New pieces from Noritake tablescape

You cannot imagine my delight when I got an email from Noritake a few weeks ago. It said I had won the Noritake Piedmont Platinum Accent Plates. Wow. Oh yay!! Can you spell excited??!!!

I just knew they would work so well with many of my dishes. I had planned to deck the table with my these pale blue accent plates and my wedding china, but I think I'll save that for another day. Isn't the square shape wonderful. That's platinum on that plate!!

 

For our Sunday dinner with my 97 year old dad, I pulled out the pale blue Williams Sonoma linen tablecloth and as much crystal as I dared put on the table. 

 Including crystal knife rests from the mister's grandmother. 

 Mikasa Parklane water goblets, Libbey Rock Sharpe wine goblets and unknown Champagne flutes.

White flowers always pop on a pale cloth. Simply mini-mums keep the table from looking too formal. 

The guys already cringe at white napkins!

 

Wedgwood Windsor dinner plates and Old Company Plate's Signature silver complete the look.

 The silver Gorham Chantilly candlesticks are hard workers around here.

How do you keep your white napkins clean? I place mine in an oxyclean bath directly after dinner.

Let them soak a while. It will not hurt. 

Whereas bleach weakens the fibers. Always.

I'm still collecting silver trays. Can you ever have too many?

I love how many different edges are available. It's so hard to pick a favorite.

Do mums make you smile? Oh gosh, these last so long and bring so much joy.

 I hope you had a pleasant visit. I'd love to have you grace our table!

Thank you Noritake for the wonderful pieces!!!

Cast:

Tablecloth - Williams Sonoma linen

Silver chargers - vintage silver trays

Dinner and bread plates - Wedgwood Windsor

Salad plates - Noritake Piedmont Platinum

Flatware - Old Company Plate Signature

Water goblet - Mikasa Parklane

Wine goblet - Libbey Rock Sharpe

Champagne flute - unknown

Candle holders - Gorham Chantilly

Crystal basket - unknown

Joining Tablescape Thursday over at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch.

Hope to see you there!!

Leaving you with our blue moon!

Father's Day - A little bit of Chicken Fried... tablescape

 

Welcome!

Father's Day didn't quite sneak up on us, I actually found a present and card for my husband weeks before, but the meal itself did. Was I thinking we would fast that day?

The boys did agree it was high time for some 

Chicken Fried Steak!

From Wikipedia:

Chicken fried steak (also known as pan-fried steak,^[1] CFS or country fried steak) is a breaded cutlet dish consisting of a piece of steak (tenderized cube steak) coated with seasoned flour and pan-fried. It is associated with Southern cuisine. Its name may be due to its similarity in preparation to fried chicken.

Chicken fried steak resembles the Austrian dish Wiener Schnitzel and the Italian-Latin American dish Milanesa, which is a tenderized veal or pork cutlet, coated with flour, eggs, and bread crumbs, and then fried. It is also similar to the recipe for Scottish collops.^[1]

After reading that little tidbit.. nope that is not what ours resemble! We use a nice thin cut top sirloin, pound it within an inch of its life, dip in flour, dip in beer batter, dip in flour, dip in beer batter, deep fry. All this takes place outside. Yes, sweet husband has perfected cooking the chicken fry on the charcoal grill, with mesquite chips over hot coals. Let me just say... Umm, it is soo good!

 

The trusty Sky Ranch dishes came out to play that day. 

I was busily plating salads in the kitchen when I realized I'd better jump to taking some pictures!

Still trying to figure out which flatware speaks Cowboy.

any ideas?

The napkin rings and centerpiece came from a quaint little shop in Weatherford, Texas, Just to the West of Fort Worth, on highway 180.

I have had these rusty ol' cowboys and cowgirls forever! The store at which I purchased them is now a faint memory. They are made by Two's Company and I did not see them on their website this time around.

I love setting the larger ones on the table for display or using them on a buffet with the name of a food item inserted into their lasso.

The rustic bird's nest chargers from World Market worked really well into the theme.,

Somewhere in the lost items from the last move was a box of cd's of embroidery designs. 

In that box was a western font set. 

Until either the box surfaces, which I seriously doubt, or I find the font again, these napkins will have to do.

This really worked pretty well for a guys table, simple, non-frilly and not fussy.

I pulled out the amber Whitehall quilted tumblers and paired them with the Dollar Tree crystal. 

Both pieces are rather chunky and therefore work really well with the heavy Sky Ranch plates.

Cast:

Chargers - World Market

Plates - Sky Ranch

Napkins - not quite vintage but older

Flatware - Gorham

Amber quilted goblets - Whitehall

Wine glasses - Dollar Tree

Napkin rings and centerpiece - Weatherford, Texas

Western placecard holders and decor - Two's Company

Thank you for dropping by! I do so love reading your comments, they inspire me to do better.

I hope I'll be seeing you at both Cuisine Kathleen's Let's Dish

and Susan's Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch!

A Pre-Valentine's Day Tablescape

Playing with dishes really is a lot of fun! While I have another table planned for next week. I was dying to use these new Juliska plates! And it is still winter, you know. Really go check the calendar.. not the thermometer. LOL, we sat outside and had lunch today. Kind of unheard of.

So I paired those sweet dishes with a red plate I found, wait, that found me.  Added a silver heart, some lace and tulips and the red flatware and called it a Valentine. It could pass, couldn't it?

I think the lace on the napkins really does tone down winter and brings out more of the love.

Yes, these red plates jumped into my basket at Tuesday Morning, after Christmas, during one of their sales. They were a whopping 1.87! Now with that price there was no second guessing. And for those who played along earlier, HERE, those dishes haven't made their trek back to Pier One. Yet.

I really love the edge of the Juliska plate. So curvy!

I "planted" the tulips in a vintage Burgenland serving bowl. They are really not too tall to leave on the table. A silver candlestick and a red votive holder complete the centerpiece.

There's a story to the red votive cups. Our youngest son and my father conspired to bring a lot of mom's stuff (that no one else wanted) to rest in our garage. What a horrible mess it was. Last Saturday, I bagged up 8-10 bags of fabric, a vhs player, a bag of ribbon, some clothes, etc and we took those to Goodwill. Amongst some of her things there was a bag purchased at a now defunct Christmas store. Inside the bag, amongst some pinecone ornaments that I love love love, I found these red crackle glass cups. Love them too. You might think I rescued them, but they rescued me.

Sweet Mr. CJ bought these hearts for me last year. Aren't they precious tucked into the braided, red napkin ring with the lace napkin.

 

Here is the start of my latest obsession with Juliska. Youngest son gave this platter to me for Christmas. It's their Holiday Country Estate line. He loved it, I loved it. And I love him for it!

 Flowers were very scarce last weekend. What's up with that? So I found these red and white potted tulips and thought they added a good mix of pretty to the table. 

 

 I added a bit of green dried stuff to the edges of the bowl to soften the look and plopped an unused heart into the bowl.

Because the Juliska plates were so curvy, the Mikasa French Countryside goblets fit the bill for a glass. Their curves mimic the edges of the plates. Repeating elements on a table or any other design, is always pleasing to the eye.

As if to give a stamp of approval, the sun broke free of the clouds and danced across the table with joyous abandon.

I was skeptical of the red flatware, thinking it might be too much, but it just brought the plate outward and completed the setting perfectly.

 I brought this lace runner back from Switzerland as a remembrance of working there. Andrea took me to the textile museum in St. Gallen. Also HERE if you can read German. It is certainly a place that is a must see.

Each set of Juliska holiday plates has 4 plates with 4 different scenes. Well, I had a tray, I needed something to go with it, right? It was perfect by itself, but so much happier with friends!!

Cast:

Chargers - Pier One

Dinner Plates - Thomson purchased at Tuesday Morning

Salad/Dessert Plates - Juliska Country Estate Holiday

Glasses - Mikasa French Countryside

Napkins - vintage

Napkin rings - World Market

Hearts - United Market Street

Flatware - Cambridge

Lace Runner - St. Gallen, Switzerland

Bowl - Villeroy & Boch Burgenland

Silver Candlesticks - Gorham Chantilly

Thank you so much for dropping in on this post. I'm always so happy to see you've been by and love reading your comments. I am joining the following ladies at their parties this week. I sure hope you will join me. There are so many pretty tables set just for you! 

Cuisine Kathleen's Let's Dish on Wednesday evening, and

Susan's Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch on Thursday.