Category Archives: fall 2013
Personalized place settings for your thanksgiving table
Thanksgiving is fast approaching and we all know that means eating more than on any other day of the year and spending quality time with our family and friends. It’s a special day of relaxation and reflection with all the family and here are a few ideas for creating pretty place-settings for your thanksgiving table.
Get out all your best crockery and cutlery - what’s the point of saving something for ‘best’ if you can’t use it on thanksgiving! Lay each place setting with care, so that everyone has all the utensils they will need to enjoy their thanksgiving meal - this will stop you having to get up from the table during the meal to fetch an extra spoon for someone!
Use placemats and stack up plates with pretty patterns to create a gorgeous place setting. This will delight your guests and get them excited about the feast you have in store for them - if you’ve taking this much care over the table settings, just imagine how amazing your thanksgiving meal will be!
Include a little treat or favour on the plate - I’ve added a cheeky rum toffee - and an activity sheet is good for both children and adults alike. Here I have used brown paper torn out of a spiral-notebook and created a ‘gratitude’ sheet so that guests can take time to think about what they are thankful for and make a note of it on the paper. This can be especially handy to focus young minds if you’re planning to go round the table later to share your thanks - think of it as a thanksgiving cheat-sheet!
Personalize each place setting with a name-tag, which can be as simple as writing the names on luggage tags or christmas gift tags. Here I have layered cardboard over textured ribbon and simply written on the family members’ names and pegged it to their note paper using an old-fashioned wooden clothes peg.
Use glasses and candles to create a table that sparkles and add any cute ornaments that you have around the home to make your thanksgiving placesettings even more unique - I’ve used these little silver birds that I’ve previously used in my autumn floral display and they reflect the candle light perfectly! I’m also using gold wine glasses and orange tea-light holders to create a warm glow over the table.
I hope you try out a few of these ideas and give your family a thanksgiving that they will never forget and check out my fall display blog post for ideas of creating gorgeous thanksgiving displays all around your home.
Set the scene for a family thanksgiving - harvest decorations
Over the weekend I went for a lovely chilly walk with my husband and collected a few nature pieces for my thanksgiving decorations. I’d planned to decorate my home for fall (as I discussed in this previous blog post) and I finally found the time to nip out to collect together nature’s freebies to add to my sideboard. Unfortunately I don’t have a mantlepiece in my home, so I couldn’t arrange my decorations around a fireplace, but my retro teak sideboard was a good substitute and provided plenty of space for a big display.
I started with a few hydrangea heads from the bush in my garden and added some red buds and thistles, which created the floral centrepiece. I then added a second vase of grasses and seed-heads and a bowl full of apples and oranges. After adding a few candles here and there, I decided to scatter around some chestnuts and acorns, berries and some more branches. And what autumn thanksgiving display would be complete without a big orange pumpkin? Don’t forget to turn it into a yummy pumpkin pie to accompany your thanksgiving meal!
After a refreshing weekend walk, arranging my harvest display was a really rather relaxing activity to undertake, with a glass of mulled apple-juice on the go, and scented candles flickering away. My husband helped me to fill the vases and scatter the acorns, and I think that we created a lovely ‘tablescape’ between us! What do you think of my little jar of chestnuts below? I love how shiny and richly coloured the conkers are – like polished mahogany – and they are naturally like that! Amazing.
I certainly felt all warm and cosy afterwards, and definitely ready for thanksgiving! It was like decorating for the festive season but without getting out the baubles, and without anyone giving you a weird look when you tell them you’ve already got your Christmas decorations up! I hope you too can use some of nature’s freebies to create a stunning display in your home ready for your own family thanksgiving!
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I LOVE this time of year. There’s an almost imperceptible change in the weather, the daytime temperatures are pretty much the same, but it’s that early morning chill in the air and a little more dew on the ground that gets me excited about fall. Around the start of October, the leaves begin their yearly transition from lush green to glorious gold, which really gets the inspiration flowing – wasn’t it Albert Camus who said “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower” and I certainly agree. One of the reasons I love Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. is that I have found so many people who enjoy sharing what they are passionate about. As decorating for the Fall is definitely a passion of mine, and with the season of harvest and Halloween upon us, I’ve started thinking about decorating my home for Fall.
I’ve noticed that more and more of my friends are creating seasonal displays all around their homes, and this year especially, everyone seems to be going Fall crazy – maybe I’m simply noticing it more because I’m always on the lookout for inspiration on Pinterest? Whatever the reason for the growth in this trend, autumn decorating is here to stay so here are a few ways that you can create a welcoming home for the season.
Indoors
Fall often means spending more time indoors in the warmth of the home and plenty more family gatherings - just think of all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and festive celebrations you’ll be sharing over the coming months. With more visitors and family around, it’s nice to bring some of the joy of harvest into the home and surround yourselves with nature even though it’s too chilly to step outside! So how about creating a few floral and foliage tributes around the home using branches of golden leaves cut from the yard (or even silk leaves), bright yellow sunflowers and corn stalks. You could take your family on a walk to gather leaves and twigs early on in the season and make it educational for the youngsters by getting them to identify which tree each type of leaf has fallen from. When you arrange you fall floral display, think about adding a few small pumpkins, acorns and scented candles around the base of the vase and already you’ve created a gorgeous fall tablescape (or sideboard display) with minimal cost.
Now that the nights are drawing in, all the family will be looking forward to gathering around a lit fireplace to warm their toes, so the fireplace mantel will be the perfect focus for a rustic display. Use pumpkins, logs and an armful of branches around the hearth and display smaller squashes on the mantelpiece, combined with rustic burlap bows and more candles. The fireplace will look even cozier and will be a great focus of the room. Plus, you’ll already have hoarded your pumpkins ready for the end of the month when you’ll be able to get the children involved with carving spooky designs for Halloween.
Outdoors
Think about the first impression that your home makes to visitors, because you’re sure to have lots of friends visiting during the season, and guests to your festive celebrations will be delighted when they are greeted by a suitably seasonal doorway. If you’ve got a porch, you can really go to town with dressing it for autumn – attach hay or corn stalks to your uprights, prop-up few autumn branches against the house and drape leaf garlands all around. Add a few market-bought pumpkins and gourds either side of the door, and surround them with pinecones and a scattering of brown leaves. You could even light candles to welcome your guests on special occasions and create a spooky atmosphere around Halloween time by adding a few synthetic cobwebs and plastic spiders to your existing display – the children will love helping to turn your pretty fall tribute into a scary scene!
Fall wreath inspiration via Pinterest
Even if you only have a doorway to dress, don’t let that stop you from making it equally inviting with a rustic burlap wreath, spiked with chestnuts and oranges, tied to your door with a gorgeous gold bow. The oranges will give off a gorgeous autumn aroma, and you can even add in cinnamon sticks, pinecones, dried chilies and apples to create a scented wreath that really packs a punch. Your visitors will be delighted to experience the sights and smells of fall before they even enter your home!
I hope these tips have given you a few ideas for decorating your home for fall and making it a cozy environment for your friends and family to enjoy together throughout the season.
DIY fashion - adding ladylike collars to clothing
I’m a big fan of ladylike fashion and the popularity of period TV shows such as Downton Abbey has reinforced this trend, ensuring that is will remain fashionable throughout the Fall season. A great way to follow this trend without going OTT wearing period costume is wearing pretty collars on clothing. I love a fashionable peter-pan collar on a dress or top and I’ve recently been scouring my local thrift stores to find tops and blouses with collar trims - I recently picked up this black cardigan above from a thrift store and I’ve used it as inspiration for my DIY fashion blog post for adding pretty lace collars to your knitwear. I had a tatty old cream cardigan hanging at the back of my wardrobe that I simply never wore (it’s actually got a hole in the shoulder – you can just about spot it in this photo below!) and I decided to customise it by adding a collar around the neckline and either side of the buttons. You can pick up a cardigan to customise from your local thrift store for next-to-nothing, and while you’re there, hunt around for any lace trimmings or even crochet placemats to add to your cardigan.
DIY Fashion - adding ladylike collars to clothing:
You will need: A cardigan or blouse, lace trim, fabric doily or haberdashery collar, pins, matching thread, needle or sewing machine
- I got this piece of embellished collar from Wholeport online shop, but you can use any lace or embroidered trim that you find – or even a fabric doily or the edge of a net curtain. I cut it in half to fit either side of the button seam, and pinned one half to the cardigan.
- I used my sewing machine to stitch the lace along the edge of the cardi, but you could hand-stitch it or even use fabric glue to stick it in place. I then stitched around the outer-edge of the lace trim to keep it flat.
3. Do up the buttons on the cardigan and position the second half to match up with the one you have already stitched. Pin in place and repeat the sewing process to secure it in position.
I hope you’ll agree that it looks much nicer and by just adding a collar I’ve turned a cardigan that I have never worn into something that I don’t want to take off! And don’t to forget to add pretty collars to anything else that takes your fancy – maybe the neckline of a t-shirt or around the top of a dress? And little lace collars can look super-cute on children’s clothing, so think about adding a collar trim to your child’s clothing too!