Happy Halloween!

This week's tablescape is a festive Halloween setting.
It started with these placemats, which were a gift of my mother. Cute, aren't they?
I used a plain black napkin with a black gingham ribbon for a napkin ring.
The dinner plate is Wedgwood's Nantucket Basket. The orange soup bowls were a purchase this year from Wal-Mart. The flatware is my everyday Oneida Easton, and the water goblets are plain glassware I purchased a few years ago from Wal-Mart.
The centerpiece was this Halloween lantern. It was a gift from my children for my birthday last year. My birthday is the day before Halloween!
This punched votive holder was a gift from my sister one year.

This adorable black cat was a gift from the mother of one of my students back when I was teaching.

Here is a shot with the hutch decorated.

My children's treat bags hang from the knobs of the upper cabinets.
Our candy bucket fits perfectly in the niche below.

For more festive tablescapes, visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Stratford Stage Goes Casual

Last week my new brown transferware took center-stage in a formal setting in the dining room. This setting takes it casual for another Christian Family Night dinner at the kitchen table.

I used the same centerpiece as the Autumn Family Night.

I started with gold damask-like placemats and napkins that I had picked up last year from Wal-Mart, along with the bronze maple-leaf napkin rings. I then added these gorgeous oak-leaf chargers that I picked up from there this year. I just love that burnished wood look, and I almost hate to cover them up with a dinner plate!

I was convinced, though, when I placed the Stratford Stage dinner plate on the charger.

The Stratford Stage cereal bowl (used as a salad bowl) was added to the setting, along with amber iced-tea glasses in Fostoria Jamestown and Oneida Easton stainless flatware.

Here is a shot down the table with the candles lit.

I just love the scene on this creamer, with its tudor house and an abbey tower in the background. I created a vignette for the sugar and creamer on the hutch.

I haven't been able to find the teapot in Stratford Stage, but I thought my brown betty teapot made a good substitute.

Happy Autumn Evenings!

Be sure to join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for a ton more tablescapes!

Stratford Stage

A few months ago I got a great deal on a set of brown transferware for twelve, with dinner plates, bread plates, cereal bowls, creamer and sugar, platter, and serving bowl. The pattern is Stratford Stage by J. & G. Meakin, and it features scenes of a stagecoach among the English countryside. I have been saving it for some fall tablescapes. I have featured it in a more formal, yet still understated, autumn setting here in the dining room.

Here is a close-up of the dinner plate with its Tudor buildings, a church spire in the background, and the stage coach. The dinner plate rests on a silver beaded charger.
The base for each place setting is a white linen hem-stitched placemat. A monogrammed napkin is placed between the charger and dinner plate. The flatware is Reed & Barton Tara sterling. The glassware is Imperial Old Williamsburg iced tea and wine goblets in brown.
A butter knife rests on the bread plate. I love the charm of those Tudor buildings!

My mother gave me this wonderful pumpkin tureen a few years ago. I thought its brown stem, acorns, and vine tendrils complemented the brown of the china and crystal.
The coffee cups feature a wrap-around scene. Here you see the stagecoach.
Cows are grazing near a pond on the bucolic outskirts of a village.
This scene of the cup is my favorite of the whole set. I think that English cottage looks so cozy!

Here are the cups arranged on the buffet for some after-dinner tea. I was going to add the sterling teapot, but I didn't have time to polish it!
Please join Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for many more tablescapes.