The Spider & the Fly

October 2, 2021December 8, 2021 / Alycia Nichols / 31 Comments

“‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider🕷 to the fly🪰.” The sinister 1829 poem by Mary Howitt tells the cautionary tale of the sly spider coaxing the apprehensive fly into its web🕸. Creepy/Clever and well played, Mr. Spider. Hmmmm…the parallels of the 1829 spider web and the manipulative, seductive 2021 worldwide web are not lost on me.

I am joining other tablescapers from across the miles to bring you spooky fun with a “Halloween Tablescape Blog Hop” hosted by Rita at Panoply blog. Links to their BOO-tiful sites are listed at the end of this post, and I encourage you to stop in to visit each one of these talented ladies.

I chose this pintuck taffeta table linen for its resemblance to a spider web.

A🩸blood red🩸 Royal Norfolk dinner plate sits atop a mirrored charger that helps break up the moodiness of the setting. A black salad plate and spooky skull appetizer plate complete the stack.💀 Notice there are just daggers/knives to devour the beastly feast.🗡

Spine-chilling metal spiders lord over each place setting.

The flies have been coaxed into the spider’s web!🕷🕸🪰

I found these gravestones at Dollar Tree some years ago.

The end settings have the skulls of the host and hostess of this ghoulish event trapped for eternity beneath oversized cloches/bell jars. The hungry spider below the skull hunts its prey, the flies, that have overtaken the skull. (OK…I’m freaking *myself* out here now!😱)

Overreaching branches canopy the centerpiece below. I used faux branches, but this spooky look could just as easily be achieved with real ones.

If there’s a graveyard, you KNOW there has to be a raven somewhere nearby! This one, perched amongst the pumpkins and slithering serpents, shows no fear.

Ick! A serpent invading the hollow eye socket of a soul long gone is a weird juxtaposition to the beautiful onyx “Elegance” Mikasa stemware.

The morose table setting is capped off with the flicker of candlelight towering high above.

A haunted pumpkin patch sits on the vitrine just beyond the graveyard.

If you’re looking for more ghastly, ghostly, ghoulish tablescapes, check out these from my archives:

Ready, set, HOP!!! Check out *THESE* haunting entries!!!

Pandora’s Box – Black, White and BOO
The Little Yellow Corner Store – Let’s Meet Ferdinand Frankenstein
Panopoly – hOWLoween Tablescape
Home Is Where the Boat Is – Happy Haunting Tablescape
Hyacinths for the Soul – Whooo’s Ready for Halloween?
Debbee’s Buzz – Batty Black, White and Purple Halloween Table
The Sweet Sensations – Ghoulish Glam for Halloween
Everyday Living – No Tricks, Only Treats
Corner of Plaid and Paisley – Halloween Tablescape – Got That Feeling Someone is Wathcing You?
Life and Linda – Happy Hallow-Queens Party
Zucchini Sisters – Halloween Tablescape Featuring Creepy Plastic Spiders
Bluesky at Home – Halloween Tablescape Ideas for the Patio
The Bookish Dilettante – Halloween Tablescape Blog Hop
My Hubbard Home – Festive Halloween Party Decor Ideas
Dinner at Eight – A Haunted Table for Halloween
Red Cottage Chronicles – Black Magic Halloween Tablescape
The Painted Apron – Set the Scene, It’s Almost Time for Halloween
Me and My Captain – Halloween Tablescape
Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One (that’s me!) – Spider & the Fly

Wildflower Easter

April 1, 2021 / Alycia Nichols / 16 Comments

Here is the 3rd of 3 tablescapes I’m considering for Easter Sunday…and just in the nick of time! I’ll have to decide by Friday so that I can get the ball rolling! If YOU have a favorite of the last 3 posts, please drop me a comment to let me know which most tickles your fancy! I’ll combine your votes with those from my Instagram account for the final decision!

The inspiration for this tablescape came from my Mikasa Stone Craft dishes in mixed and matched hues of mauve, pistachio, cornflower, and green. SO MANY tablescaping opportunities with a mix!

The Mikasa plates and mugs are paired up with 222 Fifth Bunny Land bowls (Home Goods) that also have varied color checkerboard rims to mix and match.

Bright lavender napkins from LinenTablecloth.com sprout from each coffee mug, and the egg cups are filled with pastel M&Ms that mimic the melange of colors in the dishes and centerpiece.

The mix/match of dish colors at each place setting is unified with uniform white ceramic and rattan chargers, bamboo stainless flatware, napkins, egg cups, and glass cloches from Nell Hills in Kansas City, MO.

The “grass” centerpiece, purchased for a mere $10 at an estate sale some years ago, has been punched up with a variety of Spring “wildflowers” in colors that complement the dishes. You’ll notice the same daisies on the plates are in the centerpiece to tie it all together.

On the vitrine behind the dining table are colorful cupcakes (in cupcake cups and on a ceramic cake pedestal from Home Goods/TJ Maxx) with another small arrangement of daisies. (All flowers used in this post are faux for demonstration purposes. I’ll use the real deal for my Sunday tablescape!)

So…take a peek back at the other 2 entries – “Lettuce Talk About Easter” and “Artichoke Easter” – then let me know which is your favorite. I’ll post the winner!

Looking for more Easter tablescape inspiration? Look no further! See if one of these floats your boat!:

Spring & Easter Around the House

April 10, 2017November 15, 2017 / Alycia Nichols / 10 Comments

Just sharing a few pics of Spring and Easter decor on the main floor of our home. I didn’t do a lot this year as I saved most of my energy to create the dining room tablescape. There’s just enough to let us know Winter is over and Spring is here for to stay awhile.

In the foyer by the front door is a wood stand upon which this weathered green hurricane lantern currently resides. I dressed the lantern with a variety of greenery, flowers, and bendable twig. Standing in the thicket is a scholarly-looking bunny once used in a tablescape 3 years ago called Easter in Pink & Grey.

Just around the corner in the dining room window is an ivory wrought iron 2-tiered stand with a bird permanently perched on top. (I used it for a Springtime buffet tablescape, “Taste of Wine Buffet“, when teaching a class back in 2012. I moved a vigorously-growing pothos from another room onto the top tier. The bottom tier has a Pottery Barn weathered wood chunky candlestick with a bluebird from Home Finishings that honors my brother’s memory resting in a nest. I put him somewhere each Spring to commemorate his passing in 1999. (His trucking handle was Bluebird. See that tablescape from 2013, “The Bluebird Special“.)

Our foyer is narrow, so a small table there holds just a few things including a lamp and a clock. For the season I added a faux boxwood wreath on a stand (Home Finishings), a cute wooden bunny from Hobby Lobby, and a collection of weathered books and birch logs (Home Finishings) under a glass cloche.

Just a little touch in the library on a side table: another glass cloche with a wooden bunny tending a Spanish moss nest with a singular speckled egg.

The family room is slowly transitioning from Winter to Spring with white accessories and a few touches of greenery including these light and airy wreaths from Home Finishings. This is a great way to lighten, brighten, and freshen up existing accessories. (Ginger jar from Burlington, pierced jardiniere from Hobby Lobby, artichoke from Z Gallerie.)

The desk area in our kitchen went largely unused for the first 10 years or so after moving in. I have an office, so I never used this as a desk. I have since artfully arranged dishes in the glass front cupboards overhead and added decorative dishes to the shelf and desktop. For the Easter season, white bunnies get black & white gingham check neckties. (The black and white transferware is from TJ Maxx some years back and was featured in my posts “Black, White & Red All Over” in 2010 and “Wondrous Wheat!” in 2011). The black & white buffalo check dishes were purchased this past Christmas season at Home Goods, and I LOVE them!!! The small decorative wreath is from Michael’s this season.)

Our breakfast nook has a lot going on! I always enjoy decorating the 3-tiered galvanized stand that I bought a couple of years ago at Sam’s Club for just $19.99. (I have seen them again this year at that price, but only in colors.) At any rate, I enjoyed bring Spring to the breakfast nook by adding a few bunnies, those popular white bird salt & pepper shakers from Pier 1 perched atop a homemade nest, some faux greenery and veggies, a small wood bird nest, and a bowl of speckled eggs with feathers.

The side table in the breakfast nook holds a collection of white pitchers on the bottom shelf. For Easter I brought out a white bunny rabbit I found on clearance at TJ Maxx. A black & white gingham check bow tie and a basket filled with moss and eggs makes him look a bit fancier. Another bit of greenery from Home Finishings is tucked in behind him to add texture and separate the sea of white on the table. The whitewashed galvanized pitcher (used also as part of the centerpiece for my piece, “Spring Green” back in April of 2014) overflows with purple hyacinth. The faux cabbage in the clay pot is from Michael’s, and the oversized white tray in the backdrop (as are most of the pitchers on the lower shelf) is from Home Goods.

The big stone bunny finds his way all around the house throughout the year. He’s sort of a mascot! For the Easter season I have him on the breakfast bar holding a glass cloche over a nest of twigs and moss with a butterfly. He, too, has a snappy black & white checked bow tie as well as a cascading strand of wispy greenery from Home Finishings. My friends Liz (from over at Sit With Me In My Garden), Johanne (from French Gardener Dishes), and Athena (from Minerva’s Garden) will be relieved to see I’ve not (yet!) killed the orchid a sweet young friend and mentee, MacKenzie, at Pinpoint Event Planning gave me a few months ago.

I no longer have a comment section, but if you have questions about where to buy featured items or how I put something together, please email me at table21tablescapes@gmail.com.

I hope you enjoyed the Easter Home tour! If you’ve not yet seen it, please pop over to see the Easter tablescape in the dining room. Meanwhile, I wish you and your family a very blessed Easter week.

All A’Bloom in Pink for Spring

April 1, 2014July 31, 2017 / Alycia Nichols / 71 Comments

INSPIRATION: Crunchy, ugly, brown grass that just teases us with sprigs of green. 😦

It’s April 1 and still dipping below freezing each night. Would somebody PLEASE text Mother Nature and let her know she’s tardy for the party??!??!!!
(Click on any photo, and then click again to enhance/enlarge it.)

If Mother Nature wants to play it that way and hold Spring back a while longer, I figured I’d just have to bring my own version of the season alive in the dining room!

Each place setting starts with a pink, green, buttery yellow and white Pier 1 cotton placemat upon the bare wood table. The placemats are turned vertically to create a slight drop off the side of the table. A deep pink Bormioli Rocca “Inca” glass charger is topped with Mikasa “Daylight” china, chosen for its graceful, leafy branches.

A brilliant pink carnation peeks over the rim of a white egg cup from Crate & Barrel. It is covered by a clear glass cloche bell jar from Hobby Lobby. (A brightly colored egg would make a nice substitute to create an Easter brunch setting.) A soft pink napkin from LinenTablecloth.com is simply folded and laid alongside the dishes with Hampton Forge stainless steel “Bamboo Mirror” flatware. The simple glassware is from Old Time Pottery. (Other posts on this site using cloche bell jars include “Pleasant Under Glass”, “Spring Has Sprung”, and “Apple Green Luncheon”.)

The centerpiece runs the length of the table so that each guest has a little eye candy in front of them. It is a melange of deep pink carnations in white ceramic teapots, white ceramic cylinders filled with small manzanita cherry blossom branches with carnations tucked around the lower perimeter, and white ceramic baskets of pale pink, yellow and white meringues. Notice how the colors of the centerpiece items reflect those in the placemats.

The buffet behind the dining table is partially covered with a the same placemats as used at each place setting to sweep the color and pattern across the room. On top of the placemats is an American Atelier white ironstone tray topped with various white ceramic teapots. Mikasa “Daylight” teacups and saucers stand at the ready nearby along with a few sweet treats. The floral vessels are taller, broader versions of those used on the dining table and also contain manzanita branches. Among the branches are stems of pink magnolias and more cherry blossoms. Notice how the cloche theme from the dining table is reiterated here.

The vintage tea cart in the corner holds a few more sweets beneath cloches, a pot of bright pink cosmos, and a stack of Pier 1 doily dessert plates. A fun chalkboard sign wishing guests a “Happy Spring” leans casually against the base of a yellow candlestick lamp. (For more candle lamps on this site, see “Raining Orchids“, “All A’Bloom In Pink for Spring“, “Should Have Put a Ring On It“, “It’s All About Me!“, and “Just Us Girls“.)

This easy-to-create table setting would work nicely for any Springtime celebration including a ladies’ luncheon or tea, birthday, baby shower, bridal shower, retirement, or to help rejoice in the good news of a breast cancer survivor.

Other posts on this site featuring Spring tablescapes:
“Spring Has Sprung”
“The Bluebird Special”
“Daffodilyicious”
“Purple for Spring”
“Zen Garden”
“Mum’s the Word”
“Rolling Fields of Green”
“Taste of Wine Buffet”
“Goin’ Green for Spring”
“Springtime in Paris Mother’s Day Buffet”
“Peony Power”
“Moss & Manzanitas”
“Daisy Crazy”
“French Poodle”
and the “Spring” tab above for a couple of fun Springtime tablescapes

Thank you for stopping by! I’m headed over to Susan’s at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and to How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. I hope you’ll come with! And don’t forget to join me next week for Cuisine Kathleen‘s Spring Tablescape Challenge featuring entries from tablescapers all over the world!!!

Apple Green Luncheon

April 20, 2011July 29, 2017 / Alycia Nichols / 61 Comments

Thank you to all the new subscribers who have come on board in the last couple of weeks! I welcome you!!! And for those who have been around for a while, you know I thank you and appreciate your continued subscription!

I wanted to post what will be our Easter brunch table, but it’s too early for me to get started on it. I won’t start building it until Friday. I’ll post it next week, for sure! Click here if you missed the Easter brunch tablescape requested by a reader last week.

Meanwhile, I am so happy to be able to post a fun and colorful apple green luncheon tablescape. I apologize that I don’t have a person’s name to identify with this post request. The request came in about 2 months ago, and I am just getting around to sharing these ideas. I’m sorry it is coming so late, and I hope it is still useful!

If you’d like to see another tablescape using green, click here!

I have had lots of requests for pink & green tablescapes, but this is the first for an apple green & white tablescape. What better way to interpret that than with actual green apples!??!?!

Spring luncheon tables are always so much fun to create! This one is great for a spring or summer luncheon, indoors or out. (It could also work well in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with a little tweaking!) I started with a crisp white cotton linen. Next comes a gorgeous Pier 1 apple green and white cotton placemat with a fabulous houndstooth pattern. Just for fun and a little added dimension, a clear acrylic square is set atop the placemat. Next comes a simple white ceramic charger, a clear luncheon plate, and finally a plain white salad plate from Corelle. An apple green cotton napkin from Bed, Bath & Beyond adds color to the dish arrangement. The stack is topped off with a Granny Smith apple under a miniature clear cloche bell jar from Hobby Lobby. Clear everyday stems for water and limeade along with contemporary J.A. Henckels “Bellaserra” stainless complete the look.

The centerpiece consists of three separate elements. First, for height, is a pair of clear square floral cylinders filled with Granny Smith apples and fresh Bells of Ireland, topped with a puffy green-tinged hydrangea head. I have used faux hydrangea and apples here for demonstration purposes, but the real thing looks absolutely incredible! If you go all fresh (and I sure hope you do!), fill the container with water to totally submerge the apples and Bells of Ireland stem. Submerged fruit and floral arrangements are so cool!!!

The second and third components of the centerpiece are small clear square votive holders with clumps of cheery green viburnum and a densely packed white kalanchoe plant from the flower nursery.

On the buffet behind the table is the beverage and dessert. Limeade served from a fancy glass decanter such as this makes it look a little more special. I bought this one wholesale some years ago, but check out places like Pottery Barn, Costco or even K-Mart. Float lime slices, Granny Smith apple slices, or a combination of both.

If your luncheon includes gifts for an honored guest, ask your other guests to wrap them in colors that correspond with the luncheon colors. Add a few random florals throughout the gifts for more color and texture so they look to be a part of the overall look and tie in with the table florals.

If you can spring for white chairs to gather ’round the table (ladder back cane chairs or garden chairs), consider weaving a length or two of apple green ribbon through the back of each just for fun.

Well, there you have it. Again, I am so sorry not to be able to say who exactly requested this tablescape. Please step forward and remind this old head, will you? 🙂 It was my distinct pleasure to work this up for you, and I truly hope it lends some inspiration for your summer luncheon. Let me know how it goes!

I am gleefully joining my fellow tablescapers at Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday. Won’t you please join us anytime after 9:00 p.m. this evening?

Have a Happy Easter, everyone!