Belgravia by Julian Fellowes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Julian Fellowes’s magic pen is at work again with Belgravia. A classic “wrong side of the blanket” story is spun elegantly and eloquently against the drawing rooms and societal divide of the English class system. For fans of Downton Abbey, this is a nice follow-up. You can also listen to it in serial format (https://www.julianfellowesbelgravia.com/).
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Today I’m thrilled to share a conversation about tablescaping with my niece, Jessie Weaver. Music Man and I just spent a wonderful long weekend in Chattanooga visiting family, as well as doing some touring in Atlanta. I enjoyed helping Jessie prepare for a party, and afterwards, Jessie wrote this guest post about her experiences, entitling it “Tablescaping for Dummies.” I beg to differ. The blessing of creating a tablescape is that there are no wrong ways — or dumb ways — to do it. There is just YOUR way. And that’s what happened last weekend.
Jessie: When you are a self-confessed imbecile when it comes to home design, it’s a little intimidating to have your aunt, who blogs about tablescapes, come visit while you’re preparing to throw a dinner party. Really, though, it was a great blessing. The Expert went through my cabinets and drawers, helping me throw together a fantastic tablescape using only what I had. Continue reading
The Christmas tree is put away, the comfortable chairs are back in the window, and there’s a fresh coating of snow outside. It seems like the perfect day to take a visit to Germany in the Winter’s Blue Tablescape.
I’ve talked about my next door neighbor and her dishes many times. The tableware and decor items that I selected (and salvaged from destruction) from her estate sales have been sources of inspiration for tablescapes, including Paperwhites in a Punch Bowl, Family Reunion Gifts Bring a Sunflower Tablescape, and most recently, Downton Abbey Tablescape for the Servantless Home Decorator. Her house remodel is almost finished by the flippers and it is up for sale; hopefully we will soon have a lovely family living in Oksana’s home and bringing life back to it after almost six years. Today I’m honoring her once again with a tablescape inspired by her set of Hutschenreuther collectors’ plates, each with a different scene from a German village. Continue reading
Setting the table in Downton Abbey style was lots of fun. Hearing from so many of you was wonderful. Having my husband shout at the television last night, saying, “They’re measuring the silverware just like you said!” was even more fun.
And so was actually eating at the table.
I will admit that I took down the big candlelabra and replaced it with a five-candle silver candlelabra so that we could actually see each other. Unlike what happened in Downton Abbey last night — remember when they “turned the table”? — my guests were allowed to talk across the brunch table. It’s just not that big.
We removed all the dishes from the staged table in order to serve the brunch plated. Since there were only five of us, it was easy to plate at my kitchen island and serve directly to the table. My husband made a wonderful footman and we had a relaxed couple of hours. We even broke every Downton Abbey rule by keeping the kitchen television on (muted, of course), so Music Man could keep track of the football games. Continue reading
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One of my favorite scenes in the movie Julie & Julia is where Julie Powell (Amy Adams) types into her infant blog a reference to Julia Child’s famous words from the beginning of Mastering the Art of French Cooking — “Nobody here but us servantless American cooks.” Julia Child believed that with a little bit of instruction and a lot of good directions, servantless American cooks could pull off the preparation of traditional French dishes in their homes.
The same applies to our servantless home tablescaping — if you know the basic ingredients of a tablescape, you can create your version of even the fanciest decor, using what you already own. Granted, for some of us, our “stash” is larger than for others. If you don’t have quite what you need, you can pick up beautiful pieces for very little money on sale or in resale shops. Just follow any blog written by a home tablescaper and you’ll see hundreds of pieces purchased for a song. It makes me sad to find dish sets and linens that were given away by family members who didn’t want their grandma’s treasured home items, but I digress…
Downton Abbey merchandise at Cost Plus World Market
Over the holidays, Cost Plus World Market was carrying quite a few Downton Abbey-labeled products. Knowing my love for the show, I received a bottle of Downton Abbey wine, Downton Abbey soaps, Downton Abbey mince pies, and I also bought an Edwardian-style table runner and matching napkins that the store sold with the other Downton Abbey products. On sale, of course. Continue reading
Just in case you’re living under a costume drama rock, there’s some mighty fine television happening on Sunday nights on PBS.
Which team are you on? Are you for Branson and Sybil? Matthew and Mary? Bates and Anna?
Image credit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/index.html
I’m Team Batanna, although tonight’s episode puts some possible changes in the wind…
There has been a wonderful series on the Jane Austen’s World blog about Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey is filmed. I encourage you to check it out!
Image credit: skewenhistoricalsociety.org.uk
