End of Summer Blues Tablescape

As much as I love Fall and think of it as my favorite season.....I must admit that the end of Summer gives me a bit of "the blues".  So what's a "tablescaper" to do but set the table....

 ....with Summer time blues!

 Blue and white make the perfect summer combination...and I love the blue hydrangea mixed with white.

Blue and white toile seems to capture the pastoral beauty of an English countryside.

 With roosters and chickens and rabbits....

....young lovers enjoying a few stolen moments of leisure on a Summer afternoon.

Flowers in a white soup tureen.  I found this tureen at Goodwill or thrifting a couple of years ago.  It didn't have an underplate, but this antique platter seems to fit the bill.

Love how well the dollar tree blue stems blend right in.

 Light blue damask napkins with silver plated napkin rings.

Let's have a breakdown of the dishes....

First I have a clear glass plate layered over.....

 ....the blue toile plates.  Why? you might ask.....Well, I was so excited when I found these salad plates early in the summer at a thrift store that I didn't notice the back until I got home......

 Darn!  I thought I wouldn't be able to use these pretty little dishes on my table until I realized that the clear glass plates on top would make them perfectly usable! Voila!

 My white Gibson plates are so versatile. 

Love these antique tissue linen placemats.  I thought the Target faux ivory flatware mixes in to this elegant table quite well.

I was thinking that the china showed an English countryside.....but on the rim there seems to be a windmill.  Makes me think of Holland.

I'm not sure, but this looks like a church to me.

Baskets of flowers and birds.  Perfect for a summer day....don't you think?

A "birds-eye" view of the table....

 .....and the centerpiece.

Speaking of birds....remember when we all found these a few years ago at Target and the adventures they all had?

Love the pastels and white against this old oak table.

 A closer look at the grape pattern of the soup tureen.  The lid was also in perfect condition I just didn't use it with the flowers.  Even though I've used my tureen for decorating... I've never used one to actually serve soup.  Does the soup stay warm?  Or is this just a pretty way to transfer the soup to the table?

Late afternoon casts beautiful shadows over the table.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, September seems to be the month with one foot in Summer and one foot in Fall.  So I will enjoy these last lingering days of warmth before the leaves turn color and the air turns crisp......bringing a new season to treasure.


See ya!

I'm joining Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.net/.  You'll be glad you stopped by for a visit if you check it out!

Happy Fall Tablescape

Last week was an early autumn tablescape that I re-posted from 2010 -- and since the calendar for this week has the official start of autumn, today I'm posting my first fall table of 2011. This was a fun table to put together because I'm just unboxing some of my fall decor -- I'm still unpacking, but all of this is from storage, nothing new.



Welcome to the first table of fall. This is the season that feels like "one foot in summer and one foot in fall". The mornings can be crisp and feel like fall, but the flowers are still blooming and the trees are still full of their summer green leaves. And the days can still warm up enough to be delightful convertible weather.



As always, I've set a place just for you!



Some of you know my "two napkin" rule......paper for the mouth.....



....cloth for the lap. (This saves me from lots of cloth napkin disasters.....lip stick.....red sauces....butter - you know the stains that are impossible to get out!)



Overview of the table top......



.....and the centerpiece. I thought I would include some pumpkins among the last hydrangea blossoms with a few bunches of grapes thrown in as well. This all reminds me of this transition time of year.







A layering of dishes and Target flatwear on antique Irish linen placemats.




I found these little apple plates last year at Cracker Barrel -- I think they had been marked down to the 75% off shelf.




They make perfect coasters....





So I "picked" the last four apples they had. One golden, two granny smith green and one red.



Shall we do the tabletop "strip tease"?




This small dish came from Tuesday Morning about 3 years ago -- they ended up costing 99 cents each.



They have a pretty golden scalloped edge.




These green plates are heavy glass....they were another find on the sale shelf at Cracker Barrel a couple of years ago at the end of summer.




Can you see the embossed olives branches in the glass?



These come from a set of J.C. Penny dishes I found at Goodwill about five years ago. We use them everyday.




The light green glass chargers were on sale at one of my favorite little boutiques in Virginia Beach. We usually go there every fall, but it looks like we won't be making that trip this year.




I found this pretty shabby chic basket at a vintage and thrift store early in the summer.




Loved how well these paper napkins coordinated with.....


these cloth ones I've had for a couple of years. I believe these came from Tuesday Morning.






The only purchase I made this week was for these napkins from the grocery store....$1.99! That makes for a very thrifty tablescape.

Be sure to visit all the wonderful tables set this week brought to you by Susan at "Between Naps on the Porch".
Happy Fall Y'all!

See ya!