House in the Heights: Holding at Thanksgiving (Holiday Tablescape)

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Holding at Thanksgiving (Holiday Tablescape)

A bunch of my fellow bloggers have been posting fabulous Christmas decor and craft ideas for the last few weeks. And while a part of me is totally jealous, I'm just not ready to go there until after Thanksgiving has passed. I'm holding at Thanksgiving for now....sort of like how I'm holding at 29, no matter how many 29th birthdays I need to have in order to stay there (3 so far). Eventually I'll need to give it up and move on to the next great thing, but for now Thanksgiving (and 29) are working for me!

So as part of my Thanksgiving excitement, I caved and created a Thanksgiving tablescape this week. Why do I say 'caved', you ask? Well...because I'm not hosting Thanksgiving. So I didn't really need to create a table at all. But it just looked like so much fun, so I went for it!

Since this project was all about enjoying the process and getting a few fun pictures, I decided that I absolutely WOULD NOT spend a dime creating this table. Which both limited and expanded my creativity. It was fun to figure out what I could create using only what I had on hand!

I started by fashioning a no-sew table runner, using the white curtain remnant that I used when re-covering a lampshade. I simply draped it across my table, folding the raw edges underneath and topping it with my Thanksgiving centerpiece. I did not have place mats that suited any of my color scheme ideas, so I decided to go without, and use only colored chargers. However, I don't have a full set of eight of either ice blue or silver chargers, so I decided to use four of each.

Selecting dinnerware was easy, as I only have two full sets of eight place settings. I chose my simple, transparent brown set, since it worked with the natural elements that I wanted to bring into the table better than my teal stoneware. Napkins were also an easy selection, as I only own one set of cloth napkins.

I also own only one set of napkin rings. However I didn't want to use those, so I got a little creative with toilet paper rolls. I cut a few toilet paper rolls in 2 inch wide sections, and then rolled each tube in a length of light blue tulle. The tulle was wider than my toilet paper rolls, so I tucked the unfinished edges into the tube, and tied the tulle in place with a length of jute twine. Once my napkins were threaded through the holders, I tucked in a few pieces of natural-colored ting-ting that I have had lying around for years.

For place cards, I simply cut 8 rectangles out of two pretty blue and white scroll-design greeting card covers from a box of blank greeting cards in my stationary supply. I wrote the names on each piece of card stock using a black ink pen and my best cursive, and then stuck each name tag to a wine cork, using two-sided tape. Each place card nestled nicely into the 'nest' of ting-ting tucked into each napkin ring.

From there, I embellished the table with two silver candlesticks, each with a white mini-pumpkin on top, some votive candles in varying heights (using napkin holders for stands), and some more natural-colored dried floral items from the bouquet of ting-ting that I used in the napkin rings.

Considering I only used what I had laying around the house, I was pretty pleased with the results! It kind of makes me want to have a dinner party this weekend, just to get some use out of this beautiful table.