Styling the Easter Table With a Spring Garden Theme

Hello, hello, hello! I'm doing much better. Thank you for all of the kind words last week.

Over the weekend I began to get the Easter dinner table pulled together. I'm going with a spring garden theme this year. We will be 6 for Easter dinner and will be dining indoors. This is what I've come up with so far.

The tablecloth is a tan twill fabric, which makes it look less dressy, I think. The floral table square is placed on a diagonal under straw placemats. The placemats make me think of wicker baskets and straw hats.

I'm using the sage green napkins that we generally use in the kitchen at Christmastime. My mother gave me a booklet on folding napkins when I was about 20. In that booklet I found the instructions for this napkin fold. The booklet calls them pinwheels, but I think they look a bit like flowers, rosettes. I'll add the instructions at the bottom of this post for anyone interested. 

These were fairly easy to fold. If my napkin fabric had been stiffer (or I was using paper napkins), the folding and securing would have been even easier. 

This napkin fold calls for a napkin clip. Lacking napkin clips, I chose to tie raffia bows to hold the folds together. 

After trimming the raffia ends, I tucked an artificial flower into the folds under the raffia bow. To use the napkin at dinnertime, the raffia bow will simply untie and allow the napkin to open up fully. 

Napkin folds are a free and beautiful way to delight dinner guests. If you can't find a book on napkin folds at your library, there are tutorials for various folding designs online.

The centerpiece, so far, is this moss, ivy, and floral basket with a bird's nest that I made in 2013.

I have a large box of faux florals that I picked up from a free pile in 2018 or 2019. I came across 2 strings of floral garlands in the box and 2 rolls of boxwood leaf strings. I will be trying both out around the large window in the dining room and/or to add some garden-ness to the hanging chandelier above the table.

I scrubbed 4 clay pots to use in decor, as well. You can serve food in clay pots if the insides are lined with plastic wrap or waxed paper. I may use one of these on the table to hold dinner rolls and another to hold crudités.

That's where I am in styling the Easter dinner table so far.

Here are the napkin folds to make pinwheels (or rosettes, as they look to me):

Step 3 is where I used a raffia bow in place of the called-for napkin clip. I made the bow after pleating the napkin, holding the stack of folds together, and before fanning out the pleats.

I make these types of efforts because they please me. I expect the men at the table will be politely appreciative, but the ladies will find beauty in something like a napkin that looks like a flower.

I'll share more of my Easter plans as the week progresses.

Hi there!

pots of early spring flowers on the deck to brighten the mood of a gray day

Hi friends,

I'm sorry I've been absent this past week. I wish I could say I'm off enjoying a lovely holiday in the sun. But no such luck right now. I'm suffering from a serious case of fatigue and am finding it difficult to think, write, and post. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I should be back on track next week.

So, today is my 37th wedding anniversary. Right now I am getting dinner going. I'm making Swiss steak, brown rice, and garden Brussel sprout and kale greens. I baked whole wheat chocolate chip cookies earlier today for dessert.

I hope you all are having a great week. I'll write more soon.