Craft Alert: Setting the Dining Room Table for Fall

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Fall table decoration with red maple leaves. Photo by Cecilia Kennedy

Venturing into highly dangerous dog poop territory means that I need to sound the craft alert—for myself.  I’m on high alert as I gather leaves from a red maple tree in the front yard that every dog in my neighborhood loves to claim as its own in so, so many ways.  I probably should wear shoes, but I don’t want to lose a moment while inspiration is pummeling me in the head with visions of a proper fall dining room table.

“Forget the shoes!” the voice in my head screams.  “Get those leaves while the pickin’ is good!”

Honestly, I don’t know what’s come over me. I’ve always liked the dining room table to look presentable and nice, but I rarely get into “tablescapes” and such—until I started watching Below Deck. I completely blame that show for my attempt today to wade into the middle of dog poop land and gather table decorations.  On the most recent episode, Hannah (Head Stew) set the table with a flowing, cascading sheet of ruffled loveliness, which I thought was amazing, but Captain Sandy thought she could do better.  Captain Sandy showed her pictures from some kind of yachting convention—and wow! My eyes were opened.  Tiered layers of runners and dishes and sparkling things just danced precisely with crisp napkins. The table actually looked happy to be there.  I decided I wanted to make my dining room table happy to be there—but I didn’t want to work too hard at it.  Yacht table decorating looks unnecessarily exhausting—and thankless. It looks like people are too drunk and rich to appreciate the table decorations.  Fortunately, my family is never quite that drunk or rich to appreciate a simple smattering of fall leaves strategically placed in things I’ve found around the house.

So, after gathering leaves from the front yard, in my bare feet I:

–Find a fall candle to place on the earth-toned earthy runner that’s always on the table anyway.

–Locate a glass cylindrical type object to place the leaves into. Of course, I run out of room. So, I grab a white plate and stick more leaves on it.

–Then, I place the objects with the leaves on/in them artistically around the candle. (I think I see the table smiling—fingers crossed!)

When I’m done, I’m pretty happy that I could all of this without actually stepping into dog poop.  Sure, it’s no yacht show or anything like that, but it’s pretty darn festive. Nate and Alex think so too. Here’s proof:

Alex:  What’s with the leaves?

Nate:  Your mom’s doing stuff.

Alex:  It’s actually kind of pretty. Wow.

A Nate Update:  Nate has his portable monitor, but he does not have to wear it for a month.  The cardiologist he met with said he only needs to wear it for a week.  When he feels a symptom, he’s supposed to press a button and then write down in a diary what’s going on.  The cardiologist will analyze the data. He’s also supposed to schedule a calcium scan to look at the structure of the heart.  Thanks to friends and family, we’re also getting the names of other cardiologists/hospitals in case the health-care providers we’re meeting with now can’t give Nate any answers.  The Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team appreciates all of your fabulous positive wishes. Thank you so much!!!!

Your Turn:  Do you like to decorate the dinner table?

 

Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

38 thoughts on “Craft Alert: Setting the Dining Room Table for Fall”

  1. first I’m glad to hear you have a positive feeling about Nate AND even more important that he will be getting answers soon rather than in a month or longer. I hope they can figure out what is going on.

    sounds like you have created a very festival fall table for your family. Did you make sure there were no bugs on the leaves before you brought them into the house? Just a thought!

    I don’t have a dinning room, we eliminated that in our new house. I do decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and January so there will be happy corners of my world here soon enough

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  2. That’s lovely! I like to dress my rooms according to the time of year. Sadly we don’t get your fabulous fall colours (or leaves) so I have to find something else autumnal, usually mini gourds and seasonally appropriate scented candles.

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  5. That does look rather nice. I’m inspired. No fall leaves to be found as of yet, which is a shame since I’m having company tonight. I’ll keep it in mind, though! (The line about the dogs using the tree… that was comic gold!)
    Best of luck to Nate!

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  8. Lol! I’m glad to hear your son has inherited an aesthetic sense. I also would make the suggestion that you could simply buy porcelain or ceramic dining room table accessories that have leaves already painted on them, thus saving yourself much heartache and dog poop scraping off your shoes or your feet as the case may be.

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  11. Fall is a wonderful time of the year. I have done small pumpkins and fall leaves before. I really didn’t think the table was happy and didn’t receive comments so maybe not a success story for me. But, heck I had fun doing it once.

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  12. I’m glad to hear that Nate is making progress toward a diagnosis.

    I must confess, when I saw your post, my first thought was, oh, dear, all these people have to eat for dinner is leaves. So, I guess that answers your question about whether I like to decorate my dinner table. 🙂

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    1. Thanks! I can see how the leaves on the dish would make it seem like I’m serving “leaves on a dish.” Wouldn’t that be awesome if they were realistic-looking candy leaves or something? I guess I should get to work on that.

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  13. Bravo for walking barefoot in poop territory!! I don’t really decorate our table, but am kind of getting inspired by all the pretty tables I’m seeing in the Reader lately. Sunflowers and fall things. Your leaves are a beautiful color. Huge summer fan here, but fall certainly puts on a show!

    Happy to see they’re watching his heart. Thank you for the update. Hope you have a great day.

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    1. Thanks! Yes–Below Deck is a reality show on the Bravo network. We still don’t have any answers for Nate and he’s still experiencing symptoms, but he does have a cardiologist now, so with time we’ll maybe find something out–fingers crossed! Thanks for stopping by:)

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  15. Very autumnal! We don’t have a table, but we do have a brick hearth which sometimes gets a seasonal treatment. There’s always twinkly lights and either candles or flowers. I’ve been trying to use our own garden flowers and greenery, so technically that makes it seasonal! You have inspired me to create something autumn-ey 😊. Good to hear your hubby is going full steam ahead with specialists and help. Hope the monitor provides some answers.

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