Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Dishes, 2010-2014 and my Christmas 2013 Tablescape

Hello, Welcome to my tablescape blog. I'm glad you found me and hope 

you'll grab some coffee or tea and enjoy looking around for a bit.

Here's a quick overview of what you'll find in this post:

Better Homes and Gardens Christmas dish patterns, past and present

Links to 2014 Christmas dishes

Where to find them in store

A Christmas tablescape

Close-ups of dishes and tablescape

Complete tablescape source list

(I am not paid or compensated in any way for this blog. All opinions are my own.)

So Let's Get Started!

Do you love Better Homes and Gardens Christmas dishes as much as I do?

As far as I can tell, they are only available at Walmart (or secondhand from Ebay.) 

If you're not familiar with this line of dishes, don't let your judgements of Walmart stop you from checking them out! To my knowledge, Better Homes and Gardens have had some form of mistletoe Christmas dishes every year since at least 2010.  The patterns have changed slightly and so have the range of products available.

Past products in this line...

Sorry charlie, if you like anything in this picture you'll have to search for it on Ebay. None of these products from 2011 are currently in store, but some similar items are available. I just wanted to post an example of some of the products that have been previously offered in this line. In this picture, I like the mistletoe salad plates the best, which can be found on Ebay right now, I checked!  Wanna see more products from this line? Keep reading!

Here you can see the Joy and Hope plates (there were also Love and Peace) accent plates or dessert plates, the 2011 version of the cardinal salad plates, and the Amaryllis salad plates...although I had a hard time finding many pictures of the Amaryllis plates. Looks like they came out in 2011 as well.

 

Are you not impressed?  Wait till you see the table settings!!  

On these Walmart shelves I spy 3 bowl condiment caddies, spoon rests, cake plates, gravy boats, serving bowls, mugs, dinner plates, salad plates, and dessert/accent plates.

These are the dishes I have, including the 2013 version of the cardinal salad plate which they swapped out for a white owl salad plate this year. This also shows the old dinner plate design which was switched out with a new 2014 design.

New Products
Here is the new 2014 dinner plate (Compare to the old dinner plate above)

Here is the new white owl salad plate for 2014

Old salad plates on the left with the cardinal, new salad plates on the right with the owls. As you can see, the deer, red barn, and Christmas tree salad plates remain the same. (The yellow dots are stickers that say "New for 2014, Limited Edition" just like in the pictures above)

How to get ahold of the Better Homes and Gardens 

Christmas dishes

They are a little tricky to find in store, but they are always roughly in the same area every year, and as you can see from the picture below, the shelf at my local Walmart in Virginia is fully stocked as of mid November 2014. In this picture, the Home & Living entrance (as opposed to the Market & Pharmacy entrance) is to the left of that guy's head in the top left of the photo. The lit Christmas tree is where the entrance is. When you walk in, the Customer Service desk is to the right and the seasonal items are to the left. Right past the seasonal items is this aisle which tends to have seasonal dishes. It is separate from the area of the store dedicated to everyday dishes. I have never seen these seasonal dishes near the everyday dishes.

Buy them online 

(I am in no way compensated by or affiliated with Walmart. I just really love these dishes!)

Link for the 8 dishes pictured above:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Better-Homes-and-Gardens-Plate-Set-8-Piece/39074758

This link is for an 8 piece set which includes four dinner plates (new 2014 design) and four salad plates (they switched last year's cardinal salad plates out for these white owl salad plates, and the other 3 salad plates are the same as last year--deer, red barn, and Christmas tree salad plates.) This eight piece set is $23.84.

Link for the Platter pictured above:

Postcard Platter Link

Here is the link for the beautiful Better Homes and Gardens Postcard Platter, which is only $12.96, squeal!!!!  I can't get over how gorgeous and yet how affordable this is.

Nesting Bowls and Serving Bowl Close-ups

Unfortunately, the nesting bowls and serving bowls are only available in store, and I can't find them on Walmart.com at all.  But here is a close-up look at those items.

2014 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas nesting bowl set, $7.48, in store only

2014 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas serving bowl, $9.94, in store only

Christmas Tablescape 2013

I quit blogging for awhile and although I did create a 2013 Christmas tablescape, I never posted it on here...until now! I think my 2013 tablescape turned out much better than my 2012 setting though, which you can see here for comparison:

My first Christmas Tablescape, 2012

http://dinelikeaking.blogspot.com/2013/02/christmas-2012.html

But back to Christmas 2013...

I had been eyeing these Christmas dishes for years before I finally took the plunge. By the time I went looking for them in November 2013 they were almost gone! I ordered them online because I couldn't find them in store.  I ordered 2 sets of 4 place settings to pick up at Walmart so I could get free shipping, and with the craziness that is the Christmas season, the box got lost inside the Walmart store after the shipment was delivered to the store!  I had to jump through a few hoops to finally get the dishes since by then they had sold out online. But in my opinion, these gorgeous dishes were worth the trouble! 

I will say though--if I had to get them this year I probably would have no trouble at all. 

Complete Source list:

Better Homes and Gardens dinner, salad, dessert plates, and "postcard platter"--Walmart 2013

Gold ruffled chargers--Michaels craft store 2012

Gold poinsettia placemats--Bed Bath and Beyond 2013

Plaid stag table runner--World Market 2012

Natural tablecloth--Target 2011

Oneida Wordsworth flatware--Target

Willow House Amelia Thimble Domes--Ebay 2013

Ornament place card holders--Michaels craft store

Southern Living Iced Tea Goblet--Ballard Designs 2013

Crystal wine glass--inherited, source unknown

Stemmed shot glass--IKEA (Hey, it looked pretty on the table! :)

Arv Brollop cake dome--You guessed it, IKEA

Misc. ornaments in cake stand--Target

Pheasant gravy boat--Williams Sonoma 2013

White Christmas tree candles--Walmart

Gold wire reindeer--Pier 1

Paper poinsettia napkins--Walmart

Now Let's See Some Close-ups!

Here you can see the Willow House Amelia Thimble Dome in the middle. You can't see it in this pic, but there is an ornament place card holder inside.  If you look closely you'll also see 3 pieces of stemware to the right.  

Here is a close-up of the Willow House Amelia Thimble Dome with 

ornament place card holder on top of the dessert plate.

And here is a close-up of the mix and match stemware I chose for this tablescape.

Left to right, IKEA stemmed shot glass, Ballard Designs Southern Living Iced Tea Goblet, 

inherited crystal wine glass.

My centerpiece was an Arv Brollop cake dome from IKEA, filled with sparkly ornaments from Target.  I simply turned the dome upside down, filled it with ornaments, carefully placed the cake stand on top, and flipped it right side up.  Then I told my family I would hurt them if they dared to lift the dome off and send my ornaments spilling all over the place, haha!  They actually did leave it alone and no one had to get hurt ha ha:)

Do you like my plaid & burlap stag table runner?  Found that at World Market. 

My tablecloth is just a plain tan tablecloth from Target.

I referenced this postcard platter earlier, with a link to purchase it.  I put mine on a cookbook stand at the end of my table and created a display around it. This forest of white candle Christmas trees came from Walmart, the pheasant gravy boat was from Williams Sonoma, and the gold wire reindeer was from Pier 1.

Close-up

Lastly, here are the individual place settings with the thimble domes removed so you can see the dessert/accent plates, which are off to the side so you can see the patterns on the salad plates. I posted a close-up of the dinner plates earlier, but they are plain other than the border which you can see here poking out from underneath the dessert plates.  In these pictures you can also see the gold poinsettia placemats from Bed Bath and Beyond, the gold ruffled chargers from Michaels, the paper poinsettia napkins from Walmart, and the Oneida Wordsworth flatware from Target.

Wouldn't you feel festive eating your Christmas dinner at this table??  

The salad plates and dinner plates are only $3 each, the charger was $1 on sale, but full price it was only $2 anyway. I don't remember the price of the placemats, but probably only a few dollars since I always have Bed Bath and Beyond coupons on hand.  My point is, this tablescape is very budget friendly but so festive and elegant.  I hope this inspires you to come up with your own beautiful Christmas tablescape!  It is so much fun, and I have been able to pull this off with young children in the house too!  I just make sure to store these things out of reach when we are done with them.

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!

Thanksgiving Table 2014

Hello and happy November!

I am a busy mother and I don't get a lot of time to myself, but it is important to make time in life for the things you really enjoy, am I right?? Something I have enjoyed since I was a little girl is decorating. As an adult this has spilled over into decorating tablescapes.  Lately, I'm lucky if my table is not sticky from a whole family using the table and only me cleaning it up! But it really pains me to see nothing decorating the table except a messy stack of school papers and mail, someone's plate they left behind, and a mound of play-doh starting to get crusty. I did make 

my toddler clean this up by the way :)

So now that it is November and Thanksgiving is around the corner, I'm going to return to one of my favorite me-time projects: a new holiday tablescape.  I have been inspired by a few things I have seen around the interwebs.  I'm not going for the extreme neutrals that are so popular right now. My husband hates this trend. It's not that he wants loud colors, he just doesn't like the sterile, "blah" look of a pale room.  I provide enough paleness for our house I guess. So this Thanksgiving I will spice things up with some rich fall colors.

I decided my Thanksgiving table inspiration would come from a classic turkey plate. This Spode Woodland turkey dinner plate is easy to find and is so festive.

 Something I have been admiring lately is plaid cloth napkins for the fall. These are Pumpkin Spice Plaid napkins from Crow Country Primatives. They have a variety of plaid products, although I have not yet purchased anything from there.

 I looked at a bunch of different options for charger plates, and at first I was leaning towards wooden or faux bois chargers. I found these wood-grain chargers in brown and gray from Sur La Table. But then I saw this copper charger, also from Sur La Table and got an idea. I already own an abundance of gold ruffled chargers from previous events in my home, why not paint a few copper and save myself from buying even more chargers! You don't eat off of chargers anyway--they're just pretty coasters for your plate. But if I paint them now and let them curate until Thanksgiving, they will definitely be fine. I'll let you know if I do this and show you how they turn out.

Now as for cutlery, I really would love some pretty gold flatware...this is something I've had on my wishlist for several years but I have restrained myself so far. I just found this Cambridge Gold Renaissance flatware from Shopko, another store I have never done business with.

I found this idea on Pinterest--this would look great with my DIY copper chargers.

Speaking of Pinterest, here are some other Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas...

Acorn vase fillers

Washi tape plaid pumpkins

 Wheat and burlap

I already made these gold turkeys several years ago after seeing this Martha Stewart Living picture. They used gold leaf, I used gold spray paint. And you know what? Mine are lovely and were much easier to make.

 Turkey folded napkin

As for a table runner, I hesitate to pick something until I get everything else together.  I have a dark table and I will have to decide whether to put a runner on the bare table or pull out my plain tan tablecloth.

As for stemware, I have these basic footed goblets from World Market, but I'm thinking a touch of gold on a faceted, angular-shaped goblet would be an even more elevated look. 

To wrap things up, here is my inspiration board...

 Can't wait to swap out the play-doh for some of these beauties!

 What are you planning for your table this month???