Today is the debut of a new weekly party, Before & After hosted by my friend, Kim @ Savvy Southern Style. I packed up my Halloween decor yesterday, but I've yet to put together a new centerpiece for our dining room. Kim says we can share an old or new post, so for this first week I decided to share my Fall Tableau post from last year.
With the recent rain and cooler days, there is now a hint of fall in the air. That combined with all the wonderful fall nesting going on around Blogville, I've been inspired to do a bit of fall nesting myself. I do love this time of year, but there is never a real noticeable change in seasons here in central Texas like in so many other areas of our country. So one has to provide their own touch of seasonal change around their home.
I picked up these bags of pumpkins at the grocery store last week and found the faux acorns at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't certain what I'd do with them, but decided I need to start with something to get a little fall going on in our home.
I thought I'd start with something for the dining room table. I often like to arrange a tableau on a tray so it can be easily moved if I need something different for a dinner. I decided to start with a silver tray and this beautiful pashmina that a friend brought back to me from her summer trip to Egypt.
This silver dish was an eBay purchase in a box lot of silver pieces. You can see that it is very dark with little silver left, but I rather like the look. It gives it a shabby chic look,and actually I don't think shiny silver would look as appropriate for the theme. I was charmed by the squirrel detail. This was my favorite piece in the box.
Next I pulled out a silver bride's basket. It too was an eBay find. I decided to give it a good cleaning with some silver polish, but as you can see, this too is a bit shabby chic.
With these basic pieces I now had a theme in mind. The squirrel offered an obvious link to the acorns and the shawl would guide my choice of flowers.
I found these lilies at the grocery on special for the week.
In addition to the price, I also liked that they were still tight. I know from experience that lilies open slowly, unlike many flowers. I'm having some friends over on Tuesday, so they should be perfect by then.
I cut some yellow blooms from my garden. The yellow bells and golden thryallis make wonderful filler for arrangements.
I filled the silver squirrel dish with the faux acorns and started to place some of the pumpkins across the shawl. I only used the white ones. I didn't like the typical orange pumpkin color with the shawl.
I liked that the bag had a nice mix of plain white pumpkins and some with a dark green and gold in the veins. I scattered more acorns across the pumpkins and the shawl and about the large silver tray.
I mixed in a few purple asters to give a little punch of color. I think the color of the lilies compliments the shawl. I love the deep color of the center as it fades to a lighter orange.
The shawl is beautiful handwoven cotton with deep rich colors.
Mr. Squirrel is very happy with his new found bounty. I think he's set for winter!
Perhaps he'll share with all his brothers and sisters who enjoy our backyard.
I love the look of the contrast within the group of pumpkins and the acorns scattered among them.
Found this little squirrel with his own acorn at Hobby Lobby. Decided he would fit right in.
So there you have it....a simple fall tableau for our dining room table.
Please visit Kim for more Before and After Party participants, and then stop by Marty's Tabletop Tuesday, The Style Sisters for Centerpiece Wednesday, and Cindy's Show and Tell Friday.