It's been nearly two months since my last post. We've been swamped. How about you?! Tonight we had Jewell's 15th birthday dinner, so I figured it was as good a time as any to jump back in to blogging. So buckle up...here we go!
Jewell's birthday was last Monday. She has dance on Monday, cheer practice on Tuesday, church on Wednesday, you get the idea. So when her dance class was cancelled tonight due to the holiday, I took advantage of our night home and made her birthday dinner!
Per our custom, the birthday boy or girl gets to choose their meal. She chose seafood gumbo. I decided to combine her favorite things - Fall and seafood - for her special celebration dinner tonight.
I'd been making plans for a few weeks. Once Jewell told me her menu choices, I started a mental inventory of what to use.
I knew I would use my brown soup crocks. They're the perfect size, and they keep everything piping hot!
I found the blue dinner plates with brown edges at Dollar Tree back during the Spring. They still have them. The brown edge picks up the brown in the crock.
Finally, I layered a salad plate between the crock and plate. These were a Saturday morning yardsale find from back during the summer. I don't usually do yardsales, but as I drove by, I could see a stack of dishes. Of course I stopped!
These are called "Brown Drip" and were made by Hull Pottery around 1950. I've always wanted some and was tickled to find them in Notasulga of all places! I actually only got three. One is a really a cereal bowl. If you look closely in the full picture at the top, you might be able to pick it out. I hope I can add to these one day. I was also able to get a vegetable bowl and a small oval platter that day. I guess those six pieces are all that made it over the last 60 years!
The flatware is also new to me. I found it this past summer at my favorite thrift store. They were .25 cents a piece, and they had four complete place settings...just enough for us! They are mid-century, and I believe made by Echo. They are wood handled. They are in great condition, but to ensure they stay that way, I'll be hand-washing them.
I pulled out my brown vintage Fostoria stems. The pattern is called "Woodland". My aunt, Dale, gave me these as a wedding gift, and I always say that these were what started my obsession with vintage stemware!
The coffee cups belonged to my daddy's mother. I thought the brown pottery top and interior tied them in nicely, plus each cup has a different colored flower which played nicely with my pumpkins. The maker is Bilton in England.
I scattered a collection of ceramic and wooden pumpkins down the middle of the table.
I added four white votives in clear cups. I love that some of the pumpkins have copper leaves which tie in with the colors in some of the other pumpkins.
Some were just mottled, but they all co-ordinated. I found these mid-summer at Dollar Tree. I got one of each style (a total of eight), and eventually went back to get more, but they were all sold out.
The gold chargers pick up the copper and other metallics in the pumpkins. Everything is sitting on a tablecloth that is really a muslin painter's dropcloth, with my burlap runner down the middle.
When Jewell walked in and saw the tablesetting, she quickly exclaimed, "All my favorite things! Gumbo, Fall, and blue!" I had forgotten that she loves the color turquoise blue! I was just thinking the blue added a little color to all the naturals. Anyway, it was a success!
Check back later this week, as I share the recipes! Above is a little preview...
I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!
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