Striking A Simple Pose

Well, it's taken me almost two weeks, but I finally have a table setting using the Mikasa Shogun dishes I picked up for a song in Pennsylvania. Because these dishes are themselves quite colorful and striking, I kept things simple, and all vintage. Well, almost all.

I made one nod to Easter; there's a cloisonne egg nestled in the centerpiece.

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

In the dining room at That Old House, the table is set for 6.

It's a simple setting -- one dinner plate, two crystal wine glasses, 100-year old flatware, vintage napery.

Have a seat!

In the center of the old table, a square of linen from Germany, edged in darned needle lace, is crumpled.

Flowers in a tin black-and-gold French-style cachepot and crystal candlesticks
-- from Tiffany, Lord & Taylor, and Big Lots -- anchor the table.

Creamy candles cast a warm glow.

It will look lovely after dark.

Ah! Your stomach's-eye view!

Details:

Dishes: Mikasa Shogun
Flatware: Georgian pattern silverplate, ca. 1912
Napkins: Linen with darned needle lace, set of 12 from Ebay, vintage
Center cloth: Linen/cotton fabric, needle lace, from Germany, Ebay, vintage
Salt and pepper shakers -- vintage sterling, Ebay
Cloissone Egg -- gift!
Tin cachepot, black, gold painted trellis design with fleur de lis -- from a decorators' sample sale in NYC.
Fake flowers -- A.C. Moore (ugh, but I had no fresh!)
Candles -- box of 8, Bill Blass, T.J. Maxx

A blessed Holy Week to you all.

Howard's been out prowling the yard, with his camera around his neck;
the grass is beginning to green up! Hooray! -- Cass








Thanks to Suzanne at Coloradolady Blog,
for Hosting Vintage Thingies Thursday.









Thanks to Leigh of Tales of Bloggeritaville,
for hosting Thrifty Thursday!









And to Susan of Between Naps
On The Porch for hosting
Tablescape Thursday.

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

Dinner In The Library At That Old House

Only . . . Dinner is not in the Library because A) we don't have a Library, and B) I could call our Study a "Library," but there still wouldn't be a table in it.

So what we have is our Dining Room pinch-hitting for a Library. If I were going to set a table for two in a library, it might look like this. . . .


I'm joining in Tablescape Thursday, at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch blog, and also hooking up with Tales from Bloggeritaville, for Leigh's Thrifty Thursday party! Just click on the highlighted words, or on the icons at the bottom of the post, to flit on over to these great, fun blog parties.

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

Yesterday I moseyed on down to my daughter Anne's college, where she is in graduate school. She wrapped up her day at 5pm, and we headed off to Goodwill; Anne needed to shop for some pieces for a play she is costuming.

On the way we stopped at Dollar Tree. Need I say more?

Here, tucked at the end of our dining room table
(so you can't see the dishes waiting to be put away at the other end -- reality check!)
is a Tablescape for Two.
(Another reality check; that poor ivy plant is half dead. Ivy doesn't thrive indoors.)

We can dine by candlelight, although that

makes it hard to read the books in the library. :-)

What's in it? I popped the pieces into a mosaic.

And they are . . .
**Dollar Tree dishes; they were in the Christmas aisle, but they don't look particularly Christmas-y to me.
**Dollar tree tea light holders; I have seen these on other blogs, and I am such a copy-cat.
**The white porcelain "parakeet" I featured yesterday, a Giveaway win. Here.
**A couple of boxes that look like books.
**Dollar Tree placemats and napkin rings; I love the khaki and red together.
**T.J. Maxx bowls.
**Home Goods napkins.
**Crystal Pilseners -- can't remember where we got them, but they pre-date my dedictated thrifting days, so they may have come from (gasp!) a regular retail store.
**And my trusty century-old Georgian pattern silverplate, from Ebay.

Oh! Almost forgot. That candleholder, the one that looks like mercury glass with
a twisted glass stem? $2 at Goodwill. There were two for sale.

Ask me why I didn't take the second, and I can't give you a good answer.

That's it!

I know I didn't need those red and white plates, but aren't they adorable? -- Cass

P.S. I am taking a week off from blogging; see you October 3rd unless I can squeeze in a quick post now and then. Play nice while I am gone! ;-)

A Table 'Scaped With Thrift -- It's Lunchtime!

You know those nightmares where you just can't seem to get going?

That has been my Thursday -- trying to get some time at the computer to get my Tablescape and Thrifties post up with Howard working from home, at my computer. (Da nerve.) Talk about late. . . .


Finally -- done. I'm hopping on three blog party bandwagons -- Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On The Porch, Vintage Thingies Thursday over at Coloradolady and Thrifty Thursday at Bloggeritaville. Click on the blog names to visit, and read more. Thanks to our charming hostesses; they must be very organized to be able to do this!

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

Ebay, Dollar Tree, T.J.Maxx and some old free stuff have all conspired for this Tablescape, Vintage Thingies, and Thrifty Thursday post.

There will be three of us for lunch, and it's a simple summer menu:
cold tomato soup, crusty bread, and iced tea.

A simple menu calls for a simple table.

Three Dollar Tree dishclothes -- woven cotton in different black & white designs -- are our placemats.

Atop them, the basketweave-bordered plates, also from Dollar Tree.

I love these plates, and since I'll never cough up the cash to buy the similar patterns
in Wedgwood or Aynsley or whoever else has it, I'm very happy with these.

Then, the bowls. T.J. Maxx -- $2.99 each.

I love how the black design climbs over the rim into the interior.

The bread plates are Wedgwood. I found them in the beach house kitchen a few weeks ago;
I have no idea where my Mom got them -- probably a church rummage sale.

I actually bought the Lenox wineglasses retail, years ago from the now defunct and much missed Fortunoff's.

They will be just right for cold iced tea, and I've put coasters underneath to catch condensation; a single layer of cotton toweling won't protect the table well enough from that.

The coasters were a thrift shop find a few months ago -- 8 of them for a couple of bucks.

Napkins. . . I was going to use these old linen lovelies:

But for soup they are just too small. So instead of luncheon sized dainties,
we have great big old linens that can do the job.

For Howard, a huge German damask napkin -- smooth linen, and nearly 30-inches square.

For me, an old huck towel, not so huge, with wide hand faggoting along the border, and a big "C" monogram.

Not officially a napkin, but it will work. (Table linens don't belong to unions;
you can force them to work out of their job descriptions.)

Anne gets another piece of old huck, also monogrammed, and soft from many years of laundering. I think this monogram is a "C" also, but you never can be sure; some of those old monograms are pretty funky.

All the "napkins" are from Ebay; none cost more than a couple of dollars.

The flatware is my trusty old Georgian plate, and amazingly enough most of it even has the right monogram -- "L" -- considering I've collected this flatware piecemeal on Ebay with a wacky variety of monograms.

This pattern was introduced in 1912.

Great big soup spoons and little butter knives -- that's all we need today!

A few daisies and some blossoming hedge branches from the yard (thank you, Howard!) --

. . . and it is time for lunch!



Cold tomato soup -- that's goat cheese plopped in the middle --
slices from a baguette, and iced green tea. Yes, it was good.

On Friday I am blogging about how I hunt on Craigslist, and I'll show you some amazing bargains currently available here in North Jersey; I've got some beauties for you!

Join me on a Craigslist Caravan on Friday, and you will see why I am addicted, and why half my house is decorated in Craigslist bargains.
-- Cass

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

PS... a special note to Keetha of Keepie's Eclectic Stuff -- you wanted me to find you someplace to keep dining room china? How does free and gorgeous sound? You just have to come to New Jersey and get it. :-) Check in tomorrow!