Setting the Table {For Resurrection Sunday}

In October, I suggested that one of the ways to "Make a House a Home" is to set a pretty table...to make your holiday table, or even your everyday table, an inviting place to be. 

It really doesn't have to be difficult. 

It doesn't have to be costly. 

It just requires a bit of thought, a bit of pre-planning (sometimes), and a bit of creativity. 

I'm going to tell you how we created our tables for Resurrection Sunday. 

It started on Wednesday afternoon when I wondered aloud whether we had any pretty napkins that we could use on our holiday table.  Bekah went to the napkin/table linen cabinet (yes, we have such a thing because I created a home for the things I love), and pulled out a few choices.  The only ones of which we had a sufficient quantity were some very inexpensive light blue paper napkins that I had purchased at Walmart. 

The 97-cent package of napkins became our jumping off point. 

Kati had wanted to use some natural dyes to color eggs this year, so we decided to dye all of the eggs blue and use them as our centerpieces.  We followed the directions in an article about using natural dyes that I had clipped from an old Country Home magazine.  To make the blue ones, we used red cabbage.  (Boil water; add chunks of red cabbage and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.  Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.  Take out the cabbage, then let eggs soak in the solution until they reach the desired color intensity.) 

We put some of the eggs in my vintage egg basket, and some in a reproduction "scrapple pan", lined with shredded paper "grass". 

I wanted to add some more blue to the tables, so we brainstormed.  Should we use the tan tablecloths and layer a blue fabric square under the centerpieces?  Should we use white linen runners and rely on the napkins to provide the blue?  How about using some blue fabric that we had in our stash and pinking it or ripping it into table runners? 

We decided to rip the fabric and make some informal runners, continuing the rustic feel that was beginning to evolve. 

I had moved the reproduction postcards onto the dining room mantle...

... so I decided to find (by doing a google image search) a vintage postcard that had blue eggs in a nest to use as place cards.  I used my word processor to superimpose an oval for the name, and printed them out on beige card stock. 

I put my pewter candlesticks with creamy white candles on either side of the centerpiece, but Kati said that they were too "straight-laced" (didn't fit our rustic look), so she placed dried herbs and tealights in glass holders (these were individual butter dishes sans lids). 

The kids' table was a replica of the adult table, except that they drank from plastic cups with their names written on them (with blue Sharpies, of course), so that they could find their cups the rest of the day. 

And there you have it.  A simple but festive holiday table, created with cheap napkins and things that we had around the house! 

What do you have around your house that you can use for setting a festive table?