table for 6

Bunny Pink Easter Luncheon

/ Alycia Nichols / 15 Comments

Less than two short weeks and counting until Easter Sunday! I have a few ideas that I hope will serve to inspire as you prepare your table this year. First up, a lovely luncheon or brunch table sure to delight your guests.

I’m so thrilled to finally use these Kate Spade “Rutherford – Pink” dishes!!! They are a favorite in my collection! For a fabulous tribute to a Breast Cancer survivor or a sweet bridal or baby shower, just swap out the bunny, ears, and eggs!

Each guest treated to a pair of bunny ears from Dollar Tree. Great for selfies later!

Flatware from my Mom’s house that I thought would be fun with this setting.

The blush of just barely pink glassware from Home Goods doesn’t compete with the dishes.

The pink and white checked table runner is a fortuitous Hobby Lobby find from last year.

Who’s this handsome fellow? Why, it’s BARTON, of course! My year-round bunny who lives all over the house! Barton stands in a Home Goods basket surrounded by a lush menagerie of muted faux greenery, berries, and tulips. I added a trio of metal garden spheres from The Painted Sofa in Kansas City, MO, and a fabulous oversized bow tie from Nell Hills.

I’ve had all kinds of ideas for Spring and Easter tablescapes over the years. Some wild, some weird, some peacefully wonderful. If you’d like to check them out, here’s a sampling!

Stay tuned for a couple of new Spring/Easter tablescapes I hope you’ll enjoy!

Home for the Thanksgiving Holiday 2021

/ Alycia Nichols / 35 Comments

Thanksgiving will once again this year be a sparsely attended event at our home. While I’m a firm believer in “the more, the merrier”, I know that’s not possible and can appreciate and embrace a smaller group. So “bountiful simplicity” will be the name of the game for 2021.

This tablescape concept began with the purchase of the white pumpkin-embossed runner from Home Goods I bought a few weeks ago. The pickings are slim this year, so I felt fortunate to find something I liked. The centerpiece is created with a long, narrow wooden “trough” from Nell Hill’s filled with a variety of pumpkins, gourds, fruits, faux acorns, greenery, and leaves topped off with a pair of antlers. A six-pack of 24″ metal case candles in clear glass holders runs along both sides. With such a low centerpiece, I felt it necessary to add height but still be mindful of being able to see across the table.

I was SO excited to find these great leather look chargers at Hobby Lobby this season!!! I used them once already this season for “Hey, Pumpkin!“, and they will come in handy for lots of future fall and winter tablescapes. The mustard yellow dinner plates, oak leaf/acorn plates, and plaid salad plates are all from Pier 1, purchased over the last 10+ years. The delicate cream soup bowl with saucer (having homemade mushroom soup for a starter!) is from Nell Hill’s in Kansas City, MO. Hampton Silversmith “Patriot” flatware, napkins from LinenTablecloth.com, and amber bubble glass stemware from TJ Maxx round out the place settings. Lithe seed pearl wreaths add texture, color, form, and a little fun.

I was determined this year to reuse, recycle and reduce waste when it came to decorating. While I bought LOTS of pumpkins and gourds at the start of the fall season, I’ve made sure to use them in various ways inside and out. A quick dip in a weak Clorox bath when I first brought them home has kept them going strong. See how I first used these pumpkins as the backdrop for my 2021 Halloween entry, “The Spider & the Fly“. Deep six the spiders and flies, do a little artful rearranging, add some wheat sheaves, and it’s all ready for Thanksgiving! (PSA: If you know someone nearby who has a farm, ask them if they’d like to have your pumpkins after the season to feed their livestock. If not, consider chopping them up and scattering them in an uninhabited wooded area for wildlife such as foxes, deer, squirrels, and other animals who often find it difficult to source food in the winter. Full circle use!)

The small china cabinet is all decked out with its usual aluminum wine and champagne coolers that are further embellished with berry branches, pumpkins, and a big moss ball.

If you would care to check out other Thanksgiving-inspired tablescapes on this blog:

I’m pleased as apple cider punch to be joining a talented group of ladies from across the globe in Blog Land for a Thanksgiving Tablescape Blog Hop! I hope you will click on their links to check out their Thanksgiving tables! (NOTE: Set to go live Tuesday, November 9 at 7 a.m. EST, although some posts may be up now.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Hey, Pumpkin!

/ Alycia Nichols / 7 Comments

It’s November 1, and autumn is coming to a rapid close as wretched cold weather settles in. That makes me a bit sad as fall is my favorite time of year. I’ve especially enjoyed the bounty of pumpkins in our area and all the inspiration they have prompted! I’ve been able to create a variety of tablescapes and vignettes indoors and out using the same basic elements and adding special touches.

When I saw this gorgeous, colorful table runner at Home Goods, I knew right away how I wanted to use it. This rich pattern of pumpkins, sunflowers, and berries traverses the runner from end to end!

I’ve gotten my money’s worth from this Cambridge “Esben” flatware this fall season. Its faux wood handles are a perfect complement to the season’s decor. The same goes for the mustard yellow Pier 1 plates (see them used a whole different way on the post “Candy Colored Autumn“) and leather-look chargers from Hobby Lobby. Here I topped off the setting with a generously proportioned turmeric-colored soup bowl (see the bowl with matching plates on the post “Most Egg-cellent Breakfast“.) The ivory napkin repeats the background color in the runner. Because the centerpiece is so busy, I used austere glassware.

One of my husband’s nurses gifted me with these sheds from her farm in rural Kansas a few years ago. (First used in the post “Hunter Tablescape – Gentlemen’s Winter Retreat” in 2012.) They add a lot of form and girth, as well as a bit of height, to the centerpiece arrangement.

I picked up the round basket at Home Goods. They had so many nice ones from which to choose this season!

I first used these rustic orange finials for the post “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” back in 2010. Eleven years later they’ve resurfaced for this table.

My husband’s recent 51st high school class reunion (or 50 + 1 as they called it since the pandemic shut down plans for their jubilee celebration in 2020) was a lovely event. One of his classmates is a very talented florist who provided the centerpieces for the banquet night. I brought one home and rearranged it to fit into this moss-covered vase for the dining room vitrine.

Are you following me on Instagram? If not, I invite you to do so! There are quick little daily posts there that are different content than here on the blog…house and home-related vignettes you might enjoy!

For more autumnal tablescapes on this blog:

Have a warm and wonderful November!

The Spider & the Fly

/ 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!!!


A Coke & A Smile – Summer’s Last Hurrah

/ Alycia Nichols / 18 Comments

Labor Day weekend. What can I say? Time for a Coke and a smile with friends and family!

An all-American red, white & blue table for 6 – perfect for any patriotic celebration – is set up around our square picnic table.

I bought these fun double-sided melamine plates at Tuesday Morning YEARS ago and have just never used them. They’re great for keeping wet and dry foods separate. The hotdog boats, also from Tuesday Morning, keep that all-American delicacy upside right.

These fun retro Coca-Cola glasses were purchased at Dollar Tree a long, long time ago and – you guessed it! – have never been used until now.

In keeping with the 2 apparent themes – Coca-Cola and never been used – I dug up these aluminum ice buckets large enough to hold lots of drinks. Notice there’s no specific “centerpiece” as all the colorful food at the table’s end was enough.

Hungry anyone?

One last Coca-Cola representation in another bucket that holds the last of juicy summertime desserts.

Well, of course there’s an outdoor bar cart!!!!!! I have bar carts all over the house! I found this very handy rustic aluminum one at Hobby Lobby for 75% off!!! Ecstatic? Uhhhh…YEAH!!!

I’m actually OK with seeing the end of summer roll around. This summer of 2021 was…interesting.

I have several patriotic tablescapes on this site that I’d be tickled for you to use as inspiration.

Looking for a just good old-fashioned picnic? Click on a link below for ideas!

Have a joyful end of summer!!!!!!!! See you in the fall, y’all!

Blueberries & Lemons

/ Alycia Nichols / 12 Comments

Summer is drawing to a close…at least on the calendar. Withering heat still plagues us here, but we know relief is a stone’s throw away. My last summer tablescape of the year includes two very prominent products of the season: blueberries🫐, which I buy in copious amounts to flash freeze for winter, and lemons🍋.

Our dining room palette is shades of blue and white on a daily basis, but the addition of sunshiny yellow really perks it up! The table runner is from At Home which has a few good decorative items from time to time. Cobalt blue metal chargers from Pier 1 ground the place settings which include “Mirandela” dinner plates, also from Pier 1. A white ceramic charger separates the two and adds depth. The monogrammed lumbar pillow is from Sew Gracious.

I love the very European design on the plates! These lemon napkin rings around plain white hemstitch napkins work well with the design rather than competing for attention. Faux bamboo flatware with a yellowish undertone easily slips right in for a polished look.

Blueberry Lemon sparkling water…naturally!🫐🍋😉

The centerpiece was so easy to create it’s almost embarrassing.🙈 I have had the Z Gallerie yellow finial urns forever. When I saw the cobalt blue ones on a recent shopping trip to Nell Hills, I knew I had to have them! The asymmetrical faux floral piece is comprised of a single Nell Hills lemon branch nestled among showy palm leaves and spiked with the most fabulous blueberry branches from a little shop (been there at least 40 years!) in Blue Springs, MO, called Petals & Potpourri. Ice cream bowls from Pier 1 hold blueberries and lemons to keep the theme going from base to tip.

Lemon blueberry cake, anyone?

Blueberries, all ready for the freezer!

Just FYI, I get absolutely nothing in return for mentioning products & services or for providing links to various sources. Just sharing the info!

I’m really not ready to say goodbye to summer, but I suppose it has to be. If you would like to check out a couple of other blue & yellow tablescapes on this blog, “Mother’s Day Brunch” and “Sun & Sky” (from 2017 which used some of these same elements in a very different way) might tickle your fancy.

Or if you’re just looking for a tablescape with scads of lemon yellow:

I’m so happy you stopped by! If you wish, let me know you popped in via the comment section below. Have a safe, happy, healthy week ahead!

Pagoda Paradise In Pink & Green

/ Alycia Nichols / 17 Comments

Bold color. That’s what late summer calls for. We’re broiling right now here in the Midwest, and it’s taking its toll on my beautiful flower beds. (Dear Mother Nature, Please take note: This is Missouri, not Hell!🔥🥵) So if crippling heat wants to suck the life out of what I’ve created outside, I guess I’ll just have to compensate inside!

Our dining room, awash with shades of white punctuated with blue most of this summer, has been taken over by bright hues of pink and green.

The inspiration for this tablescape came in part from this gorgeous custom pillow made by Sew Gracious Monograms on Etsy. A pink pagoda is right up my alley! Thanks, Pam!

The other part of the inspiration came from a pair of these GORGEOUS tea towels from Nell Hills in Kansas City, MO, fashioned into a table runner. Because our dining room is decorated in blue and white, the addition of pink and extension of blue via the fabulous pagodas in the runner and pillows is fabulous!

Each place setting starts with a hot pink Bormioli Rocco “Inca” glass charger, followed by a Ralph Lauren “Mandarin” dinner plate rimmed in blue, a square white B. Smith plate, a Kate Spade for Lenox “Rutherford – Navy” salad plate, and is topped off with a Granny Smith green Mikasa appetizer plate from their “Daylight” collection. Sleek stainless Hampton Forge bamboo flatware, a citrusy crushed silk napkin cinched with a Z Gallerie parrot napkin ring, and simple stemware round out the setting.

I went REALLY big and showy on the floral pieces using a mix of beautiful fauxs that tower above and around the painted pink birdcage that (somewhat) resembles a pagoda. To give the birdcage a larger presence, I perched it atop a stack of natural (to break up the profusion of color a bit) bamboo trays. Large white Z Gallerie parrots stand sentry in front of the floral arrangements.

This is a wonderful and welcome departure from the staid wash of white we have enjoyed the last couple of months. My way of easing into the deeper jewel tones of fall which is fast approaching.

Thank you for stopping in to visit! I appreciate it and welcome you to leave a comment if you wish. Have a glorious end of summer, and I hope to see you back here again soon. Meanwhile, if you would like to see other creations in pink and green on this blog:

If you’d like to check out other posts on this blog using the parrots, go to:

And if orchids – real or faux – are your thing, check out these posts:

Remember to follow me on Instagram!

The Power of Pink

/ Alycia Nichols / 16 Comments

It’s no secret I love the color pink. It has the power to simultaneously soothe and energize me. “Coquettish” is how it has been described, but I am invincible when cloaked in it or when my surroundings bathe in it. I’ll take it! Serve it up any way you want…from the softest blush to the boldest bright…like Shelby in Steel Magnolias”, “Pink is my signature color!”

At times I opt to keep the drama of a table confined to a single element. For this one, the WOW is in the waterfall of graceful florets (Nell Hills) spilling from a trio of tower vases.

The softness of this tablescape lends itself to the most feminine events: birthdays, wedding or baby showers, Mothers Day, Breast Cancer Awareness, or just a much needed girls’ night in.

I used these same floral branches in a totally different way in the recent post “Solemn Stars & Stripes“. White flowers instead of pink are used to keep the table from looking overly “sweet” and saturated.

A mix of old china and new Grace Teaware gold-dotted porcelain with a gorgeous pink band sits atop gold-leaf glass chargers. The faux pearl napkin rings are actually 2 rings fitted together for more girth, a trick I first used in the post “Peonies & Pearls” back in 2012.

I am so excited about and in love with these shapely gold-rimmed beverage glasses from Nell Hills!!! They are quite substantial in hand and easily pair with many items already in my repertoire. The blush pink stemless champagne glasses (Michaels) mimic the bowls with their generous sprinkle of gold dots.

This white pheasant has made an appearance in autumn posts like “Pheasants & Pumpkins” and “Candy Colored Autumn“, but never in a spring/summer setting. He just looks right at home here, though, so…voila!

These glass lamp votive holders are a favorite of mine, but I have rare occasion to use them. I bought them on clearance at Pier 1 some 20+ years ago in 3 colors, and they add just the right amount of ambient light at a slightly raised level. (I used the purple shades for “Celebrate Mardi Gras!” in 2014 but still haven’t found the right time and place for the red ones.)

The vitrine holds coffee service and dessert that includes assorted confections on a tiered tray and cupcakes under a fluffy cloud of pink frosting.

If you like pink as much as I do, check out these posts!

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit my little blog! I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know. I’m also on Instagram if you’d like to follow me there! Enjoy your day!

Solemn Stars & Stripes

/ Alycia Nichols / 14 Comments

This 4th of July (and always) I pray for peace, true freedom, liberty and justice for all souls on this earth.

Placing the ceramic foot bath on a silver gallery tray adds another dimension and a bit of formality to the centerpiece.

Kate Spade for Lenox “Rutherford Circle – Navy” salad plates and “Rutherford Circle – Red” dinner plates atop white ceramic chargers. A mix of alternating red and blue Pier 1 star shaped bowls and a star-studded napkin folded flag style round out the place setting. I first did this napkin fold for “4th of July – Coastal Style” back in 2014.

Hampton Silversmiths “Patriot” flatware.

Mikasa “Jamestown Platinum” stemware.

Faux floral stems and blue & white chinoiserie foot bath from Nell Hill’s (Kansas City).

My Mother’s American flag is displayed on the vitrine in her honor.

Don’t forget to share in the abundance of the season including fresh fruits and pies! My favorite: blueberry! What’s YOURS?!!

To see other patriotic tablescapes on this blog, just click below. Have a safe and happy 4th!

Cinco de Mayo On the Cul-de-Sac

/ Alycia Nichols / 10 Comments

Our annual Cinco de Mayo cul-de-sac celebration was another fun success last night with beautiful weather, great food, FABULOUS margaritas, and terrific music…all shared by the best neighbors ever! I was able to snap a few pics with my phone that I hope you will enjoy and keep in mind for your next South of the Border-inspired celebration!

I set up a table for 6 in front of our house for us who are fully vaccinated. We all routinely socialize, so it was nice to be able to sit together after a full year of separation! Inspiration for the tablescape came from the fancy hand painted rooster glasses I recently purchased at a friend’s yard sale. Eight of them for just $10!!! Add orange Dollar Tree plates, Cambridge “Esben Beachwood” flatware, a couple of colorful crisscrossed runners, and a rooster to the table’s center flanked by succulents and (faux) Gerbera daisies…and voila!

I made and individually packaged up snickerdoodles and copycat Sara Lee pound cake (SO good!) for everyone as a take home favor. I don’t think any of it actually made it home with anyone. It was all really tasty, and I hit the kitchen early this morning to fill orders for more!🤣🤣🤣

That was our Cinco de Mayo! How was yours?

To see additional Cinco de Mayo/South of the Border-inspired tablescapes on the site: