Gobble, Gobble . . . And A Table Topping Quiz

Yes, my dears, it's another Table Topping Quiz,
in which you will be asked to vote on which table setting rings your chimes.  Like this post.

Today, I've got new Pottery Barn plates to use.

Because -- to my delight and my hubby's despair -- there is a PB Outlet store just 30 minutes

from our beach house, and sometimes it just hollers out my name, and go I must.

We went on Saturday.

I came home with a big orange pumpkin bowl, that may turn up on the Thanksgiving table full of mashed potatoes.

It's really cute; the edges are not perfectly round, so it looks as if it's an actual hollowed-out pumpkin.

If you are wildly gullible or terribly near-sighted.

How big is it? you ask.

Here it is, cozied up to the huge, gorgeous blue and white bowl I wrote about yesterday.

But, Pumpkin Bowl is not in today's table setting.  Maybe on Thursday . . . .

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 At the PB Outlet, they had table settings to lure you into wanting that very same table setting.

Because that's what a store is supposed to do -- lure you down the garden path, straight toward the cash register.

This was the featured table setting: 

Look!  The place card says "Joshua," and that's our son in law's name.
Clearly we needed to buy these plates; it was a Divine Sign.

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Several of those cute turkey plates came home with us.  They like it here.

Today, because one is never too old to play with dishes, I played with a table setting,

changing only the color of the dinner plate to get different looks.  

First, a centerpiece.

 A twiggy-grapey-Autumn-y wreath, with a big faux turkey plopped in the middle.

(The live turkey was too obstreperous,

and also demanded a better dressing room.  Ha ha -- dressing!  Turkey?  Dressing?)

Anyway -- the first place setting attempt, with a robin's egg blue dinner plate from Dollar Tree. 

 It picks up the blue in the turkey.  Who knew turkeys had blue feathers?

Hmm, perhaps they don't in the Real World.

 But the turkey on the plate also has blue feathers.

 Now this next was my first choice -- until I began putting things together.

I thought the gold PB example was a little tame, but thought red would kind of POP the turkey's hangy bits.

Visually, not literally because -- ick.

 The red plate is one of our set of 50 party plates, a Fiesta-type plate by Oneida.

 Not bad, but I am not sure.

 This was a last minute addition -- a turquoise plate.  Also Dollar Tree.

 Because -- Ol' Tom's feathers are really more turquoise than Robin's Egg.

Whaddya know.

 Yup, they are.

Final choice -- a green plate from, yes, Dollar Tree.

We live large at That Old House.

 Now this one I didn't expect to much like, but son of a gun . . .

 I do.  Not perhaps my favorite, because I haven't hit on a favorite yet.

 What about you?

Which dinner plate would you put with these charming turkey salad plates from PB?

Robin's Egg Blue, Red, Turquoise or Green?

We only bought 3 of the turkey plates, but I'm thinking a couple more need to come home and live here.

That's all she wrote!

Join Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for TableTop Tuesday!  Click right here.

And I am off on an adventure.  Film at eleven. -- Cass

Bowled Over!

Last week, I said it was package-on-the-porch week.

And it sure was.

Look at the size of this box, after I brought it in

off the porch and into the front hall:

I'd been expecting delivery of an 8-quart enameled cast iron

roasting pan, and I thought, "Wow!  It's bigger than I thought."

Then I looked at the return address.

The box was from my friend Martha,

she of Lines From Linderhof fame.

And inside . . . was this:

A big -- and I do mean big -- and spectacular blue and white bowl.

With a wooden stand.

I tell you, I was bowled over!

Martha has featured Linderhof's big blue and white bowls in several of her posts.

Like this one:

 And this one, in the dining room at Linderhof.

This picture, and the one above, property of Lines From Linderhof.
I stole 'em.

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I have always admired Martha's fabulous blue and white bowls -- and told her that.

Two weeks ago today, I met Martha and her husband Jim in Connecticut for lunch,

and it was like meeting a dear and precious friend.

After they were back home in Kansas, Martha decided that my driving 2 hours each way to meet them

deserved a thank you . . . and she packed up this amazing centerpiece bowl and sent it off to New Jersey.

Can you believe it?  I nearly passed out when this amazing bowl came out of that Fed Ex box!

Oh, thank you, Martha!  You completely astonished me!

Now, of course, I don't deserve any thank you gift, as meeting Martha and Jim was pure delight, and a
gift in its own right.  The only downside is that they live in Kansas and we live in New Jersey.  Too far away!

This gorgeous bowl will live on the dining room table at That Old House.

Unfortunately, the dining room is once again a repository for things up from the cellar,

to keep them out of the mess of more jack hammering last week.
I should have this bowl where it belongs and ready for its closeups, Mr. DeMille, in a couple of days.

Meanwhile I've put it on the coffee table in our study, where I can admire it when I'm at

the computer, and in the evening watching TV.  To give you an idea of how big and sassy this bowl is . . .

. . . that's a large decorating book resting in it.

Yes, I could probably bathe Dion in this bowl.  

But I won't!

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This is my first post since last Wednesday; I left Friday morning for

the beach house, and forgot to bring my laptop.

But a quick overview of how we spent our October weekend:

We found a great local wine, and no, Howard and I didn't drink all 3 bottles by ourselves.

Although we do like a good challenge. . . .

We had guests at the house for pre-dinner-ing on Saturday and then went into Greenport,

to a restaurant with excellent food and ridiculous pretensions and prices.

In our inlet, some of the neighbors are still kayaking, clamming, even swimming.  A little chilly, but to each his own.

On Saturday morning, we took a field trip to the Pottery Barn outlet.

Howard clambered up on a bar stool to give his imitation of the chair umpire at a tennis tournament.

This is why he is not making a living as a chair umpire at tennis tournaments.

Since I got my Pottery Barn fix, Howard snuck in a trip here, for cigars.

See him skulking through the door?

Cigars do keep gnats away on the deck at sunset.

The smoke keeps 'em from diving into your wine and doing the backstroke.

Have a lovely Monday, my friends.

Go visit Martha at Lines from Linderhof;

she's cooking up some amazing goodness today.  -- Cass

Tomorrow -- my Pottery Barn finds.

Monday Link Parties

Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.  Click here.

At The House In The Roses, it's Show Off Your Cottage Monday.  Click here!

Visit Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.   Click here!

And thank you, Peri, for this beautiful shot you snapped

from our deck on Saturday evening.

Dion stole it off your Facebook page!

Smelling Salts, Please!

Get me some smelling salts;
I've got a case of the vapors!

And it's all because of a book.

This week must be package-on-the-porch week for me
(did you see yesterday's post?), because today, wouldn't you know,
another box came skidding across the rain-slicked porch floor,
to go slam! up against the front door.

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I saw the return address, grabbed some fresh coffee,

and got ready for some serious indulgence.

 'Cause what can be better than a box of books?

 Can't wait to turn these pages.
I never pay more than ten dollars for a home decorating book,
and often less, so when this Early American Country Homes was recently published,
it was a challenge to get it at that price.  But I did.  Sweet.

The Irish house book looks wonderful;
the English and Irish have such a natural way of decorating.
I couldn't imitate it, but I can have fun looking at it.


This one I'll bring to the beach house this weekend.

But the book that kept me glued to the study sofa today

for longer than I should have been glued was this:

 It is a book entirely about dishes!

How sweet is that?

Did you know that George and Martha had a half dozen

different china patterns?  Who knew the Father of our country

was a dish devotee?  Now you know.

And here they are:

Guess what is the most popular china pattern ever.

Ha!  You are all wrong.  (So was I.)  Because it is this:

 Spode Christmas Tree, and who in their right mind would have guessed that?

The rest of the Top Ten All Time Best Sellers, below.  Is it sad that I can name every one?

 Among the Top One Hundred:

The book has loads of patterns that I've never seen before,

like these plates with their beautiful fish designs:

Not quite sure what kind of bird this is, but this plate is gorgeous, and it will haunt my dreams.

As my Aunt May used to say, "Could you die?  Could you just die?"

 Mmmm . . . Staffordshire.  Love that transferware!

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of china patterns, nearly all

dinner plates with a couple of smaller plates tossed in for good measure.

No cups, no bowls, but let's face it . . . it is the plate that makes the pattern.

What a good thing that it's a crock pot dinner tonight, otherwise, it might be takeout Chinese at That Old House.

After all, I have my priorities, and today it's the new toys books.
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Yesterday, the cellar was again assaulted with jackhammers, as the French drain guys (who are decidedly not French)

expanded their little tunnels and -- we hope -- made the basement truly waterproof.

It's been raining all day and so far, so good.

Have a lovely Wednesday!  Go read a good book.  Or two.  That's what I have planned.  -- Cass