Tablescape Thursday - Fall Fruits

Tablescape Thursday is one of my favorite blogging days -- It's such fun to be able to visit so many homes each week and see what you've set on your tables -- I've learned so much from so many of you!


Here's my Fruits of Fall Tablescape. I'm probably telling my age here - but I can rememeber as a child how the fruits were much more limited to the seasons than they are now. Fall was the season for apples, pears, plums and grapes. Unlike today, when you can find most fruits year round.


I've filled my grandmother's antique compote with faux fruits for my centerpiece. I'm also telling my age here as I recall the earlier wax faux fruits my mother and grandmothers had in the 50's -- Certainly they didn't have the realistic look we enjoy now. Do you remember those too?


My tablecloth is filled with the fruits of fall -- apples, pears, plums and grapes. I got this cloth at Garden Ridge a long time ago.


Here's a closer view of our place setting.


Water glasses hold my fruit covered paper napkins.


These little apple bowls were my grandmother's -- perfect for the waldorf salads she made for Thanksgiving each year. I've used them often for fruit salads, but today, they'll be serving dessert - A nice hot apple cobbler topped with vanilla ice-cream.


You can see the fruit that's embossed on this clear glass salad bowl. I like glass plates and bowls because they coordinate with any color scheme. Since I have several patterns and textures on my table this week, I wanted a more subtle look for the dishes. These glass ones coordinate with the theme and blend well with this table. Now let's do the tabletop strip tease ....


Under the salad bowl I have a small mushroom colored plate. I got these a few weeks ago from Tuesday Morning -- they'd been marked down to $1.99 each.


New plaid napkins from The Yankee Candle shop. The colors are the same as on the tablecloth.


The charger/dinner plates are the same fruit embossed pattern as the bowls -- I got these at Garden Ridge about 10 years ago. The bowls I just found a week ago at GoodWill.


These woven placemates were a recent thrift/antique store find. I'm not sure what the design is flower? fruit? vegetable? - but the colors are also in the tablecloth -- you can't really see the pattern until you're down to the last dish.


My bamboo flatwear came from Marshall's this past spring.


An overview of the table (sideways).


Overview of the centerpiece.


Afternoon shadows cast upon our fruited table.



A final look at our table as the sun sets.

Be sure to visit all the other tablescapes set this week over at "Between Naps On the Porch" - hosted every week by Susan who is such an inspiration to each of us to have a pretty table week after week and season after season. Thanks Susan!

See ya!

P.S. This is my 99th post! So be looking for #100 -- maybe you'll see something "interesting".

Looking Good!

I'm so excited! What do you think of my "new" look? A few weeks ago Kathy at "Life In The Slow Lane" had her one year blog anniversary and gave away a new custom made background and header. I was picked and I just love my new look! Thanks Kathy for my extreme makeover -- I love it!

Treasures from the Beach

I came home from our beach weekend with some treasures -- I know you're expecting perhaps shells or starfish -- but these are not beach combing treasures. These are shopping treasures!

I left the Ragged Rabbit with a whole box of treasures! Want to see?


First we have some paper plates - beautiful with orange and pink mums. Love the bright colors and I'll be tablescaping with these using the paper under glass technique I used a few weeks ago.

I love note cards -- they were out of "M" for Mid-Atlantic Martha -- so I'm using my last name initial - these came in such a cute package.


Here's a look at the various cominations of color. I'll love to send little notes on these!


This is a darling square tablecloth. Very sheer.


Loved the tassels on each corner -- The orange will be perfect for a Halloween tablescape.


These chargers were on the sale table. $2 each! They were very limited in stock so I only got two pink and two orange -- they go well with the paper plates.


The last item in my box is a green glass charger. I was able to get six of these -- they were also on the sale table for $4 each. They have a hammered look to their pattern.


On our way home from the beach we stopped by The Yankee Candle outlet in Williamsburg.


I got six plaid napkins to use in fall tablescaping.


I love to keep these seasoning packages on hand for dips and cheese balls -- this is a Hot Salsa Herb dip.



I also got two car gels that stayed in the car (Sparkling Cinnamon and Autumn Pear - sounds like something you could eat doesn't it?) and twelve tarts to use in my tart warmer at work -- these ought to last me through the end of the year. No two alike. This is the list of scents: Autumn Wreath, Sparkling Cinnamon, Vanilla Pumpkin, Ocean Water, Fall Festival, Sparkling Snow, Moonlight Harvest, Harvest, Jack Frost, North Pole, Christmas at the Beach, and Home for the Holidays. They always tease me at work and say they can always tell when I'm in my office, because they smell me before they see me.

How about you? Hope you've found some treasures this weekend too.

See ya!

A Birthday celebration at the beach

One of the things we love about living where we do is how close we are to many different attractions. We're about two hours from Washington, D.C.; about two hours from the mountains and about two hours from the beach. This weekend we decided to have a birthday get away to Virginia Beach to celebrate my husband's birthday. We left home right after work on Thursday night, stopped for dinner and loved waking up Friday to a beach view.

This was the view from our balcony.


Looking directly down are lawn chairs on the lawn.


Looking to the right you can see the ocean, the sand, the boardwalk, bike paths and the lawn area. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm.


Looking to the left you can see we were at the end of the boardwalk.


We enjoyed seeing the bikers, walkers, joggers and dogs being walked. Not too many people in the ocean, but lot's of activity all day. We also enjoyed the indoor pool, hot tub and indoor lazy river - very relaxing.


It was the perfect place to finish up my summer "beach read". Good book.


After coffee and pumpkin bread at Starbucks on Friday, we strolled the boardwalk. Here's a statue of King Neptune.


A view of the palmettos.


One last look back at "The King."


We also enjoyed the fall decor along our stroll. Pumpkins on the beach.


We went into several shops - but this was the most charming one about two blocks off the beach.


Loved the way it was painted -- The Ragged Robin -- cute shop.

Halloween treats right inside the door.


Lots to see...


in all the nooks...


and crannies.


I found several goodies most of it on sale -- I'll be showing you my beach treasures in another post.


Enjoyed shopping and I'll be visiting them again next time we're at the beach. They had so much to see -- housewares, georgous china and crystal - party ideas, books, cards stationary, Vera Bradley purses -- just too much to take in on one visit.


Friday evening we went to eat at a restaurant right on the beach, Lavern's. We each had a wonderful meal. Rick enjoyed shrimp, scallops and a crab cake. I had soft shelled crabs. Forgot to take a picture -- but we enjoyed every morsal.


The weekend before was the annual Neptune Festival. I was surprised to see some of the sand sculptures were still in pretty good shape. This was one of my favorites.


See the cute little dog on the left?


Looks like they're all ready for watching T.V.


She's playing a video game.



I have no idea what this was -- sort of spooky though -- perfect for Halloween.

We sure hated to leave today to come back home after such a great time ... but it's good to know that we're close enough to know we'll be able to go back again soon.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend as well!

See ya!.