RE-ceiving Guests: A Traditional & Feminine Table

TRADITIONAL. It feels like I haven't seen a table set like the ones of my childhood in a long time.  My mother's tables are very different from mine.  Her settings are always much more formal and traditional.  While I do enjoy more modern looks, my model for table setting goes to the formal tables my grandmother, aunt and mother would set for ladies parties, luncheons and holidays when I was a child.  When I was home for Easter, I snapped some shots on my iphone (hence the poor photo quality) of my mom's Spring china/table to share. 

THE DORIAN GRAY OF TABLE SETTINGS.  I took this picture last week, but I probably could have taken the same picture 35 years ago, too.  My mother's dining room hasn't changed in all that time.  The very feminine floral china is from Limoges.  The silver is Towle Old Master. I don't know who made the goblets.  The white embroidered tablecloth is one Reba brought back from a trip as a gift for our mom.   The silver candelabras are older than I am so they fall somewhere between "vintage' and "antique". ; )  The glass bud vases may be new in design and by "new" I mean less than 35 years old.    I wonder if a younger person would find this look appealing at all or if they would think it is horribly dated?  Personally, I think it is a look, that while not trendy, is still appealing.   When I grew up tables were very feminine because they were thought to reflect the taste and style of the hostess.  A very feminine table was the norm and I still like a feminine table with floral designs and lace.

DELICATE.  FINE. DAINTY.  Right now I am really into all things rustic and/or modern for decor and table settings, but looking at my mother's table settings over Easter, I remembered enjoying and admiring the details in a finely cut piece of delicate floral china.   I still really like pretty and feminine as a look, what about you?  Classic or out of style? I'm curious what you think.



PLATES CLOSE UP.     I think silver or colored chargers would make the table seem more modern, but I didn't add any because that wouldn't be my mom's style.  One detail I liked was how the scallop of the napkin's edge matched the scallop edging of the plates and the curve of the silver ware.   No modern sharp angles here.  I find it funny how things go in and out of fashion.  Who knows what will be in 35 years from now. 

 WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE

You can see Reba's Pink & Green Toile Table HERE

Purple, silver and white wedding tables discussed HERE

Blue Toile & Buffalo Check Pattern Table is HERE

LINK PARTIES:

See more Tablescapes HERE

RE-ceiving Guests: Easter Table #2

CASUAL BREAKFAST TABLE.  I posted this week about using a Butterfly Theme on my Living Room Mantel which left all my cutesy, pastel Easter stuff unused.  I decided to use it in my family room.  The pink felt placemats are from Target.  They are in the Dollar bins.  The bunny placemats are from Pottery Barn Kids.  I bought them 9 years ago for playdates and I still really like them.  The coordinating egg shape plate is also from Pottery Barn Kids as part of the same set.  I used a white cotton tablecloth and white napkins.  I used the green and white polka dot paper left over from my St. Patrick's Day table to decorate the napkins.   The crystal old-fashioned is by Gorham. 

Bunny Convention.  I gathered our stuffed bunnies and put them on a cake stand for a centerpiece.  I have pink and green tulle remnants that I used for make believe and different parties when my daughter was young so I wrapped some around the centerpiece for a bit more color. 

Got Bunny?  We have a lot of bunnies left over from when my daughter was young so Easter allows us to get a bit more use out of them. 

Big Centerpiece.  I normally don't have such a big centerpiece on this table, but I had so many bunnies to use that the centerpiece grew and grew.  I didn't even use half of our bunnies.  I was especially sorry to not be able to figure out a way to use our moss bunnies, but the table was just not big enough. 

Green and Pink.  The Pottery Barn bunny place mats and plates come in 4 colors: green, pink, blue and yellow.  I have 2 sets (btw, wish I had a third, but I haven't seen them again, not even on ebay, don't you hate it when that happens?) so I decided to only use the green and the pink to emphasize those 2 colors since it is a smaller table.  This also allowed me to use items like the green and white stripe candles and polka dot paper covered tin cans left over from my St. Patrick's Day Table which was nice. 

WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE

You can see Reba's Easter Table with Vintage HandPainted Eggs HERE

See My Butterfly Spring Mantel HERE

A Peter Rabbit Themed Party is HERE

A Christian Cross Bead Craft for Kids (Great for Easter Playdates) is described HERE

LINK PARTIES:

See more Tablescapes HERE

RE-ceiving Guests: St. Patrick's Day Table

GO GREEN.  Even though neither I nor my husband are Irish, I was loving all the St. Patrick's Day tables I saw other bloggers putting up and I was bummed because I did not have any green and white tableware to do a St. Patrick's Day table of my own.  I always went to Catholic Schools, so I am use to celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  Not to be left out, my solution was to rely upon a lot of recycled materials, scrapbook paper and craft projects to set up a festive holiday table setting.  I am pleasantly satisfied with the end result above.

RECYCLED INVENTORY.   The round green place mats were from our old home. I forgot we had them until I started rummaging around looking for green items for the table.  The glass plates I got a long time ago from Garden Ridge Pottery here in Austin, but I know the Dollar Tree always carries some, too.  I think glass plates are handy.  Some may recall how I used glass plates and tissue paper to make DIY Christmas Plates.  For St. Patrick's Day, I used scrapbook paper in a green and white gingham pattern to make shamrocks to adhere to the underside of the plates.  It took one scrapbook sheet to make the 4 shamrocks for the 4 plates.  I free hand drew the first template.  It isn't hard to draw a shamrock, it is just 3 hearts and a stem.  The glasses are old pickle jars I have been saving up for a summer table setting.  I had green and white polka dot name tags which set the palette for the scrapbook pages I bought.  I lucked out and found scrapbook pages with green and white polka dots and used them to wrap old tin cans to use as flower containers.   With the paper scraps left over from wrapping the tin cans, I cut out 4 strips to put around the napkins and I used adhesive spray to keep them folded.   The leprechaun hat/leprechaun trap is a craft from felt, scraps of paper and an old plastic 2 liter bottle for the base.  A piece of St. Patrick's Day scrapbook paper under the hat and some gold foil wrapped chocolate coins on a cake stand are the centerpiece.   The pots of gold are made from recycled yogurt cups.

Mix of patterns.  I had 3 main patterns.  The name tags on the glass jars and the scrapbook paper on the napkins and the tin cans match a scrap of material I used as a runner.  The gingham print is on the hat and the shamrocks under the plates.  The darker green and white shamrock print is under the centerpiece. 

ANOTHER VIEW.

A PLACE SETTING

LEPRECHAUN HAT/LEPRECHAUN TRAP.  The idea for the centerpiece comes from a Family Fun magazine craft you can see HERE   I didn't have a can to use, so I used a 2 liter soda bottle for the base.

MY SUPPLIES.  Spray Adhesive. Glue gun.  Felt squares. Scrapbook paper. Old plastic bottle. Cardboard piece cut out in a round.

Spray Painted Yogurt Cups. I save yogurt cups for different craft projects and I always have gold spray paint around.

POT OF GOLD.  Recycled Yogurt cups, painted with gold spray paint,  filled with rolos candies, green tissue paper, a quickly drawn rainbow and a cloud,  add another recognizable Irish element to the table.   These are great crafts for kids in Sunday School.  For my Sunday School class, we normally make shamrocks with images for The Father, Son and Holy Spirit for each leaf to explain and represent The Holy Trinity to the kids the same way St. Patrick did, but this year, we won't have class for St. Patrick's Day so I don't have the supplies handy or I would have added that in somewhere.

GREEN MINT PUNCH.  I filled the glass jars with a mixture of green lime sorbet, diet limeade and diet 7 up.  The green and white paper straws I got at Sur La Table.  I really want some more paper straws in other colors so I might end up ordering some online because I haven't found the other colors I want locally.

White Simple Flowers. My local grocery store had a bunch of the above flowers for $4.99 so I couldn't resist picking up a bunch which was more than enough for the 2 tin cans.   

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY.

WRITTEN BY ELDAROSE

Links to more of our St. Patrick's Day table celebration pages are included below.

You might also enjoy my post RE-cycling Ideas for a Greener Christmas which you can read HERE

You can see Reba's St. Patrick's Day Table HERE

A Christian Cross Bead Craft for Kids (Great for Easter Playdates) is described HERE

You can see my 2014 St. Patrick's Day table HERE

You may also be interested in my new post this week on MOM CAMP which is HERE

Reba's Blue and White Toile & Check Luncheon Table is HERE

LINK PARTIES:

 This entry will be party of Cuisine Kathleen's St. Patick's Day Blog Crawl.  You can see many more St. Patrick's Day tables, crafts, holiday decor and ideas HERE

See more Tablescapes HERE