Tablescape Ideas for St. Patrick's Day

It's time to get your Irish on and set yourself a beautiful table. I was stunned, quite frankly, by all of the tables that I have set for St. Patrick’s Day over the years, and got a kick put of revisiting them.  It you’re looking to create a St. Patrick's Day tablescape, here are some fine examples to inspire you. Just click on the name beneath the picture and it will take you right to the informative post.

St Patrick's Day Tablescape

St. Pat's Dinner

Leprechaun Dance Tablescape

Springtime Table for St. Pat's

Leprechaun Lunch Table for Two

Wearing 'o the Green Tablescape

St. Patrick's Day Lunch

Lunching with Leprechauns

"Pining" for Christmas Tablescape

   It’s Christmas week, can you believe it?! With our weather fluctuating between 75° and 36° highs, it’s hard to get a grasp on just what time of the year it actually is.

I am in love with nature and the color green, so when these pine cone plates became available, I pounced on them. Both beautiful and educational, each one is different, and provides both the common and Latin name for the tree they represent as well as illustrations of the seed, greenery, and both mature and immature pine cones.

The pine cone salad plates (from Creative Co-Op) pair nicely, I thought, with the pine branch and pine cone-edged dinner plates that I got from Pottery Barn a couple of years ago. Both of these get a wonderful punch of color from the green edged, Italian chargers underneath from Roma New Works.

 

The wicker placemats set on top of my favorite checkered tablecloth on which I put a rustic table runner that I got from Pottery Barn this year.

The centerpiece of lighted greenery and frost-laden pine trees provides a nice backdrop for the Pottery Barn twig reindeer in both full-size and miniature as candle holders.

 The pine cone flatware is from one of my favorite places to shop for flatware, Cabela’s.

The “Fa La La” napkins with their text in muted gold are similarly from Pottery Barn, and brighten the table with a bit of sparkle.

The green water glasses were my mother’s. I love the jewel-toned depth of color here. The mugs are by Maxcera, and are in the “Postcard Owl” pattern. I found them appropriate because while they feature an owl on the front side, there is a lovely pine cone image on the back that I found suitable for this table.

 

 Because this table isn’t overtly Christmassy, I plan to use it to take me into the New Year, and a couple of days beyond. After which, this will be replaced with a more wintry tablescape.

Merry Christmas to all of you! Try to relax and enjoy.

 This post is linked to: Tablescape Thursday

 

Antique Dessert Plates - This Week's Find!

The cleaning out of my parents’ home continues, and this week’s cute find are these beautiful Italian dessert plates with matching server. I also found eight of these pink cups but, alas, no saucers to match.

These plates have a bit of history. They belonged to the mother of Shirley Fick, my mother’s long-time (since childhood) friend, who acted as maid of honor at her wedding.

You can see her in the picture below at far left. When her mother got up in years she passed them down to her daughter, who used them at every opportunity. Because Shirley had only one child, a son, she gave them to my mother knowing that they would get a lot of use, and eventually be passed down to me. And here they are, and here I am, as thrilled to have them as the original owner.

It’s going to take a special dessert for me to use these, but I guarantee I will be making one, and sharing the recipe with you.

Meanwhile, my mind is whirling thinking of all of the beautiful pink and green spring table settings that I will be able to create with these new, much loved items.

To see my previous find, click here.

This post is linked to:

Tablescape Thursday

Wearing 'o the Green Tablescape

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on Saturday, and my table is wearing ‘o the green in celebration.

I am a big fan of green and white, and, as a consequence, I thoroughly enjoyed putting this table together.

The Fitz & Floyd pitcher centerpiece belonged to my mother. When, a dozen or so years ago, I started having the St. Patrick’s Day dinner, she passed it on to me. It has become as much of a tradition as the corned beef!

I decided to fill it with flowers this year, instead of my usual pot of shamrocks. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. This pitcher is huge!

It has a very wide opening, and the sad bunch of flowers that I had picked up at the market needed some serious help, so I filled in with some artificial flowers. I think I pulled it off.

I topped it with a vintage St. Patrick’s Day card from the collection of St. Patrick’s cards that I started a while ago. Isn’t it sweet?

This year, I’m happy to say, I was finally able to locate a pair of leprechaun salt and pepper shakers to match the pitcher! This Fitz and Floyd pattern goes back to the 80s, so they’re not all that easy to find. I’m happy to have this whimsical addition to my table.

The wine glasses are new this year and from Pier 1. I thought they added a bit of sparkle and whimsy to the table, plus they hold a lot of wine!

The napkins with the shamrocks are new as well. I found these, believe it or not, on Amazon. They are nice, large, and quite colorful, not to mention low in price. You can find them here.

The chargers, a gift from a blogger friend, are used more often than any others in my collection. The white plates, “Blanc Amelie” from Versailles, are also among my favorites, because they blend with everything. The raised border gives them a rather elegant look; the mugs are this pattern as well. 

 Lotus bowls that I generally use for serving Asian food, worked well here as vessels for shamrock cookies.

The lidded soup bowls I have had for about 40 years. They are handy for a variety of foods and make a very special presentation. 

If you are celebrating this year with a dinner or gathering, tell me about it, I love to hear what others do!

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Leprecorn

Young and old alike are going to find this colorful popcorn a delight! The young, that is, if they can manage to get their hands on it, because, trust me when I tell you that it is addictive, and you won’t want to share. Employing the use of microwave popcorn, this goes together in a flash. It is colorful, tasty, and makes a perfect treat for St. Patrick’s Day. I like to put a colorful tin of it at each place setting of my traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner.

Leprecorn

1 bag of microwave popcorn

1 cup mini pretzels
1 cup broken pecans
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 package Wilton candy melts, green

Pop popcorn according to microwave directions. When it is cool enough to handle, empty it out onto a sheet pan, spread it out, and pick through for unpopped kernels. You are not going to want to chomp down on one of those! Empty popcorn into a large mixing bowl, and add pretzels, pecans, and white chocolate chips. Melt candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring at 30-second intervals until melted.  Pour over mixture, toss lightly to cover, and empty onto sheet pan to dry.

PRINT RECIPE

This post contains affiliate links.

A Whale of a Table

Do you ever see a product, an admittedly nice product that is out of your price range but you're sucked in by all of the positive reviews and hit “purchase” before you realize what's happening? Yeah, me too. The whale basket on this table is a prime example of just that. I really should have paid more attention to the dimensions on this item before just buying it willy nilly, because what I thought would be a nice little addition to the top of the chest in the guest room ended up being much more sizable than imagined…as whales can be.

So here it is, perched atop my table for this week, the result of a personal challenge to use my recent Pier One placemat and napkin purchase (first seen here) with as many different styles of dinnerware that I possibly can. Last time I stuck with one color family, but this week I decided to introduce my Fitz & Floyd salmon chargers along with a splash of yellow in the flatware. (The “Radiant” pattern by Noritake.)

I decided to replicate the yellow in some violas that I placed in top of the basket (and that sure looked bigger and more ample in the store). Eh. I'm not really sure that I like it, but it's growing on me, and I do like having live flowers on the table.

I swapped out last week's white plates for the blue flowered Nikko Tea Rose plates (a set that I think is going to find its way to the consignment store), and topped it with a pale green Metlox Lotus plate (made in the good old U.S.A., I love that!).

While rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen looking for vanilla beans, I found this turquoise set of Fiestaware salt and pepper shakers (I never did find vanilla beans) that probably would have fit in better with last week's table, but I was so happy to have found them that I decided to use them anyway.

It's a simple table, but a lovely and colorful one, and color and whimsy is what this season is all about.

By the way, if any of you can think of an idea (really ANY idea will do) as to what to do with this whale basket, I would really appreciate it.

This post is linked to:

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Tablescape Thursday

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Create It Thursday

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