Time for a Picnic Tablescape

If you read my blog you know that I have a thing for red. When we remodeled the kitchen it changed from dark wood to white with red accents. I had been saving red kitchen items for years! I had been thinking about using these three red plaid plates together in a tablescape for a long time. I used one or two together before but never all three at the same time. The tablecloth came from Sur La Table online several years ago. It was one of my first purchases when I started tablescaping. It’s a nice thick cotton fabric.

The plates were made by At Home with Marieke and the pattern was called Sarah. This pattern has been discontinued.

The dinner plate is a nice size. I really love the graduated red plaid design on these plates as they are set together.

This charger is large and heavy, I have used it several times before on Christmas and 4th of July table settings.

This Milano Red flatware is Ginkgo International LePrix. I have had this set for years but it is still for sale. Not sure where I bought it. I use it several times a year on tablescapes.

The plastic red Koziol Pip Bird napkin ring came from Ebay several years ago, I have it in green also. It has been discontinued but you might be able to find it on Ebay from time to time. The lime green napkins were made by Fiesta. The red plaid napkin is marked DII (Design Imports) for the Home. I think I bought them at HomeGoods a few years ago.

The white place card holder can be written on as well with a special pen. Can’t remember where I bought them but it was probably Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel, I have had them for several years. It’s a nice simple place card holder, I have used it on many tablescapes.

Can’t remember what company made the red goblet. I bought them on Ebay and I have had them for a long time. If anyone recognizes the pattern, please let me know! I bought the green goblets at Pier 1 several years ago. I love the spiral design and the height. I wish they had sold this goblet pattern in other colors as well.

I bought this salt and pepper set on Amazon last year.

I love these condiment jars. I bought them online last summer on Ebay. They were originally sold by Williams Sonoma.

It wouldn’t be a picnic without a few extra guests. I bought these metal ants at Pottery Barn a few years ago. They were red but Hubby spray painted them black for me. They are place card holders but I decided to add them to this table for some additional interest and fun.

This basket is a Longaberger basket from 2002. These baskets were handmade by the Longaberger Baskets company in Dresden, Ohio. They were sold at house parties (like Tupperware) for many years. The company is still in business and sells beautiful handmade baskets online now.

Definitely time for some hamburgers and hot dogs!

If you like gingham, check out my green gingham and strawberries tablescape here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/blog/2019/6/3/a-strawberry-table

This blog post was featured at Scrapality, https://www.scrapality.com/ and Grammy’s Grid, https://grammysgrid.com/ Please visit these blogs, you will enjoy them!

A Bit of French Provincial on the Tablescape

I have thought about pulling together a blue and yellow table setting for a couple of years but just never got it together. My yellow tablescape last week was really popular on many tablescaping sites so I decided to keep some yellow this week only a different shade, lemon yellow, and add blue. I have always loved the way this color combination works together. This table was another case of just looking through my tablescaping collection to see what would work on the table. The tablecloth is marked Ridgefield Home, it probably came from HomeGoods a few years ago. HomeGoods often has a good selection of random inexpensive tablecloths and I have learned to buy it if I see something I like.

These colorful salad plates came from HomeGoods a few years ago. I think the plate is no long available except maybe on Ebay. The pattern is called Mandarin Blue and they were made by Ralph Lauren. I really love the overall design that covers the entire plate, the rim design, the yellow flowers, the butterfly, everything makes it pop. The design really compliments the yellow dinner plate and cobalt blue charger.

I bought these yellow dinner plates on clearance at Sur La Table online several years ago. They were part of their Fresh Squeezed Lemon Collection.

This bright blue metal charger came from Pier 1 several years ago. The color really pops on this table with the yellow.

This flatware came from Villeroy and Boch online several years ago. I had been looking for yellow flatware for a long time and was delighted to find this set, the handles are some kind of plastic. The pattern was called Play!.

The yellow napkin came from Linen Tablecloth online. I have bought several table linen sets from them from time to time. The flowered napkin came from Pfaltzgraff online several years ago. The pattern was called Summer Breeze, they are still available on the secondary market right now. I think the ceramic napkin rings came from Ebay, I have had them for several years.

The plastic cobalt blue goblets came from Pier 1 several years ago. They currently have them on sale in various colors. I have this style in several colors now. The yellow goblet was made by Noritake and the pattern was called Yellow Perspective. These were made between 1970 and 1983 and I found them on Ebay. This pattern came in other colors, I have them in cobalt blue and sage green also. Ebay always has this pattern for sale in various colors.

I really love these small vase place card holders. I put a few small faux flowers in them and they were ready to go. I bought them on Amazon last month.

I bought the faux yellow tulips on Amazon a few months ago. I have had the cobalt blue glass vase for many years, I can’t remember where it came from.

I love this color combination!

Quiche for dinner!

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We Need some Brightness on the Tablescape!

I didn’t have an idea for a table setting for this week but I knew I wanted something bright. We need brightness right now! I wanted to use my yellow chargers so I started there. I realized that I don’t have any yellow tablecloths so I bought this yellow gingham tablecloth on Amazon last week and crossed my fingers that it would be a gold yellow instead of a lemon yellow and I got lucky. It is a perfect match for the chargers. I really struggled with the photos for this tablescape. My iPhone 11 camera really fought with the bright colors and bouncing light and I had to make some adjustments. The gold yellow color is washed out a bit in some photos and the color shades are not the same all the way through the photos. I am still not happy with some of the results but I decided to just move on.

Once I decided on the yellow chargers and the tablecloth I went through my dishes looking for something that matched. I wanted to do a table with just yellow and white so that really limited my choices. I don’t know where I found this small yellow gingham plate, I have had it for several years. It is marked EIT (English Ironstone Tableware) and English Ironstone, Made in England.

This larger ironstone plate (I didn’t have a dinner size plate that was the right color) came from Pier 1 several years ago, the pattern was called Chloe.

This is another Color Spectrum charger by Mikasa, the color is Sun Yellow. I have wanted to use this charger in a tablescape for a long time but this shade of gold yellow doesn’t match most of my lemon yellow dishes. I bought these chargers on Ebay a few at a time because I love the quality and the colors. I have them in several colors now.

I knew that the only yellow flatware set I have is lemon yellow and wouldn’t match these dishes so I looked through the photos of my flatware sets and suddenly saw this one. Bingo! I bought this inexpensive stainless and plastic bamboo flatware set several years ago when I first started tablescaping. I can’t remember where I found it, it is just marked Stainless, China but I see it is available online several places.

I can’t remember where I bought the yellow gingham napkins a few years ago but it is amazing that the color matches the tablecloth perfectly. The flowered napkins came from Sur La Table online, I bought them on sale a few years ago. I can’t believe how well they compliment the flowered plates. At the end of the season, Sur La Table often has good buys on napkins and other tablescaping bits and pieces. I have had the beaded flower napkin rings for a long time, I can’t remember where they came from. I tried a white napkin ring first but it just didn’t add much and I suddenly remembered these, problem solved!

The white place card holder can be written on as well with a special pen. Can’t remember where I bought them but it was probably Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel. It’s a nice simple place card holder, I have used it several times.

The clear goblet on the right is actually the pattern my mother chose for her wedding crystal in 1938. She couldn’t remember the name of the pattern or who made it and I searched for decades trying to identify it with no luck. Finally one day I was reading through old San Bernardino newspapers online doing some genealogical research looking for information about my grandparents and I stumbled on an article about a wedding shower for my mother that mentioned her gifts and the name of her crystal! This Rock Sharpe crystal goblet was made by Libbey and the pattern was called Ridgeway. I was able to complete the set buying them a few at a time on Ebay. The gold Poly/Carb goblet on the left was made by Le Cadeaux and the pattern is called Fleur. We found them at a gift shop on one of our trips up the coast last year but they were really expensive so we only bought a few of them. I had been looking for that color for a long time and after we got home, I found them much cheaper online so I bought a few more.

I started with a white lantern for the centerpiece but it was just too much white and not terribly exciting. I did a bee tablescape last year with this bee hive pattern but they didn’t have this matching cookie jar then. I found it at HomeGoods earlier this year. I was looking around the house for anything that was a gold yellow color and finally found this cookie jar. Not really my first choice for this table but it’s all I have that is that color! I would have liked to have added the matching salt and pepper and cream and sugar but they are stored in the attic and I ran out of time. I added a couple small birds to fill in a bit.

I put the bee hive cookie jar on a small white stand to add a bit more height.

I wanted a bright cheerful table. I think this one works!

To see 160+ tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

Please check out the March 2022 issue of Country Sampler magazine for a photo of one of my Spring tablescapes.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

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Mother’s Magnolias Spring Tablescape

My mother was very sentimental about magnolias so I knew that eventually I would create a tablescape around them. And she loved roses too so I added them as well. I posted this tablescape a few years ago but I decided to post it again in memory of my mother.

I’ve had this pink tablecloth for several years, I bought it on Ebay I think. I bought the white tureen centerpiece at HomeGoods several years ago. I am always on the lookout for interesting objects that I can use as centerpieces but I have run out of room to store them unfortunately. The pink roses came from Amazon and the magnolia garland from Ebay as well. Someone had used the garland for a wedding and it was just what I was looking for.

I found lots of magnolia salad plates over the years but none that I really liked until I saw these. I watched them at Pier 1 when our store was open for a while until they finally went on sale, these are ironstone. I wish Pier 1’s online store had the kind of merchandise that the physical store had before they all closed.

This photo doesn’t show the correct color of this pink dinner plate. The photo with the small magnolia plate does show the correct color. I saw these plates on another blog and immediately checked HomeGoods (the source) for them with no luck. I had been looking for a basic pink dinner plate for a long time. I have most of the basic colors in dinner plates but I was missing pink. I finally found them at another HomeGoods a month later a few years ago. They were made in Portugal by Matceramica.

This charger was made by Mikasa and it is Color Spectrum in the color sage. I love these chargers, I have them in several colors. They are heavy and a basic design that can be used on any table setting. I bought them a few at a time on Ebay.

This photo shows the colors of the tablecloth and the dinner plate accurately . The small melamine magnolia plate was made by Cameron Designs in Atlanta, Georgia. We bought them in a gift shop on a trip to Savannah, Georgia a few years ago.

This sterling flatware was my mother’s, it was the pattern she registered for when she was married in 1938. I decided to use it on this table because I wanted something a bit more dressy. The flatware was made by Towle and the pattern was called Chased Diana. It was made between 1928 and 1996 but it is still available on the secondary market.

I bought these small pink rose place card holders a few years ago on Ebay. I love searching for vintage place card holders on Ebay, I have found some great ones over the years. These were called Georgian and according to the label, they are fine bone china. The mark on the bottom stands for Marks & Rosenfeld, a US giftware distributor in the 1950's and 1960's that commissioned their own range of ceramics and gift ware.

The pink magnolia napkins are by Kate Spade, I found them a few years ago on Ebay. The magnolia napkin rings are Countess fine bone china and they were made in England. I found them on Ebay too. When I am looking for special themed place card holders and napkin rings I check Amazon first and then Ebay. Then I do a google search for whatever I am looking for because I often find things that way that I wouldn’t find any other way.

The colors in this photo are more accurate than in some of the other photos.

These short sage green glass goblets were made by Noritake and the pattern is called Sweet Swirl in light green. They were made between 1985 and 2005, I bought them on Ebay a few at a time as I saw them. I looked for tall pink goblets for a couple of years and suddenly World Market had them a few years ago. They sold out quickly so others must have been looking for them too.

One of the reasons my mother was so sentimental about magnolias is this house on Magnolia Avenue in San Bernardino. My grandfather had it built in 1915 and my mother was born in the house the next year. It is still there and it was recently completely remodeled and then sold.

The other reason my mother loved magnolias is this house on Magnolia Avenue in Orange. We lived in this house when my twin brother and I were born in the early 50’s, joining my three older brothers.

This is Mom holding us on the front porch. After my mother moved into a retirement community she had a small magnolia tree planted outside her windows so she could see it every day. (Someone reading the blog tells me that Mom’s dress has a magnolia pattern!)

My mother would have loved seeing this table.

To see 220+ other tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!