Dining Room White

Our dining room takes on less importance this time of year even though it sits right in the middle of the house.

In fact, the room is also a passageway. So even if we are taking more meals outside, the space is something of a foyer.
It's a two-edged sword. Either it makes a wonderful area to showcase some fine display or someone drops by the minute you have unloaded the car onto the table.
One way or the other there's usually something of interest accumulating at this 'command central' location.
My chippy iron candelabra is very versatile and able to stand alone or hold fruit, flowers, or what have you, in a mostly overstated way.
Ditto, this commodious tea pot, which holds flowers as often as anything else.


I really enjoy covering my table with the texture of a white quilt. I also like the thick foundation for the tableware.
I have a motley collection of kind of busted up transfer-ware taking up space all the time. In her former home my mom-in-law kept a blue transfer-ware tureen on her kitchen table at all times which she referred to as her 'office'. (It's mine now.) It corralled stamps and a letter opener and such, and I have copied that here.
An empty platter asking the existential question... With what will I be filled?
A decorative tureen perhaps. Candles, shells. Even something edible.


Smooth and delectable white shells.

The dining room also showcases my habit of overdoing the hanging of plates.

Details, details.


What is more delightful in the universe?
My tureen keeping its contents hidden in plain sight!

This tiny vessel was surely part of a pitcher and bowl set in some past life and is my newest little treasure. Cost-- $1.50. Cheer factor--priceless.Unflinching under scrutiny.
Dining room ablaze.

A calm and serene sea of stitching.


"She looked up... and saw the room, saw the chairs, thought them fearfully shabby.... Never mind, the rent was precisely twopence halfpenny; the children loved it;... and there was room for visitors. Mats, camp beds, crazy ghosts of chairs and tables whose London life of service was done--they did well enough here; and a photograph or two, and books. Books, she thought, grew of themselves. She never had time to read them... At a certain moment, she supposed, the house would become so shabby that something must be done... things got shabbier and got shabbier summer after summer."

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Ciao! Thanks for stopping by!
Jacqueline

Please visit Faded Charm for more WHITE WEDNESDAY!

Queen's Ware Afternoon

Mary E. made herself famous by reminding us that it's good to be queen. Nice thought, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for someone to plant a crown on my head! But a good way to play the part is with Wedgwood's Queensware china.


Seems like I've slobbered over every magazine ad with this gorgeous pattern on it's page for decades, but I only recently ever saw it in person last winter.


Did I NEED another set of dishes? CLARO QUE SI! Mais, oui! BUT OF COURSE! I have NEEDED this china since maybe 1977! So I snapped up a gorgeous incomplete set that completed me. And I just brought it out for it's first spring airing.


I love small parties. The occasion doesn't have to be grand to get out the grand stuff. A centerpiece may be the only thing you have to go out of your way to add to make an ordinary event a special occasion. And as per Carolyne Roehm's recent suggestion, a flamboyant fern or houseplant can stand in for that. Especially if it's a garden party.


I've never had much time for extras like favors and place cards, though I've found them charming at other people's events. Simple spreads reduce stress and increase spontaneity.


You don't have to dust for a patio soiree.


Simple garden decor sets a nice AND easy stage.


White pom pom mums have replaced roses as my must have flowers.They are long lasting and dramatic and low cost.


A table set like this for two could be your answer to Evelyn Couch's saran wrap outfit! You'd want candles of course.


This china pattern is table decoration enough.


Yummy enough to eat!


In fact, these plates stacked on a cake stand even look like an iced confection fit for Marie Antoinette.


With dinner ware like this you could serve pizza and no one would care.


But probably the best thing about taking care with a table is its very mindfulness. Taking time to see everything close up. In slow motion. Especially with loved ones you see often. You are sending the message that "YOU MATTER."


These bistro glasses are a favorite at the CLUB (the family reference to our house). I'm always casting about for fill in replacements because when you use things a lot casualties occur.


This cloth with its white embroidery is one of my favorites. So subtle.













Perhaps on occasion we can enjoy rising to the celebration of each day's gifts with a little extra gesture.



". . .The Badger summoned them to the table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt pretty hungry before, but when they actually saw at last the supper that was spread for them, really it seemed only a question of what they should attack first where all was so attractive. . . .
Conversation was impossible for along time; and when it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of conversation that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself he had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn't really matter."

Kenneth Graham, Mr. Badger chapter, The Wind in the Willows

Ciao! Thanks for stopping by!

Jacqueline

Today I'm joining Tablescape Thursday at
Between Naps on the Porch

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

My Romantic Home
Show and Tell Friday

http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Please check out both fun blogs!