Vintage Tablescape For Early Fall

Over the Summer Fabby at Fabby's Living celebrated her third anniversary blogging you can see her beautiful Fourth of July Patriotic Tablescape anniversary post here.    Fabby was celebrating by giving away a set of lovely "straw shawl" hand made place mats.  From the moment I saw them I knew I would love to have them.  When I found out I had won them I was delighted!  I knew exactly how I would use them too.  I had been looking for a place mat to use with my Royal China Cavalier Ironstone china.  The pattern name is Sussex and it is a lovely vintage pattern with a brown floral on a creamy background.  This china needed a lacy delicate place mat that would show off the pattern.  I  adore the way this table setting came out.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted a warm chocolate brown tablecloth as the canvas to build this tablescape on.  I  searched for two months to no avail to find my perfect tablecloth.  I gave up and bought a piece of  brown material with a cream floral print but was not happy with it.  So I decided to get out and look again yesterday morning.  I started at the HomeGoods Store at nine thirty in the morning - nothing.... So then I went to Tuesday Morning, again nothing.... so I started at the thrift stores again,  first the Goodwill.... nothing,  then the Volunteers of America.... nothing,  and finally I drove down to the Salvation Army.  The Salvation Army was crowded with bumper to bumper shoppers.  I literally could not get through the store.  Instead of going down to the domestics department as I usually do,  I detoured through the furniture department and apologized to many people for threading around them to get to the domestics department by going along the outside wall.  As I passed the infants bedding I spotted a piece of material hanging between the crib sheets. It was a four yard by 60 inches wide piece of decorator fabric with a slight raised pattern in the weave. And most important of all,  it was a beautiful true chocolate brown. If I had gone to the domestic department as I usually do I would never have seen this fabric wedged between the crib sheets in infants bedding.  My detour had taken me right to it.

The place mat.

Except for the pears I kept the the table to just brown and white for this first fall table.  I love the warmth of the brown,  it just looks so homey.  I used the rooster tureen as my centerpiece and small brown birds as accents around the table.  The napkin is a white sateen with a brown and white calico napkin  folded underneath.

The pears are set in a bed of raffia in the berry bowls.  The raffia complemented the natural fiber in the place mats.

Everything used on this table was thrifted except for the flatware and the pears.  The flatware came from a Tuesday Morning sidewalk sale and the pears were bought at Marc's (my favorite closeout store).

Thrift on ladies, thrift on - you never know what you are going to find.

I will be sharing at:

Nita's Mod Mix Monday   

Kathryn's Make It Pretty Monday  

Dawn's History and Home Link Party   

Kathe's You're Gonna Love it Tuesday 

  

Susan's Tablescape Thursday

Tammy's Share It One More Time 

Christine's Table It Link Party

 Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday

Maria Elena's Tuesdays @ Our Home

Kristin's Table It Link Party 

First Day Of School Tablescape

September 4th, 2014

Do you remember your first day of school?  Somewhere back in my memory I can remember standing up to say the pledge of allegiance on my first day of school.  I was very proud of having memorized my pledge of allegiance. All of the children in my class were standing facing the flag with their hands over their hearts and as the teacher recited we would follow along  proudly repeating each line.  I still get goose bumps whenever I am at an event where we stand facing the flag to Pledge Allegiance to The United States Of America.
 
School days, School days, 

Dear old golden rule days,

Readin' and ritin' and 'rithmetic,  Taught to the tune of a hickory stick.

Did you have a little wooden desk like this one?

Did the boys sit on one side of the room and the girls on the other?

I 

I don't really remember bringing an apple to school for the teacher, do you?

 

I named the little girl at her desk Gloria because she reminds me of my friend Gloria at work.  The little boy is named Andy and I named the Tilda doll Miss McMann after my kindergarten teacher. I found the little boy and little girl each with their own desk and book at the Goodwill nearby my house.  I had been looking at them for a month or so when they were marked to half price.  They had been seven dollars each but I bought them both for seven dollars. The Tilda doll was 90 cents at the VOA.  She is very well made and was spotlessly clean when I bought her, she looked like a schoolmarm to me.

I can see the cream of wheat my mother used to make us filling one of the bowls, with a sliced apple in the side dish and a glass of orange juice for breakfast. The Casa Verde plate would be fine for the toast and maybe some scrambled eggs and a slice of country cured ham on the dinner plate would make for a hardy breakfast.

I don't remember fancy napkins or napkin rings at the breakfast table.

Orange juice glasses were likely to have been jelly containers designed to be a juice or milk glass when the jelly was finished.

I don't remember placemats or charger plates at the breakfast table either.

More pictures.

 

   I thought this little Amish classroom scene was so cute.

  

I think every thing on the table was thrifted except for the flatware.  The flatware came from marks for $2.99 for four place settings. I did change out the flatware after the first round of pictures,  and I did switch the positions of the boy and girl on the table.  I also removed the ruler bookcase after the first pictures were taken.

When I saw the picture below at the thrift store it reminded me of the empty house after the kids left for the first day of school.  Everything tidied up and the toys waiting in anticipation of the children coming home from school to play with them once more.

I Hope you enjoyed this First Day Of School Tablescape as much as I enjoyed creating it.  If you like you can leave a comment below,  I really do appreciate hearing from you.  Remember to "thrift on" ladies, you help your local economy,  you help provide jobs in your community,  and you will be delighted with what you find.  Have a wonderful week.

I will be linking to:

Susan's Tablescape Thursday

Nita's Mod Mix Monday

Kathryn's Make It Pretty Monday

Dawn's History and Home Link Party