Christmas, Birthday, New Year Tables

Hello and good morning!

In another effort to catch up with all of you, I'm consolidating 3 tablescapes in one post! What a treat to ring in the New Year here in "What Now?", huh?

So are you ready to see how much fun I had while I was absent from the blogging circuit? Ok, here we go!

DECEMBER 25, 2010

Here's my Christmas table last December, it was intimate and somber. We only had our two church missionaries for our guests and our daughter was home from college. It warranted a beautiful table, a definite must!
I wanted to reflect my eldest daughter's Christmas theme of Poinsettia and Gold. Mainly red and gold, so I used my LNT closeout chargers and paired it with my 2008 Target Holiday birthday plates along with my Hampton "Lace" utensils. I made it simpler for everyone by just having a paper napkin.
I saw in Susan's at Between Naps on the Porch, the use of Nandina leaves and berries on her table so I used some from my frontyard and it worked beautifully! With some tealights and hurricane lamps, I had a wonderful centerpiece!
I used my very first Christmas runner I ever owned (1997) to bring out more colors of red and gold. It's a colorful toile Christmas scene, over a plain white tablecloth. The glasses were my MIL's gift to me for our 2nd Christmas. It had a simple band of holly leaves & berries and a gold rim. Beautiful and classy.

The play of the cream, gold, white and red, made the table both sophisticated and approachable! My family couldn't wait to sit down!
For more visual height, I hung white and gold glittered snowflake ornaments from our chandelier. Since we didn't use it to create a more somber feel to the meal, I didn't want to completely ignore its presence...
Here's another angle. You can see more of the casual way I surrounded the candleholders with the nandina leaves and the sole vase that held the berries. The verdict, "everything was beautiful!" Gotta love that!

DECEMBER 29, 2010

I turned 39 on this day and my sister and her family were able to fly out from California! It was such a great birthday so I made sure that my birthday tablescape reflected my mood--loved and purely happy! What's the best combo for that? Red and White, of course!
I first featured this plate back in 2008, for our New Year's Eve dinner table. I got these from our local Tom Thumb and as you can see, I also used the same utensil style and a single paper napkin.
I opted for another natural centerpiece, but I used a different bush to complete the look of votive holder. I got the holders back in 2009, during Kroger's Christmas clearance, for 75% off!
I didn't change my chandelier yet because my sister wanted to see it in person. I think it went well with the table; it gave the ambiance a little bit of winter magic... I was able to finally unearth most of my dinnerware collection and finally was able to use my real everyday glasses that I got from Walmart back in 2009.
The runner, another Walmart 75% off find in their clearance section. I needed one for Valentine's Day and there it was!
This whole table... Cost me nothing since they were all from previous years, from my own plants, and only took me 10 minutes to set it up! The verdict? "Wow! You really are good at doing this!"

DECEMBER 31, 2010

I wanted to "bling out" my dining room this time around focus on the bright "fireworks" aspect of celebrating the New Year. My sister and her family have never been to Texas or to our house since we bought it last March. Also, this was my BIL's first New Year's celebration here in the States. So I wanted to make it all special!

First thing to address, the chandelier, of course!

I added more ribbons and silver ornament balls along with the snowflakes. I also snatched some of my tree ornaments as well. :-)
Our centerpiece was a tropical punch of Pineapple juice and chunks, Orange Juice and Ginger Ale. We opted for a buffet style and we turned the table. Again, we made a beautiful but simple table: A flat glittered batting for a tablecloth, not quite covering the whole table. More of the leaves from our bush to accentuate the punch. And, my sister cleverly hid dark chocolate Ferrero Rocher in the leaves as if they are fruits. The kids loved them!
My pièce de résistance, the brie en croute! I used puff pastry and folded it over the brie like a gift! It turned out beautiful! Perfect to feature on Foodie Friday with our lovely Friday host, Michael Lee over at Designs by Gollum.
Here's the punch table with the noisemakers all around. It definitely looked festive!
We also had a gift exchange so we set that up next to the buffet table. I wanted the gifts to stand out, so we set it up over a more "fancy" setting. (Psst! It's sitting on my deep freezer that we just dug out of our former paid storage. Don't tell anyone, ok? lol) We had cookies, fruits, sausages, egg rolls, noodles, candies and the cheese platter. It was great!
We had so much fun playing, eating, tossing and we even had a coin toss for the kids. It was a great month of December for me and family. The verdict? "Thank you, this was wonderful! The best day ever! (My nephew kept telling me that, isn't he sweet?)"

TABLESCAPING IDEAS: (Brain is pulsing with ideas) Don't let company or holiday expectations bog you down into hiding from doing your best. Use what's available, play up your dishes and hide what you lack with the delicious food you will serve. Often, people that notice what you "didn't match" or "didn't quite finish" are those that are fuming because you pulled it off!

We hope you had some great holiday memories as well. I hope you enjoyed my tables and hope to visit you soon! Thank you for stopping by!