Preparing a Thanksgiving Table

This week, my thoughts have turned to the Thanksgiving holiday. I wanted to create a vintage, French-themed table to inspire my clients. One of my goals was to incorporate some not-so-expensive items, so that my customers don't feel like they have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful and charming table. I began my process by creating a tablescape that was not a "set" table:

I focused it on this small still life painting which I thought represented to be largely what Thanksgiving is all about: giving thanks for the bounty of our nation and eating good food!

After adding a few more items around it, I was not pleased with the end result because the set did not really convey the message of a real Thanksgiving table. So, I started over. This time I began thinking about the elements I wanted to be sure to incorporate. I also had in mind a specific fall color scheme.

Some French vintage napkins ($25. each)

antique Villeroy & Boch majolica plates ($150. each)

Sarreguemines transferware dishes ($35. each) and set of 12 Puiforcat dessert spoons and server (set $1200.--ok, I realize that isn't cheap but they are 19th century sterling and vermeil!)

A few more details here and there and...voila! the tablescape that I sent out to all my customers:

In case you are thinking that this is not hard work, here is a picture of our photo session so you can get an idea of how detailed this whole process actually is. D. is a very talented photographer and he just launched his personal website.


A few more options for your Thanksgiving table:

Another set of napkins with red detailing--so chic!

A pair of English bone china Royal Crown Derby plates ($275. each)

And because I can't load my entire inventory onto my blog, you better just click over to the new Tabletop category page we created on our website. Happy Thanksgiving planning!

"San Givin" or the Saint of Giving

In true Latin and Catholic (which are one and the same as far as I'm concerned) tradition, many major holidays are saints' feast days. Thanksgiving is no different, as the pronunciation of the word "thanksgiving" in Spanish sounds like "san" or saint, "givin". Therefore we have created a new saint thanks to this national holiday.
For the past several years, ever since my sister and her husband moved to Atlanta, we have been traveling there (here) for the holiday. With the exception of last year when we went to Puerto Rico to visit our cousins instead. The Atlantans went as well and it was a trip worthy of quite a number of blog entries as the number of fiascos was quite numerous for such a short holiday.
Doug, Paola, and I drove up yesterday, a trip my husband had hoped would be shorter without the other two children (who flew up with their grandparents) but that actually turned out to be longer because of Paola's frequent and time consuming eating schedule. So the flat Floridian landscape ended up being flatter and longer than we both remembered it. We also purchased an audio book with the high hopes that we could enrich our minds while passing the time, but instead the monotonous voice coming from the speakers tended to induce sleep for whoever was driving. Still, listening to the memoir (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer) made me long to write for myself and I remembered regretfully that I have neglected my writing.
And with the blink of an eye, the holidays--holy days--have arrived. A magical time in which everything is decorated and the family that we ignore and forget about during the busy grind of quotidian life comes together to live a little more. May the "saint"of giving grant us the gift of time this season.