These Are A Few of My Favourite Things
No doubt this first holiday during a time of social distancing was celebrated in many unique ways. If you were already missing family and friends then this past weekend really heightened that sense of distance and separation and emphasized how much the holidays are about spending time with the people you love. This weekend I was inspired by a challenge on Instagram that was about creating a table scape from 10 of your favourite pieces. Even though its just the two of us at home I wanted to set an Easter table anyway, so I decided to apply the concept of using 10 favourite pieces for a table setting rather than a table scape in the round so to speak. I knew I had a lot of pieces still in storage and I decided this would be a good time to dig them out.
We’ve been taking our self-isolation pretty seriously and so the last time we did a grocery run was almost two weeks ago - we weren’t even thinking about Easter at that time and so of course this weekend we weren’t really prepared with anything special for the holiday but decided we could happily do without and wait until after the Easter weekend to do another shopping trip. So while we didn’t have any chocolates or fresh flowers, we had flowering branches of forced quince from our yard, plenty of food and wine (even some bubbles) and a beautiful shoreline to walk in the gorgeous sunshine. Our Easter table would be a celebration of hope that we’d all get through this, safe and healthy.
On Easter morning I starting layering the table with some of my favourite treasures, many which haven’t been out of storage since we moved to Nova Scotia 8 years ago. The white dishware is vintage #EvaZeisal , Classic Century series that I collected piece by piece many years ago and more recently while antiquing in Yarmouth I found the Johnson Bros. fish plate series of the same design.
Eva Zeisel’s Class Century dinner ware, originally designed in 1952, Available at Crate & Barrel.
The Classic Century dinnerware series was originally designed by Eva Zeisel in 1952. Its design is simple earthy and elegant and as the name suggests, its classic mid century modern in style. The line is reproduced today in the UK of cream coloured earthenware and is available at Crate & Barrell. *not sponsored*. I fell in love with Eva Zeisel’s work about 15 years ago and started collected pieces on e-bay from this Classic Century series and others. Her work is featured in MOMA and is renown for being beautifully sculptural and functional.
The quince branches were brought inside exactly two weeks ago, my first time attempting to force them and the buds happened to bloom right in time for Easter, not planned but a wonderful co-incidence. There are few things I find more beautiful than flowering branches and since the blooms had just burst to life, these were a must for the table top.
The stem glasses were hand painted by a beloved Aunt who was like a second mother to us, my Dads sister, who passed away from cancer just over a year ago. I’ve had these glasses for ages, but its the first time I’ve used them. The potted fern is one we grew over the winter from a cutting 🙌 (we don’t have much luck growing anything here so this is truly a sign of hope!) the shells are gifts from beach walks which we treasure and …
….the birds nest was found in a second hand shop (never know what you’ll find in those places!!) as was the cutlery and the rattan napkin ring holders which I tied shells to for my visiting family so we can identify who’s is who’s. 🐚 The silver butter dish is another second hand find with best friends in Naples FL.
It’s not a ‘table scape in the round’ but I think my Insta friend Rela will appreciate the joy this table setting brought me on this isolating Easter Sunday, it was a bit of scavenger hunt! For every post tagged #relachallenge @ggdesignpartners @relagleasondesign Rela donated catered meals to frontline hospital workers - supporting a local restaurant and health care providers. Thank you Rela for inspiring me to set the table!
I hope this inspires everyone reading this to set a table with your own favourite things. My table came together without any pre-planning, this was completely spontaneous round-up of random things that bring me joy. Happy Easter to all! Stay Home, Stay Safe!
