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Let Your Table Show Summer is Here….

Remember this Summertime Song?
 
“Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh
In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got swimmin’, you got swimmin’ on your mind!!!”
 
Ok, my dear readers, I may have changed the lyrics to that song juuussst a bit, but I like my lyrics better!
 
Don’t ya just love summer?
 

 
There are so many things to love about Summer….excluding humidity and high temperatures….I’m talking about picnic days and warm Summer nights sittin’ on the porch listening to the crickets sing and watching the lightning bugs dart in and among the evening shadows.
 
I grew up with grandparents who sat out on the front (or back) porch drinking lemonade or sipping on a glass of sweet tea.  One of my grandmothers hand knit little “jackets” for the drink glasses so they wouldn’t “sweat” in your hand. I had a favorite one.  It was variegated red, white and blue.
 
Which leads me to my Summer Vignette for my Kitchen table,…. which if you know me at all…you know I love to play with dishes.
 
There I said it!!!…
…perhaps it is a carry-over from my childhood days of playing house and setting up little kitchens from old wooden pallets and orange crates.
 
My play dishes were anything from old tin cans to chipped plates and bowls that my mother handed off to me when she felt they were not safe to eat from.   AND I loved them.  
 
I would painstakingly remove the labels from small tuna cans and paint them colors with left over paint from our shed….OR, I would leave them a shiny silver because they looked like sterling silver.  
 
I had/have a great imagination!
 
For this vignette, I am setting it up on my kitchen table in the kitchen nook.  And because I love red, white and blue and because there are so many patriotic Holidays through-out the Summer, I’m am adding those colors to my neutral decor!!!
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I have/will be celebrating Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day!
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Yep!  It is the RED, WHITE AND BLUE for my Summertime Vignette!
I do confess to having many sets of dishes.  And flatware.  And serving dishes.
 
Yep!, I love dishes and I love playing with dishes and I love having themed dinner parties!
 
If you have followed me, you will see the answer to the most asked questions by my dinner guests.
 
……”Where do you store all your dishes and flatware”?
 
A few posts ago, I talked about the barn door the Captain made for my dish pantry, which is where many of the sets of dishes are stored.  
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My flatware, which I have gotten from many sources over the years… consists of red, greens, pink. bamboo, black, brown, orange, white, yellow, blues, gold and multi-colored and they are stored in a cabinet…each set in a clear plastic shoe box for easy identification.  I actually have made a picture copy of knife, fork and spoon color to tape to the front of each box to aid in identification, but I have found that being able to see through the plastic boxes, I haven’t really needed them.
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I have linens and cloth napkins stored in a chest of drawers which I am planning on moving to my entry…this is a work in progress at the moment.
 
Being organized with dishes, etc makes it so easy to keep my decorating down to a science.  Really! And it is so much fun to decide which dishes I will mix and match for a vignette or dinner party.  (I have a category for tablescapes on my home page, although it is a work in progress…there are many photos which still need to be edited and added).  
 
If you are interested in making a Summertime Vignette…I will tell you how mine came together.
 
I started with a rectangle white-washed tray, but I have also used flat baskets.  I then draped a blue and white hand towel over part of the bottom, followed by red cloth napkins, along with folded up hand towels.  Using cloth napkins softens the look as well as bringing colors together. 

Next, I needed a focal point….and this can be anything you have around the house or in your cabinet. I used my blue and white striped drink dispenser that I bought at Pottery Barn several years ago. I try to set any drink dispenser (I have several)… that I use on a base of some sort, which allows room under the spigot for a glass or cup.  Today, I used a red, white and blue striped cake plate.  In the past, I have been known to use a galvanized metal ice bucket turned upside down for a base….Or a pretty color co-ordinated upside down bowl.

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Varying heights in your vignette is very important and pleasing to the eye….so I next took a small white cake plate and stacked my blue willow dishes, plus my red and white striped pitcher filled with white faux flowers.  

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Of course real flowers would be great….but I am showing you that you can use faux flowers too.  Just try to buy the flowers that look real, there is a difference.  I also found a red, white and blue chip and dip bowl at Old Tyme Pottery a few months ago, and so I added it to my vignette.

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Next, I added red, white and blue flatware to a small white pitcher and placed it on my tray.

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I use straws with my cold drinks, so of course I had to add red, white and blue straws to another small white pitcher.

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Lastly, I added a few white Adirondack chairs for whimsey and fun!  I found these at Pier 1 and they came in all white.  I bought 3 sets of 4 and spray painted one set red and and one set blue. However, I only added the white set to my Summer vignette. These can be used as name card holders or tiny dessert cupcake holders or little votive candle holders!

As I said earlier, I love playing with dishes and I hope you might be inspired to play with your dishes too…if you don’t already.  Vignettes add little scenes of color to your decor and can be changed easily, which is why I change mine around quite often. 

One of the best things about my table vignettes….everything is right there to grab and use…bowl, plate, flatware, etc. Just use it and wash it and put it back.  Easy Peasy! You are all ready for Summertime fun without all the prep work.

How about you?  Are you ready to try a kitchen table Summer vignette?

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