Easter Dinner Tablescape

 

I know Easter isn’t until Sunday but I just needed to get the table set so I could do some cooking! I find as I get older that I am finding it harder and harder to multi-task and by that I mean cleaning, cooking and setting the table all in the same time period while trying to maintain my sunshine-like demeanor. That was a mouthful! So this afternoon I vacuumed and dusted downstairs and I should not have to do any more downstairs as long as shoes stay off.

The tablecloth is on the table and I am playing with the centerpiece. The dishes are a mixture of old and new. I look at the table differently now. A plate on a tablecloth doesn’t seem to be enough. I have studied some of the bloggers starting with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch who is the hostess for Tablescape Thursday and Bill at Affordable Accoutrements and learned a great deal. Bill has a knack for finding the most beautiful china, crystal, and silver at amazing prices. Please stop by Susan’s and see what the other Tablescapers have done.

 

When I was a child we always went to Sussex to have dinner with Gram Potter.  There was a ham and scalloped potatoes. I think there were peas but I am not sure because I didn’t like them. My sister didn’t like them either. There was a gelatin salad which we call perfection salad and my sister and I just love. The round oak table was extended to its fullest and covered with a beautiful crocheted tablecloth which was then covered with plastic for protection. My sister and I were perfect little girls and we were expected to sit at the table until everyone was finished. Finished included many stories of gall bladders and other miseries. We amused ourselves by trying to stretch the plastic without making holes – sort of bump like designs. The peas that we smuggled into our napkins were “mushed” into the ornate oak scrolling under the table.

 

Gram usually had forsythia which she had forced on the table and her dishes were Limoges. I bought some Limoges this summer thinking ahead to Spring tablescapes. This forsythia is silk and I bought it at Pottery Barn.

Gram Potter was a collector. She loved auctions. She also was an avid baker and was thrilled with Betty Crocker mixes because she could save the coupons and get things for her house. She liked the silverplate spoons and I have them. I believe they are called Vintage and they were manufactured by Rogers.  I am fortunate to have a few other pieces like the fork below. You can read about them here. I will use them for coffee and dessert on Sunday.

I will continue tomorrow with Foodie Friday for Gram’s Perfection Salad which was an Easter tradition. My sister recreated this salad after some reminiscing.