Last week I was invited to participate
in a Gatehouse No1's
Christmas Open House
and do a tablescaping demonstration.
Evan's Gatehouse No1 is
a high end furniture store that
has a fabulous selection of Christmas decor.
Their Christmas Open House was a
week long celebration with classes
and demonstrations every day covering
decorating wreaths, decorating a Christmas
tree, creating a Christmas mantle and
overall holiday decorations.
One of the
teachers that I just adored,
Joey, has the honor to
decorate the Governor's
Mansion for Christmas
and I can see why. She was
amazing.
I was allowed to go throughout the store
and pick anything I wanted
to decorate my table.
After seeing all of
their wonderful items
I decided I had to create
two tables,
one for children and one for
the adults.
I fell in love with these
Mark Roberts Christmas Fairies
and wanted to make them the focus
of my centerpiece for the
children's table.
They were just enchanting and since
I had no budget, I could choose as many as
I wanted. Oh to be able to decorate like this!
The Mark Roberts Christmas Fairy Collectibles
are one of their best sellers during the holidays.
(They sold me on one!!!)
You know me, I love fairies so this table
was just magical for me.
Gatehouse No1 doesn't sell plates, flatware, goblets
and other tablesetting items so I needed to
bring my own. I decided on my fun
candy cane plates and bowls
for the children's table.
They had wonderful pieces that matched mine like
this fabulous cookie jar or canister.
They also sell this cute bowl
that looks like a piece of candy and
the polka dot cake pedestal.
Since they specialize in trees, I asked them
to create a Christmas tree for part of my
centerpiece. I love how it turned out. The store
is just stuffed with all of the items you need to
create any style of tree like this.
I taught them about making your own napkins
and runners using a serger. I layered an organza
napkin over a red cotton napkin and topped it off
with a jingle bell napkin ring and candy canes.
There is nothing more magical for a children's
table than candy on the table.
(This runner sells at Gatehouse No1.)
I taught them about
layering and stacking your dishes
and about mixing and matching and
gave them ideas for great sources
for reasonably priced tablesetting items.
And I stressed how fun it is to keep
your table set during the Christmas season
to make it a centerpiece of your holiday decor
and to showcase your beautiful pieces.
They invited Miss Utah County,
my good friend Hannah Harkness,
to the event and also her Little Miss Utah County,
my granddaughter, but I will show her
in next week's post
when I show you the adult tablescape.
(To get instructions to make my
apron click here!)
Of course Hannah had a lot of fun
at the event as she hosted
and greeted everyone
at the door and entered them in
the giveaways. She also
introduced me to the crowd. She is
just wonderful!
So I had to showcase her in a few of my photos!
I was honored to be a part of their
fabulous Christmas Open House
celebration.
My favorite parts of the evening were
1. My son who came with his family and teased
me and said, "What are you going to say? Here's
a plate and then here's another plate?" I said,
"Oh, honey, you don't know anything about this
kind of stuff!" Afterwards he said I had done a
great job and that he had really enjoyed it.
2. My granddaughters (the above son's children)
who came through the door with their eyes
big as saucers and one said, "Grandma, why are
you all dressed up like this?" I replied, "I am
Mrs. Claus tonight." Then she said, "Why are
they having this big party?" And I wisely
responded, "To get you excited about
Christmas!!"
3. My hubby who carried 3 huge boxes of my
tablescaping items who came home from the
event and said, "Let's get started decorating
for Christmas. I want to bring the giant
nutcrackers upstairs tonight!" I loved that
the magic of the event had worked on him but
I made him wait (at least a week!!!)
4. Meeting followers of my blog there and
making new blog friends. Two Christmases
ago hubby had made me business cards with
my blog on it so that when people ask I can
hand them out so it was a lot of fun making
new friends at the event.
5. My daughter chose the
cookie jar and cake pedestal
for her birthday presents to go
with her set of candy cane dishes.
6. And of course having friends and family
there to support me too.
Next week I will show you the second
tablescape I created.
A big thank you to
Gatehouse No1 for inviting me
to participate in their
Christmas Open House.
I will be posting with
Sources
Candy cane dishes and bowls - Wal Mart
(a couple of year ago)
Red ruffled chargers - Wal Mart
(a couple of years ago)
Green flatware - Tuesday Morning
Red flatware - Home Goods
Red goblets - Costco (many years ago)
Napkin rings - Home Goods
Placemats - Tuesday Morning
Bubble goblets - Tai Pan
