It’s all in the presentation; the table is as much a fashion statement as you are. Don’t just set it, dress it! Entertaining doesn’t take a lot of time or effort. A lot of it is the preparation, so you might as well make the preparation enjoyable. All the little touches, tassels on the napkins, place cards that double as party favors, distinctive handmade place mats help make your guests feel pampered by the attention you’ve lavished on them. Formal or informal, unforgettable occasions owe their success to a devotion to details.
It’s a good idea to start with a theme. One theme could consist of looking around your house for an old shawl or throw. You can take your colors from this. With so many Christmas colors present, you want to mute them; use rich tones that suit your theme. For example, your theme item could have orange-y reds so you can complement it with cabbages, artichokes, and hydrangea topiaries. The Europeans use flowers and vegetables together a lot.
Placing these upon your table is easy. Just place a pair of topiaries on your table by elevating them. You can use box lids or books. Don’t worry the cabbages will hide the base. Use long branches of evergreens like cedar and place them along the center of the table. If you don’t use a tablecloth, test the greenery on a runner so that it won’t damage the table finish. Place green and purple cabbage among the greenery, making sure that some face each side of the table. Gently cut back some of the leaves to create a flower-like effect. Add artichokes, ruffled lettuce, pears, plums, and purple grapes, propping them against the cabbage and branches.
For lighting, use votive candles in clear holders. Tie gold wire-edged ribbon around each holder for a festive touch.
For your napkins you can use ordinary white dinner napkins with tassels made form 3-ply metallic thread, available from crafts stores. You will need 2 tassels for each napkin. Allow 12 yards per tassel.
Cut a piece of cardboard rectangle approximately 2 inches by 4 ½ inches. Holding a 6-inch length of thread at the top of the cardboard with 1 hand, begin wrapping thread from the spool around the cardboard.
Wrap until the tassel is the desired thickness, ending at the bottom of the cardboard. Clip the thread. With the 6-inch thread at the top of the cardboard, tie off the tassel. Cut the threads at the bottom of the tassel.
Holding the tassel firmly in 1 hand, grasp the end of the thread on the spool between the thumb and forefinger of that hand and hold it tightly while you wrap the thread firmly around the neck of the tassel. Wrap 4 to 6 times. Cut and tie off. Trim the threads evenly at the bottom of the tassel.
Trim the tie threads and baste to the hem of the napkin on the wrong side, positioning the tassels at opposite corners. Fold you napkins like this: place napkin on table with wrong side facing you. One tassel is on top and the other is at the bottom facing you. Now take each corners with out tassels and fold into the center of the napkin with pints just touching each other. Now fold down the top corner with tassel so it meets the bottom corner with tassel. There you have it.
Here a great different detail for your place mats. Purchase copper screen from a hardware store or a shop that sells plate glass and window screening. It is sold by the yard from a 54-inch wide roll; the screen I used was purchased for about $12.00 per yard. Each 18-inch by 15 ½-inch place mat requires 2 sheets of a screen so you’ll need 2 yards for 6 mats.
Using sharp scissors, cut the screen into rectangles. Center and cut a pair of holes about 2 inches apart and approximately 1 ¼ inches from the top of each place mat. Repeat at the bottom of each mat. Matching holes on 2 pieces of screen, tie together with fold wire-edge ribbon.
Tassel, place, your, table, at the bottom
