Search Results for: friendsgiving

Sep 23

Chalkboard Autumn Tablescape (Friendsgiving!)

Sep 23

Helloo autumn! Autumn is my favourite time of the year for so many reasons and one of them is that we always take more time to get together with friends and family around the table. Every year, I look forward to it more and more. Whether it’s a Friendsgiving potluck, a birthday dinner, girls cook night or whatever-the-heck… it’s my favourite thing to do with an evening. I’m a fan of sitting around the table until the candles burn and the wine runs out and leaving dishes until the next morning. And having a pretty table to look at while you sit there? All the better ;)

It sounds like we’re having our friendsgiving late this year, so I put together the tablescape for one of our regular family dinners this year and recorded the process for you all as part of a Youtube challenge with The DIY Mommy. Instead of a mad dash, throwing things on the table before people walked in the door… which is usually how things work around here- ha! You can scroll down to see the whole video here.

Sep 21

Neutral Autumn Tablescape for Friendsgiving

Sep 21

*Thank you to Wayfair for sponsoring this post. For my full disclosure and policies, hop over here*

One of my favourite traditions is one we started a couple years ago with our friends- Friendsgiving. The busier life gets and the more kids that come into the picture, the harder it is to get together. I love that Friendsgiving (we do it for Easter too!) gives an excuse to mark a date on the calendar and sit around a table together. It’s so refreshing.

In the past, I’ve always thrown together the table the night of (as everyone was arriving- because last minute is my MO). I’ve always been happy with how it’s turned out, BUT when Wayfair invited me to participate in their autumn Tastemaker’s Table challenge… I knew it was the perfect opportunity to get a head start. I lettered all the place cards (watercolour printables below!), snapped all my photos of the tablesettings, and now all I need to do on the night of is throw it back on the table and enjoy the good company- what’s not to love about that!?

Autumn is my favourite season- the crisp weather… beautiful trees… starting new routines… it’s my birthday… there’s so much to love, really. But the one thing I’ve never gotten into is fall decor. This year I’ve been craving to jump into it a little bit more but I wasn’t sure how to approach it without going all orange. Don’t get me wrong, orange is gorgeous… but it ‘aint my style. We have none of it in our home and I’d like to keep it that way (Sorry Shane… it’s his favourite colour). I love the natural colours and kraft paper my table pulled in last year, but now that we’ve finished our gorgeous table, I wanted to show it off! Continue Reading…

Oct 09

Friendsgiving 2015: Casual and Organic

Oct 09

If you’ve been reading Lemon Thistle since last Thanksgiving, you’ll know we hosted our very first Friendsgiving in 2014 and had such a blast we decided to make it a tradition. Last Friday we hosted the second annual Friendsgiving at our house and I wanted to pop in and share the details with you. If you’re from Canada and are planning a Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, there’s still time to pull off this simple casual and organic decor. It is anything but tedious and the cost can’t be beat!

I had really wanted to go buy a new table cloth for the dinner, but I’m already buying one for my birthday party (tonight, guys! woohoo!). So I opted for something I already had on hand- kraft mailing paper! I’ve spotted kraft place mats and table runners on Pinterest and loved the idea. I took the inspiration from this chalkboard placemat and traced plates, drew out flatware, and hand lettered guests’ names.

This worked SO well since we do a potluck style dinner with all the food on the kitchen island. Last year we had guests pick up their plates from the table to take through the buffet, but it was so much simpler to have them stacked with the food. Oh, and did I mention that kraft mailing paper is like $3 from Walmart? Yeah, you can’t get a table cloth and name cards for that! And since it’s the most popular question ever… I used a Tombow Brush Pen (this one exactly, and the skinny side for the illustrations).

I free handed these place settings in a hurry. I love having the skill of brush lettering in my back pocket for place settings! I truly feel like it’s such a valuable skill just as much as it’s an incredibly satisfying hobby. If you’d like to learn to brush letter (and why wouldn’t you!) I’d be so thrilled to have you join me in my e-course! Check out all the details RIGHT HERE.

Oct 08

Friendsgiving 2014: The start of a tradition (and some DIY)

Oct 08

I know what you’re thinking, ‘well she’s ridiculously early’. But really, I’m just Canadian (not crazy). Our Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend and while celebrating on the day is great, I’ll be doing that with my family, and so will all of my friends. Plus this weekend’s a bit busy with it being my birthday and all (and three dinner parties back to back would be a bit much, even for me). So we celebrated Friendsgiving a bit early this year and it was such a treat.

Let’s back up. Last year, I saw this post about their friendsgiving tradition from A Beautiful Mess and although it was more than a month late for this Canadian girl, I’ve held onto the idea until this year. There’s something so GOOD in the whole concept of ‘Friends-giving’. Celebrating what we are thankful for with friends… who we’re thankful for. Plus, the older I get, the harder it is to get together with friends. Remember when you were together with your friends every Friday/Saturday? Then things change, you get married, you have kids, you buy a house and spend every waking minute renovating… okay, maybe it’s just me on that last one, but life gets in the way! So we’ve started to take advantage of occasions (or any excuse, really *ahem, Big Brother*) to get together with friends.

Sep 24

Organic Modern Thanksgiving Tablescape

Sep 24

You guys! This is one of my favourite posts to do each year. Since I started blogging we also started a Friendsgiving tradition that we did every year until last year (when I was 30+ weeks pregnant and mid bathroom renovation!). This year- I’m excited to get back at it! This month for the Modern Handmade Home series, we partnered with Kitchen Stuff Plus again to share Thanksgiving entertaining designs so it was the perfect opportunity to get it set up and photographed a little early for you!

I always love trying something new with my tablescapes and this time around that means pink!? I know that’s not usual for my neutral black and white loving self- but I can’t get over how beautifully it works with the dark autumn foliage. It’s such a lovely twist on typical fall colours. Ready to see the details?

May 22

Lilacs & Linen Spring Outdoor Tablescape

May 22

It’s finally warm enough to break in the deck for outdoor dinners- and actually, every single meal that we eat. Usually this means we bring out whatever dish we served up dinner on but when we’re hosting, I like to dress it up a little bit. So when Wayfair Canada challenged some bloggers to show off their ‘Al Fresco at Last’ spring tables- I jumped on it. Today I’m sharing what that looks like for us (spoiler- it’s pretty low key!) and a first peek at our deck this spring! We have a little more work to do out here then I’ll be sharing a full reveal of the space that we spend most of our hours in the warm weather.

My jumping off point for this table was the lilacs. Our backyard has a few giant lilac bushes, so we have a never ending supply in the spring. I cut some larger branches and put them in one of my favourite vases.Continue Reading…

Search Results for: friendsgiving

Chalkboard Autumn Tablescape (Friendsgiving!)

Neutral Autumn Tablescape for Friendsgiving

Friendsgiving 2015: Casual and Organic

Friendsgiving 2014: The start of a tradition (and some DIY)

Organic Modern Thanksgiving Tablescape

Lilacs & Linen Spring Outdoor Tablescape

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