The turquoise table

Hello Readers, Yes I know it has been a while, but, it has been Christmas and school holidays and camping etc etc. I may be a Goddess to some of you but, I do have my limitations. I decided to get this table on here now as I have so many photo's building up in my archive. (Doesn't that sound impressive and important?) Actually, what it means is, that I have far too many things too have laying around and need to document some of them. Once again I am in love with this table. The colours are so soft without being dull!
THE CENTRE DECORATION developed and changed as the table evolved. You can see in the top three pictures that I changed my mind and added more detail as I went along. It started as a simple centre piece, relying solely on the candleabra to create effect. As the table came closer to being finished I realised that it would need quite a bit more. Although, the candleabra is, in itself quiet decorative I tried hanging some beads over it. (I was trying to create something a bit whimsical.) However, it still wasn't enough. Throwing a paua shell at the table didn't do the trick, so I bought some VERY glittery, faux flowers, (very christmasy) and threw them around the bottom. Not bad I thought, not bad at all, but, still missing something. It was then that I decided to go all out and create a much bigger centre piece. By buying more flowers from the 2 dollar shop and several bags of marbles, some more candles and I came up with the decoration you can see in the top and bottom pictures. The three photo's do show just how a table can evolve from an original idea though. The centre layout is finished with two tall, turquoise, votive lamps. laid towards each end of the table.
THE LINENS are made up of a queen sheet in a pettern which I think you will agree is very attractive and very unusual. I love the different tones and colours in the one cloth. It made it very easy to come up with colours to match in the centre decoration. Luckily I had already found some napkins of the right colour previously. They co-ordinated perfectly with one of the tones in the pattern (right royal result). The runner was made with a long remnant I found, which, was just a few dollars. I could have made some more napkins if I had needed to.

THE NAPKIN RINGS were a labour of love. They enabled me to use my create urges in a different way. You see, putting together tables is creative, but I am buying things already in existence and using them as they are. Dont get me wrong I love doing it, but, I can really start to create when I make something from scrap. In the picture above it is possible to see the detail that went into making these rings. Firstly, I took some more very nasty, plastic rings and covered them with Rafia. The colour matched the cloth perfectly. Then I tied a bow in dark green wrapping ribbon to add a little more detail (still not enough in my book). So there was nothing for it but to pop down to the 2 dollar shop again, where I bought a couple of necklace and earing sets which, consisted of tiny bits of paua shell and little silver charms. When I got home I took them apart and re-strung them in much smaller groups, then tied them around another bow which had been made from the original turquise rafia. All the ribbons had been bought from op-shops. (dirt cheap). Should I say "dirt cheap?" probably not! It does make it sound tacky. Never mind, I am very pleased with the result.
THE CROCKERY is really nice with a scalloped detail around the edges. It was a set that I found in several visits to the op-shops. I have enough for 8 settings. It doesn't include dessert bowls as I havent enough. In the mean time I will just have to serve dessert on the lunch plates. I will continue to look for some more bowls.
THE GLASSES were a lucky find, I just happened to see them one day long before I had decided on this colour scheme, it was a good purchase. The only trouble I have, is that were only 5 of them. Ok if you have four for dinner, but not so good if you are entertaining more. Many months later I came across the glasses you can see on the end places. They consist of clear glass bowls with turquoise stems. They actually co-ordinate better in real life than they appear in the picture.
In the picture below it is possible to see the centre detail in close up. I hope you will agree the whole image is not bad considering it is made completely from purchases made at op-shops etc.. So there it is THE TURQUOISE TABLE, I really hope you like this one as much as I do. Onwards and upwards, another one is on its way.......

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The Claret Table

Well Hello my lovely readers. It's been a while, yes, I know, I am a very busy person. I mean come on, how am I expected to go op-shopping and write on here as well? I realise that I may be a Goddess in your eyes but truly I am not. Or am I? Maybe I am a little Goddessette. I thought I was simply a genius. One with a few limitations granted, but who knows? It is simply beyond me how you could seriously think I would be able to spend all my time on here when in fact I can satisfy all my girlie urges in one hit at the shops. Yes, I know I get to blab on here for ages, and don't get me wrong, that is truly worthwhile, but never the less I do need fresh air from time to time. However, I have now finished another table so will invest my time on here to bring it too you.

As usual this table is now my favourite (as all the tables I am working on tend to be). It looks so lovely, both in the day time and the evening with candle light. It is a very sexy colour. I don't know why it should be sexy, maybe there are some latent tendencies in me from another life. (note to self, must look into that, maybe some hypno-therapy, it could be useful). Anyway, let's go on.

The Claret table. This was a nice one to do as it took a while as the colour isn't very fashionable and hasn't been for ages, so not much stuff came up in the op-shops. It was the purchase of the vase that started me off, I bought it ages ago, and didn't really have anything to go with it. but I kept looking and eventually other stuff started to appear, I eventually got together all the stuff in the contents picture at the top.

The purple stem votive glasses were next and I bought them by mistake as I thought they were the same colour as the vase, but, when I got them home they were different. Actually they still looked good as the tone was the same.

Next came the small desert glasses. (see in the picture at the bottom of the blog) They are so simple but, really add another element to the table in the same colour. That was it, the excitement was building, I could feel another table wasn't too far away.

The napking rings I had bought for a friend as I knew she had bought some fabric ages before for a table cloth and I thought they would go a treat with it, but, she didn't want them, (how rude) so I hung on to them and "hey Presto" another match to my table. Now usually, as everyone knows I don't usually leave things alone, but, I hadn't had time to doctor these ones and so they remained the same. Not such a bad thing in this case as the table is quite simple. It's the colour , which gives it it's elegance. See bland plastic rings can have their place too!!!! (not usually at my table I'll grant you,) but, in this case they're ok!
The napkins I found were the perfect colour but there was only four of them, not enough for me I'm afraid, but, I kept looking. I eventually found two new, cushion covers which as you can see in the picture are the right colour and have a really nice pattern. I was very glad of this as it would add a bit more detail to what could be percieved as a rather plain table. I cut the cushions down and made four napkins out of them. There! problem solved!

The next bit of luck came in the form of a fabric remnant in an op-shop, Four whole metres of it, Yes! I know! how exciting, perfect! It wasn't quite wide enough for a complete table cloth, but, never the less I gave thought to what I was going to do with it and came up with the idea of an extra wide runner, and I think your'll agree, as you can see in the picture it looks quite good. This meant that I did'nt need place mats, (less sewing, always good in my book, although I do have my sewing machine back from the menders and it works like a dream. I may have to start sewing just for the fun of it.)
Next came the smaller runner and away we go........

The Table was put together with my ever faithful white sheets, which, I dressed ( that makes me sound like a gentlemans clothing assistant does'nt it?) in a way that meant it hung right to the ground. ( oh my God that really makes me sound like a gentlemans clothing assistant )This always looks good and adds a sense of class to the whole setting. You can see from the picture that the long, claret runner did the same.

I finished with the flowers. My ever lasting, trusty silk flowers. I went with Purple as, (1) I already had them and am far to tight to buy more and (2) they looked fine as purple had already been introduced with the votives.

So there it is, Jo's Thrifty table chic...

Enjoy... please dont forget to leave some extremely positive comments which are all true of course!!!!!!