Welcome!  I’m glad you’re here to share my Thursday.

Mother’s Day was a very chilly day here, after overnight storms I knew there was no hope for dinner on the deck.  It was just a small gathering with my daughter, son-in-law, and the two grand boys.  I was lucky enough to have my grand daughter stop by earlier in the day.  The husband informed me he was going to pick up Famous Daves so I didn’t have to cook, score one for me, and everyone else!  Cooking is not my favorite thing to do.  But setting a beautiful table?  I decided to take advantage of a lull in the afternoon activities to set a pretty table with some of my new favorites.  

English and French Ironstone with advertising.  Just love the graphics, I can’t seem to get enough of it and it is sooo hard to find here in the midwest.  So my collection is still quite small.  Even trying to find the stuff online if not impossible, is a bit difficult and for me it is the thrill of the find.  I would much rather have an antique jump out and grab me than scroll my way to success.

My table started with a wonderful very French looking linen tea towel by Annabel Trends Australia that I picked up in Kansas City a life time ago.  I’ve always loved it.  It’s just very Versaille!  

 A Cutty Sark advertising pitcher with a ship on it and hand forged brass and steel skewers add a bit of sculptural interest, a Dundee Marmalade jar with sterling fancy pieces in it, a Grey Poupon Mustard Pot and a few other pieces I’ve picked up along the way.  For this dinner my Villeroy Boch, Audun dishes accompanied with Mackenzie-Childs Courtly Check Chargers were the perfect foil to celebrate this newer collection and Mother’s Day.

When assembling a table scape I rarely use table runners, never use a table cloths unless I’m outside, and only on occasion will I use flowers.  I love flowers and my garden is currently bursting with them now, but nothing I want to cut and truthfully I rarely think of buying flowers when I’m at the grocery store.  Frankly this is a luxury to me when I have so many interesting pieces that I can work into a table scape.  That’s the end of my soapbox on the matter. 

This small table is a “refectory table” which simply means the table leaves store inside and underneath the table and just pull out when you need them.  It fits perfectly in my small kitchen but because it does, it is very narrow.  Only 29″ deep so it has always been a challenge to do a centerpiece.  I tend to love to do big over the top table scapes and when I bought this table I didn’t realize how big of a challenge this was going to be for me. The table will extend to 102″ when both leaves are out which enables me to seat nine when I need to. I also love the scruffiness of the paint job.

The napkins I picked up at World Market eons ago and they were a recent embroidery project of mine and I love how they turned out.  I do have beautiful toile napkins I usually use with these dishes and I went to grab them and then I remembered Hello BarBQ!  Black napkins a much better choice.

I ended up having a perfectly lovely day.  It even ended with another game of Frisbee in the back yard with the grand boys!

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my crazy table scape.

Thanks for stopping 

Shelley