Bounty

I have been busy with clients and haven’t had a moment to gather my thoughts for post until today.  Truth be told, I hadn’t even bought any pumpkins until yesterday, when I found these beauties at Whole Foods.  There is something that I just love about those white pumkins…

Fun to see that my mystery white roses are still in bloom, but they do like nice with the pumpkins.  Those are rust luminarias that you can barely see, but they look great lit up and glowing on Halloween.  But I am already looking beyond Halloween and thinking about Thanksgiving!  We may get to host as many as 20 people for Thanksgiving this year, which means I’ll get the chance to set two tables.  What fun!  Here are some shots of my table last year.

You can see my old chairs in this shot.  But I am going to use a burlap runner again this year, as I have for a few years now.  It’s just so perfect for a casual Thanksgiving.  My family squeezes turkey and stuffing between the halves of the Cowboys game every year, so we keep things at the table low-key enough that the jeans and sweats that everyone is wearing are in keeping with the dishes and glasses on the table.  And frankly, by the time I am cleaning up I am happy that I can throw everything in the dishwasher without a worry.  I borrowed extensively from my family room for this.  The candlesticks, pheasant and nut covered pomander normally live in the family room. 

I try not to do one overbearing centerpiece on the table and Thanksgiving as I really do want everyone to be able to talk, pray and laugh together.  I tucked some leaves from the yard into my sterling figural napkin rings my mom has been getting me for years.  I curved a faux white antler around the vintage red leather books and the silver bowl full of flowers.  I have these wonderful silver cups that are intended for creating a flower arrangement on a candlestick and so I filled them with oasis and Whole Foods flowers and berries and leaves that I gathered from my yard.  ( I did all this the afternoon before Thanksgiving  as there is no way I would have had a minute or the inclination to do this on turkey day.

A closeup of the flowers.   Can you believe that most of these came from a couple of mixed harvest bouquets? 

This image is from the Southern Living website.  Aren’t these pear candles lovely?  I always love to read the autumn Southern Living issues.  I get great ideas for recipes and now they are doing a wonderful job of decor, as well. 

Couldn’t do a post on holiday tables without Martha

  I pulled some photos from her website and if you want to learn how to re-create them, hop on over.  I did cull through them to be sure that the corn husk votive wraps did not start with the directions on planting a row of corn in your backyard!  She has some great ideas for hurricanes, votives, and candlesticks that look very easy and inexpensive to copy.

These are the bottoms of pine cones and some velvet ribbon.

Placecards with more “pine cone blossoms” adorning them.  They look very pretty but also easy to do.  If only my handwriting skills were up to the task…

I clearly love those white pumpkins!  I think this is a very straightforward way to create a lovely buffet accent – a cornucopia ringed with faux vines and filled with white pumpkins and leaves.

Another take on the cornucopia, layered with wheat stalks, squash, lady apples and pears.  Just lovely. 

I am off to get things ready for Number 1 son, who is coming home for the weekend.  Have a wonderful week.