Let’s send 2020 on its way with a whimsical table setting, with plates featuring handpainted watercolours of woodland animals set with humble pine cones and some glitzy gold.
Designed by artist and founder Hannah Dale of Wrendale Designs, they are described thusly on the website: “The effervescent style of Royal Worcester’s Wrendale Designs brings a splash of British countryside to the home”. Indeed, it does.
There are four each of dinner, salad and appetizer plates, so 12 patterns in total. The dinner plates have the animals perched along the edges, with the coordinating creature centred on the salad plate. We have the hairy hare.
He is munching vigorously on a piece of greenery, looking quite disreputable.
The field mice are charming.
The chubby tummy on the bottom one kills me. Suddenly, Dundee looks almost svelte. (Well, perhaps not, Judge for yourself in the photo at the bottom of the post).
A colourful Mallard duck looks quite dignified on the dinner plate but is clearly losing it on the salad plate.
Oh, maybe not so dignified. The feathers are starting to moult.
They’re really flying now!
Lastly, we have the red squirrel.
Ever curious.
He’s puffed up like a powder puff here. Adorable.
The appetizer plates feature different animals to the original designs, except for the mouse, who has a second debut.
They add new and colourful elements with the pink baubles and crackers and the cheerful green hat on the cow.
In styling the table, I was guided by the contrast of luxe gold sparkles and the woodland theme; I was also tempted to focus on the pink elements in the appetizer plates. It had me stumped for a while – which one to highlight?
The gold sequined runner and the chargers picked up on the scattered gold confetti in the plates. Ok – good, consistent base.
Gold twist-stem Venetian goblets and a Venetian footed bowl with gold rigerie add a bit more sparkle.
I was lured by my pink Venetian compotes and candlesticks, and some pink glass baubles, but there wasn’t enough pink in all the plates to make it work.
See what I mean? There are touches of pink, but not enough to look cohesive. So I went with more natural elements – pine cones, birch bark wood pieces and pine cone candles.
Pine cone napkin rings from Pier 1 a couple of years ago had a touch of gilding on them, so that added another bit of luxe.
It was an enjoyable creative endeavour, and I was thrilled with how it all came together.
Despite my reservations about the potential for cat-wrought-havoc, I left the table up for a few days to enjoy it.
I came down one morning to a winter wonderland outside. It seemed fitting somehow.
And so, we end a rather wretched year on a note of hope, with three vaccines now approved; rollout has begun in many countries. I look forward to the days ahead when we can once again welcome our friends and family to meals at tables set for many people.
Happy New Year to all my readers! May your 2021 be filled with love, joy and good health. See you then.
These woodland animals are adorable and you did the plates proud with all the accessories. My favorite is the red squirrel, maybe because on the Cape they’re so rare and we always have just one in our garden cavorting around all summer. Happy new year to you and your family. Next year will be better!
Thanks, Maura! And Happy New to you and Bill. Can’t wait until we are celebrating again together at Brewster Fish House. Next year, we hope!
We have lots of red squirrels here in Ontario and I am always amused at how aggressively they chase the much bigger (and generally fatter) grey ones. They’re feisty little devils.
Dear Helen,
What a charming setting!…and I like the way the plates invite offset placement. I’m with Maura: Squirrel Nutkin is my favourite too, and they are making a comeback in the UK. Our shy squirrels (eichhornchen=”little acorns”) are charcoal, with cream bellies, big tails, and long tufted ears. So glad the cats minded their Ps and Qs; I’d want to gaze at this for a while also.
Last night the valley was filled with Cold Moon light and beautiful fireworks against the snowy mountains. Despite the hotel closures, they still put on a show. The feeling is…hang in there…it’s almost over…solidarity…peace. As I told a neighbour at the very start of this, engineering vaccines isn’t magic, just time and hard graft. Rollout is the biggest challenge. Hope CA does a better job than USA (not hard!). Best to you and yours for a better year, and thanks for another year of beauty.
Your alpine squirrels are utterly charming. I’ve just looked them up on the ‘net, and the ears are an absolute hoot! Those tufts!!
Good on your hotels for the firework displays; I’m sure they brought beauty and hope to all who watched. We are on the cusp of a big change; we all have to hang in and wait, which is the hardest part, sometimes. Canada has been painfully slow with the rollout so far. I suspect the health services are dragging their feet, in anticipation of the approval of the Oxford vaccine, which, as you know, is much more user-friendly. We can manage the Pfizer one in large city centres, but not the remote communities, and in the interest of “fairness”, they don’t want to be seen to be favouring the “big city folk”. It’ll catch up soon, but in the meantime, we are all sitting on our hands impatiently.
Love the plates, especially the cow and mallard, who reminded me of “suffering succotash”
Happy New Year. Got to get better !
Happy New Year to you, also, Annie! I really like the gentle expression on the cow’s face. Those big eyes…
Helen, I love the tablescape – it kind of gives me hope that there are other cute plates out there besides those from our old Pier 1 lol. Odd man out perhaps, but the field mice are my favorites, although adore Ms. Cow too. Also love how the plates are offset and I think, as Maura said, you did the plates proud with your accents! I’m looking at your “winter wonderland” and, yes, it looks so pretty, but when I look out in our back yard, all I see is 2 feet of the wretched stuff. Just my perception… Thanks for sharing your lovely whimsical tablescape and happy Tuesday to you!
The mice are very cute. Those rotund tummies!
As to china patterns, have you come across the blog site Glampad? https://www.theglampad.com/2021/01/the-glam-pads-anti-trends-for-2021.html In her latest blog she cites some tableware companies that were new to me. I’ve found a lot of patterns scrolling through Replacements. Sometimes they have stock, and sometimes it takes an eBay or Etsy search.
Have a great rest of the week.
Delightful! Truly delightful!! Cutest china plates disheveled animals ever. I’m torn on the gold or pinks. I like both. I agree that pinecones & golds the better choice for December. Maybe pinks more suited to February? Thanks for the tip on Glam pad blog. Recently I find that “table for one” blog is fun and a good excuse to set the table no matter what, even for just yourself. Table for 2 more to my liking at my house though. Nice seeing this post. Bye bye 2020 goodbye 2020 was a nice feeling.
That Wrendale pattern is very popular in the UK. We’ve seen tons of different mugs and plates for sale at various locations and I’ve had to resist stuffing my suitcase with them. The animals have the most fabulous expressions!
Amen to bye-bye 2020.
I ordered set of 8 stemless champagne flutes to celebrate celebrating again. Got inspired by your blackberry themed table and cocktail. I think blackberry in bottom of each flute will be nice touch as family gather for hubby’s June 11 birthday. Record warm weather has already arrived.