for the value. I love the colors, shapes and history of pottery. The fact that they were all made in the USA is also very important to me. Some of the more well know brands are McCoy, Hull, Hall and Roseville, and Haeger. I also like the early connection to the floral industry. Haeger in particular produced many vases and planters that were staples in flower shops across the United States. I have been using the vases of Barbara Eigen in my collection for a few years. Barbara is a ceramist with a studio in Jersey City. Her collection is today’s version of the USA pottery of years ago. I will be visiting her studio soon and will share with you a behind the scenes look at an artist at work. I currently have a product in my collection called Country Harvest that features a ceramic pitcher which is a reproduction of an original Hall pitcher that I found in an antique store last year.
Here’s an example of the simple beauty of seasonal flowers (asclepia, coreopsis, dahlias, and calendula) in yellow pottery. The other collections I’ll be featuring are amber glass and copper. What collections do you have that can be used in new ways and add a new look to your autumn decorating?
This is the last Thanksgiving video to complete the tabletop look. Watch the video to learn how to make simple leaf placemats. They are easy, inexpensive and fun to do with the family.
Take a look at this video for tips on how to make Colored Bottle Place Card Holders. They add a great touch to any Thanksgiving table setting. These place card holders go great with the Sunflower and Fruit Candle Holders shown in my last post.
Give this idea a try. Remember, just have fun with it!
Thanksgiving will be here before we know it! I’ll be posting videos with ideas for setting a creative Thanksgiving table. Look out for them during the upcoming weeks. I hope they inspire you to add a few unique touches this year and even create some new traditions of your own.
I made these videos a year ago and the ideas always seem to be a hit! I had such a good time making the videos with my nieces and one of my daughters.
Who knew?! I can’t take credit for this unique design. Believe it or not, I found this put together at a garage sale at an old house. This garage sale was like a scavenger hunt! There were piles of the most interesting stuff (well maybe not interesting to everyone). At garage sales, you need to use your imagination when digging through old cast-offs, but just sitting there was this little old drawer filled with little ink bottles. I immediately thought to myself how it would make the perfect little centerpiece. This is recycling at its best!
I had been using this set of vintage kitchen canisters for a while. Then I saw another set of the same canisters at one of my favorite haunts, Barntique Village in Moriches, New York. I couldn’t resist buying them; they were only $5.00!
Once I brought the canisters home, I quickly found the perfect place for them. In the canisters I planted a variety of fresh herbs and kept them on a potting bench out on my back deck. It was so nice to have the different herbs right in my backyard. I was able to add some interesting new flavors to my old recipes. Not to mention they looked great out there too!
I think the most interesting floral arrangements are the ones that are in a unique or unexpected container. You’ve seen the seasonal veggie and flower arrangements that I’ve posted recently and how great they look. So why not use old tin cans, bottles and more. Look around in your kitchen, garage, or attic – I truly believe that if it can hold water, it can hold flowers!
Even if the object can’t hold water, you can always put a glass or plastic cup inside of it to fill with water. Below is one idea to get your started.
Be creative and just have fun with it!!
Tin Can
This is a container that I received as a gift from the luxury chocolatier, MarieBelle® New York. The container was filled with a delicious mix of Aztec Iced Chocolate. I loved the vintage look of the tin and the family graphic on the front. I knew that it wouldn’t be long before it was on my kitchen counter filled with something from my garden. In the arrangement, I used beautiful blue hybrid delphinium to complement the blue of the container.
I’ll be posting a few more ideas so check back in a couple of days!
I visited my friends from Cupcakes Take the Cake this past weekend at the Brooklyn Flea. I don’t know how it’s possible that I wasn’t aware of this flea market before.
Brooklyn Flea Market
I read on Cupcakes Take the Cake last week that they were going to have a bake sale to benefit Cancer Care for Kids at the Brooklyn Flea, which is in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The bake sale sounded like it would be fun and the Brooklyn Flea intrigued me, so I made a mental note. When I got home that night my latest edition of Country Living was in my mailbox. I opened it up and there was a story on the Brooklyn Flea! After seeing it mentioned in two places I knew I had to go.
My visit to the Brooklyn Flea last Sunday was a great autumn day spent with my daughter, sister-in-law and niece. I visited Nichelle and Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake at the cupcake booth and made a contribution (in exchange for some decadent cupcakes), bought a few things, and had a great lunch at a local restaurant.
Rachel & Nichelle
It was also a thrill to see the changes that have taken place in Fort Greene over the years. The flea market is in the school yard of Bishop Loughlin High School, which used to be the designated catholic “diocesan” high school for boys that my brother Jim attended. The neighborhood was quite rough back then, but it seems to have faired as well as many of the school’s graduates such as my bro and Rudy Guiliani!
