This week I'm happy to be joining Susan at
Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and also
Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish!
This week the Let's Dish! challenge was to put together a "Mother's Day" table using a table or table items related to your mom, or mother-in-law.
So here's what I put together.........
A lovely, spring table with lots of white and touches of green.......
I swear that I ironed this tablecloth before I put it away in the sideboard after the last washing! I think I have so many linens in there that it got a little crushed....!
For the cover, I used a round quilted place mat (from TJ Maxx) with a pretty green dinner plate (also TJ Maxx). On top of the green plate, I used one of my casual dinnerware "Emma" salad plates from Pottery Barn. For a little sparkle, I added the cut glass dessert plate on top of that. The cut glass dessert plates were given to me by my mother-in-law.
I used a clear crystal glass and a milk glass goblet. The milk glass goblets were a recent gift from my mother-in-law also.
In the center of the table, I have this large milk glass candy dish, also given to me by my mother-in-law.
A sweet little silver snail is nestled against the candy dish, hiding amongst the blue flowers on the vintage table runner.
A little more "sparkle" with the addition of a cut glass relish tray, which I bought at Goodwill for $2!
These snail napkin rings were bought last year at Pottery Barn, as well as the napkins I've used on this table. I love this set of napkins; the set came with six napkins, all of them with a different pattern in similar colors.
I did a very simple "nosegay" fold and threaded it through the napkin ring.
For the table centerpiece, I used some silk flowers in a white jug. Daisies are very cheerful flowers, I think, and a perfect addition to a Mother's Day table.
Also in the center of the table is this lovely porcelain lady. She is actually a music box (she turns on the base). This music box was a gift from my Mom many years ago. It plays "Tales of Vienna Woods."
Probably the most important part of my tablescape isn't ON my table......it IS the table! When Erik and I married in 2007, my mother gave us, as a wedding gift, money to purchase dining room furniture! We bought the table, chairs and my china cabinet from a place in Chicago and a short time after that, we used the rest of the money we had left to buy our antique sideboard from eBay.
Candles lit!
When I turn on the antique parlor lamp with the red glass shade above the table, I get a little pinky-red blush to my table!
This cutwork embroidered white tablecloth I bought a Goodwill for $4, I think. It looks even nicer when it's not wrinkly!!!
This is my mom in her Holy First Communion dress when she was about eight years old.
My mom was born April 22, 1946, practically nine months after her father returned from World War II. My Grandpa got sent overseas right after Pearl Harbor, leaving behind a young wife who was pregnant with their first child, my mom's older brother, David. My mom was their second child, and is the oldest daughter (like me!) She was followed by six more siblings; three sisters and three more brothers. One of the brothers died as a baby, of meningitis. As the oldest daughter, my mom was expected to help out with her younger siblings and she learned to cook and do many things at a young age. They lived on a farm, and didn't have much money. My mom could cook a meal for her entire family of nine (and also including her uncle Stanley, her mother's bachelor brother who lived on the farm with them) when she was 12 years old.
This is my mom's high school graduation picture. I have it in this frame on my bureau dresser in my room.
My mom graduated from high school in 1964. Unlike many women of her time, she decided that she wanted a career and she went to college to become a nurse. She also knew she wanted to have a family as well. Having come from a large family with many children, a family was something she wanted as well. In high school my mom sewed many of her own clothes, since she didn't have money to buy new things and the only way she could have new clothes was if she sewed them herself. My mother is an expert sewer and she sewed for us children when we were babies also. Most of my clothes that didn't come from rummage sales were sewed by my mom. She learned many crafting skills, as well as cooking and baking, from her own mother and grandmother.
My mom's nursing school graduation photo, 1966.
My mom married my father in 1968. They were both from poor farming families and they both worked hard to succeed in life. My mom worked as a registered nurse for more than 44 years. She retired in 2010. She gave birth to and practically raised, by herself, four children; three girls, one boy. My father had his own business and he worked a lot,so most everything at home, including child care, fell to my mom. She did all this, as well as work a nurse, by herself with no help, for many years. Like my mom, I am an oldest daughter, and I was often counted on to help with many things at home and with my younger sisters. She taught me to sew, embroider, cook, bake, garden and craft. When I was nine, she decided I was old enough to learn to iron, and from that age onwards, I was in charge of all the household ironing! I still love to iron, actually!
Nowadays my mom is a busy Grandma to seven grandchildren (all but two of them are pictured here). This picture was taken in 2010. My parents divorced when I was in high school and my mom later re-married. My stepfather passed away in 2003 in a car accident. My mom's life has never been easy and she has gone through many hard times and sad times, but she is always smiling and is always kind and cheerful. I try very much to be like her in that way.
Thanks for stopping by!
Let's Dish!
