Welcome to the 171th Tablescape Thursday!
I’m a week late but for this Tablescape Thursday I’m sharing the Thanksgiving table setting I had been working on when my camera cat-astrophe occurred. All the pics in this post were taken with the new camera, a Nikon D5100. This camera is super, duper light sensitive, which is why it works so well in low lighting situations. It will take me a little while to get used to the change, so please bear with me while I “learn” the camera.
For this Thanksgiving tablescape I envisioned a soft, sophisticated mix of shiny silvers and browns, with touches of amber. I usually like bold pops of color in my tablescapes, but I went for a more subtle feel this year.
I never like using the leaf in the table, so this table setting is a little on the cozy side. You like cozy, right?
Spode Woodland is my favorite pattern for Thanksgiving.
I forgot to take pics of the china without the acorn soup tureen on top, so I borrowed the next two pics from a previous Thanksgiving ‘scape. I added the turkey salad plates to this Woodland collection last year. Or, was it the year before–I forget now.
Here’s the dinner plate. Another favorite of mine for Thanksgiving is the antler flatware I found on eBay a few years ago. Since the set only included a fork and knife, I like to mix in the Spode Woodland flatware.
You may recognize the soup tureens. I’ve used them previously in this Thanksgiving tablescape. (Click link to view.) For that tablescape, I mixed two different colored tureens: gold and brown. For this table setting I chose to keep it simple, using only the brown. The napkin rings are new this year, a find from Pottery Barn. They worked great with this silver/brown/amber color scheme They are etched with the words, Friends and Family–a perfect sentiment for a Thanksgiving feast.
The beautiful amber-colored stemware is “Breeze Amber” by Noritake. You may remember it from THIS fall tablescape. Iced tea glass is Waterford, pattern is Araglin.
Spotted these cute antler ornaments at Walmart this year. I removed the little gold hanging loop.
They made great place card holders for this woodsy table setting. They also tied in beautifully with my centerpiece–more on that in a sec. Each ornament was only $1.97 and included two antlers, so all six place card holders were around $6. When you’re out ornament shopping, keep your eye out for treasures you can use as place card holders or napkin rings. It’s an inexpensive way to add some creativity and playfulness to your table settings.
Do you recognize the large, mercury-glass, pumpkin candle holders? They were last used in this Halloween table setting. They continued the silver theme of this tablescape. I placed them on either side of a 4-tiered, silverplate server and filled the server with natural elements: pine cones, acorns, nandina, spirea and antlers.
Last year I tried several times to win “shed” antlers on eBay, but alas, someone always managed to outbid me. This year when I saw Pottery Barn was asking $29 for just one faux antler, I decided to try again. I just couldn’t pay that for a fake antler.
As I shopped on eBay, I focused on the auctions for the “shed” antlers. I really like the idea of using the naturally shed antlers for decorating. If you would like to read more about shed antlers, you can do that HERE. I ended up winning 4 big, beautiful antlers for $61, the cost of 2 faux antlers at Pottery Barn.
You can see the beautiful coloring on these antlers. They were still nice and fresh–you can tell because they still have a lot of the brownish coloring, as well as obvious wax rings. The seller found these in the northwest corner of Minnesota. I love knowing that. Does that make me weird. lol The antler centerpiece ties in with the antler flatware and antler place card holders. See, there’s method to my madness. 😉
If you look on ebay, search for “shed antlers. Read the descriptions if you want to make sure they are truly shed antlers. No need to buy faux when you can get the real, naturally shed antlers for a lot less. I used two in the tiered server centerpiece and two on the table itself. Something tells me they just may end up on a mantel or in a Christmas wreath this year.
I cut Fire Power nandina from the yard and mixed in some colorful spirea foliage for a tiered centerpiece. The centerpiece is all natural and includes pine cones and acorns. These are the acorns I blogged about HERE. And for the record, no worms, yet. I’ll keep you posted on that. I’m trying to avoid the “baking-in-the-oven” thing. lol Check out the post and the comments for more details.
The silverplated tiered server could have used a bit of polishing but I thought the slightly tarnished look worked well with the woodsy theme of this table setting. That’s better than saying I was too lazy to polish it.
I’ve used this tiered server in a previous Christmas table setting, HERE. It was nice and shiny for that tablescape.
Hope you enjoyed this Thanksgiving table setting. Pssst: Molding was added to this room a while back. To see the “Before and After” click HERE.
Looking forward to all the beautiful tablescapes posted for this Tablescape Thursday!
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Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!
Thank you for hosting. This is my very first time to link up a tablescape! I think your Thanksgiving table is stunning!
Beautiful color scheme! I have LOTS of natural sheds at my house, but I had no idea I could get that kind of money for them. Maybe I should sell some! 🙂 I hope you enjoy the Christmas season!
Gorgeous Susan!! I love your dishes and LOVE that tiered centerpiece! Martina
Gorgeous Susan! xo
I happen to LOVE cozy! Cozy is what makes my day!!! This is a beautifully set table, Susan…as always! I am going to go shed antler hunting for the first time in February. My next-door neighbor is a hunter, and he told me the best time to look for them is the 1st week in February. So I will don my heavy coat, hiking boots and surgical gloves (I don't want to touch those things until I've had a chance to wash them!!!) and hit the trail near our home. I'm excited about it! If I find a ton of them, I'll happily give them away!!! They're so neat for decorating!
Love your table (as usual!) I hope to own those dishes some day myself! They have quite a collection going with that line. Your silver and mercury pieces look great with it. It ads a touch of elegance without being too formal. Looks like you scored on the antlers! Love your antler flatware too, those are soo handsome! Your acorn soup tureens are perfect and I love the pewter napkin rings. (Happy Belated Thanksgiving)!
Gorgeous! I love it, just beautiful!
Beautiful Susan, I absolutely adore those dishes.
OMGosh – absolutely beautiful. I am crazy about your dining room – the color, the chandelier, the apothecary jars – STUNNING!
I appreciate your generosity each week in allowing us to share all our projects and access all this fabulous inspiration. Thnaks for everyting you do for the blogosphere.
Carolyn xx
How beautiful Susan — I love your antler ornaments and those wonderful Friends and Family napkin rings.
Absolutely gorgeous! I love everything, the pattern on the china, the colors and the stunning centerpiece.
The new camera did a fabulous job…….Thanks for hosting.
~Emily
The French Hutch
Your table is gorgeous, I love those acorn soup tureens. And the 'cozy' factor was just right, it makes it more of an intimate dinner.
cheers to your new camera – those pictures are so crisp!!
Hi Susan, your table is stunning as always! You know there is going to be a run at Walmart tomorrow for those ornaments. I'll certainly head out to find them, have already emailed my daughter to give her the heads up in the Kansas City area to find them. lol…. I adore the centerpiece. I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.. Thanks for hosting each week. hugs ~lynne~
Stunning! I love evrything in it, specially your three tier centerpiece, I'm loving it! The dishes are beautiful and those lanterns you found give it the perfect touch and I love the way you used them. Thanking you for hosting Tablescape Thursdays, I always look so foreward to linking up. Hugs,
FABBY
Hi Susan, Oh my I never thought about worms in the acorns. I have a big bag of them in my guest room right now, guess I'll check it out. Your Thanksgiving table is very lovely! Cozy is the best and I think it works best for photos. The antler ornament idea for placecards is quite clever! They are really cute, and I love the Pottery Barn napkin rings. Beautiful as always!!
Howdy Susan!
May you have a sweet Holiday month. I love your Dining room and the table is lovely. Like the pine cones. The dishes are gorgeous.
It's been a while since I started to follow your blog and it was the header you had of your Dining room that caught my eye when I started blogging.
I am a fan of the reddish walls and wood furniture!
I always enjoy visiting your place.
God bless,
d
Hi Susan,
what a lovely Thanksgiving table.
Beautiful as always. Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!
Thanks for hosting hon,
blessings, Nellie
It's always good to stretch out Thanksgiving- cannot be too thankful!
Thank you for hosting!
Kerry at HouseTalkN
I love your tablescape! I may have to purchase some natural antlers for my decorating efforts.
As always…your table is stunning!! The setting is beautiful and your table is gorgeous.
Thank you for inviting us in and for hosting this party!!!
Your Dinning room is very stunning with the red. I particiularly like the way you put your table together. I like all the fine touches and use of antler and your dishes are very traditional. Love it all. Pat
Love your table! Thanks so much for hosting!
Oh my Gosh!! This is one GORGEOUS table!! I LOVE the antlers you placed in here along with the rest of the decor. I've been trying to win them on Ebay also…notice 'trying'? lol Someday!
I bought those same napkin rings at Pottery Barn, love them. Love the tiered centerpiece too.
Take a bow my dear, this is stunning!
What a lovely table setting! I love the natural elements you used. I've never thought of using spent antlers in my decor, but I think I'll send the boys out in the woods this afternoon to hunt for some. We have a herd of deer that bed down in the woods behind our house and lunch on my garden each day. The boys have come back to the house with a deer skull before, but never antlers.
Love your new napkin rings! So appropriate for Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing.
LOVELY!! "Almost" makes me want to do Thanksgiving over again….nah. 😀 franki
Your table looked gorgeous in your dining room- especially with that delicious wall color. Susan at Romancing the Home
Oh I LOVE that tablescape, Susan! I am much more into the subtle colors vs. pop so this one was especially lovely – so well thought-out and gorgeous.
GREAT find/brilliance with the antler placecard setting. That was genius.
Love the way you re-use items and then show us how you used before, that is a neat feature with your blog – it is important we all realize reusing is awesome. You make it a true art form with dedicated talent!
Lastly- congrats on your new camera. That is a nice nice item – and with Christmas fastly approaching your timing it great. sorry about your old one, it was awesome but I think you will love this one even more once you get used to it.
SMELLING SALTS! I need smelling salts to revive me — I have fainted plum away from the Spode Woodland dishes — oh my, how fabulous are they?
The entire table is gorgeous! Right down to the artistic amount of tarnish on the center piece. 🙂
Beautiful — Cass
Susan, We had similar schemes in mind with both of us having a red dining room and I too used my Spode Turkey with amber stemware. Your table is just lovely. I wasn't able to post my Thanksgiving table last week so I too posted mine this week while I work on Christmas decorating.
Carolyn/A Southerners Notebook
Susan, I know I keep saying this, but THIS table is MY FAVORITE…. a MASTER PIECE of fall perfection in colors and textures… so many layers of interesting elements with that gorgeous red backdrop… NO PRESSURE, but I am looking forward to how you will top our expectations for Christmas!!!! LOL
your thanksgiving table rocks!
Susan, your tables always glow with warmth and welcome. I'd be delighted to dine at this table. Gorgeous!
such a warm and wonderful table, love it~
One word…………beautiful!! You are so gifted! Love those chargers! Where did you get them??
Jean, thanks so much! The chargers were from Horchow four years ago.
For me your Thanksgiving table is stunning! Thanks for sharing your plan with us!
Susan,
This is a gorgeous tablescape, dear friend! Oh…and am I ever loving all the natural elements! We usually have four at our Thanksgiving table…this would be a perfect tablescape for the resource files!!! Thanks for sharing!
Fondly,
Pat
Susan, This is a wonderful post. Your dishes and settings are stunning! BTW, I wasn't on 'top' of my blogging a month ago or I would have joined up on a Thursday, but I did send my readers your way, because my friend Millicent and I used one of your tablescape ideas for our church ladies' decorating 'competition'. We won most creative table using magnolia leaves for chargers. Thanks! It made a great post. :o)
Donna @ Comin' Home
Susan, Your Thanksgiving table drew me to this website. I have searched high and low for beautiful Thanksgiving decorations that aren’t cheesy and you have set your table in such a beautiful way. I love many of the Williams Sonoma items, but if you can’t purchase all that you want when they have it, it can be a problem. I bought a Fitz and Floyd Pheasant Soup Toureen from Costco that started my pheasant theme (in lieu of turkeys) for Thanksgiving. I had been trying to decide on dishes and when I saw your table, I knew the Spode Woodland with the Pheasant and birds was the one for me. I love your acorn soup bowls, but unfortunately I can only find 5 on e-bay and I wanted 8, so I haven’t bought them. I will keep looking for something acceptable.
Now, I have seen so many lovely tables and other decorations on this site that have inspired me to do much more.
Thank you for this site.
Thanks, Margo! Have you checked Replacements.com. There prices tend to be pretty high but when I am just missing one of an item, sometimes it worth it to bite the bullet and buy it from them. I’ll keep my eye out and let you know if I see them anywhere. I love decorating with pheasants…just love that theme!