Friends and Findings

I walked into my office this morning and found this sweet pumpkin bundle on my desk. My longtime coworker and good friend Gina had given it to me, a little gift for my Thanksgiving table. Perhaps she remembered that I was debating getting a white pumpkin for my decorating this season, but had not made the commitment. She said it was just a token gift of well wishes. Isn't that a thoughtful gesture?  I do love this little piece, too, and you will see it in my tablescaping.  Speaking of which....

I found my plates for my holiday table!  I had been fussing over what to use for holiday serving this year.  I have a beautiful set of Royal Doulton china, my wedding dishes, but there was a plumbing incident in the wall behind where the dishes are kept. A pipe started leaking and there was water dripping onto the dishes and saturating the shelf they sat on. So while we waited for the men to tear holes in the walls, upstairs and down, to fix the leaking pipe, and waited another few weeks for other men to come patch up and repair walls and shelves, I carefully packed each delicate china piece and put the boxes in my bedroom closet. They finally finished repairs this past Tuesday. Our plan is to sell our condo and move next year, so it made no sense to me to unwrap the china to use over this holiday season. I did want to do something nice for this year.

I have over the past few weeks bought felt placemats shaped like leaves, and a set of gold chargers from BB&B.  I'm trying to get sets of 6, since we will be serving 5, and it doesn't seem right to buy an odd number of placesettings. I have been debating whether to just buy some nice, heavier paper plates, but that just doesn't strike me as looking nice, and would feel silly putting it on my new chargers. Since boxed sets are usually sold in packs of 4, I didn't want to get 2 sets, as I am also doing this on a very low budget.  I saw some plates at the dollar store I'd just about decided to go back and get, when I came across this set at Goodwill.  White, a nice scalloped edge on the border, and already packed up in a stack of 6. The price was right, too, at $5.99. 

So I will be exploring my tablescape, and will document my experiments later.  I would love to find another layer, like a salad bowl or bread dish, but maybe I'm being greedy.  Still, the Goodwill is on my way home from work, and it doesn't hurt to keep looking.

I am linking up with Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.