Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  I hope your entire day is amazing, filled with lots of interaction with loved ones leading to many fond memories!

 

Today I wanted to share the funky napkin rings I 'made'.  Because I had made the whimsical place cards, I thought I needed to add another fun element to help balance the table, with all my traditional 1800's elements.  This napkins ring embellishment has all the stuff I love an antique crepe paper rosette, copper colored glitter, charming ribbon and an amazing old turkey graphic I found on Graphics Fairy, my go to place for amazing vintage art.  Thanks Karen!

I glued the rosettes to some silver plate napkin rings with hot glue knowing that after Thanksgiving dinner is over I can just peel them back off and use the rings again, as intended, or refurbish them with some new seasonal fu fu.

Here are some shots of my table, all ready for the big day.

 Below is a picture of the centerpiece, reusing some of the elements that have been on the dining room mantel for a few weeks.

It has been such a fun project to use my collections of antique aesthetic dishes (1880's) and my collection of aesthetic silver plate patterns for the first time.  Polishing the silver was even relaxing way to get ready for the big day.

Thanks for coming by to share my Thanksgiving table ... and now I better go and get some sleep so I can get that Turkey in the oven at 6:00 AM , we eat early at our house.

Patsy Doll Clothes and Thanksgiving Mantel

Yep, I visited with my friend LaVern yesterday, and she showed me some of her latest projects.  The two dolls to the right are Patsy dolls from the 1940's.  They are made of composition, which is basically fine saw dust mixed with glue, pressed into a mold and then painted with a heavy coat of enamel paint.  LaVern collects Patsys, they come in all sizes. These two are dressed in homemade doll dresses that she found in

her husband's mother's basement.  She thinks the clothing was probably made for a Patsy doll, and she showed me some of original clothing in her Patsy book, which I think pretty much proves the point.  Kind of fun!!

Besides the dolls' clothes, she also found some old children's clothing in the basement.  This doll dress is actually made from a forties era child's dress she found.  She took the dress apart, then traced a pattern from the parts.  Next she put them on a copier and reduced them in size to fit this doll.  Next she reassembled the dress for the doll.  What a great idea!  She has promised to take a before picture for me, if she does this again.  Oh, and the sweet red rhinestone button is from the button box that her in-laws collected into at their dry cleaning establishment. 

 

This Patsy is also compo but was a bit more spendy as she has actual eyes that open and close.  LaVern made her dress from another dress she found in the basement, but this one she made over to look like a dress in the book.  And what's the white mink headband/ear muffs?

Its to match the sweet white rabbit fur coat that LaVern made to match one she found in the book.  Sonja Henie was a popular Olympic Ice Skater in the early 30's and lots of dolls were styled after her, charming, eh?

 

And just for fun, I thought I would share her mantel, with her little celluloid dolls that she dresses for each holiday.  She has at least 20 of these. 

Aren't they just too fun?

 Thanks for coming along and sharing LaVern's great collection, as well as her amazing talents!  Hope all is going well with your holiday preparations, and that you have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Aesthetic Silver Flatware

 

 

Welcome, this is my Victorian Aesthetic pattern silver and silver plate flatware collection.  Patterns like these were made from 1875 until the turn of the century.  I have always found them to be very charming.  Like Aesthetic dishes, they are often asymmetrical in pattern, and use themes from nature, such as flowers, leaves, bees and birds.

Setting a table for just ten people this Thanksgiving allows me to use them for the first time. I will have to be a bit nontraditional, but I am hoping the resultant table will be fun.

Check back later to see my completed table, and thanks for dropping by to see my collection.