Christmas Holly Boughs and Bows

Just like the song, I did deck my halls with boughs of holly this year!

Why do I feel like that needs to be followed up with a Fa, la, la !?!

Just in time for Chloe Crabtree's Christmas Tablescape Hop this week.

I am joining 20 other talented ladies in adorning our tables for Christmas and sharing them all with you on our blog hop.  All the links will be at the bottom of this post and updated daily for lots of inspiration as the week goes on.

I went with the traditional Christmas color palette of red and green.

I just adore the candy cane striped plates I purchased this year from Pier 1.

I really just wanted to keep the rest of the plates pretty simple to let those 

striped plates be the star.

Each place setting has a tiny jar of peppermint striped candy as a little treat.

My centerpiece consists of holly boughs, a string of red beaded garland and red candles - in various states of being used!

You will rarely see a pillar candle like these being burnt in my house.  Those of you who have been following me for a while know that my father was a fireman and he NEVER let us burn candles.

It is kind of like not letting a kid do something and then when they grow up, they rebel!

Because I do burn candles all the time now- but only the ones in the jar where I know they will be safe.  I do clean my dryer lint out after every wash though because I can still here the fireman in the back of my head!  I digress - back to Christmas now!

Gotta love Target and their collaboration with Chip and Joanna for these Hearth and Hand cedar wreaths!   I saved up all my $5 rebate cards from buying 2 bottles of Tide at a time to pay for these little babies!

They aren't cheap - but they are darn cute.  I just tied them around the chair backs with a simple bow from a spool of velvet ribbon, the same ribbon I tied around the napkins - which just happens to be from Target too! I always get the wired edge ribbon so that it is easier to keep the bows fluffed and looking full. 

Be sure to check out all of these wonderful blogs for many more Christmas Table Ideas:

Monday

Home is Where the Boat Is | Everyday Living | Knock it Off Kim | A casa di Bianca

Tuesday

Life and Linda | The Painted Hinge | Panoply | Corner of Plaid and Paisley

Wednesday

Debbee's Buzz | Follow the Yellow Brick Home | Living With Thanksgiving
Home and Gardening With Liz

Thursday

Red Cottage Chronicles | The Painted Apron | Our Crafty Mom | Celebrate & Decorate

Friday

From My Carolina Home | Sweet Sensations | Me and My Captain | Zucchini Sisters | Bluesky at Home

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas decorating and that you are almost done with all your running around - so that you can sit down and enjoy the season.

If you know me well, you know that in the evening I have my feet up, my christmas throw wrapped around me and I am watching Hallmark movies with my hubby!

I have linked up to Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch and

Celebrate Your Story  @ Celebrate & Decorate

Thanksgiving Table

I have set a very masculine Thanksgiving table this year.

I had always felt that Thanksgiving was a holiday more for the men in our family than the women. That is why I chose these grey and wood tones for my table.

I am joining a wonderful group of bloggers for a Thanksgiving Tablescape  Blog Hop going on all week. All the links for 20 different Thanksgiving Tables for inspiration are near the bottom of this post.  Thank you to Chloe Crabtree from Celebrate & Decorate for putting this Hop together. 

When I was growing up, it was always the women running around doing all the workand the men where in the other room watching football until all the food is ready.  Then they ate and drank and return to the other room to watch more football, and the women were to clean up all the dishes.

I won't be hosting our actual Thanksgiving dinner, we will be going to my sister's house for dinner.  But I like that my boys lend a hand in setting the table and serving the food these days.

We enjoy much more conversation around the table now then when I was growing up. And I am proud to say that all the husbands and sons now pitch in to clean up all the dishes. I think that this is more of how we should be giving thanks- by working together and enjoying each other's company!

Speaking of enjoying others-

Here are the links to all those participating in the Hop:

Monday

Knock it Off Kim
Home is Where the Boat Is
Everyday Living
Living With Thanksgiving

Tuesday

Panoply
Corner of Plaid and Paisley
Red Cottage Chronicles
Home and Gardening with Liz

Wednesday

Me and My Captain
Bluesky at Home
Life and Linda
Our Crafty Mom

Thursday

The Painted Apron

Debbie's Buzz

Loveland Lodge

Celebrate & Decorate

Friday

The Painted Hinge

Sweet Sensations

Zucchini Sisters

a casa di Bianca

Follow the Yellow Brick Home

I like the changes that have taken place, Thanksgiving seems much more enjoyable now.

I have a lot to be thankful for and feel very blessed to have a wonderful family

and many great friends.

Oh! and many, many dishes!

Sources:

Placemats - Country Gatherings - Walnut Creek, Ohio

Flatware - Ikea

Brown Chargers - Walmart - years ago

White Charger plates - Old Time Pottery - years ago

Grey Sorrento Dinner Plates - Butterchurn Kitchenwares, Walnut Creek, Ohio

Darker Grey salad plates - HomeGoods years ago

Napkins - HomeGoods several months ago

Cement pumpkins - Hobby Lobby - (I colored the stems-they were gold)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am sharing my post at the following parties:
Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Celebrate Your Story @ Celebrate & Decorate

Not So Scary Halloween Tablescape

It's that time of the year to bring out the ghosts and goblins and get the bejeebers scared out of you! I decided to do a not quite so scary table this year, this was inspired by my two and a half year old grandson.

My grandson loves books, after reading several books to him, he kept coming back to his favorite that day  - P.J. Funnybunny Camps out by Marilyn Sadler.  Since I am pretty sure that most of you are not going to rush to the library to check this book out - I hope I won't ruin it for you to tell you  - that at the end P.J.'s little sister scares the boys by dressing up as a ghost.  It is a fun book and Everett would just laugh as I used my spooky ghost voice as we read.

The next day I went into HomeGoods and there were these ghost plates that reminded me of our fun together reading about P.J. getting spooked by his sister.  So of course, they immediately went in my cart and I set off to do a not so scary Halloween table for our Halloween Tablescape Blog Hop.

Once again, I am joining with Chloe Crabtree and an incredible group of talented table stylists for a fun hop to show off 19 different takes on Halloween fun! All of the links will be at the bottom of this post, be sure to stop back as they will be updated throughout the week.

 My candy wielding ghost in the centerpiece is there to offer up some Halloween favorites such as Reese cups, Kit Kats and M&M's.  I mean come on - tell the truth - don't we all go through this just as a good excuse to buy Reese Cups and then eat half of them before Halloween even gets here?!

Putting bows on these two makes them not quite as frightening.

      

 Candy corn wands are there to ward off anything too fearful,

Like the little peeps popping up in the candy corn treats.

I wonder if my grandson will grow up thinking candy corn grows on trees?!?!

For more scary fun- please visit my creative friends who have put together even more spooktacular tables for you enjoyment:

Monday

Home is Where the Boat Is | Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Knock it Off Kim | Stately Home Lane

Tuesday

Life and Linda | The Painted Hinge 
Corner of Plaid and Paisley | Loveland Lodge 

Wednesday

Me and My Captain | Debbee's Buzz 
Sweet Sensations | The Painted Apron

Thursday

Camelot Art Creations | The Little Yellow Corner Store
Zucchini Sisters | Celebrate & Decorate

Friday

Red Cottage Chronicles | My French Twist 
Blue Sky at Home

I will be updating these links as the posts are made each day this week.

I had a little freaky fun with the special effects with this photo!

Sources:

Tablecloth and Ghost Plates - HomeGoods 

Orange beaded placemats - SteinMart -several years ago

Black wood chargers & White Napkins - Pier One - years ago

White Chargers - Olde Time Pottery - years ago

Black check dinner plate(actually has a rooster on it that you can't see!)Marshalls years ago

Black knob goblets - Kmart years ago

flatware - HomeGoods about two years ago

harlequin check treat cups - on clearance for 25cents each - Hobby Lobby years ago

Candy Corn wands - Hobby Lobby - I added straws and bows

White ghost pumpkins - Hobby Lobby

Big Ghost with candy - Marshalls

Twig Trees - Target Dollar Spot - I added the candy corn

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a fun Halloween and you don't run out of candy!

Ann

Pumpkins Galore!

There is just something about pumpkins I just love!

Maybe that's why I was attracted to this tablecloth!

It's pumpkins and more pumpkins!

I love these sweet little wooden pumpkin napkin rings.

The orange pumpkin in the centerpiece just reminds me of Cinderella's carriage!

We had a beautiful fall day yesterday, even ended the day with a friends around our fire pit roasting marshmallows for S'mores the way you should celebrate fall!

I hope you are having a wonderful fall.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ann

Sources:

Tablecloth, napkins, napkin rings - HomeGoods

Burlap chargers - Hobby Lobby several years ago

White chargers and orange dinner plates - Olde Time Pottery - years ago

White dessert plate, 

Orange ramekin - Target's dollar spot last week

Flatware - Ikea several years ago

Amber stemware - World Market a couple of years ago

I am linking up to the following parties:
Dishing It & Digging It @ Life and Linda
Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Fall Copper Leaves Tablescape and Hop

When I think of fall I am always drawn to an image of a big copper colored tree with all of it's leaves turning such a wonderful saturated redish brown, cool crisp weather and plaid flannel shirts.  So I brought out the plaids and all the copper elements I could find for this table!  Get ready for a copper overload!

I am posting this as part of the Fall Tablescape Blog Hop hosted by the fabulous Chloe Crabtree of Celebrate & Decorate! This is a fun way to get inspired about your fall decorating.  Each day 4 more wonderful bloggers will be posting their fall tablescapes to get you in the mood! 

The schedule and all the links will be listed at the end of my post.
It started yesterday- so be sure to go back and pick up Monday's posts, because they are fabulous!

My copper color started with a $5 dollar set of napkin rings and just kind of grew from there! I think I bought these at Target's dollar spot two years ago.

I didn't intentional mean to do so much copper - but when I put dark flatware out - it just didn't look good.  I lucked out last week when I walked into HomeGoods with a gift card my son's friends had given me when we hosted them for a fun weekend at the lake.  (they are welcomed anytime - especially if they thank me with HomeGoods gift cards!!)  There was this set of copper flatware just calling my name!

The gorgeous copper Moscow mule mugs are on loan from my wonderful friend, Kim, who has graciously opened her cupboards to my passion for tablescaping!  Isn't it nice when your girlfriends are supportive of your odd hobby so that we can do these tables with out having purchase even more dishes, because I did splurge on these copper wine glasses while shopping at Pier 1 with my girlfriend, Diane!  I am just going to call Diane an enabler!!  We all need girlfriends like that!

For some reason I think plaids and fall just go together simultaneously, but then again - I use plaids in almost any season! These plaid napkins and placemats had that pumpkin spice vibe to them that just wanted to be paired with these cute little pumpkin plates.

I layered the plaid placemats with some textured cream colored placemats to give a little less busy background for my new copper flatware.

My centerpiece is a simple copper pitcher filled with fall color staring some beautiful copper colored 

silver dollar eucalyptus.

Since my kitchen and dining area are just one big room, I felt it was necessary to take down the summer accessories in the kitchen and swap it out for some fall accessories there as well.

I love that copper colored succulent - that was from a left over centerpiece at my girlfriend's daughter's wedding!  I'm glad I have these hoarding tendencies!

As nature starts it's wonderful show here in Northeast Ohio, we all just sit back in awe and watch the colors of the landscape change.  It's my favorite time of the year!

Here is the schedule for the hop:

Monday

Home Is Where The Boat Is | A Casa di Bianca
Living With Thanksgiving | Everyday Living

Tuesday

Corner of Plaid and Paisley | Belle bleu Interiors 
My French Twist | The Painted Hinge

Wednesday
Debbee's Buzz | Red Cottage Chronicles
  Panoply | Celebrate & Decorate

Thursday
Life and Linda  | The Painted Apron
Me and My Captain |Our Crafty Mom

Friday
Simple Nature Decor | Bluesky at Home
Sweet Sensations | Follow The Yellow Brick Home

These links will be updated throughout the week so make sure you stop back to catch all 20 beautifully crafted fall tables.

Thanks so much for sitting at my table with me!

I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Here's wishing you a wonderful fall season full of pumpkin spice and everything nice!

Ann

Sources:

Cream placemats, tan plates and copper eucalyptus  - The Peddler - Walnut Creek Ohio

Pumpkin plates, plaid placemats and napkins, flatware - HomeGoods

Brown chargers - Walmart -years ago

Copper napkin rings - Target a couple years ago

Grapevine pumpkins - Pat Catans

Copper wine stemware - Pier 1

Copper Moscow mule mugs - on loan from my girlfriend

Copper pitcher - Marshalls

I am linking up to the following parties:

Celebrate Your Story @ Celebrate & Decorate

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch