A Little Bit Country (Brown and Red Transferware Tablescape)

ENTER MY CSN $40 GIVEAWAY HERE

Due to inclement weather, my kids are home from school today and I'm home from the shop too.  Between laundry loads and checking emails I quickly put this table together.  The inspiration?  Trevors bed quilt.  I snagged it before he got it back up to his room where it would not have wound up on a neatly made bed.

Honestly, I normally have something in mind for a table setting but today it just didn't happen.  I wasn't sure what to do, what dishes to use, what colors to go with, etc. but when I saw Trev's quilt go into the laundry I thought about something simple that could be put together fairly quick, so here's 'a little bit country'.

I played mix and match with layering the plates, and combining two transferware patterns (four different designs) in two colors, red and chocolate brown.

I used Royal Staffordshire Rural Scenes in red because of its wonderful, bucolic scenes and its border, which is one of my favorites, consisting of various farm and garden implements.

Here, the dinner plate depicts a Mother and her children on a felled log while the men work on chopping down another tree.

The brown transferware plates are by Grindley with various coaching scenes on them in brown.  Here is the dinner plate.

You may have already noticed this, but mid stream I decided to add place mats to the setting.  Then I took them away.  I changed my mind about the napkin rings too.  First I used red cardinal napkin rings, then tied a crocheted, vintage red and cream colored lace around the napkins, then added real twigs to the bird rings.  I can't decide.  

  Speaking of indecision, I also took the remainder of the crochet lace and wrapped a piece around the log shaped candle and loosely draped it around the centerpiece.  Here are the after, and before pics. That's backwards.

I don't have it together today.

 

Speaking of the centerpiece, it was also inspired by laundry or laziness, or both.  When Trevvy brought out the quilt from the laundry room and it clicked in my mind to use this, another click sounded making me think of the antique seed box I keep in the laundry room.  Hmmm, that may make a cute centerpiece filled with a little this, that, etc.  So, here it is.  It's a neat old wooden box with the original label still intact, with instructions for the merchant.  This is something that would have been used as a store display and would hold packs of seeds.  I simply placed one of the checked napkins inside and filled with a candle, berries and a vintage raisin box.  My first choice would have been some antique French seed packs...but I don't know what I did with them and today was not the day to go looking.

Next to the seed box I placed a brown transferware pitcher with a horse scene by Adams, making this part of the centerpiece.  My picture is a little off...think it matches how I'm feeling today. ;-)  Sorry.

It's filled with some winter greens, berries and pheasant feathers.

Back to the seed box for a sec...wanted to show you the dovetailing in the box.  Love it!

 I scattered some itsy bitsy wood slices around the table and called it a day.

Ok, ok...almost a day.  I was just thinking that the title of this post, "A Little Bit Country", begs me to do "A Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll".  I have a small needlepoint rug depicting various musical instruments including an electric guitar ....hmmm...what transferware would go with that? Something to ponder, another day.

I'm joining:

Suzanne at Colorado Lady
Brambleberry Cottage
Pink Saturday
Rednesday
Finer Things Friday


French Country Cottage 
Between Naps on the Porch 
Cheap Chic Home
Common Ground