a holiday project: glitter, shine and a bit of rustic for our thanksgiving table

We will be traveling south to my daughter's for Thanksgiving this year.  Along with bringing a few edibles for before, during and after the feast, I get to set the Thanksgiving table.  With this in mind I wanted to do something shine-y... something sparkle-y... something natural... and something rustic.  Sounds like a strange combo, hmmm?  But kind of my usual mix.

I saw something on Pinterest where a collection of fall leaves was glittered and made into a sort of swag.  A few months ago I was thinking this would be a fun addition to my garden gate for the month of November, unfortunately I didn't get around to breaking out the glue and glitter until the middle of the month so no swag or velvet ribbon... but I did collect oak and maple leaves for the project.  Since I didn't press the leaves, the maples curled but the oak leaves were flat and not too brittle.

Using a regular cheap brush, plain white glue and my stash of glitter I got to work.

I used my Martha Stewart glitter in Copper...

Florentine Gold...

And my favorite, Fire Opal.  Another color called Brownstone was only used on 2 leaves as I only had one small vial of this dark brown  but the other colors were also applied to some of my mini pumpkins I grew this year.

Then came the spray paint idea... I saw this on Magnolia Homes blog (aka Fixer Upper) and although Joanna went to the extra effort to make some carved out ones for mini planters, well I just painted mine... time was running out on fall and Thanksgiving!

I used one can of super shiny gold and a can of a matte copper.  I wanted the colors to match the glitter but be different at the same time.

Once everything was finally dry, leaves and pumpkins, I could get started on a mock up of the table for Thanksgiving to be sure I would like it and be able to plan what I needed to pack to take with us.

This included some of my depression glass salad plates.  Since I only had 3 amber plates I rounded out with 4 green to have enough for the all of the dinner guests.  I did try to track down a few more amber plates but wasn't successful at the 3 antique stores I visited recently.

Of course Miss Bee will be having her own special plate this year...  thank you World Market.

And even her own silverplate I picked up at my local thrift store.  In a fun twist, for our last Thanksgiving at my daughters I gave her a set of silverplate from the same thrift store... in a case for less than $20.00!

A view from the head of the table mock up...  This is set with my china and silverplate but will be my daughter's on Thanksgiving.

And these paper placemats will be used instead of my smallish linen ones.  Who can resist gold dots!  I will be taking my grandmother's linen napkins... and I may even break out the iron for the occasion, usually I embrace the slightly wrinkled look.

Each end of the table is where I decided to use the Brownstone glittered leaves since there were only two.

Other place settings will "simply" have gold leaves.

See how cute these amber plates are?  I'll have to keep an eye out for more to add to these three.  I love plates that have this art deco kind of feel, square with those stepped corners.

And our Miss Bee?  Her cute plate, a tiny glass with etched tulips, the thrifted silverplate and a tiny little glittered leave will be just right for this 18 month old dynamo!

I wanted to add place cards and came up with an easy solution just last night...

Washi tape with, what else but gold dots, and plain brown bag style place cards from my favorite paper store.  Printed names just above the tape I added and I was finished!

My daughter's table will be set for 8 people so it will be a bit fuller than my mock up.

And the center piece?  Just a single bouquet courtesy of our local grocery store.... I added a few snips of my lavender plant from my front porch to fill in a couple of bare spots but this bouquet included eucalyptus, sunflowers, mums and some sort of seeded grass. Perfect for Thanksgiving Day.

Five green glasses are filled with flowers and nestled inside the smaller box.  I used a pop crate that had been cut down to half size and my wooden berry box... with a bit of paper packing as filler on the sides.

Then I added some glitter leaves, glitter pumpkins and spray painted pumpkins to the wooden berry box.

From above you can see that this one bouquet and a few sprigs of my lavender made the arrangement pretty full.

Candles at each end can be used at dinner... those little amber turkeys hold tall skinny tapers and not vintage but have that depression glass feel to them.

A copper matte spray painted pumpkin...

Fire opal glittered leaf...

And I LOVE how the shiny gold spray paint turned out on the pumpkins... and I'm not usually a gold fan!

Overall I was pretty happy with the glitter & shine all mixed in with rustic wood, country like flowers and even a bit of brown paper.

But the best part of the day will be spending time with family.

Hoping your Thanksgiving is full of family, friends, love and laughter...

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Elizabeth & Co

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