Thanksgiving tablescape inspiration

Thanksgiving Table Inspiration

We’re just over two weeks away from Thanksgiving, and I would like to share some Thanksgiving table ideas with you.

Setting a Thanksgiving table doesn’t have to be expensive. As always, you can click any of the photos in this post to find the exact items pictured in my LTK shop. However, if you’re on a budget, you can use these photos to get inspiration for a color scheme. Try finding pieces to use in basic colors that can be used in multiple ways throughout the year.

First, this tablescape with rich colors and decadent textures creates a warm ambiance for your Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving Table Ideas
Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

Next, basic elements are pulled together to create a warm, casual feeling.

Thanksgiving Table Ideas
Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

Finally, a timeless blue and white color scheme makes for an elegant, fun holiday tablescape.

Thanksgiving Table Ideas
Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

Above all, I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with love and peace with the people you hold dear.

Until next time, Abby

Thanksgiving tablescape inspiration

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Valentine’s Day Table Setting

Yes, I know. It’s still January. But let me explain!

Our high schooler’s school district decided to move to digital school only this week. They’ve said it’s for one week only, so we are hopeful that next week will be back to normal. Until this point she’s been going to school in-person (we had a choice at the beginning of the school year), so this is not something we were necessarily thrilled about. Digital is not the best fit for us, but I’ve decided to do some little things this week to make it more enjoyable.

Yesterday on my way home from the gym I stopped and got her Chick fil-A for lunch. We don’t eat fast food often, only a handful of times a year, so this was a big treat. And today I decided to make breakfast a little more special.

I mean, DONUTS…yum! The tablecloth I used is one that I bought when we were in Greece a few years ago. The little Pyrex dish is one that I found on a Thrifty Thursday. (Are you following my Thrifty Thursdays on Instagram yet?) The “vases” are recycled cold pressed juice bottles. I also used lots of other little Valentine’s touches to make it a special meal just for the two of us. Talk about elevating the average Wednesday breakfast!!

Most of the Valentine’s items I used are linked on my Like to Know.it page. These plates were only $2.39, and I think they were SO worth it. To find them and everything else I’ve linked for you, click HERE.

Influencers using Like to Know.it make a very tiny commission on anything you buy from their links. (Less than 19 cents from a placemat, for example.) It takes a bit of time to source, link, and photograph everything, so your support from shopping my links is GREATLY appreciated. 🙂

To follow me on Like to know.it, find me HERE.

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Christmas Table Round up from 2020

Good morning, friends!

We are a week into the new year, and looking back I can say that we had a wonderful Christmas season. We enjoyed so many traditions, and I am thankful we were able to host some special meals. I am rounding up some of the table settings I used for Christmastime 2020. These were previously posted by themselves either on Instagram or blog posts. I am putting them all in one place in case anyone would like to save them to Pinterest to reference later. I’m happy to give sources or links if anyone has questions. You can save this post to Pinterest by scrolling to the bottom of the post and clicking on the Pinterest button, or you can use the Pinterest extension on your chrome bar.

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Victorian Christmas Place Setting

Hello, friends!

Just ten days until Christmas! I’m done shopping, decorating, and baking. But I’m not ready for Christmas to end, so I am savoring these last few weeks of lights, ribbon and bows, evergreen branches, and Christmas music.

Today is Tabletop Tuesday, and I am sharing a place setting we used this past weekend while hosting some guests for brunch. If these plates look familiar to you, that’s because I recently found them on Thrifty Thursday. Thrifty Thursday is something fun I do over on Instagram. Usually I show things I find while thrift shopping, and my followers let me know if they’d purchase it or not, or sometimes they guess the price. (Join us, HERE!)

I picked these plates up at a local thrift store for $1.21 a piece. They are made in England by Johnson Brothers, and the pattern is called “Victorian Christmas.” This pattern was produced in the 1990s, and I used them with a 90s style Christmas tablecloth that I picked up years ago from an estate sale. If you haven’t noticed from the fashion trends, many 90s style decor and clothing items are making a comeback.

This set is circa early 1990s, and it was made in England. This pattern is still produced, however currently in China.

Keeping with the thrifted theme, these crystal Longchamp D’Arques glasses were second hand as well. Even my gold colored flatware set was an estate sale find.

Sometimes people ask me if we really eat off the pretty plates or use the crystal glasses. The cloth napkins surprise some people, too. We really do use them. I’m sure you’ve probably seen this quote by William Morris, “Do not have anything in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” I want to have things in our home that are both beautiful and useful. We don’t have a museum. I would love to pass things on to my kids and grandkids, but I also believe that we should enjoy things and feel special when we use them.

I guess the moral of the story is that you don’t have to pay a lot for nice things, and when you have them – use them. 🙂

I’ve taken all of the hard work out of trying to recreate this look! I’ve link everything you need, including some vintage Victorian Christmas plates (made in England). To find everything you need, head on over to my LIKEtoKNOW.it page HERE, or screenshot the image below and use it in the LIKEtoKNOW.it app.

Merry Christmas!

Abby

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Our Spode Christmas Tradition

There are just over two weeks until Christmas, so today I am sharing one of our Christmas traditions with you for Tabletop Tuesday. One of our Christmas traditions is that every Christmas I give our daughter, Samantha, a Spode Christmas ornament and a Spode Christmas plate. I try to make the ornament relevant to something we did that year together or something big that happened to her. For example, one year our family went to the Atlanta Ballet’s The Nutcracker, so the Spode ornament I gave her was their nutcracker one. Another year Samantha and I did a tea advent calendar together. Each day we sampled a new kind of tea. So the ornament I gave her that year was the Spode teacup ornament. This year’s ornament is just perfect. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for her, so I’ll come back later to edit what it is. (Edit: the Spode ornament I gave Samantha for 2020 is the car ornament. She got her drivers license this year, so this ornament seemed perfect!)

As I said, I also give her a Spode Christmas Tree plate. By the time she gets married she’ll have a set of Christmas plates to use and a set of heirloom ornaments for her very own tree. I went with the Spode Christmas Tree pattern because it has consistently been in production for quite some time. When I started I felt that I would still be able to buy her pieces years from now without worrying that they would stop making it.

Each year I write a little message on the ornament box with Sharpie. Just something like, “2015, the year we went to the Nutcracker. Love, Mom.” Just a little note so she knows why I picked that ornament.

I have my own set of Spode Christmas tree plates that are vintage and made in England. I like to mix and match them at Christmastime with Blue Willow and also with either Johnson Brothers “Old Britain Castles” or Johnson Brothers “T’was the Night.”

Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

I’ve linked everything pictured here in my LIKEtoKNOW.it. Click HERE to find these everything you need to recreate this look.

Click the photo above to find these exact pieces.

I’m always interested in other people’s traditions. Feel free to share yours with me in the comments below.

Merry Christmas,

Abby

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2020 Round Up Thanksgiving Table Options

If you follow me on Instagram, you have seen several Tabletop Tuesday posts with place settings that I was considering for our Thanksgiving Table. In this blog post I am putting them all in one place.

The place setting above is using a vintage Fire King milk glass swirl plate with a gold rim. Layered on top of it is a Pottery Barn tidbit plate. The napkin is also vintage. The charger is from Home Goods. I only have 4 of the chargers, but would really love to have 4 more!

The plate above is probably my favorite Johnson Brothers pattern, “His Majesty.” My set is vintage, but it is still in production today and can be found easily.

This is another Johnson Brothers pattern, “Historic America, Thanksgiving Frozen Up.” This set is circa 1930 (brown multicolor) and is no longer in production.

You guessed it, another Johnson Brothers pattern, “Hearts and Flowers” which some people mistakenly refer to as “Old Ironstone Granite” because that is also stamped on the back. This is the one set of china that I have the complete service for – everything from gravy boat and butter dish to covered vegetable and coffee service. We didn’t have wedding china that I registered for, so I consider it my wedding china due to the lovely couple on the front. This was produced in the 1970s and 80s and is no longer in production.

Above is another Pottery Barn plate layered on top of vintage Churchill Blue Willow. Churchill still produces Blue Willow.

And last but not least, above is another Churchill pattern from their fox hunt series, this is “Country Life, The Meet.” This is from a reproduction set made in the 1990s and is no longer in production today.

Happy, happy Thanksgiving friends. I am thankful for YOU! Every time you read, like my blog posts, comment on them, follow me on Instagram, or pin one of my images you are helping to support small business in America! Thank you!

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2020 Thanksgiving Table

2020 has been a dark year in some ways, so I wanted to keep our Thanksgiving table on the lighter side with white accents and greenery. I think we can all say that although this has been a tough year, and one that we’ll never forget, it has also made us very aware of the small things we can be thankful for every day. Things that we take for granted like being able to buy whatever groceries we want or see our loved ones whenever we want.

Plate: Johnson Brothers “Historic America: Thanksgiving Frozen Up”, circa 1930. (Yes, we are actually going to eat on them!)

You may have seen me using these hyacinth placemats before, especially if you follow me on Instagram. But they are currently my favorites. I like the natural material and the neutral color. The only new things on our Thanksgiving table are the tablecloth (TJ Maxx, $12.99) and the faux eucalyptus garland (Target, Hearth & Home). Well, obviously the pumpkins are from this year (used them for Halloween on our porch) and the chrysanthemum are also fresh. But I already had everything else, even the giant pinecones, which I have used previously in Christmas decor.

This year I will be cooking our meal as I always do. Our son, Jackson, will be home from college, and it will just be the four of us together that day. We are not promised tomorrow, nor are our parents or grandparents. If you have the opportunity to gather with extended family this Thanksgiving, I hope you do not shy away from doing so.

I am still trying to think of something for our family to do together after our Thanksgiving meal. Our tradition for many years has been to go see a movie in the theater together. The theaters around us are either closed or have gone out of business. I am mourning the loss of that tradition a little bit, but I am just happy that we are all healthy and generally happy. I truly hope that next year I can look back on this post and things will have reopened and returned to normal.

In closing, I am truly thankful for each of you reading this post, saving it to Pinterest, or sharing it elsewhere online. You are helping to support my small business, and I am truly grateful for you. (More photos below.)

Abby

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Memorial Day 2020

There are things I love about every season, but summer is when I’m happiest. Fall and winter have so many fun holidays and traditions, but our schedules are hectic during those times of year. Summer is a lot slower for us.

I think most southerners move a lot slower in the summer, mainly due to the heat. It’s the season of porch sittin’, tea sippin’, and lake fishin’. Yes, we’re going to complain about the heat, but we are born for this.

For our family, summer has traditionally kicked off with the Dacula Memorial Day parade and 5k. The 5k race kicks off the high school cross country season, which means our kids spend the next 6 months running with a great group of students and coaches. It also means our kids have had to be at practice by 7 am, 6 days a week, during the summer. Early, but the friendships made and the character built during those mornings will last a lifetime.

During this pandemic things are looking a lot different. Not only will Memorial Day be different, our whole summer is looking like it will be different, too. No parade or race. No officially running together as a team. It’s leaving a hole. We’ll find something else to do on Monday, Memorial Day, but we hope next year both the parade and 5k race will be back.

Here’s wishing you a safe Memorial Day. We are thankful for those who gave their lives for our country so that we still have freedom to exercise our rights and liberties. May we always appreciate the sacrifices and work to protect what they gave their lives for.

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