We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving Day. This is a “cozy” time of year, isn’t it? I like the particular outdoor scent these days: smells of burning wood and dying leaves. And the sounds: geese flying overhead, the tractors making their final harvests and plowing under the fields.
I will be hosting Thanksgiving again this year (about 15-20 people, we don’t have a final count yet.) How do you set the table for Thanksgiving (or for any large gathering?) Good dishes? Paper plates? I admit- we have had Thanksgiving on paper plates when I found the really pretty ones at the party store! (Why wash all those extra dishes?) Do you put all of the food on the table, or do you set up a buffet? I usually do a buffet- because our gatherings are usually pretty big and the mashed potatoes would get cold by the time they got passed all the way around the table :)
For the last couple of years, I have combined metallics with natural materials on my Thanksgiving table. You can pick up the natural elements in your own backyard, the farmer’s market, or supermarket. Try sticks and twigs, leaves, pine cones, acorns, pumpkins, gourds… For your metallics, you can paint your natural elements with metallic spray paint, or spray the items with spray adhesive and then sprinkle with glitter. You can also just leave your natural elements as is and then mix in metallic items found at your craft store.
In the above 2 photos, I mixed items found in the garden and some leaves from the craft store with silver candle sticks and urns.
In the flower arrangement above, I sprayed some sticks with glitter spray to add height and sparkle to the arrangement.
And now, for some goodies! Click here for my free Thanksgiving place card printable. Just print onto card stock or paper, cut out the place cards, fold, and you are ready to go!
Also, don’t miss all of the Thanksgiving-themed recipes that I’ve shared this month- Pumpkin Lasagna, Simple Garlic & Butter Green Beans, and Triple Corn Spoon Bread Casserole.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my computer (including designing quilts for my newest fabric line!) I have been “itching” to get back to my sewing machine… It’s just hard to decide on which project to work on next :) I have been working on some hand embroidery in the evenings.
(Speaking of embroidery- have you checked out all of the free patterns on my website?)
And look at these yummy packets of velvet that I picked up at Quilt Market. I can’t wait to give them a try in an applique project. Someone told me that they unravel a lot, so I’m not sure if I’ll use them for hand or machine applique. Has anyone used them before?? Any tips???
And soon it will be time for Christmas decorating, shopping, decorating…. This is a busy time of year but I love it! I am always sad when Christmas is over- it just goes by too fast. I wish it lasted a little longer so we could enjoy it more. Remember when we were kids and the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas just seemed to stretch on forever?!? Now it seems to fly by. I think we should move Christmas to January 25 so we could have an extra month to prepare and enjoy (and an extra few weeks of Christmas music, too!)
So that’s what’s going on my little corner of the world! Have a lovely weekend!
Wow – you have so many pretty pictures and wonderful ideas in this post! I love all the orange and brown colors you have in your table, and the silver adds a nice bit of contrast. Monique is right – your stitching is beautiful!
Thank you, Jennifer. I was thinking about what to do this Thanksgiving, and I think I’ll probably stick with the same idea. It’s tried and true, ha ha.
Thank you, Monique… I am quite critical of my own stitching. I think the stitching in my photo is some of my best. I guess I was having a good day that day :)
Your Thanksgiving is going to be so beautiful Jacquelynne!! The only time I worked with velvet was many, many years ago making a couple dresses and yes it did ravel. I think it could make interesting applique if you allow for plenty of raveling.
Hi Connie- I’m thinking of trying the velvet with machine applique… I hope I find some time this weekend to “play” :)
Beautiful tablescape….really inspiring me to do more!
It was really easy- but looks impressive. That’s my M.O. whenever possible!!!
Your table looks beautiful. We never have a lot of people for Thanksgiving so I always set the table with my good dishes, although I have to admit that we do use paper napkins. I don’t seem to have enough matching cloth napkins. I have used the little pumpkins to decorate with and think they are so cute on the table. One year I made rolled beeswax candles and set them on clear candle holder plates, then stacked unshelled mixed nuts around the outside of the candle on the plate. Everyone seemed to like that and if you roll the beeswax tight enough the candles burn for quite awhile.
I have never made beeswax candles, but I love the look of them! I’ll bet your table was really beautiful :)
Thanks from South Africa. Our summer and hot days are here. Enjoy your fall. And a nice week for y’all.