Setting a Unique Holiday Table

This year my family and I are celebrating by setting our holiday tables with handmade pieces. Both my own ceramics as well as a collection of other maker's work, found and foraged natural items and vintage peices I have collected over the years.

I have fallen in love with the beautiful irregularity and one of a kind nature that you can only find in things made by hand. And a table full of these gorgeous peices is exactly what I want to create for my gatherings. 

Our holiday tables will reflect this by focusing on individual pieces with a story and a timeless elegance. 

Hand-blown glassware filled with our favorite beverages, wonky Notary vases teaming with foraged leaves and branches, and the softest linen napkins that only get better with wear.

 

One of our families favorite traditions is to create a magical space for the kids. We always encourage the girls to sit with us during the meal, but immediately after they are finished they seem to need to get all those wiggles out. 

We set up another smaller table for them, and let them decorate it with leaves, dried flowers, snail shells, and anything else they find beautiful. The result is always whimsical and so sweet. 

The morning of thanksgiving the girls and I wake up and get dressed in our coziest, warmest pajamas, and wrap up in big coats and scarves and boots. We each grab a basket and a pocket knife and head out into our neighborhood to see what we can find. 

We are lucky enough to live on a dirt road, in a relatively unpopulated part of Portland, so foraging is pretty plentiful. 

We look for acorns, chestnuts and walnuts on the ground, and dried grasses, leaves and fallen or broken branches. 

My youngest is obsessed with beautiful rocks and empty snail shells, as well as any type of seed pod.

 Once the girls leave the dinner table they retreat to their magical little spread, complete with a teapot full of hot cocoa, and they set about arranging thier finds. It is a fun way for them to use thier imaginations and they look forward to this time every year. 

Wishing you and your loved ones a magical holiday season from my family and my Notary family. 

with love,

Sarah

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