Welcome to Thrifting Wonderland, if you are new, and welcome to those who are frequent visitors. So glad you are back for another fun tablescape. It’s been a busy couple of weeks since New Year’s Eve. Putting away all the Christmas decorations and getting the house “put to rights” is always a challenge of the new year. But, now it’s done and I can concentrate on new tablescapes and new recipes for January.
We’ve made a few changes since January. We bought new mattresses …..which then required packing up and taking out the old ones. Have you ever noticed that each task seems to take longer than you think it will. Another new adventure for January is a class I teach at a local college. It’s exciting to teach something new and this particular course is dear to my heart. My family roots are in Ireland and I am having a great time teaching a class on “Sacred Ireland”. It’s such fun to take a more in depth look at places we have visited and share that with others. However, prepping classes is very time consuming however enjoyable it might be. So, another reason why January has been a really busy month.
But now I’m delighted to share a new tablescape with you. It was inspired by a set of Tuscan Sauce dishes I recently found at the thrift store. They are “Tuscan Sauce Dishes” by Williams Sonoma. Take a closer look in the picture below.
The plates are really cute. Each one shows a different Tuscan scene reminding us of time we spent in the Tuscan Hills. Warm, sunny days sipping wine and indulging in wonderful food create beautiful memories to bring out again on cold January days.
These small plates would be used for Bread Dipper or another appetizer sauce that might be part of an Italian meal.
Beneath the Sauce dish is another really colorful Italian style plate. These feature roosters and are in the same color family as the Bread Dipper plates. The salad/dessert plates are called Retro Roosters by Sakura. Love these plates. They really impart that sense of country so typical of Tuscany.
Beneath the rooster plates I used French Countryside dinner plates by Mikasa. I paired the plates with Fiddlehead flatware. I purchased the flatware at Pottery Barn a number of years ago. Really like how it goes with so many different styles.
The napkins are another thrift store find and are covered with some abstract flowers and a border of ivy leaves and morning glories on a yellow background. The napkins rings are wrought iron and pick up the black in the plates.
The beautiful red rattan chargers are really large and add a lot of texture to the table. The tablecloth is a woven yellow….more texture and more of that country feel.
I wanted something pretty but casual for the centerpiece. I ended up with a simple arrangement of parsley leaves, baby’s breath and yellow petite carnations. The carnations pick up the color in the tablecloth. The wooden rooster echoes the roosters in the salad/dessert plates. It adds a little bit of fun to the table and a little more country charm.
Lastly, we have red wine glasses (hand blown) and Mikasa Park Lane water goblets to complete this rustic Italian place setting.
Can’t wait to sit down and eat a great rustic Italian meal at this casual Tuscan tablescape. Hope all of you can have your own Italian meal where you can enjoy January with spices and herbs reminiscent of sunny Italian days spent in the Tuscan countryside.