I am an oldby coming back as a newbie after about 3 years. I regret I don't have a picture to show you, but I will tell you what I usually do. I am a mix and match person, so alot of my dishes and linens coordinate with each other. It gives me flexibility in how I want to set the table.

My theme is fall leaves.

Our dining table is 120" long so there is lots of room for decor. In the center, first is the runner, which is a pale, goldish beige with pumpkins printed on it. I place a cornucopia of fall leaves in the center of the runner and, when I had access to fall leaves, I used to place them on the runner randomly. I have 2 copperish colored metal candelabras with wheat sheaves and leaves and place gold candles on them at either side of the cornucopia. I have 2 puritans, a man and woman at one end and some raffia pumpkins at the other. I also place a fall leaf garland running through everything.

When it is time for dinner, I use a gold tablecloth, napkins that are a blocky sort of plaid with gold, green, sort of the purplish, maroon fall color woven with leaves in them. My theme is leaves. My dishes are white Butler's Pantry so they go with everything. I use Bordallo Pinheiro gold, green and maroon leaf bowls for serving, gold Bordallo Pinheiro platters and gold Bordallo Pinheiro gold or green gravy boats. I also use place mats for each setting that match the napkins. I feel the bowls and platters really bring it all together.

You can purchase the linens and dishes at TJ MAXX or Marshalls. I have been collecting these things for years as harvest time is my favorite.

Maybe this will give you some thoughts and ideas to expand on.

Thank you so much for taking the time to describe your beautiful table!
My table is 124" long too and your napkins sound just like the ones I have.
You've given me the inspiration I needed...I'm going shopping tomorrow. I think I am going to make my napkin holders with fall colored crystals on a stretchy cord, like a bracelet for the napkins! :)

Hi Kris and Twinkle, welcome to the holiday forum. One of the gals here, Purplemoon aka Karen, put together a whole album of inspiration pics for Fall decor for us. There are some tablescapes in it too, so you might want to take a look. I'm posting the link for you. Hope you come back and chat more with us. Luvs

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Inspiration album

Thank you so much for the kind welcome Luvs! That link is AWESOME! Just what I was looking for.

Welcome Kris!

For our Thanksgiving dinner we have done a couple different things.
For napkin rings, I took the cardboard roll from paper towels cut them into about 1&1/2 inches, took fall colored ribbon and wrapped it around. Then took mini pumpkins I found at Michaels, and glued them on.

For "place cards" I took small terra cotta flower pots,
sprayed painted them black. Took strips of felt, and glued them to the rim of the flower pot, and small strips to form a square for the center of the pot. With a paint pen I wrote each persons name on them. As more come to join us we can just whip up another one.

My daughter has bought fall table clothes, that are not too busy, put sharpe pens on the table, and each person writes on the table cloth, what they are thankful for.
Then each year we add to it. We find it a nice way to remember those who are not with us that year, and a way to add our new guests.

Hi Kris,
Can't show you Tgiving, I don't host it. But here is Easter...

Wow is all I can say on the Easter Table...

I have some centerpiece ideas....hope they help !!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Crafty Ideas !!!!!

Welcome giftguru, looks like you just recently started your blog. I bookmarked it so I can come visit to see new ideas that you come up with too. I love crafts and food--good combination! LOL

I looked too, very nice. I actually gave the baby's foot cookie cutter, cookies and the recipe as a favor for dil's baby shower 6 yrs ago. I wrote a little poem to go with it!

krisfl: Have fun shopping! It is always fun to shop for items to decorate with, I think. Let us know what you come up with.

luvstocraft: Thanks for the very nice welcome. This is actually my first time on this particular forum. I used to post on Kitchens, Home Decorating and, still on the cooking and knitting/crocheting forums. It is nice to have likes in common with others and to be able to share. These posts have revived my "love to decorate for holidays" part of me. My family doesn't always get together at our house on Thanksgiving because with married children, there are always other families to be sharing them with, but this year, they're MINE! Yeah!

kathleen li: Your Easter table is really lovely. Makes me want to sit right down at the table. I noticed the crystal egg shaped bulbs hanging down from the chandelier. I would imagine the light from the chandelier gives a really nice glow through them.

Hi Twinkle, and welcome. I post a lot on cooking too!
Luvs is the senior member here. She is in charge!lol

Thank you, yes the eggs sparkle in the light.
Like you, I have to share holidays and I never get Thanksgiving! I get Easter, and something around Christmas, but not the day or eve. It is difficult with young children and distance, and this year we hae a new baby due in a 5 weeks. I will be lucky if they come out at all! But we are together, so that's the impt thing!

xx{{gwi:1442427}}

I'm learning how to post photos and using this forum. Not doing too well. However, I've been lurking here for several months and love all the lovely ideas. The previous post showed some attempts with some plates and beaded placemats I picked up at TJ Maxx's late summer.

That looks beautiful! What do you have in the middle??
I didn't get the beaded mats..Lenox had rounds for $15 in gold and bronze like yours. Too pricey for me!
Great job, and glad you learned how to post pics...we LOVE to SEE !

A big welcome to you Delphinium, that was the perfect way to introduce yourself on here! ;o) Love your beaded mats and the pretty plates. Like those napkins too, very pretty. Hope you will have lots more pics to share with us, and look forward to reading your comments on other posts. Luvs

Thanks for all the great pictures...love the Easter table!! I had Easter at my house this year and while my table was "cute" I would like it to look as beautiful as your table did, Kathleen.
Delphinium, I love your placemats!

You gals seem so nice on this board! I started out on the pool forum as we are building a pool and then found the decorating forum and then ended up here. There have been a few posters on the decorating forum lately that have been a little rude, so this forum seems like a breath of fresh air!!

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Here's the table with my attempt at Judith's stacking plates
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Here's the table with a copper tray lined with coffee beans and candles and different napkins
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Delphi, You did really good on your stacking plates! Looks great. Is that a fairy on the top? Can't really see it clearly. I know Judith would be proud. ;o)

I love the tray with the coffee beans too, great idea and it just seems right with your beaded placemats and plates. Very nice.

Kris, Glad you found us. This forum has been wonderful and everyone is very supportive and friendly. After all, we are all just here to have a good time and share our ideas and pretties with each other. We are not worried about perfection or that anything is precisely accurate. If it is pretty and something we can ooh and ahh over, it is perfect to us. We all feel that we are experimenting and learning to do pretty tables and vignettes.

Hope everyone feels welcome and comfortable with all of us. As I said, "We just wanna have fun!" ;o)

Luvs

Delphi,
I love your centerpiece, very elegant!Glad you have joined us!

Delphi, you definitely think "out of the box" like Judith, who'd have thought to use coffee beans & it works perfectly!!!

Welcome & keep posting, I have a feeling we're going to learn from YOU!! I wish I could "think out of the box" like Judith tells us to!

Thank you for all your nice comments. I've learned so much on this forum. It's great to find so many nice dish-aholics who share my affliction!

Delphi: Your table setting is so sophisticated looking and gorgeous. It looks like dinner at some high rise, multi million dollar condo in Midtown Manhattan. House Beautiful material.

Kris, welcome, you will have alot of fun here, the best girls and our resident guy (Jim) are the best on the "net"!

Kathleen, beautiful Easter setting! I love anything "bunny" and pastels!

delphi, Wonderful tablesettings, adore the leaf china, very warm and elegant. The rich "chocolate" color of your table and everything with it is wonderfully coordinated. I saw those square beaded placematts in the store a few weeks ago, I almost bought them, but I have a round table and they would not have fit well enough. I just adore the color of the placemats, you did a great job on your tablesettings. Your stacking plates came out really wonderful too, they are a lot of fun to do aren't they....just wait till Chrismas LOL

Thank you all for your comments. Would love suggestions to make it better. I found some acorn salt and peppers at Joanne's today at 50% off so added those. I have my eye on some copper beaded votives but I'm waiting for them to go on sale - probably will miss out but there's always next year. Luvs - my stacking plates topper is a round christmas tree ornament of feathers with a bird on top. Judith, I love the stacking plate idea. It's so fun and so versatile.
I wish I had bought more of the placemats when I saw them. This is more of my "fall" tablesetting - I do something a little different for Thanksgiving. However, this year we're going to DD's in San Diego for Thanksgiving-if it is still standing - they had to evacuate their condo a couple of hours ago. Aaugh!!!!

Hope your DD's home and family are safe. These fires are so terrible, and with the winds and lack of rain this year, the firemen really have their jobs cut out for them. We are close to the one at Lake Arrowhead. Lots of smoke in the sky today. Luvs

Kathleen - your table is very beautiful, soft and lovely - so perfect for Easter.

Delph - you have a real talent for putting together gorgeous tablescapes - so inviting and warm looking - everything is just right.

Love all these looks. Delphinium33, can you tell me more about those leaf plates?

Thank you Catt. Wish I was having Thanksgiving so I could play!

Hurrijane,
I found the leaf plates at TJ Maxx in August. They're Portmierion Maplewood. There were dinner plates, mugs and soup bowls also but I just got the salad plates. Very reasonable - $4.99 I think. Only the salad plates had the leaf on them. Does that help?
Delphi

Well I think everyone's already said what I was thinking on your tablesetting, Delphi. So just add a ditto for me.
Its truly lovely.

hugs, Karen

Well, I can show you pics of my Autumn table... I'd posted them on my blog yesterday... it's sort of a Halloween/Thankgiving overlap... I'm not in-town for Thanksgiving, so the fall holidays this year are doing double-duty.

The link is below.

--Jenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Halloween/Thanksgiving table

Jenn, I enjoyed looking at your pictures, my fav is the "old-fashioned" little boy in costume.

Fun pictures Jenn - I really do love your little vintage style paper mache impish little boy and your carnival glass is lovely....and I'm a glitter fruit gal myself :-)!

Jenn, you are so cute! And very resourceful too! Your harvest items look really pretty and festive. I'm loving that sign with the witch's feet sticking out of the cauldron. Just hit my wierd, kooky funny bone! LOL

Oh, thanks so much, everyone-- my little paper mache fellow would be blushing from all the compliments (he's going to be just incorrigible to deal with once he hears about his popularity!)

The witch's feet sign was a Big Lots find and tt's got little jingly bells on the bottom of it. It tickled me, too, when I saw it. There are so many cute things like that this year.

And I'm a sucker for things that crack me up. I'm sure my fellow shoppers probably wonder what's wrong with me when I'm in the store giggling to myself over something silly.

Ah well-- laughter helps you live longer. :-)
-Jenn

Too cute Ms. Jenn!!!! I too have a problem with giggling my way through the stores...especially at the card counter!!
Since my house has an abudance of red ALL year around, orange doesn't do anything for me either! I try to stick with all fall decos in natural colors(brown, moss green etc.), red and gold. We are not big on Halloween celebrations, so that lets me off the hook!! Your blog is delightful!