Decorating for Thanksbirthoween

It's a mixed up holiday of our own invention, so the opportunity to be creative was terrific.

(For an explanation of Thanksbirthoween, see my earlier post)

Budget -- basically frugal.

I played with grapevines, leaves and pine cones.

Using what was at hand or free in nature. 

The Birthday gifts were wrapped with shipping paper and leftover wallpaper found at a thrift store. 

Odd bits of ribbons, yarns, jute string and even fabric found in thrift shops added more color.

The most difficult thing I took on was mismatched dinner plates salad plates and cloth napkins. 

Mismatching has become very popular, and I love it, but when you look at a lovely image all put together it seems so easy.

This was not quite perfect, but still fun.

I discovered several things:

Keep to a very narrow color palette, including specific tones in that palette.

The shapes of dishes matter. Some of my dishes were more bowl shaped at the sides, and these don't work as well as those with a slight well and a defined, flat rim.

I discovered that creating individual settings was easy, but making the whole thing look right was much trickier.

And mixing modern designs with antique designs adds a layer of complexity. Some of my favorite individual settings just did not work together.

I have been collecting colorful water glasses for years. These helped tie it together.

I hate tall fussy floral arrangements in the middle of a dining table. I much prefer to see the people I am enjoying dinner with! Four delicious Comice pears and five simple candles was perfect for our centerpiece. And we ate the pears the next day ;)