Valentine's Day x Three Tablescape

Do you ever get into the mood just to play with dishes?  You know,  when you keep asking yourself "what if I do this,  or maybe what if I do that"?  Or "how about I use blue instead of red or maybe pink"?  Well this time I did all of the "what if I do's" I thought of  and took pictures as I went along. I started by revamping last weeks table and stayed with the red, black, and white color scheme.  I just changed up the centerpiece and switched out salad plates and glassware.

This is what I came up with:

I had found playing card plates (three spades and three clubs) at the Salvation Army Family thrift store that I thought would be cute for a VDay table.

I made a centerpiece from two larger tall Valentine themed cylinder vases from the VOA and two smaller cylinder vases that matched and just filled them with the red twigs that I had used in last weeks centerpiece plus a few red hearts.

I changed out the snowflake plates on the wall for the red heart shaped plates.

 

I felt like tying new recipes too.
I made roasted pork chops and vegetables from a recipe on the Rachel Ray Show that we had seen a couple of days earlier -> http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/19638_roasted_pork_chops_with_green_beans_potatoes/

 and

Banana nut muffins from an Emeril Lagasse recipe. I substituted applesauce for half of the butter and three to four bananas instead of two -> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/banana-bread-recipe2.html

The next morning I felt like playing with the blue and white plates I had set out for a spring redo in the china cabinets. I started by staging the wall behind the breakfast table with a combination of plates that included two of the cute little white cherub plates that I have been collecting from the thrift stores over the years.

Everything used for this table was thrifted except for the flatware which was a sidewalk sale find at Tuesday Morning,  the mini cake stands that are from Marc's close out department, a couple of the little cherub figurines came from Marc's a few years back,  and the white twigs also from Marc's close out department before the holidays.  Gosh I love that store.

 The little crochet heart was found at the VOA a year or two ago.  The plates with the tiny blue hearts were also thrifted I think from the VOA.

The large blue heart shaped plate was bought at the Goodwill thrift store a couple of days ago. all of the cobalt glass was thrifted over the years.

 I love the little heart trimmed blue and white napkin rings that I found several years ago at the VOA.  They are such a pretty shade of blue and work so nicely with the napkins.  The napkin rings came in a bag that included a identical set of napkin rings in pink.

 The pink heart glassware came from Goodwill a few weeks back,

 I thought the pink hearts looked nice with the pink icing on the cupcakes.

The blue and white vase used in the centerpiece and the cherub vases were from several years ago.

This is one of the variations I was playing with for this table.  Notice the napkins and the sponged blue heart glasses were changed out.  I found the sponged glasses at the GW a couple of days ago.

We had sunshine for a couple of hours today that really brightened up the kitchen.  The light is coming in from the patio doors and the Palladian window in the family room. There are no direct sources for natural light in the kitchen only the overhead lighting.

 The alternate setting is pictured below.

The players

Dessert or B&B plate

Luncheon plate

Charger plate(or large dinner plate)

Plates displayed on the wall.

The blue plum plate is Bordello Pinheiro 

from the close out isle at Home Goods

 Coaching plates are made by Oxford in Brazil.

 Williams-Sonoma Brittany plates (there are six of them)  from the VOA.

 You can see the bright reflections from the family room windows.

And the candles were also thrifted.

While I was waiting for my camera to download the pictures of the blue Valentine's Day table (sometimes it can take an hour or two) I thought I would set up a pink and red table just for grins and giggles.  I came across the boxes of red transferware that I have not used for years when I was looking for my cherub candle holders (which I did not find) and brought some of the plates down for the table and to change out the plates on the wall along with the valentine plates.

After changing up the wall plates I placed a thrifted pale pink vase filled with white twigs from Marc's (99 cents a bunch) and glitter hearts from a garage sale a couple of years back.

The place settings may seem familiar because I was inspired by Susan's Post from February sixth, 2012.   That is the table that brought me to an epiphany moment in my life.  Ever since I laid eyes on Susan's VDay table tablescape  I knew I had to create tablescapes too.   Link to Susan's Post  Candlelit and Romantic

 My romantic tablescape

 If you remove the heart shaped cookies,  The heart decorated napkin sheath,  and the hearts in the centerpiece this is really an all occasion table. It really does not scream valentines day at all.

The cookies were bought at Big Lots last year (I froze them to keep for this year) the heart napkins are from Marc's three for 99 cents (I love that store) Ruffled napkins are being closed out at Pier 1 right now.  If you want to buy the ruffled napkins from Pier 1 be prepared to spend a lot of time trimming loose threads off,  the quality is not the greatest,  even at their closeout price I had to think really hard about buying them.

The Players:

Salad plate is marked Seltmann Weiden Bavaria W. Germany

The mixed pattern dinner plates

and

The key to my heart (thrifted of course)

Thrifted stemware.  The flatware is from Tuesday Morning sidewalk sale.

I am pretty well exhausted after running up and down the stairs (I don't really run I kind of hang onto the railing and ascend and descend very slowly clutching my treasures in one arm)

Have a Wonderful Valentine's Day!!!

I hope you have plenty of time to play no matter what (or who) it is you want to play with.

Remember to thrift on ladies, thrift on.

I will be sharing at the following link parties:

Susan's Tablescape Thursday