Planning For November's Tables

I had the best time getting out a few table things to consider for the days coming up! When you are a dish and linen fanatic there is always too much to choose from. But then there is more than just Thanksgiving Day to appreciate all the things you love, and to remind yourself why you have them in the first place!

With our big family spread out everywhere, we often have more than one celebration anyway. And getting started with the holiday visits early makes getting it all in more of a sure thing. Just today we received our first invitation from a neighbor who has her big holiday party the Sunday after Thanksgiving every single year.

It's also a good time to consider gifting a few favorite treasures to those you love. Especially if  your collections haven't seen the light of day for awhile.

But there are things that I keep put away just for this time of year, like dishes with acorn motifs, and this apple sugar and creamer set by Johnson Brothers. (The pattern name escapes me. Do you know it?) The Sheffield teapot with the acorn knob is a favorite, and is always at hand. 

An old cafe cup paired with a stray saucer. . . .

These transferware plates are new favorites that I stumbled upon last summer. They are a set of four dessert size plates perfect for something festive. I am crazy about the barnyard scene!

I hardly use printed tablecloths, but this one took my fancy at Home Goods. It's a Ralph Lauren design. I thought I would pair it with these gold napkins from Pottery Barn. I thought they would soften with washing but they didn't. So now the plan is to use them and wash them a lot so they will! Nothing worse than scratchy napkins!

I decided to tone down the patterns with a plain runner and white plates. (Surprise!) The vintage plates are Rose Point by Pope Gosser.

But I really do love the subtle colors.

This leafy edge just sends me too!

I never got over my childhood picture books. . . .

And just check out all those critters! The pattern is "Farm" by Old Hall. The seller valued them at five dollars total for all four.

I also selected this linen table square from my piles for a side table. I found this vintage piece in new condition, and gave it its first wash. I just realized that I have a much bigger linen wardrobe that the one that I wear! 

  

Finally, I wanted to show you a few paper napkins that I picked up for the Thankful season. I loved a bunch of different ones, so I bought a few to dress up the table and to give as hostess gifts. There are so many great designs, and my friends have loved getting them. They make nice bunting strung up on a ribbon or length of yarn. These all came from Home Goods at a very small price for each package.

They do not stand in for cloth napkins, but are wonderful for drinks and snacks, or for decoration.

A few turkey paper plates even made the cut! (I hardly recognize myself!)

I hope you are enjoying some fun table times too!

Feeling grateful, thankful, and blessed. . . .

So nice that you came by!

Jacqueline

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Petals, Patchwork, & An Autumn Ritual

Our local grocery had these beautiful wine-colored hydrangea plants in the floral department yesterday. I am way more apt to use this deep color for fall than the more common fiery hues. I also love that a plant will last so much longer than cut blooms!

I thought right away of the new Wolff pot that we brought home from Connecticut last summer. I have just dropped the hydrangea in like a cachepot. They will get moved around as long as they last, but for now they cheer up this corner by the reading chair.

Read more about these pots here and here.

I also look for ways to use my transferware around the house for fall. A pretty plate will serve as a temporary saucer since the pot has a drainage hole and needs one.

Another "fall" thing that I bring out is this old patchwork quilt that I stumbled across a few years ago at a fleamarket. It was in one of those "man" booths with old tools and metal and wood and such. It was filthy and smelled of oil. It was coming apart at one end and was as brittle as old paper in places. I nearly came to my senses and left it there! It really was worth no more than the ten dollars that I paid for it. Not even suitable for a remake into something. So why did I buy it, you might ask?

The fabrics are very old. Perhaps more than a hundred years. I knew that they probably began as clothing of some sort, or pieces left over from sewing. I knew that each stitch was made by a skilled hand from long ago, and it felt to me like a voice was speaking out from the past.

The worn quilt is merely a relic now. Of use for hardly a thing. But I soaked it gently and long when I brought it home, and dried it carefully on the lawn way from the sun, as if fading one more shade would make the slightest difference. Some of the cotton batting was lost in the process from the one badly decaying end. Each time I handle it even now a few more tears in the cloth appear. 

The reverse is done up in this wonderful antique plaid that speaks clearly of an old homestead to me.

And I thought that you might enjoy seeing the variety of the old prints close up. . . .

It is a homey and handsome puzzle-stitched beauty. And I still enjoy the exercise of wonder each time I draw it from the closet where it takes up precious space. How did it ever come to be jumbled up among the vintage rakes and cans of some gritty garage world in the first place? 

Many stains from its checkered past remain. But the old patchwork is as fresh and sweet as modern chemistry will allow. The quilt has earned its quiet nest away from dust and too much light. Bundled up in its cover, I like to imagine that it might even be happy to be lifted up and admired once in an autumn or two. But it still keeps it secrets tucked deep inside like so many tufts of pillowed cotton. And so it will remain. Alongside the mystery of that ten dollar question. . . . 

More views of this quilt and others can be found here.

And here.

Wishing you all the gifts of Autumn!

Jacqueline

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Cedar Hill Farmhouse~The Scoop

Hello November!

It's still seventy degrees and beautiful in Albuquerque, but we are finally getting a taste of autumn in the neighborhood. It leaves me with a need to change up what I'm looking at inside as well. I still keep things on the light side, but who can keep from giving in to the urge to bring a little of the outside in?

And a little goes a long way for me.

Especially when we have so much color right outside the window this time of year! We have to really take advantage of the moment when our clinging vine turns red because it drops the leaves altogether soon after.

We spend bits of time at this spot watching for birds all throughout the day. 

Our feeders are placed quite near, and the vine makes a good hide.

I'm not much of a wildlife photographer, but once in a while I get a lucky shot.

This is the view from the other side of the window.

It's a bittersweet moment in the year when the vine finally puts on a show before dropping its color. We have relatively mild winters here, but the whole town turns brown and drab for what seems like an eternity until spring comes again.

I went out and chopped a nice branch from the snowball bush that is putting on a second show for the year.

It looks to me like those big expensive faux branches that you can buy from Pottery Barn. (Only better!) And I will get to toss it when it's done too. (I wonder how long it will last?)

We have an overcast day, so I have the shutters flung wide open.

I spent what I saved on those faux branches on this PB pillow cover. (Isn't that the way it always goes?) Always nice to look at something new.

It's time to order a bit of firewood. I have cleared the hearth in order to be ready for our first cozy fire of the season. The fireplace screen is just stowed behind the club chair until needed again between fires.

The cranes and the geese have arrived again in the fields. And there's nothing like a hearty soup or stew to tuck into after a nice long walk in the afternoon.  With the firewood all ready go, and the change in the time casting us all into darkness too early again, the candles will come out too, along with a few extra throws on the sofa and chairs to settle into. 

Welcome to November!

I hope it's wonderful for you.

Jacqueline

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