Framily Thanksgiving

What is better than one Thanksgiving? How about two? One with framily, friends who are so close, they are like family, and one with our actual family! The framily Thanksgiving was on Thanksgiving, and weeks of planning went into it! If you know me, you know I can't make a plan without a spreadsheet—or in this case, two spreadsheets, one for framily and one for family! Google Sheets makes sharing so easy, and my nieces love a good spreadsheet too!

Framily friends Kissy and her hubby BH were guests for Thanksgiving Thursday. Kissy and I started planning the table in early November after a trip to Home Goods. We found a beautiful Laura Ashley Harper tablecloth in gold, and we were off to the races. Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my Royal Worcester Evesham Gold. There is just something about the classic fruit and pure white of the porcelain, so beautiful!

The plate stack was quite an effort this year! When we tried various chargers, the plates just seemed to get lost on the gold tablecloth. I left the plates on the tablecloth on the counter in the hallway waiting for inspiration. I did many, many Pinterest searches (not a lot of tablescapes with Evesham) and finally ran across a table I loved with sage chargers. Many, many internet searches and I couldn't find any chargers I liked—too curvy, too much gold, too plain... argh! One of my favorite tablesetting blogs, written by two sisters in NorCal, provided the last piece of the puzzle. They buy chargers from the Dollar Store and spray paint them to match their table. The heavens opened and sun shined down! Off to Home Depot Kissy and I went—and we bought paint. I knew I didn't want just plain chargers, so we picked up some gold paint as well. Into the garage we went, and we sprayed and painted and blah... still too plain. We put the charger on the tablecloth with the plate, and we noticed the flecks of brown in the tablecloth and in the fruit on the plate. We used a bit of stain over the gold, and it was perfect! We made the borders intentionally messy—I just liked the casualness of it.

We ended up placing a dark wicker rattan charger under the sage charger to lift it off the table a bit, and the bit of dark brown peeking out was a nice break. We alternated Anchor Hocking Amber and Green Optic Swirl depression glass plates with an Evesham bread plate on top. As we sat down to dinner, dear hubby said, "What are we supposed to do with all of these plates?" There was one for rolls and butter and a sidecar plate for food that doesn't fit on your main plate!

When we bought the tablecloth, we tried to match napkins to it at Home Goods and ended up just liking a plain white with a small crocheted border. When we got them home, I pulled out the sheer brown organza napkins as toppers. Unfortunately, I only had 6, and we had 10 for dinner. Amazon to the rescue! I ordered two packs of 6 because the browns were not the same. When I was looking at the napkins, the runner on the table showed up in the search. It is like Amazon read my mind.

Silverware was Towle Candlelight with a cute set of spoons I got on Etsy several years ago with fall sayings. The glassware was my favorite Dollar Tree sage green glasses and Waterford Mourne water glasses. I finally used a mixed set of salt cellars I purchased from a favorite antiques website.

The centerpieces were so fun to make! We used antique fig boxes from our now-gone local antique store as the holders. I have vintage (I don't know how old they are) frosted crystal fruits I knew I wanted to use as well. We were perusing our local Goodwill, and on the shelf was a bag of gold-leafed fruit, and into the cart they went. Fresh flowers, locally foraged eucalyptus and berries, and a LOT of playing, and we were happy! Along the center of the table, I added lots of LED candles. The flames weren't all the same color, and that bugged me; nonetheless, it was still pretty.

We had ten for dinner, and even with all of the leaves in the table, it seats eight. Kissy and I added to the table with plywood and another table. It made the table the perfect size for ten people; however, we still ended up with TV tables at the ends to hold the rolls!

Fall is my favorite time of year, and I love, love, love setting fall tables. Luckily, some of my fall dishes can transition into winter, such as the Johnson Brothers Friendly Village. And, if you notice, the runner is shades of burgundy and sage; it will flow right into Christmas.

Today, we had a second Thanksgiving at my parents' house. After my dish-aster this year, my dear brother started buying me Fiesta plates… we used his collection at my mom and dad’s, a beautiful mismatch of plates! Plate colors were Ivory, Cinnabar, Sage, and a few other colors mixed in. Perfect for a fall table.

After cooking for days and decorating the house, I can't wait to take a break and then bust out the Christmas! I hope you and your family or framily had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is always something to be thankful for!