Chelsea Porcelain with Lilacs

by Helen Kain | May 7, 2023 | Green, Home, Pink and Red, Purple, Recent, Spring Tablescapes, Summer Tablescapes

The lilacs are blooming, the sun is shining, and I’ve just finished tucking a couple of dozen dahlia tubers into the perennial garden. It’s time to get cleaned up and have a mug of tea. The table is already set with Chelsea Porcelain from the Royal...

Spring Forward with Cheery Tulips

by Helen Kain | Mar 12, 2023 | Green, Purple, Recent, Spring Tablescapes

Our bedside clock got a jump on us. Maybe it thinks 2023 is a leap year because, unbeknownst to me, it moved itself ahead overnight on Friday. I rose Saturday morning at what I thought was 4:45 am, ridiculously early enough as it was. My decaffeinated brain did not...

Barlaston Green Leaf for St Patrick’s Day

by Helen Kain | Feb 25, 2023 | Green, Recent, Spring Tablescapes, St. Patrick's Day, White

We’re coming up to the end of February, and spring beckons. The days are noticeably lighter and warm(ish) enough to tempt me outside to set a bright spring table. With St Patrick’s Day around the corner, I wanted to try my hand at a suitably seasonal but...

Botanical Wreath

by Helen Kain | Dec 11, 2022 | Christmas, Green, Pink and Red, Recent, Winter Tablescapes

From 2013 to 2016,  Williams Sonoma gave us this classic combination of rich red berries and winter greenery, Botanical Wreath. I must have been asleep at the switch because it completely passed me by at the time. But when a couple of plates in the pattern swam into...

Eric + Eloise, Bespectacled Animals

by Helen Kain | Nov 27, 2022 | Antique glassware, Christmas, Green, Pink and Red, Purple, Winter Tablescapes

Unusual colours, an odd number of plates—five—snowy scenes and animals wearing spectacles. Ok, not your usual Christmas tableware. But somehow, it all comes together for a joyously zany table. Please meet Eric (or Eloise). I’m not sure which is which. As...

A Late Season Fall Table with Gourd Soup Tureens

by Helen Kain | Nov 5, 2022 | Fall Recipes, Fall Tablescapes, Green, Orange

The weather has been incredibly warm, and we have delighted in taking long walks with the dogs, happily crunching through the leaves. Dignified Churchill, now a decade old, walks with a measured gait, never straining at the leash. He’s been very tolerant of the...