our Thanksgiving table 2015 …tips on how I did this

 

Our Thanksgiving Table

I just got back into town late last night and I thought I’d take a moment to share some photos of our Thanksgiving table setting with you (this is for you Kim).

Hopefully you can use something from this post as possible inspiration for your own holiday tables.

As I mentioned before, this year my Mom wanted to use miniature white pumpkins for the place cards, but we soon discovered that white pumpkins of any size—were no where to be found in her area. We went everywhere before finally locating enough of some battered, discolored ones at a grocery store.

Even though my Mom was discouraged by the looks of them I knew that a can of white spray paint would fix all the imperfections.

Here’s a Before and After shot:

Before

discolored, bruised pumpkins

 

After

a can of white spray paint

*even though I prefer the creamy color of a real pumpkin, once they were all sprayed they looked fine on the plates.

 

Before

 

She had a pack of miniature orange pumpkins that she didn’t know what to do with and while we were shopping she found these gold tealights which we decided to use on her coffee station.

My Dad brought out his wood cutting set and we sat together and cut holes in the pumpkins for the candles. All you do is trace the outline of the candle onto to pumpkin and then cut inside the lines so the candles fit snug into the hole. You’ll need to scoop out the insides to fit the candles.

After

 

Remember all those old brass candlesticks we found at the thrifts stores?  Well, they added the perfect touch of gold to our tables.

We also got lucky and found all our glass vases at the same local Goodwill store too.

I think we paid less than five bucks for them all, so cheap and the perfect height too. I always prefer to use low sitting vases so we can keep the flowers on the tables while we eat.

 

My parents don’t have a dining room so they move their furniture out and set up the tables and chairs in their living room. It goes to show you that you don’t need a big house to entertain. Every year Mom likes to rent the tables, chairs and linens from the same place where the owners know her.

This year we had white tablecloths and black napkins.

All the china, glassware, silverware and chargers belong to Mom.

 

The flowers couldn’t  have been simpler to arrange. Even though I had big plans to add a variety of red and orange hued flowers they were all picked over by the time we got to our favorite floral vendor. So roses it was.

We added the baby’s breath later for a filler.

To avoid the hassle of cutting green foam I decided to use little plastic cups inside the white pumpkins and it worked fine. Although it bugged me that I could see the white rim. In a perfect world I would have loved to tuck green moss around the edges to hid that rim.

 

This year we did something different. I really wanted to emphasize our theme of gratitude, so at the last minute we decided to forgo the name tags and instead, we placed the word “Gratitude” at each setting. Then at dinner time we went around the table and asked everyone to say one thing they were grateful for….

Honestly, we weren’t sure how it would go, but it ended up being the best part of the whole night. Everyone ended up being surprisingly open and really thoughtful about what they said. It was one of those little risks that ended up adding so much to the dinner.

 

 

In the center of the table that’s a piece of white felt peeking out from the centerpiece. We did this to protect the linens from candle wax. It’s something to use if you’re renting linens (that charge for wax damage) or have a family heirloom on the table.

 

Before the candles were lit…

 

Before

After

 

 

 

 

 

the sign in my parent’s kitchen.

 

In case you’re wondering why we like to fix such a special table for Thanksgiving, it’s because we always celebrate my parent’s anniversary which is the following day.

 

This year marks their 56th year of marriage.

 

Whew, that’s a whole lot of blessings to be thankful for.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and thank you so much for stopping by,

I’m off to get unpacked and settled in again. One of these days I’m going to get caught up around here. I can’t believe Christmas is around the corner, I haven’t done one single thing for it yet.

peace and love to you,

Leslie

 

 

I’m joining these friends today:

The Scoop

Inspire Me Tuesday

 

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