Red, White, and Mostly Blue Tablescape

My goodness it is well into June already.  I have been on a little blog vacation while I have been cleaning up from the water that found it's way into my garage during the flooding in our area last month.  I had already been packing up from Easter and packing glassware from the china cabinets after one of the glass shelves scared the bejeebies out of me when it just snapped in two.  As luck would have it,  I had just stacked plates for tablescapes on the wood shelf beneath to within an inch of the bottom of shelf that broke.  The crystal on the shelf slid together and the plates rolled in their track to meet in the middle where the break was resting on the plates beneath. A close call,  and very scary for what might have been.  Consequently I lightened the load on all of the shelves from both of my twin dining cabinets.  We will have new flooring installed in a month or two and I had wanted to get everything packed up from all three china cabinets and the buffet to it get  moved to the garage that week. Well that did not happen because now I am afraid to store much out there that is not at least a foot off of the ground!

I did take the time yesterday to move the boxes in the dining room out the way so I could set a summer table for today (just don't look to close at the reflections in the mirrors).  The tablescape evolved from yesterday's dinner table to the table we used for dinner today.  So I will post phase one today and save phase two for another day.  First I would like to share a few pictures from our Memorial Day cookout that my son Richard took before dinner.

Red, white, and blue are my favorite colors for all of our cookouts in June and July.  I used four yards of material that was folded in half  lengthwise and laid down the middle of the table as a runner.  My little red Valentine's Day buckets with geraniums and flags,  along with one red lantern in the middle of the table serve as the centerpiece. My summer everyday cobalt blue dinner plates and my red summer salad plates along with red  plastic handled flatware and serving pieces complete the Memorial Day table setting.

Baked beans,  pasta salad, coleslaw, steaks grilled on the barbie, and strawberry shortcake for desert. YUM!  My son takes great food pictures.  Thanks Rick!

All simple, easy peasy.

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The Mostly Blue,  Red,  White, and Blue Table setting started with a six yard piece of denim like material that I found at Goodwill.  Material is usually one dollar a yard and with my thirty-five percent off coupon it was very easy on the pocket (I also bought six yards of the same fabric in red at the same time, which I will use later for another table).  I cut off three yards and frayed the ends for an attractive finished edge.

 The denim material has a subtle square pattern, kind of like quilt blocks sewn together but they are actually a part of the weave in the fabric.  The Studio Nova salad plates are the inspiration for this table.

They will soon be making the journey across this great country (via the USPS) to reside at my friend JoAnn's house.  JoAnn blogs at "Scene Through My Eyes",  she always amazes me with her beautiful photography. Serendipitously JoAnn had mentioned a couple of weeks back that she had been looking for this pattern to add to the set she has been using for her family's summer gatherings. Imagine my surprise when I checked out the link to this pattern and realized it was the very same pattern that I had just bought at Goodwill  (in like new condition) and had left in the garage still wrapped in newspaper until I needed them.  These little cuties will be on their way to their new home very soon.  They certainly helped make a lovely series of tablescapes for me and I will look forward to seeing them in more tablescapes in the future.

 The dinner plates were bought at closeout at the HomeGoods store after Christmas this year (three dollars each). I think the name is Circa, but I am not sure that could be an O and not a C.

The charger is a dark navy blue color.  The chargers came from Goodwill as did the napkins and placemats. I did play with the table arrangement for awhile before dinner, the following pictures show some of the changes I made. The light blue bowls and some of the red disappeared.

Not a drastic difference,  just enough to change the mood slightly.

You can see the stacked plates in the cabinets that saved my blue crystal and yellow plates.

You can see the pattern in the tablecloth better in this picture.  I love the way the patterns mix and match between the plates, the napkins, the covered tea cups, the flower pots, and the vase. Tablescaping is so much fun when everything comes together after years of finding a little of this here and a little bit of that there.

Usually the I will keep the table setting for a week or two before changing for the season, or a holiday, or a party of some sort or another.  But I am thinking of red. I am thinking that I will incorporate some of my odds and ends of red items and see how I can make them work in different tablescapes over the next few weeks.  Red just makes a picture "pop".

See what I mean?

 POW

 Have a Great Week!!.  Thrift on ladies,  thrift on.

Linking to:

Susan's Tablescape Thursday

Susan's and Arod's Meet the Neighbors Party

Kathryn's Anything Blue Friday

Christine's Table It Party