Archive for November, 2011
Last Minute Thanksgiving Table Settings
I’m a last minute gal, what can I say? I’ve been having some fun with a few quick n’ random turkey-day table settings, so I thought I’d share ‘em (with 48 whole hours before Thanksgiving to spare). I usually do a bunch of Christmas ones (as seen here) but something about the new doorway between the kitchen and the dining table has me itching to play around with pretty table settings a little early this year. Well, I did do some Thanksgiving table stuff last year and the year before, so I guess it’s becoming a tradition to just use what I have and see what I can come up with. Maybe they’ll help one or two of you who want to pretty up your table in the final hour (especially if you have a few simple things lying around like apples, patterned paper, mugs, cocoa mix, or even a ceramic piece o’ fruit). So on with the show:
Top Left - This is just some basic china and silverware (from Linens N Things) with my favorite cloth napkin (from Crate & Barrel), a woven glass (from HomeGoods), and two colorful bowls (gifts from a friend, but I’ve seen similar ones at HomeGoods) with a fresh fall apple inside. Simple but still a bit of color, which is nice if you’re a blue, green, tan, and yellow lovin’ gal like me.
Top Right - A tawny mocha runner (HomeGoods) paired with some basic silverware and china (from Linens N Things) and a patterned paper napkin (from Ikea) gets a shot of color thanks to a soft pink vase from Ikea with a pretty fresh bloom for each guest inside. A woven glass with some more pink ties into the vase and adds a fun accent color (it’s not necessarily the first color you think of when it comes to Thanksgiving, but somehow it works).
Middle Left - Here we have a goldenrod pashmina-turned-table-runner with basic china, silverware, and a white cloth napkin (all Linens N Things) along with a stemless wine glass (Crate & Barrel) and some patterned paper (from Michael’s) with a pencil so everyone can jot down what they’re thankful for.
Middle Right - This setting would not only work for Thanksgiving (especially if it’s cold outside) but could also be great for Christmas or New Year’s. The big idea here is a piping hot cup of cocoa complete with whipped cream waiting for each guest. Doesn’t that make you smile? Just me? I lovessss my hot chocolate. I made that mug a while back here (it’s not food safe so I just used it for inspiration – but maybe you have a set of mugs that are that would work?). There’s also a silver wood-grain plate (from Crate & Barrel) along with basic silverware, china, and a white napkin (all from Linens N Things) and a stemless wine glass from Crate & Barrel.
Bottom Left - This one is admittedly a bit crazy. But it just might be perfect for the gal who doesn’t take herself too seriously. A leopard pashmina-turned-table-runner (from the streets of NY) and a gilded West Elm box full of goodies (like an individually wrapped truffle or two) add some serious zing. And woven cups (from HomeGoods) bring some fall texture with a basic plate, napkin, and silverware (from Linens N Things) to balance out all that me-ow.
Bottom Right - Here we have a cloth napkin (from Crate & Barrel) placed placemat-style under the plate along with basic silverware, china, and a white napkin (all from Linens N Things) and a tall textured glass (from Ikea). Then I had some fun with ceramic fruit and a dry erase marker (you can write each guest’s name on anything smooth and wipe it down at the end of the night!). I had more fun with that whole concept than I should. Seriously, somebody needs to look me in the eye and say “put. the. dry. erase. marker. down.”
So there you have it! Some last minute Thanksgiving table settings. Anyone playing around with some setups of their own? Is hot cocoa involved? Will folks be jotting down what they’re thankful for at your house? Are there fresh flowers, boxes full of bon-bons, fruit, ceramic items, or dry erase markers involved? They’re the most addictive of them all. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Psst- It was hilarious and sweet when I saw that Katie B had also done some Thanksgiving table setting of her own. This makes complete sense since we love doing that stuff together (as evidenced here) so I guess if ya can’t be in the same room, doing it around the same time from a few states away is the next best thing.
Fab Freebie: We Need To Address Something
*** This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below! ***
Sorry for the late winner announcements. Blame the tryptophan. And before we share the name of the winner random.org selected, don’t forget that The Paper Cafe is still offering 15% off discount (details at bottom of this post). But more importantly, our winner is… Maria (who is sending holiday cards with an adorable picture of her 5 month old daughter in it). Congrats!
This week’s prize includes a custom address stamper from The Paper Cafe and Three Designing Women. Sherry actually bought me one last Christmas to celebrate being at our new address, and it certainly made writing and addressing thank you cards (and every letter, bill, and card since then) much faster. But this week’s winner is getting a lot more than just one address stamper, they’ll score a ton of the goodies that you see below (like a custom stamp gift set, a set of 3 monogram stamp designs, 4 additional colored ink pads, as well as a bunch of coordinating gift tags, note cards, and notepads) along with a few goodies that aren’t pictured below, like a custom stamp gift certificate to give a stamp set to someone else (so you can cross stamp them off the ol’ Christmas gift list).
- PRIZE: A gift package from The Paper Cafe and Three Designing Women valued at over $150, including a custom stamp gift set, a custom stamp gift certificate, a set of 3 monogram stamp designs, 4 additional colored ink pads and additional gift tags, note cards and notepads.
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “ADDRESS ME!” and tell us…
- BONUS QUESTION: …what your holiday card plans are this year? Do you go all out and stage a family photoshoot? Just send out a cute card with a snowflake or a reindeer on it? Type up a newsletter? Send an e-card? Or just pass on the holiday card thing?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, November 23rd at 8pm EST or at 10,000 entries (whichever comes first)
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: The United States of America (although we do try to wrangle as many international giveaways as possible)
- DISCOUNT: Get 15% off custom stamps, colored ink pads, photo stamps, stamp gift sets, stamp gift certificates, and embossers with the code YHL-15OFF-TDW
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday (okay, maybe Friday this week) as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday or Friday for the announcement of our winner. Good luck…
Note: We aren’t paid or perked for hosting these giveaways, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of The Paper Cafe and Three Designing Women.
Our Cabinets Are Like Chumbawumba…
They get knocked down.
Well, they weren’t actually knocked down as much as they were “carefully removed” (since we plan to reuse various things like the doors for the new peninsula cabinets and then donate the rest). The room was feeling pretty wood-riddled when we moved in last December…
… so we were excited to un-wood-riddle-it for good.
As we mentioned here and here, we’ll be adding a wall of counter-to-ceiling penny tile…
… along with a bit of open shelving (on either side of the range hood that we’ll be building in).
Oh and to avoid having the open shelves/dust & grease chat again, just check out this post for a bunch of “research” that we did before landing on that decision. It won’t all be open shelving or anything (just a few feet on either side of the vent hood that we’ll be hanging above the stove) so we’ll also still have other upper cabs around (like the one above the pantry, fridge, and dishwasher), which is why we didn’t think we’d be flummoxed by the change in upper cabinet quantity (ten points for the use of flummoxed?).
But we couldn’t be sure, so the biggest test of storage capacity was when we emptied all of those upper cabinets before removing them to see where things would land. We only plan to keep our frequently used/washed everyday dishes on the open shelves (so they won’t have time to acquire dust) along with a few other things that are always stored out in the open (like a vase or two, some art, lidded jars full of sugar and flour, some cookbooks, and a potted plant or two) but everything else will be stored in cabinets. So we went into this relocation phase a bit nervous about being able to store all of the offset items somewhere else in the kitchen.
How’d we fare? Surprisingly well! It took us at least thirty minutes of brainstorming where it was most helpful to store things like phone books, light bulbs, cookie cutters, and all of the other random items that were in those half-full shelves, but we got ‘er done.
Although we probably could have shoved them into other cabinets all willy nilly in about five minutes, it made more sense to talk things out so as not to have to rearrange things fifty times throughout this process. And once we decided where we wanted to stash everything once and for all, we were thrilled to find ourselves with room to spare. The entire corner cabinet of the peninsula (which still needs a lazy susan and a door) is 100% empty, even though everything has been put away.
We also have our everyday dishes in the other corner cabinet (near the stove) so once they’re out on the open shelves that space will be freed up as well. We also have a completely empty upper cabinet next our pantry (that will get cut down to the right size and rehung with a microwave under it). So it’s safe to say that the added peninsula has more than made up for the few uppers that we’re trading in for open shelves). Whew.
Taking them down was as simple as unscrewing a bunch of super long screws that held them into the wall, the ceiling, and each other (while the other person stood under them to support them so they wouldn’t come crashing down).
We didn’t expect removing them to make such a visual difference, but the room immediately felt a lot more open (not sure if the photos will do that justice since it might be a you-have-to-be-here-thing).
Well, at first it just felt crazy (here’s how it was looking immediately after we finished):
But after we cleaned things up (aka: put the extra cabs in the sunroom and pushed the stove back into place), it immediately felt a lot lighter.
You know, if you squint past the nasty unpainted ceiling and the insane fire-engine-red paint that we revealed (can you imagine that paired with all that wood cabinets and dark paneling?).
So yeah, this is one of those things-have-to-get-worse-to-get-better stages that leaves the room looking strip-searched, but we love that change is in the air. Even ugly-for-now-but-soon-to-be-reassembled change. The kitchen just breathes a lot more without that hulking too-low-and-not-at-all-to-code black microwave that used to hover dangerously close to the stove…
…and a wall full of tile and shelves with a giant actually-works-well range hood is going to be such an upgrade.
Still to come down? The backsplash, the googly-eyed cabinet hardware, the cabinet doors (for priming and painting), and of course we’re waiting on our counters and then we’ll add backsplash tile, install our stainless dishwasher and microwave (which we’ll be building in), redo the lighting, and redo the floor with the mocha cork that we got on clearance. So yeah… lots to do. But we’re taking it one day at a time.
And so far living without a microwave hasn’t killed us (although soup is a favorite, so we’ve been heating it on the stove – which I must admit feels very quaint). We definitely miss the sink, but thanks to having the dishwasher hooked up we’re surprisingly ok with our in-shambles kitchen. So that’s the update. What did you guys do this weekend? Any cabinet rearranging or removing? Any karaoke? Come on, someone had to be singing Chumbawumba while our cabinets were coming down.
Psst- This post’s title was an ode to some of our early-blogging kitchen posts from four years ago entitled “Our Cabinets Are Like Mariah Carey” and “Our Cabinets Are Like Brangelina” – ah, full circle blogging.
