A Summer Birthday Tablescape

June 19, 2025 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

Lots of birthdays this month so I decided that it was time for another birthday tablescape. I did a birthday tablescape two years ago but that tablecloth had some brighter colors. You can see that tablescape and 270+ other tablescapes that I have created here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapes . This polka dot tablecloth has a label that says Envogue, I think that I bought it at HomeGoods several years ago.

These melamine birthday themed salad plates came from a Hallmark shop online, they are marked Hallmark. I like the four different rim colors, green, yellow, orange, and pink and all the birthday themed images are really fun.

I added another slightly larger salad plate to this plate stack. These plates were hand-painted and made by ND Exclusives in China. I think that I bought them at HomeGoods. They are a great match for the tablecloth, serendipity!

Yellow is such a happy color so I added a Fiesta dinner plate in the color Sunflower to this birthday celebration tablescape.

I found these resin type bright green chargers at Michaels last year I think.

I have thought about mixing flatware colors on a tablescape but I have never done it before until now. While I was thinking about what color flatware to use on this table I was looking at all the colors on the table and I realized that I now had Mepra Inox Fantasia flatware in colors that matched some of the colors on this tablescape. I love how festive this mix of flatware looks on the table. I bought these sets and a few other sets on sale on various sites online where the price was the lowest and there are still colors that I want. I have never seen a flatware set with more colors available! You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I can’t remember where I found these bright yellow linen napkins. I found the enamel birthday cake napkin rings on Ebay last year. I love the candles on them.

To read about the What, When and How of napkin rings please click here.

These birthday hat place card holders make me smile every time that I look at them. The tulle, the pink color, and the polka dots just say celebration to me. They are from Kate Aspen and I bought them at Michael’s last year. To read about the What, How and When of place card holders, please click here.

I realized that I often use the color combination of yellow and green on my tablescapes. I like the way these colors complement each other and this tablescape is a good example of that. I am using some of my favorite goblets on this tablescape. The green glass goblet on the left came from Pier 1 several years ago. I have used this goblet several times over the years on my tablescapes. I love the bright green color. It can be difficult to find yellow glass goblets that don’t have a gold tint to them so when I saw these yellow goblets on the right on Etsy a couple of years ago I immediately bought them. I love the color and their size. I have goblets that are a similar shape in red, blue, and purple as well. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I bought this wood cake puzzle toy in the 1980’s for my children to play with. I think I found it in a Lillian Vernon catalog. I always liked it and when I finally packed it away it was missing a piece of the cake and a candle but I saved it anyway. We finally pulled it out again and Hubby actually made replacement pieces and painted it. I really can’t tell where the replacement pieces are, he did a great job! I am very sentimental about it because I can remember the kids playing with it when they were little. I have it sitting on a Pottery Barn green drink dispenser stand that I often use to elevate centerpiece items on my tablescapes to make them a bit taller.

Although it doesn’t show in this photo the glass candlesticks that I added to this tablescape are a light green color. My camera sometimes does weird things to the colors that I photograph using it. This Venezia Smoke Green glass candle holder came from Crate and Barrel online last year. It comes in three different sizes and other colors also but I bought the shortest green ones. They are really delicate glass and I love them.

Time to celebrate a birthday!

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Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks or click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

A Tool Time Tablescape for Father's Day

June 11, 2025 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

This is a special Father’s Day tablescape. The tablescape includes items that were used by three generations of men in our families. The idea has been a few years in the making. I thought of the idea a few years ago but I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to create it. With Father’s Day coming, I decided to try to develop the theme for a Father’s Day tablescape this year. Before I get comments about dirty tools on a dining room table please understand that the tool box will be removed before food is put on the table. This tablescape is in honor of my husband, our fathers, and grandfathers. There are items on the table that belonged to them. I was going to clean up the tools but Hubby wanted them displayed as is, showing their use by our families for three generations. (Hubby made the tool box for this tablescape.) I bought the beige tablecloth at HomeGoods a few years ago. It has a slight brownish tweed design in the fabric that I love.

One reason why I didn’t do this tablescape before is the fact that I couldn’t find any tool themed salad plates. I finally decided to do what I have done before and I added a flat image to a solid color salad plate to help carry out the theme of the tablescape. In this case I used AI with the help of my son and my husband to create an image of three tools to set on the salad plate. My son is in marketing and he says that AI will change our world completely in the next five years, and I am beginning to see what he means, and how it will impact my blog, and our lives.

When I started thinking about this tool themed tablescape I knew that I wanted to use the colors brown and beige to go with the colors of the tools that I would be displaying. I bought these Fiesta 6 1/8” appetizer plates in the color Chocolate online from Replacements, Ebay, and Etsy. No one site had all the six plates that I needed. The color Chocolate was produced between 2008 and 2011 and Fiesta products in this color can be difficult to find.

This is also a Fiesta plate but in the dinner plate size and the color is called Linen. The color was introduced this year and I was glad to see it because I didn’t have a basic beige dinner plate. I bought them at Macy’s online.

One of the cheapest ways to get chargers in the color that you need is to do what I have done here. Buy chargers at a dollar store and spray paint them whatever color that you need. (Hubby is in charge of painting chargers and he does a great job. He has painted several for me including these brown ones.)

You can really see the tweed design in the tablecloth in this photo. This flatware is labeled SR Showroom Italy. It was made by Zaffiro and I think I bought it on sale online at Horchow several years ago. The color is called Smoky and it looks like it has been discontinued. I really liked the simple design of the lucite handles so I bought it in other colors as well. It is 18/10 stainless and a nice heavy set. The pieces are really longer in length than normal flatware. I have mentioned this before, if you are buying flatware and it isn’t 18/10 stainless always check the fork tines to make sure they have been filed enough and aren’t too sharp. Cheaper flatware often has really sharp fork tines and they can cut your lip! You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I am using my favorite red cotton napkins on this tablecape. I can’t remember where they came from. I have had them for a long time. I finished most of the table and it looked a bit bland to me so I added more red to the table with these napkins because of the red on the place card holders. I was looking online for something that I could use as a tool themed napkin ring and I found these miniature socket sets with wrenches on Etsy. Everything can pop out of the tray, kind of amazing. I taped the tray temporarily to a red plastic napkin ring that I had. I love miniatures! We have a doll house shop here in town and it is such fun to look at all the things in miniature that they have there!

The miniature red tool box came from Etsy last month, and the miniature wood tool box with individual tools came from Amazon last month also. I set the wood tool box on a small square metal place card holder that I had.

The brown glass goblet on the left was made by Lenox between 1966 and 1985. It was called Antique Brown. I bought them on Ebay several years ago. It is difficult to find a true brown colored glass goblet, these are the only ones that I have ever found. I think that the amber glass goblet on the right came from Pottery Barn several years ago. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I was looking for a vintage small tool box to use as a centerpiece on this tablescape and I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted so Hubby built this one for me and I love it! It has tools in it that belonged to Hubby, his father, my father, and my paternal grandfather, and as you can see, they were well used.

I wanted to add something on each side of the toolbox centerpiece and I decided to use these brass candlesticks that Hubby’s maternal grandfather made in 1918. He signed his initials on the bottom with the date. We cherish them!

I really enjoyed gathering things for this Tool Time Father’s Day Tablescape that had belonged to men in our family for three generations.

Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks or click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

This blog post was featured at Modern on Monticello, https://modernonmonticello.com/ Please visit this blog, you will enjoy it!

Ketchup with a Summer Picnic Tablescape

June 04, 2025 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

Summer will be here soon so I decided that it was time for a picnic themed tablescape. I have done this theme a few times before but this one is a bit different. (You can see my other picnic themed tablescapes and 270+ other tablescapes that I have done on my blog here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapes .) The process started with me finding these small hamburger plates and then I wondered if I would be able to find a hamburger cookie jar and hamburger napkin rings as well, and as you can see, my search was successful. One of the parts of tablescaping that I love is the hunt for the perfect item to add to a table’s theme. I am a retired librarian and I love research and looking for things online. The red cotton gingham tablecloth came from Amazon last year. Red gingham always makes me think of picnics!

These ceramic hamburger shaped small appetizer or tidbit plates came from World Market online. As soon as I saw them while I was browsing the World Market site online, I knew that there was a picnic themed tablescape in my future. I had to buy them. I love the graphics, they include all the necessary food elements for a good hamburger!

Often when I add a small appetizer sized plate to a plate stack I end up with an extra plate on the stack because of the size differences. The stack looks better with plates that are gradually larger from the top to the bottom. I added one of our Fiesta luncheon plates in the color Scarlet to this plate stack. We bought them to use as every day dishes when we remodeled our kitchen several years ago, probably at Macy’s.

Next on this plate stack is another Fiesta plate in their dinner size and in the color Shamrock. This color has been discontinued but you can find it on the secondary market online from time to time. I probably bought them at Everything Kitchens online several years ago or on the Fiesta web site.

This is a Color Spectrum charger by Mikasa, the color is called Sun Yellow. I bought these chargers on Ebay a few at a time over the years because I loved the quality and the colors that were available. They are discontinued now but you can find them on the secondary market sometimes. I have them in several colors now.

I love this plate stack because the colors of the plates match the colors on the hamburger plate. I was trying to decide what color plates to use and I was staring at the hamburger plate and the light bulb went on. Use the colors that are in the hamburger, and it works!

I tried green and then yellow flatware on this table setting but decided that this red flatware set was a better choice. The set is called Milano Ginkgo LePrix. Le Prix was first created for Ginkgo in the late 1970’s in a small village in Southern France. I have had this set for many years but it is still for sale. Not sure where I bought it, if you google it you can find it. I have it in a few other colors as well now. I like to use it on my more informal tablescapes. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I can’t remember where i bought these red cotton napkins, I have had them for several years now. I found this vintage set of ceramic hamburger napkin rings on Etsy. I just love them! The colors match the colors on the plate stack. I have such a weakness for napkin rings and place card holders. I have a huge collection. I am currently trying to finish my inventory of them, counting them, taking photos, and getting that information into folders on my computer so that I know what I have. To read about the What, When and How of napkin rings please click here.

These stretchy rubber hamburger toys that I am using as place card holders on this tablescape make me laugh. I found them at Oriental Trading online. Each hamburger came with the bun divided in half and then the five different hamburger parts all each divided by plastic so I basically put each hamburger together. Each one included separate lettuce, meat, cheese, tomato, and a pickle. Would be a fun toy for a child too when they get old enough not to put things in their mouth. To read about the What, How and When of place card holders, please click here.

I set the hamburgers on a red plastic napkin ring that I have to make them a bit taller.

I can’t remember where these red plastic cup goblets came from. I love using them on my picnic themed tablescapes. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I found this ceramic hamburger cookie jar at Mercari online. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to find just what I was looking for to use as a centerpiece on this tablescape. I love it, especially the pickle handle on the top. The cookie jar is sitting on a red Rhodes stoneware drink dispenser stand from Pottery Barn. I bought these stands in a few colors several years ago to use when I need to add height to a centerpiece.

These ceramic condiment containers came from Williams Sonoma several years ago but I think I bought them on Ebay maybe.

Will be time for a summer picnic soon if our weather ever warms up! Southern California has had a really cool Spring so far.

Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks or click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

This blog post was featured at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, https://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.com/ and The Cottage Market, https://thecottagemarket.com/ Please visit these blogs for lots of great ideas!

A Cherrific Summer Tablescape

May 28, 2025 by Beth Wilson in Tablescapes

I have been thinking about a cherries themed tablescape for a few years now but I finally found everything that I wanted for it more or less. The cherries tablecloth came from Spoonflower online. Their tablecloths are still too expensive but I watch for sales and sometimes I will buy one even though they cost more than I would like to spend on a tablecloth. I have a large table and I set six place settings so I need a large tablecloth. This is the third fruit themed tablescape that I have done this month. You can see the other fruit themed tables and 270+ other tablescapes that I have created over the past several years on my blog here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapes .

I looked for a long time for a cherry themed salad plate with no luck until I found these. I bought these Oneida Majesticware Cherries Jubilee salad plates on Ebay. They were made circa 2003 to 2005. They show a bit more wear than I would like but they were the only cherry plates that I could find that I liked. I may keep looking for another design for cherry themed salad plates.

Here’s my old faithful, a Fiesta dinner plate in the color called Scarlet. I use it often on my tablescapes and it is our every day dish set. I love the true red bold color. We bought them several years ago when we remodeled our kitchen, probably at Macy’s.

I really can’t remember where I found these bright green resin chargers last year. They are a perfect match for the green on the tablecloth.

This green flatware set was a Mother’s Day present from Hubby. I love this flatware design. It is labeled Mepra Inox and the pattern is called Fantasia in Apple Green. The color is a bit brighter than this photo shows. This flatware comes in several other colors as well and it is difficult to find flatware sets in different colors so I have my eye on a few other colors when it goes on sale again. I now have this set in apple green, black, orange, yellow, tan, and blue. I have never seen a flatware set that comes in so many different colors. We googled the name and I can’t remember where we found the best price for this set and bought it. It is available on several sites online. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I can’t remember where these red cotton napkins came from, I have had them for several years. These cherry napkin rings came from Ebay.

To read about the What, When and How of napkin rings please click here.

My daughter-in-law gave me these Kate Aspen Topiary Tree place card holders several years ago. I see them for sale online from time to time online on various sites. To read about the What, How and When of place card holders, please click here.

The green goblet on the left came from Macy’s a few years ago. The pattern was called Qualia Glass Meridian. I like the height and the beautiful green color. The red goblet on the right was labeled Cristalleria Fumo Italy. I found them at HomeGoods last year. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I bought this white woven basket decorated with red cherries earlier this year and now I can’t remember where I found it. I did a google image search and it didn’t turn up either. I filled it with faux cherries that I bought on Amazon and I set it on a green drink dispenser stand that I bought at Pottery Barn several years ago to give it a bit more height.

These cherry candle holders came from HomeGoods a few months ago. I put one on each side of the centerpiece.

Time to buy some cherries!

If you live in Southern California join our Facebook tablescaping group Southern California Tablescapers BTS Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/440356398581157 . We have 270+ members and continue to grow. We had a gathering in January 2025 and we plan to have others as well.

Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks or click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

This blog post was featured at The Cottage Market, https://thecottagemarket.com/ and My Thrift Store Addiction, https://mythriftstoreaddiction.blogspot.com/ Please visit these blogs, you will enjoy them!