My first tablescape, Thanksgiving for Two

Hello and Happy Fall, Y'all!

Today I thought I would share with you my very first tablescape, 

which I made in November 2009 as a newlywed.  

Here is our cozy Thanksgiving for two.

By the size of that turkey you can see that we had no shortage of leftovers!

My husband was in the navy and we were stationed far away from family, so I decided to create a cozy Thanksgiving for two. The next day we ended up gathering a house full of friends to come celebrate with us, but we did not use this tiny table! I now use this IKEA table as my make-up vanity, because it collapses down to the size of a desk. Believe it or not, these pictures show the table with table leaves extending it to its full size! It is still pretty small, but this was our newlywed starter table that moved around with us.  My husband had a pretty large dining room set when we were first married, which we sold so that we would not have to move it cross country. We felt that it just made sense to keep things small and simple at that time of our lives.

My first tablescape was a low-budget one...plain brown tablecloth and chair covers from Target

Square fall dish set from Target (more pictures below)

Crystal candleholders from Salvation Army

Taper candles from Walmart

Homemade glitter pumpkin (the large one, the small glitter pumpkins were from Walmart)

Fall leaves table runner from Target

Brown cloth napkins from Target

Gold turkey platter from Target...I learned after I bought it that it was NOT food safe, so I put parchment paper down before putting the turkey on it.

Here are the square fall dishes from Target. To me it looks like bare tree branches. The dinner plate is a light putty or cream color with a brown tree branch, the salad plate is a clay-brown color with cream branch.  The salad plate looks like a burnt orange here but in person they are closer to brown than orange.

Again, the colors look a little off in these old photos...the middle pumpkin is actually orange, not red as it appears here. And although the small pumpkins almost appear white here, they are actually a glittery light orange.  The light is reflecting off of the glitter to make them appear lighter.

I made my own pumpkin and leaf stencil and stenciled the design on the cloth napkins myself.  I am not particularly good at stenciling...but hey, I tried to be creative!

This cute leaf bowl was from Walmart. I used small leaf cookie cutters to cut shapes in the butter.

The champagne flutes have a crackle design and were from Pier 1. We used them at the bride and groom table in our wedding, and we only have the two of them.

In addition to the stenciled cloth napkins, I also had pretty turkey paper napkins from Walmart. They have some variation of them every year and I love them!

That year I made several glittered pumpkins and gold turkeys, but since I can't find the rest of the pictures from that year, I will show you my 2013 Thanksgiving photos which include those things...

2013

Here are more of the glittered pumpkins that I made in 2009, as well as turkey figurines from The Christmas Tree Shop (2009 or 2010) that I spray-painted gold. The big turkeys were originally a hideous black-brown color and the small turkeys were sort-of olive green. They look so much better in gold, and spray-painting them was a piece of cake. The glittered leaves were from Crate and Barrel several years ago, and the yellow leaf-shaped placemats from Walmart. This display was on top of my bureau in my family room last year...which with the arrival of baby #2, this bureau is now a diaper-changing station...sigh.  Maybe next year I can pull these decorations out again. 

These cute corn and turkey figurines were from JoAnn Fabrics and the white pumpkin dish is from World Market. These things are newer additions to my Thanksgiving decor.

This green platter is from Pier1, the turkey mold pan was from Walmart, and the yellow and brown covered turkey dishes were from Christmas Tree Shops. The red and green tiny turkey plate was probably from the Target dollar spot, orange mini-taper holder turkeys from World Market, and the colorful middle turkey is a napkin holder from Salvation Army that I had intended to spray paint but never did. These were displayed on the built-in open shelving in my kitchen.

 There is my Walmart leaf bowl again, which was pictured earlier with butter in it. I think the turkey salad plate was from Pier 1. The squirrel cookie cutter was from World Market and the turkey welcome sign was in the dollar spot at Target. I don't have any pilgrim decorations yet as I have never quite found any that I like, but I love to decorate with turkeys, leaves, and pumpkins!!!  I could do a whole post on my pumpkin decorations alone.  Why skip from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations when there are so many cute turkey and fall decorations??  I guess it depends on whether you have the place to store holiday decor and the time and energy to pull them out every year.  I go to different lengths for each holiday depending on the time and energy I have at the time.

 Another picture of the tiny turkey plate...I think it was from the Target dollar spot. It is perfect for your teabag and spoon.  Looks like I was enjoying some Tazo Joy Christmas tea!  I believe that is a blend of black, green and oolong tea and it is delicious, even for a sweet tea drinker like myself.

I hope to be posting my 2014 Thanksgiving table soon, but I have a sneak peak available here:

http://dinelikeaking.blogspot.com/2014/11/thanksgiving-table-2014.html

I have already ordered and received the Spode Woodland turkey plates and the Pumpkin Spice plaid napkins from Crow Country Primitives.  Although those napkins are now discontinued and unavailable (Sorry, I snatched up the last ones!) there are several other cute options from Crow Country Primitives and I found the customer service to be fantastic! 

I am glad that I am not hosting our big family Thanksgiving dinner at my house, as I just am not up for it this year, and frankly can't fit that many people in my current place.  I'm too busy chasing around my little ones, dealing with diapers, potty training, teething, and separation anxiety when I try to leave the baby with anyone but me.

But you know what? That doesn't have to stop me from creating a small scale Thanksgiving table like I did back in 2009. I can't wait to see how my new project will turn out!