This morning I pulled every white dish we own out of the cupboards and lined them up on the kitchen counter, and Lila came in, looked at the rows of plates and bowls, and asked if we were having a hundred people for Easter. We are having six. Ben's parents are driving over, plus a neighbor who has no family nearby. But I wanted to see what I had to work with before I let myself think about buying anything.
Easter is a week from today, and I have decided this year's table will be set entirely from what is already in the house and the yard. Here is what that looks like so far.
Start with the cupboard, not a picture
The mistake I used to make was starting with an image of a table I had seen somewhere and then shopping to match it. This year I started with an inventory instead.
What we actually have:
- Eight plain white dinner plates, a wedding gift that has survived a move and a toddler, mostly.
- A mismatched stack of salad plates, some white, a few with faded blue flowers from Ben's grandmother.
- Six cloth napkins in pale green, plus four in a yellow check.
- A long linen runner I bought at a church rummage sale years ago for two dollars.
- Assorted glass jars: jelly jars, a couple of old milk bottles, the tall jar our pickles came in.
Mismatched is fine on a spring table. The faded blue flowers will go at the ends, the white in the middle, and the napkins will alternate green and yellow so it looks deliberate.
Flowers from the yard
Late March in Orangeburg is generous. The azaleas along the side of the house are just opening, and there is a scraggly stand of daffodils by the shed that came with the house and blooms no matter how much we ignore it. The pecan trees are still bare, but a few branches of new green from the privet along the back fence look lovely in a jar.
My plan is several small arrangements down the runner instead of one large centerpiece. Low enough to see over, scattered enough that nobody has to move them to pass the potatoes. I will cut them Saturday evening, put them in the jars with cool water, and keep them on the back porch overnight.
A note on pollen
The pine pollen has started, so anything cut from the yard gets a quick swish in a bucket of water before it comes inside. Otherwise the white plates turn faintly yellow by dessert.
Small touches from the kitchen drawer
This is where Lila comes in. She turned seven this month and has firm opinions about decoration.
- Dyed eggs as place cards. We will dye a dozen on Friday with food coloring and vinegar. Each guest gets one at their place with their name written in white crayon before dyeing, so it shows through.
- Kitchen twine on the napkins. Rolled napkins tied with plain twine and a sprig of rosemary from the pot by the back steps.
- Candles we already have. Two tapers left over from Christmas in brass candlesticks that belonged to my grandmother, and some tea lights in the jelly jars.
Lila also wants to make paper bunnies to sit on each plate. I said yes before I thought it through, and now there will be paper bunnies of widely varying shapes and sizes. They will be the best part.
What I almost bought
I will confess I stood in front of a display of pastel plates at the store last week for longer than I would like to admit. They were pretty and they were on sale. I put them back, mostly because I could not think of where they would live the other fifty-one weeks of the year. Our kitchen cabinets are not large, and a 1958 ranch was not designed with seasonal dishware in mind.
What I did spend money on, so far: a dozen eggs and a small bottle of food coloring. That is the whole decorating budget.
Tonight I did a test run on the dining table after supper, with Lila as my assistant and Pepper supervising from under a chair. White plates, the old runner, napkins tied in twine, three jars of azaleas and one of daffodils that drooped almost immediately. We will cut fresher ones on Saturday.
It looked like spring. It looked a little homemade, too, which is what it is. Ben came through the kitchen, stopped, and said it looked like his grandmother's table, which I think was the highest compliment available to him. Then Lila set a paper bunny on his chair, and he was not allowed to sit down for the rest of the evening.
