Summer's Beach Table for Two

I live in Michigan...surrounded by water.  Our home is within a couple miles of two rivers and I'm about 35 miles from the big lake (Lake Michigan). The minute Debbie from Confessions of a Plate Addict notified me that I was the lucky winner of her giveaway of service for eight of Pfaltzgraff Lido Beach I knew I would do a tablescape at Lake Michigan.  Yup, that was the plan.

Fast forward a few weeks and I still hadn't loaded up the car and taken the 30 minute drive over to the lake to get this set up.  My friend Sharon and I planned to do this more than once but something always got in the way, a storm, my comfy chair, hoards of tourist at the lake shore, you get the picture.

Then this morning, when I was sitting at the dam after church enjoying some quiet time with my SIL I saw it.

Do you see it?  Nope I didn't photo shop this shot as you can certainly tell by its out of focus look, that maple tree on the far right is turning its beautiful autumn orange and red.  A quick call to Sharon and we were off to the river to try and do justice to these beautiful dishes here at home rather than heading to the big lake.

This is just a small portion of the dam in my little town, today was a sunny day with the fall poofy clouds just starting to show that they will be upon us soon. This part of the river was our backdrop.

 Soon the cat tails will open and fall will be underway.

We started to set the table up a little north of the dam where we could safely get in the water.  Actually we were at the launch for the canoes and kayaks and as we were setting things up a few people ported their kayaks right along side of us. This is certainly a modified version of what I had planned on doing to showcase my new dish stash.  I used a small cloth (wrinkles couldn't be ironed out at the river and I apologize for that) with just a baby blue placemat for a little color.

The silverware was a GW find for $18 for 45 pieces.  I love the nod to the shells of summer in the pattern.

 

A simple white napkin with a shell napkin ring from Pottery Barn completed the flatware.

All of this was to call attention to the shell pattern in the dishes.  We don't have an abundance of shells in the Great Lakes like those of you who live near the ocean so I tried to temper the setting with just a few shells.  There wasn't enough room to do a centerpiece so simple it was without one.

I picked up these beautiful shells a few years ago on a trip to Prince Edward Island, the little shell candles were a Home Goods find and for those who look closely that is sugar rather than sand filling the shells.  Our sandy beaches along Lake Michigan are beautiful but I wasn't going to fight the last of summer crowds to drive to the lake to get a couple of hand fulls of sand so sugar it is.

I used corks to fill the stemware rather than wine as we have open container laws and getting hauled off to jail on Sunday for having an open bottle of wine in the river didn't really appeal to me.  Try explaining the world of blogging to a burly sheriff that you were only using the wine as a prop for a tablescape.

I did however bring a bottle of  wine and set it beside the table in a silver bucket I picked up at GW or SA for a song.  Isn't the scolloped edge of the tablecloth beautiful?  I can't remember if I found the tablecloth at GW or at an estate sale.

So thank you so much Debbie for the opportunity to enjoy my new beach dishes and the last days of summer working up this setting.  I normally never set a table for the blog that we don't actually use, this however is the second tablescape that I've done without actually enjoying a meal at the table.  This one along with my Lemonade in the Snow table were just set for the enjoyment of the season.

Kim @ Wow Us Wednesday
Susan at Tablescape Thursday
Ann for Open House Thursday
 Courtney at Feathered Nest Friday
Cindy at Show and Tell Friday