A Fall Celebration

Beautifully laid out tablescapes are always the highlight of every gathering with family and friends regardless of the season or what you’re celebrating. As much as I love to write about food, a carefully laid out table cape makes the food taste better. At least I like to think so.

Every October we make the trip to my sisters house for a belated birthday celebration (this year we celebrated both my birthday and my brother-in-law’s belated birthday.) While the weather was still decidedly summer-like (we’ve been having 90 degree temperatures the past few days) we dressed for our fall anyway.

Last year, I shared the beautiful tablescape that my sister put together along with some of the fall decor from around her home. This year she not only gave a little update to her dining room decor, but she also laid out a beautiful tablescape on her kitchen table as well.

With two tables to choose from, I had to go with the more ‘relaxed’ tablescape with its grey, plaids and textures, but since both tables were so beautifully laid out, I wanted to share about them both.

First here’s a look at the updated tablescape in the dining room.

You can view last years dining room fall tablescape here.

Before we get to the second tablescape, I wanted to share a few of the pictures I took of my sister’s fall decor.

Regardless of the season, twinkle lights are always a whimsy addition to any display. The glass and velvet pumpkins were my absolute favorite.

Both my sister and I have always been avid readers, and she picked up a whole collection of vintage books in Greenville a few months back. I love how much character vintage books have. Don’t you?

One of the pillow’s from Joanna Gaine’s Target collection, along with the pumpkins that we would be working with for our annual pumpkin project.

Now for the second fall tablescape…

For the kitchen my sister used the plaid table runner from last year (you may have seen pictures of it in the Succulent Pumpkins post I posted last October.) She also added grey plates and beautiful concrete (yes, concrete) pumpkins.

For lunch we enjoyed a repeat of last years delicious risotto and a mixed green salad with pears and crumbled goat cheese. If you need a quick go to salad for your fall gatherings this salad would be the one.

With every birthday celebration, a delicious dessert is absolutely essential. Since I’ve always wanted to have a special order dessert for my birthday, this year we had the pastry chef at Lincoln’s Haberdashery (in CLT’s Southend) recreate these Spice Pear and Chocolate Brioche Donuts.