Countdown to Thanksgiving

Okay, I've done it.

I've put a Countdown Clock in my sidebar,
and it's ticking down the very seconds
until it's time to take the turkey out of the oven.

2010

You know what this means?

It means making sure Howard's turkey shirt is hanging, all ready to wear, in the closet.

2010 -- He looks good in red, doesn't he?  Ladies, don't be jealous
because my hubby has a shirt with turkeys printed all over it.

It means pulling out the menus and shopping lists from years past,

saved on the computer, and tailoring them to 2011.

It means freshening up the linens and the napkins, renting those extra chairs, polishing the silver,

getting the white Thanksgiving china out of the breakfront, figuring out who is going to sit where

and, most of all, it means trying to check off at least some of the

To Be Done By Thanksgiving list.

The dreaded T.B.D.B.T.

It means, in short, that another Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner.

It's our favorite time of year.

2009

Last year, I forgot to plan a centerpiece for the table in the dining room, and ended up with this,

which was pretty underwhelming:

2010

So this year, I'm planning ahead.

This is hard for me; I work best under last minute pressure.

This morning I denuded the conservatory table of its Halloween decor, and just left Fall.

Including a big red Cinderella pumpkin, nestled in the middle

of that twiggy wreath that has come in so handy this season.

What do you think?

Can black crows stay through the Autumn, or must they be banished after Halloween?

Anyway, I'm thinking this wreath will be making an appearance on the buffet table on T-Day.

With either a plump pumpkin cradled within, or the big turkey that I used last week in a tablescape,

or even a cornucopia.  Or, possibly, Howard in his turkey shirt.

Wow.  This planning ahead is pretty neat.  I could get used to this.

Remind me of this comment when it's 30 minutes before people are supposed to arrive,

and I'm realizing there's no centerpiece on the main table.

It's a gorgeous sunny day in The Garden State,

and I am motoring south to New Brunswick for lunch with my daughter Anne, and some shopping.

That will be way more fun than staying home and watching snow melt.

I took this picture about 8:30 this morning; those are the steps right behind our house, up to the driveway.

It's been mild since the snow fell on Saturday, but there's just so much that it's still hanging around.

Happy Wednesday, my friends.

By the end of this week I'll have an announcement about a new venture,

and by then I should have the dreaded T.B.D.B.T. List written out.  

But today?  I'm having fun; hope you are, too!  -- Cass

Link Parties!

Susan at A Southern Daydreamer sponsors Outdoor Wednesday ...  Click here!

Kathleen at Faded Charm is the hostess for White Wednesday ... Click here!

Sue at It's A Very Cherry World sponsors Today Is Rednesday ... Click here!

No commentsRead more

Gobble, Gobble . . . And A Table Topping Quiz

Yes, my dears, it's another Table Topping Quiz,
in which you will be asked to vote on which table setting rings your chimes.  Like this post.

Today, I've got new Pottery Barn plates to use.

Because -- to my delight and my hubby's despair -- there is a PB Outlet store just 30 minutes

from our beach house, and sometimes it just hollers out my name, and go I must.

We went on Saturday.

I came home with a big orange pumpkin bowl, that may turn up on the Thanksgiving table full of mashed potatoes.

It's really cute; the edges are not perfectly round, so it looks as if it's an actual hollowed-out pumpkin.

If you are wildly gullible or terribly near-sighted.

How big is it? you ask.

Here it is, cozied up to the huge, gorgeous blue and white bowl I wrote about yesterday.

But, Pumpkin Bowl is not in today's table setting.  Maybe on Thursday . . . .

***********************************************************

 At the PB Outlet, they had table settings to lure you into wanting that very same table setting.

Because that's what a store is supposed to do -- lure you down the garden path, straight toward the cash register.

This was the featured table setting: 

Look!  The place card says "Joshua," and that's our son in law's name.
Clearly we needed to buy these plates; it was a Divine Sign.

 *******************************************************

Several of those cute turkey plates came home with us.  They like it here.

Today, because one is never too old to play with dishes, I played with a table setting,

changing only the color of the dinner plate to get different looks.  

First, a centerpiece.

 A twiggy-grapey-Autumn-y wreath, with a big faux turkey plopped in the middle.

(The live turkey was too obstreperous,

and also demanded a better dressing room.  Ha ha -- dressing!  Turkey?  Dressing?)

Anyway -- the first place setting attempt, with a robin's egg blue dinner plate from Dollar Tree. 

 It picks up the blue in the turkey.  Who knew turkeys had blue feathers?

Hmm, perhaps they don't in the Real World.

 But the turkey on the plate also has blue feathers.

 Now this next was my first choice -- until I began putting things together.

I thought the gold PB example was a little tame, but thought red would kind of POP the turkey's hangy bits.

Visually, not literally because -- ick.

 The red plate is one of our set of 50 party plates, a Fiesta-type plate by Oneida.

 Not bad, but I am not sure.

 This was a last minute addition -- a turquoise plate.  Also Dollar Tree.

 Because -- Ol' Tom's feathers are really more turquoise than Robin's Egg.

Whaddya know.

 Yup, they are.

Final choice -- a green plate from, yes, Dollar Tree.

We live large at That Old House.

 Now this one I didn't expect to much like, but son of a gun . . .

 I do.  Not perhaps my favorite, because I haven't hit on a favorite yet.

 What about you?

Which dinner plate would you put with these charming turkey salad plates from PB?

Robin's Egg Blue, Red, Turquoise or Green?

We only bought 3 of the turkey plates, but I'm thinking a couple more need to come home and live here.

That's all she wrote!

Join Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for TableTop Tuesday!  Click right here.

And I am off on an adventure.  Film at eleven. -- Cass

No commentsRead more