Magnificent Magnolias

by Helen Kain | May 23, 2021 | Green, Pink and Red, Recent, Spring Tablescapes

I adore the flowering trees of April and May, but I’ve always clucked disapprovingly at the incredible mess left behind by the all-too-short-blooming magnolia flower. The pleasure-to-aggravation ratio seems way off. BUT – let’s not look a gift-flower in...

Floral Meadow for Easter

by Helen Kain | Apr 3, 2021 | Easter, Green, Pink and Red, Purple, Recent, Spring Tablescapes, White, Yellow

Easter is such a hopeful holiday. While I love Christmas, it marks the beginning of winter and many months of darkness. Easter, however, is the beginning of warmer and longer days (at least for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers). You can almost feel the world coming to...

In an English Garden

by Helen Kain | Feb 6, 2021 | Green, Pink and Red, Spring Tablescapes, Yellow

Soft pastel shades and fresh flowers are an instant cure for the winter doldrums. English Garden by Certified International was new for 2020. The trellis pattern on the soft green, scallop-edged dinner plate was an instant hit with me. I can see styling it a dozen...

An Army of Feathered Combatants

by Helen Kain | Jan 27, 2021 | Grey and Pewter, Pink and Red, Spring Tablescapes, Vintage china, Winter Tablescapes

You can’t beat antique French Faience for weird and whimsical tableware, and this colourful collection is one of my very favourites.  At the head of this feathered army, we have Le Roi or The King. Rather haughty, isn’t he? These plates seem to have...

Woodland Berry by Williams Sonoma

by Helen Kain | Dec 15, 2020 | Brown, Christmas, Green, Pink and Red, Recent, Winter Tablescapes

Winter greenery, in the form of holly, pine, juniper and winter berries, feature heavily on Woodland Berry plates by Williams Sonoma, The dinner plate has lots of clean white space in the centre, forming a perfect backdrop for a delicious feast. The salad plate is...

To Grandma’s Gingerbread House We Go

by Helen Kain | Dec 4, 2020 | Blue, Christmas, Green, Pink and Red, Recent, Winter Tablescapes, Yellow

Nostalgic and colourful, these sturdy ironstone salad plates inspired a delightful few days of baking. I toyed with the idea of making a gingerbread house and even went so far as to bake a gingerbread bundt cake. Nice, but somehow lacked panache. The houses make you...