Frost this morning; a brilliant, perfect November day, full of blue sky and the last of the leaves.
The dining-room table is more or less set. It's a long, narrow table, really too big for four people, but over the years I have figured out ways to arrange things so we don't feel too empty and strange. I don't think I'd ever seat two people in here –– whatever nice holiday dinners my husband and I have on my own, we'll have here in the kitchen where things appear a little less on the scale of the large gathering. On the other hand, we'll have nine at table for Christmas, so I'm glad I do have this designated dining room and this long table to fill it.
Here it is set for four:
A good bit of room left over at either end, but we can sit convivially together. The only time the master and mistress of the house assume their rightful seats at the end of the table is when there are enough people to fill the sides with no yawning space in between.
Each table setting: thrifted placemat, Royal Copenhagen plate, bandana napkin, my mother's great-aunt's silver, a game-bird glass and a sherry/wine glass.
I'd love to put on coffee cups, too, for the look of the thing, but I don't think anyone is going to want coffee after lunch. I also love the autumnal blues, browns, and golds, like the sky and the leaves outside.
Upon reflection, I think these stemmed glasses probably are sherry glasses, but they're good for a small glass of wine with lunch.
I decided to dress myself in the colors of the day:
My thrifted bamboo swing dress, the second of my "Fauxwena" long-sleeved dresses in bamboo, is a little wrinkled from being hung over a hanger, but I imagine it'll shake out. Thrifted J. Crew green cardigan, Snag tights in "Colonel Mustard," thrifted Birkenstock Madeiras. Wet hair twisted up with a claw clip.
My Dora brooch, which I've had actually for about twenty years, bought in the shop at the Musée de Cluny in Paris, and modeled on a greyhound from the medieval Lady and Unicorn tapestry series.
And the obligatory actual-Dora shots:
Just a little interpretive dance, to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, and a fine Thursday to those of you who do not celebrate anything else in particular on this day.