our st louis valentine's day trip.. a few photos and a lot of food.

While I didn't go photo-crazy, here are a few shots from our St. Louis quick trip for Valentine's Day. For more photo details, check out my Flickr!

During our St. Louis shopping fest, I found two cute playsuits and a pretty gingham skirt, all for springtime wear. Today, I broke out a pretty liberty print playsuit found at Forever21 and did my best to winter-ize it, so photos of that will be up tomorrow!

Country or Cutting Edge? Two Thrifty 'Scapes!

Some new thrifty treasures arrived yesterday at That Old House.
So today I want to play with them!

Don't forget to visit the blogs listed at the end of this post,
for so many more wonderful thrifty discoveries, and beautiful tablescapes!

**********************************************************************

Now for my thrifty finds: in this box . . . a Craigslist find,
but I can't show you the whole contents
on the slim chance that my sister reads my blog.

After Christmas, okay?

A second box held two sweet old silverplate forks, more than a century old,
in the Blenheim pattern I showcased in Tuesday's post.

These are the first Blenheim forks I have found. I just love that pattern, and Ebay.

This last box is a flat-rate post office fellow who was waiting on my front porch when I got home last evening. It is jammed full of old nickel silver flatware, also from Ebay.

Now if you didn't think I needed an intervention before this, you know the awful truth now. In this box are 132 pieces of flatware, pretty evenly divided among knives, forks and lovely great big spoons.

I already have some similar flatware, so I've got service now for more than 50.

These pieces are old. They were never fancy, they were workaday flatware around the turn of the last century, and I think they have great charm and good strong lines. Most are in very good condition; a few have some issues, but that's OK.

I paid less than ten bucks for the whole shebang.

In Princeton yesterday, I picked up these:

This is a stack of just 11 heavy red dinner plates by Oneida, but the rest of them are still out in my car! I bought 51 red plates in all for a total of $20. The hard part was lugging them out to my car and wrapping them for the trip home.

This flatware and dinnerware, after a good cleaning, will get tucked away in the pantry and be ready when duty calls. When we have one of our big parties,
we'll have matching flatware and plates for as many as 50.

And Howard, if you are reading this, sorry I forgot to tell you about the 132 pieces of old flatware.
Oops. My bad.

***************************************************************

Since it is Tablescape Thursday, and I am so in the mood to play with new toys, I used one of the red plates and some of the flatware in two different settings.

One is sweet, the other more edgy.

Edgy first.

This tablesetting is in honor of my daughter Anne, away at grad school and much missed.
The big black cup is from her school; how perfect for chili on a cold night!

Chili, eaten with one of these massive lovely old spoons.

Anne loves old flatware almost as much as I do.

The ceramic hand was one of Anne's undergraduate projects.

I like having it keep me company.

And I can never say my daughter didn't give me a hand. :-)

The red placemats and napkins were a set: $5 for 4 of each at HomeGoods.

Does it look as though we are having Hand Soup for supper?

Anne likes these old pewter S&Ps that were my Mom's; they have good classic lines.

I love the mercury glass candleholder I bought on a Goodwill
hunting trip with Annie, near her school.
It echoes the lines of the wineglass, a handblown crystal wedding gift.

Now, for something completely different!

Swapping out the edgy for the soft and sweet.

Same big red dinner plate, same linens, same flatware, but a rooster plate from T.J. Maxx (bought on a trip to visit our daughter Alida in California) brings in some other colors.

Turquoise, in a bowl (Dollar Tree) that also can hold our make-believe chili.

Aqua blue wineglass, a summertime thrift shop find, one of 5, blown and bubbly.

I've promised these to Alida, and eventually I'll ship them out.

Two little chickens join us. I think they are looking for a rooster.

The mercury glass light is still with us, and still lit.

A few mums in red and yellow in a very old silver spooner, well tarnished and used.

Do you have a favorite table setting? Do you like the more modern supper setting:

or the cozy country one?

My soapstone kitchen countertop is being installed on Saturday; I am so excited and nervous! Meanwhile, please keep your fingers crossed that by Wednesday, I have a usable sink and cooktop, or it's Happy Meals on paper plates for my Thanksgiving guests!





Join Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for more fun with dishes,
on Tablescape Thursday.













And buzz over to say Hi to Suzanne,
at Coloradolady, for her
Vintage Thingies Thursday blog party!









Tales from Bloggeritaville's
Leigh hosts
Thrifty Thursday. Check it out!

And the hand is waving goodbye. . . .

Happy Thursday! --- Cass

A Parlor Lunch on Tablescape Thursday

It's Thursday! That Old House is jumping into the Tablescape Thursday blog party, hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. Head on over for more table settings!

At That Old House, it's chilly and windy -- a real October day. Welcome. . . .

That Old House has a bit of a split personality.

On one side of her center hall are what we could call our family spaces --
the kitchen, pantry, study, conservatory, and the back (kitchen) stairs.

On the other side of the hall are what we could call our company spaces --
the dining room, parlor, front entry and main staircase.

************************************************

You notice I said, we could call. . . . because I don't. Call them that, I mean. All of the rooms in That Old House are both family and company spaces.

While the dining room and parlor are a little more formal, we use them every day, even if it's just a matter of setting the dining table for two at suppertime, making sure I use the front stairs as well as the kitchen stairs, or having lunch or afternoon coffee by the fireplace.

And that's what I'm going to do today -- set a table for one in the parlor.

My first attempt . . . . eh.

I didn't want Mr. Rooster on the table;
I wanted to use a cheery sunflower tea pot my daughters gave me years ago:

I like how it looks on the table; it would be filled with coffee if this were indeed lunch!

A candle in a lantern provides a little warm glow for a chilly day:

The lantern is a freebie; my daughter Alida worked one summer as a waitress at a local country club, and these lanterns were used to decorate tables at a wedding. They were left behind. What good daughter of a thrifter would not take one home?

The rooster plate is from Marshall's. . . in Hollywood!

Howard and I had to kill some time in Hollywood last week, before meeting Alida and her boyfriend for a taping of The Big Bang Theory. . . which we got shut out of, but them's the breaks.

Luckily there was a Marshall's near the In'N'Out Burger where we had dinner!

Underneath the rooster is one of the Dollar Tree aqua plates from this past summer.

I love those aqua and blue plates!

My long time everyday stainless, by Pfaltzgraf, works for lunch for one.

I can take a seat on the sofa, and enjoy my Autumn decor on the mantelpiece.

And if I look in the other direction. . . .

I am using a very old linen napkin, monogrammed with an elaborate "C" -- but I have to be careful;
it's so old that the very fine faggoting around the hem is separating:

I really should fix that, shouldn't I? I dare not launder this piece till I do!

Now for a few details:

And ... a moment of reality. The Awful Truth.
(And for once it is not dust, although you can find that, too, if you look hard enough.)
When we left for California, I had a little stone mustard pot of garden mums on the mantel;
I forgot it there. Now I have this on the mantel:

They are more dead than they look in the picture, I fear.

I could be Morticia Addams' gardener.

Happy Autumn! I'm taking my Dad to a farm stand this afternoon, then taking a long leaf-peeping drive back. -- Cass