Our stay was quite eventful as it turns out - while we were there, staying at my Aunty's house, I took a 5am slide down half a flight of stairs... not fun! Actually I went head first into a wall - I have no upper body bruising (except for my head!) so I can only conclude that I took almost the full weight of my (ample) body on my head... and let me tell you that 4 days on it still feels like it... I still have the bump on my head, countless bruises and scratches all up and down my legs, a mildly twisted ankle and a very black toe which I suspect was very nearly broken (this remains my most painful injury!) In any case, when I took this tumble I had Alex in tow unfortunately - he didn't have any injuries since I actually pulled him on top of me (also head first) but he got a big shock and screamed the house down... my poor Aunty and her family didn't know what had hit them! Shortly thereafter, I accidentally pinched Alex with the zipper of his jacket (ouch! more crying...), and a short time later Grandma's little old lady cat, Chloe, decided she'd had enough of Alex following her around and clawed him in the face... not alot of damage but OMG did he wail!! And all this before 9am! We hit the road pretty soon after - I felt we'd more than made our presence felt and should give this family some time to recover from our visit... So much for being quiet and unobtrusive house guests!! I did try... Hopefully one day they will have recovered from the trauma enough to let us stay again! Lol.
So back to the title of this post - I know you're saying what the?? Christmas? Stay with me, I'll explain.
I am obsessed with creating a lovely table when we have people over, even if its only for a BBQ! Well, why not? I do have some tablecloths, but they don't tend to really give me the wow factor I'm looking for. I much prefer runners or placemats with the wood of the table showing through a bit.
I like to entertain as much as
I've decided that this will be the first of an ongoing series of table settings I love to do... I just think they're pretty and inviting and make guests feel a bit special. I generally get lots of amazing comments, so hopefully you will enjoy them too! And hopefully it will keep me on my toes and trying out new table settings instead of just resorting to my faves all the time! :) I can't promise I will post these with any regularity of course (heaven forbid!) but I will do them from time to time.
So let's start at the beginning - I have an 8 seater table, but most of the time I just leave 6 chairs around it. I thought I should start with showing you how it looks for every day - if you walk into my house on any given day, this is what you're likely to see (although there might be a few magazines and papers around too...)
So back to the Christmas thing - I know we're in June and it's a long way off - but if I'm going to be sharing my decorated table, this was has to be first as it is just one of my all time favourite tables. Also, lots of people have Christmas In July parties, so maybe it will come in handy for somebody!! (I know, I'm clutching at straws aren't I... oh well - humour me!)
For Christmas last year, I went with this simple arrangement. Actually it was totally last minute, Mum was staying with us and generally she favours a tablecloth at Christmas lunch, so I had one all lined up for the occasion. Before we got lunch underway, she accidentally bumped a candle and spilled wax all over it, so that was the end of the table cloth for that day! The following day (Boxing Day) we had Mum's cousins over, and a friend of mine from Sydney who I hadn't seen in years (hi TB!). With the Christmas tablecloth out of commission (for that day at least) I had a think about what I could use on the table to make a really nice setting. I recalled I had this white and silver fabric in the linen cupboard, so I cut it into three strips to make runners... The baubles and strands of beads are just Christmas decorations I had hanging around, and the feather Christmas tree I bought in a January sale a couple of years ago... Here is how it looked:
It looked much more impressive in person. The guests raved about it, which was lovely.
Having gained a bit of confidence in putting the runners sideways on the table for place settings, I set about accumulating a few more (that weren't just scraps of fabric!) so I had one for every occasion. I do use these little rectangular plates (which are part of my dinner set) quite often
In this case we had baubles and strings of beads on them, but I often use them with some decorative gravel on them also - then just top with a candle of choice! In any case, you will see those as I share more tablescapes with you.
I hope you've enjoyed this little peek at our table - how do you set your table? I'd love to hear and/ or see what you do with your table for visitors.
Bye for now :)
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