A Wintery Dinner Party

I had a few friends over for dinner earlier in the week and had a little fun setting a cozy table for us all I got a chance to use my new plaid napkins that were a gift from my friend Amy.

I went to A.C. Moore to see what I could find that would inspire me, and I came across a bunch of clearance from Christmas…including some sparkly snowflake wood cut-outs (I think they were $0.14/ea) which I hot glued to some brown tags as place cards. I can’t remember where I saw this idea originally, but doubling up my lace linen napkins with the plaid napkins was probably my favorite little feature. I tied the placecard to the napkin with twine and added a little spring of cypress.

See the lace edge peeking out? So sweet! Of course you can’t go wrong with mix and match Ironstone place settings. I really have loved collecting it over the past year. It plays nicely with just about anything you want to use with it.

Also at A.C. Moore, I found several branches with red berries marked down to $0.75/ea. Those and the snowflakes were the only purchases I made, the rest I wanted to put together from things I already had. Up to the craft room I went, scouring my fabric scraps for something runner-ish.

What I found was a piece of white faux fur. The internal dialogue went something like this:

“YES! This is awesome!”

“No wait, it’s kinda weird. Who puts fur on a table?”

“Well…lemme just try it….”

So I brought it downstairs, and Amy came over to help me finish up the table. My Ironstone pitchers won out over some other pieces we tried. I filled one with the faux berries and one with some cypress cuttings (after determining that mixing them together felt too Christmas-y). I gathered a few more candle-y things and my white bird salt and pepper shakers to round it out.

All this time the wheels are turning…I’m thinking about the fur…do I cut it? Do I just lay the square in the center? Abandon it alltogether?

Seriously that’s what happened over my head when I came up with this idea that I think is original, but is probably already on Pinterest (I can’t stand to look). But I’m still totally taking credit for inventing the mini fur table rug.

Oh yes, I cut that squarish piece of fur into a bearish piece of fur. Har har!

Um, it’s awesome. I don’t care if no one else thinks so. Trust me, if it’s not cool now it will be in 10 years-so remember kids…you saw it here first! But let me steal your attention away from the rug for a minute to address what I’m sure you’ve noticed by now is a cupcake in a teacup. Ok it’s not in a real teacup, but it’s still the most awesome cupcake on the planet. Courtesy of Amy. Cause you know I can’t bake that shizzle.

They didn’t last very long at all.