pauses&clicks

Going off on a tangent here.  I always enjoy blogs that document projects so I photographed the process of setting my table for a dinner this evening.  I’m never really sure how the table is going to come together ahead of time so setting one usually requires multiple trips up to the attic or frantic searching through drawers for “that thing I know I saw just the other day.” Today, of course, was no different.

All the food we served this evening came from Tom Perini’s Texas Cowboy Cooking Cookbook so that drove the theme for both the menu cards and the “tablescape.”  I think I kind of hate that word but hey, it kind of describes it pretty well. This is how I began.

A wooden box, some pieces of old barn and a coil of barbed wire….the real McCoy.

Next up, a little bit of greenery….I really do have to go buy some stuff that looks more like the real thing but this sufficed since it’s what I had on hand.  I also started to add the plates and silverware so I could have an idea of how much room I was going to have.

Glasses, candles and bandanas came next.  My table cloth was a vast expanse of navy blue so I really needed to add the red.  It gave the table a really nice contrast.  I used napkin rings that I made years ago out of raffia and buttons.  Found those while I was digging through drawers looking for other things…bonus!

Here’s a couple of shots of  individual place settings.

I used coordinating colors on the buffet.  This was way easier to pull together than the table was.

I had a hard time getting a good shot of the finished table because I couldn’t get far enough away.  When it was all said and done the centerpiece still needed a little livening up so I potted a few garden plants and flowers and added them to soften all the wood and barbed wire.  It looks like a rather crowded table from this angle but didn’t feel overly crowded when we sat down.

The menu cards were a bit painful to make.  I was using a past design but for some reason the colors and patterns weren’t coming together well.  They involved multiple trips to Michaels. Am I beginning to detect a theme here?  I’m not exactly know for my advance planning skills!

Close up view of the menu cards.  At the end of the meal we pass the signature cards around the table for everyone to sign.  This gives each person a record of what they were served and who attended the dinner with them.  And yes, the wine wasn’t from Texas.  It was too late to pull that one off by the time we thought about it.

My front hall table was dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day.  Subway art courtesy of todaysfabulousfinds.blogspot.com.

The mantel is still decorated for Mardi Gras….guess I need to start thinking about taking that down but here in Louisiana we’re all about Mardi Gras just about all the time!