Now What Can I do with This?

Believe it or not, this pile of stuff is the beginning of my next tablescape.  I should have time to post about it later this weekend. 

I hope you will check back to see if I can do anything with it--you have to admit it's an electic bunch of stuff!

I am Liking This!

If you follow my other two blogs, you know that quilting is one of my serious hobbies.
After work today, I started to make a placemat for the Mikasa leopard dishes.

I still need to add some batting and quilt it, but I think this mat is going to be purrrfect for these big
cat-print dishes!

I will do and post a full table after I finish making 4 of these placemats. In the meantime, I am still working on the hot pink/leopard table. I have not really done any "work" on it, but I have given it a thought or two. :)

Mikasa Leopard Dishes Tablescape

I love these chic animal print dishes. This is the first set of square dinner plates I have owned. I like how the soup bowl is round, but the dinner and salad plate are square.

I angled the salad plate to give each setting more interest.

 I tried some brown-handled flatware, but in the end, I decided that my gold flatware worked best with these dishes.

I had fun making my own wine label.

I just printed it on an Avery label and stuck in over the original label of this white wine... just a little touch that makes your dinner party more special.  Notice that tree on the right side of the artwork?

That tree inspired my centerpiece. I was having some difficulty coming up with a centerpiece to go with these dishes.   I wanted to use only items I already had. While  looking out the kitchen window I noticed the Sedum Autumn Joy and thought, why not give it a try.Do you see the resemblance of the tree and this dead sedum Autumn Joy that I picked from my garden?  I added some dead silver artemesia to give it a bit of spark.  Seriously, this is a bunch of dead flowers that overwintered in my garden-- I would normally toss these on the compost heap!  It's amazing what can be done with just a bit of  thinking outside the box!

What a stroke of luck--I had glasses that seem to be made for these leopard dishes!

Just look at the perfect color of that martini glass stem!

I added the small gold liqueur glass because it matched the gold-beaded place mat and the flatware.

I also made a menu - it's amazing how easy all of this is with computers!

Did you notice that I added jewelry to the lotus candle holder next to the menu?  Jewelry is not just for the body. I use it all the time on my tables.  I used one of my favorite necklaces on the wine bottle. Did you catch that? Look at the wine bottle. I wear that necklace all the time!

Just for kicks, here is a sepia-toned picture of my table. 

This table was so much fun! I am planning to do another table with these same dishes.

I am thinking leopard and hot pink! I think these Mikasa leopard dishes are going to be very versatile. I may even do a third table and mix them with my zebra dishes.

I received these dishes from  Lifetime Brands, Inc.  a nationally branded kitchenware, tabletop and home décor resource.  They asked me to set a table and do a candid post about their dinnerware.  I have done exactly that and I hope you enjoyed seeing these unique dishes.

I have linked to Marty's Tablescape Tuesday at a Stroll Thru Life. Check out all the inspirational posts over there.

Mikasa Leopard Dishes

Last week I was contacted by someone who had seen my zebra table and asked if I would like to do a tablescape with these Mikasa Leopard dishes.

Are you kidding?

I immediately emailed them back and said, YES, I would love to attempt a tablescape with these gorgeous dishes!

The company said they would be sending the dishes out immediately. I half expected it to be a scam.

But lo and behold in less than a week these dishes arrived. I was thrilled. They are a good quality stoneware from Mikasa.  At the moment I have no idea how I will set the table, but  I will post later in the week with the tablescape I come up with. So please stop by later this week to see what I do with these dishes.