How To Set a Formal Table

Written on November 20, 2009 at 11:07 am, by Guest Blogger

If you’re like us, the prospect of setting a formal dinner table adds a frightening new level of stress to holiday planning. Salad forks? Butter knives? Yikes! Our friend Christy of Beach Brights Blog is here to remove our anxiety and help us pretty up the tabletop in style. If your Thanksgiving soiree will be a formal affair, you’ll love Christy’s super-simple guide! — Team DIY

KEY

1. Bread and butter plate
2. Water glass
3. Red wine glass
4. White wine glass
5. Dessert wine or champagne glass
6. Dinner plate
7. Dessert spoon and fork
8. Salad fork
9. Dinner fork
10. Dinner knife
11. Soup spoon
12. Butter knife

Glassware

• Always serve water. The water glass should be set at 12 o’clock.
• Wine is usually poured before the course it is being served with.
• Red wine, white wine, and dessert wine glasses should form a triangle.

Soup or Salad

• If serving soup or salad, set a plate charger on the table and set the napkin on it. The soup bowl should be served on top of the charge

Flatware

• Knife blades always face inward.
• Forks and knives are always set together.
• If a spoon is set but no soup served, it is usually set for dishes with thin sauces.
• Coffee flatware is served with the coffee.

Napkin

• Once seated, unfold the napkin on your lap. If you leave the table mid-meal, set your napkin on your chair. When the meal is finished, place your napkin next to your plate.
• Napkin folding tutorials can be found here.

Basic Etiquette

• The host or hostess will be first to start eating.
• Food is always served to your left and cleared to your right.
• Beverages are always served to your right.
• When you are finished eating, the table should be cleared. Do not leave spoons in cups or small bowls. Also, leave your silverware on your plate parallel to each other in a diagonal position.
• Centerpieces should be low so that conversation and eye contact is not obstructed.
• Individual salt and pepper shakes are placed above the main-course fork or above dessert flatware.
• It is acceptable to use placemats without a tablecloth.

XOXO-BeachBrights

www.beachbrights.blogspot.com

DIY’s Thanksgiving Tabletop Tips – Take Two

Written on November 19, 2009 at 4:40 pm, by Team DIY

Yesterday, we featured fun and creative was to dress up your holiday dinner table without pawning the TV. Today, seven more fabulous tips for wow-ing your friends and fam!

Better Bowls. Cut the tops off of acorn and butternut squash and use a spoon to scoop out the pulpy insides and seeds. Fill them with finger-foodie apps, like gourmet olives.

Mighty Menu. Post your T-Day dinner menu so guests can appreciate what’s to come. Another bright idea: Have recipe cards printed, signed, and ready to go, especially for the most popular dishes. Send them home (along with a plate of leftovers) with your guests.

Personalized Pumpkins. Use inexpensive stencils and acrylic paint to paint on a monogram for each guest at the table. Set the finished pumpkins inside soup or salad bowls for a pretty presentation.

Buttered Up. Way cuter than plopping a boring brick of butter on the table. Soften up a stick of butter and gently press it under plastic wrap to flatten. Use cookie cutters dipped in hot water to cut the butter into fall shapes. Set the shapes onto a saucer and cover with plastic wrap until serving time.

Delish Doggie Bags. Rather than enduring two weeks of turkey sandwiches, send guests home with leftovers. Have pretty ribbon and tags ready to go, and wrap recyclable silverware into a napkin for a nice touch.
Lovely Leaves. It doesn’t get much simpler. Tuck a single leaf into the napkin on each place setting.
Branch Out. Twigs and branches that clutter your yard look perfectly elegant on the table. Use them to highlight gourds and candles for a fab fall centerpiece.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for step-by-step instructions and photos on how to set a formal dinner table and a buffet table!

DIY’s Thanksgiving Tabletop Tips

Written on November 18, 2009 at 1:34 pm, by Team DIY

There’s a fine balance between impressing the socks off of your friends and fam with your mad dinner-party decor skills…and having enough in your checking account to score some super Black Friday deals the day after. DIY to the rescue! Here are six simple and inexpensive ways to add drama to your dinner table on T-Day without sacrificing your wallet. Look for six more fun and frugal ideas tomorrow.

Think Outside the Gourd. Sure pumpkins are pretty, but we think you can do better. Find interesting shapes and colors in the produce aisle or farmer’s market. Garlic, nuts, pears with stems intact—even a pile of multicolored fingerling potatoes. Best of all, today’s centerpiece is tomorrow’s dinner menu.

Duly Noted. Tuck a personalized note into the napkin at each placesetting. Jot down a few reasons you’re thankful for that particular person or a memory of the two of you that makes you smile. It’ll keep them warm long after post-dinner hot toddies.

Bright Lights. Fill inexpensive glass candleholders or hurricanes with golden corn kernels from an ear of decorative corn. Find a pillar candle in the same color to set inside.

Berry Good. Use raffia to tie a stem of berries with a sprig of greenery. Add a handwritten note on parchment paper to indicate each guest’s place at the table. Look for bright colors that match your tableware. So festive!

Pumpkin Recycling. Jazz up pumpkins leftover from Halloween. Drill tiny holes through the pumpkin and tuck a mum into each hole until the pumpkin is covered in blooms.

Yard Sale. Pick up an inexpensive wreath frame from your local crafts store. The morning of your Thanksgiving soiree, head out to the backyard and collect flowers, pinecones, ornamental grasses, and other garden goodies to decorate the wreath. You can hang this one on the wall or your front door. Or, lay it on the dinner table for an impressive centerpiece.

Holiday Crafting Classes – DIY-Style!

Written on November 17, 2009 at 11:14 am, by Girl's Eye View (Bethany Kohoutek)

A quick preview for our Iowa-based friends. The staff at DIY mag will be teaching a holiday papercrafts class at one of our favorite design shops, Ephemera, on December 10! Won’t you join us for a night of craftin’, treats, and gift bags? Visit Ephemera’s site for all the deets (including classes taught by fabulous, nationally recognized designers) and to register.

Here are just a couple of the ideas we’re working on for the class. Also on the docket: a supercool papercrafted bracelet!

For those of you who reside elsewhere, there are sure to be classes, courses, and craft fairs near you! Check Indie Craft Shows for a searchable directory. If you know of a holiday craft extravaganza near you, comment on this post and let other readers know.

Make It Monday: Page-Turner Art

Written on November 16, 2009 at 6:05 am, by Art Actually

No worries. I didn’t cut up my collector’s edition of Lord of the Rings. But that book I bought in haste at the airport five years ago? Not the page-turner I’d hoped for, so I turned it into art.

Hated a book? Hang onto it. Tear out a few pages, set aside. Better you destroy it than let someone else read it.
Plexiglas. Way more affordable than buying picture frames. I found five pre-cut Plexiglas pieces at the hardware store (8 x 10 inches). Or, you could buy a larger sheet of Plexi, measure equal sections to your desired size, score repeatedly with a utility knife, and snap.
Magnets. Get those tiny round ones in a package, found at the crafts store. You’ll want 36 small magnets for five Plexiglas sheets. See layering instructions below.

Make layers. (See diagram below for layering.) Position four magnets in the four corners on top of the first sheet of Plexi; adhere with tiny dots of strong adhesive glue (or glue that dries clear). Place four more magnets on top each of those. Add a dot of glue only to the tops of these.
Layer another Plexi sheet on top of the double-stacked magnets, making sure the sheet is perfectly matched and adhered in position to the sheet below. Add four dots of glue in the corners on top of this second Plexi layer, then add magnets. Stack another layer of magnets, add glue dots to the tops, layer Plexi. Repeat until you have the desired thickness/layers. The more layers, the more dimension your art will take on. Along with book pages, I used scraps of colored vellum, printed acetate, and photographs to layer in between the Plexi.

TIP: Using a black fine-point Sharpie, number the layers, top to bottom. A small number in a corner won’t be noticeable. If the layers get mixed up, some of the magnets will actually repell each other and not lay properly.

Total? Less than $20. Plexiglas: $12. Magnets: $3. Glue: $2. Picture hanger: $2 (adhere to the back of the bottom Plexi sheet with glue).

Photos: Marty Baldwin. Projects: Katie Leporte.

Whip up an apron this weekend

Written on November 13, 2009 at 1:51 pm, by DIY on the Fly (Beth Eslinger)

Here’s a quick gift idea for the DIYers on your list: A utility apron embellished with fabric tool silhouettes.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Premade apron (this one’s from Restoration Hardware)
• Fabric scraps
• Fusible webbing
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Random tools to trace around

T0tal project time:

• 1 hour (sans shopping)

Get going!

Pick through your scrap fabrics, 0r if you need to buy, try quilting quarters from the fabric store (super affordable). Press iron-on fusible bond, also from the fabric store, to the fabric back. Trace shapes of scissors, cell phones, or tools to the fusible bond side. Cut out the shapes, iron onto your apron, then zigzag stitch to finish the edges. Topstitch decorative ribbon onto the apron just for fun.

Intern Emily: Affordable Chair Makeover

Written on November 12, 2009 at 3:16 pm, by Intern Emily

Finding affordable furniture can be a challenge—especially on an intern’s budget. So when it came time to furnish my brand-new abode, I started to hit up local thrift stores—every college student’s one-stop-shop for apartment furniture. But I began to realize anything in my price range came with either a questionable stain and strange smell, or a super-psychedelic print that was just a little too groovy for my liking.

Frustrated, I drove down to the next best place college students go to shop on the cheap: Mom and Dad’s. My mom is as serious a decorating nut as I am. I figured she was sure to have something in her collection that would work. Mommy dearest definitely pulled through for me.

These armless chairs used to sit in our living room. When we got new furniture, my mom hauled them up to our three-season cabin at the lake, where they sat on our back porch. When it came close to closing up for winter, instead of hauling them home, she helped me pile them into the backseat of my car. It was a pretty tight fit!

Structurally, the chairs are in perfect condition. Aesthetically, they didn’t quite suite my taste. They’re nice, but they didn’t work with the look I was going for. A little too hunter green, maybe? Not to mention the spattering of tiny holes left in the upholstery after our cats used the chairs as scratching posts.

Our solution: simple slipcovers. Slipcovers are great. Whenever you need to, you can take them off and throw them in the wash. If you ever get tired of your décor, sew a new one using your old cover as a pattern. And that’s exactly what we did. Even though my mom and I aren’t great at sewing, we decided it was worth devoting an afternoon to try. The chairs’ simple, armless design made it easier than we thought.

So they’re not perfect, but for the cost of the entire project, they were totally worth it. Here’s the breakdown.

Two chairs: Free!
Ten yards of light blue and orange canvas fabric: $60 (I have tons left over, so I’m planning to try to sew my own curtains).
Labor: A fun afternoon with my mom.

Two brand new-ish chairs for 30 bucks each! Can you beat that? Share some furniture makeovers you’ve tried to tackle! Comment below, or upload a photo on DIY’s page on Facebook.

DIY Book Club: This Green House

Written on November 11, 2009 at 3:44 pm, by Team DIY

These days, going green is the new black. Bookstores are full of how-to guides for making everything from your closet to your car to your cat litter more environmentally friendly. Team DIY’s new favorite go-green book is for the entire home.

This Green House by Joshua Piven offers “home improvements for the eco-smart, the thrifty, and the Do-It-Yourselfer.” Hey, that sounds like us! The book is broken up into funny and easy-to-read sections that cover every possible square foot of the home. Piven’s fun and affordable projects range from the simple—shaving using less water—to more advanced projects, such as how to install solar panels. There’s even a section for greening your roof. Our favorites? Building your own terra-cotta flowerpot grill and capturing and reusing rainwater for your yard or garden.Check out the author’s blog here.

Handmade Hostess Gifts

Written on November 10, 2009 at 10:29 am, by Girl's Eye View (Bethany Kohoutek)

This time of year, our calendars tend to fill with social obligations, from cookie exchanges to work functions to dinner parties with friends ‘n’ fam in town for the holidays. In addition to the requisite bottle of wine, I always like to thank the hostess with something special just for her. Candles are nice; so are bath salts or chocolates. But something handmade is even better. I’ve given up on the idea of making every hostess gift myself, so Etsy has become the next best thing, a natural go-to source for these thoughtful gifts. Here are some I’m loving today:

Clockwise, from top right: Mantis Napkin Rings from Bakerswife; Spools of Trimmings from Hooray Design; Rosa Necklace from Cardinal House; Gold Point Vessel from Up In The Air Somewhere; Cranberry Almond Soap from Cherry Blossom Co.; Autumn Leaves Garland from BeeLoveLee; Three Chairs Fine Art Photography Print from Lauri; Organic Lavender Sachets from Jewelweeds.

Sweet & Simple DIY Photo Frames

Written on November 9, 2009 at 3:24 pm, by Guest Blogger

Since you (and we!) loved the last post from Beach Brights Blog so much, we’re thrilled to feature Christy again this week with a fun and fast photo frame project. See more of her work here. Over and out! — Team DIY

Easy DIY Photo Frames

These frames cost only $1 each, and it took me less than 15 minutes to complete three of them! They’d look great hanging on the wall in a group, or resting on a table or mantel. there are lots of options for customization (you could paint the frames before adding paper to the front or glue on fun embellishments). Use your imagination and enjoy!
What you need:

• Unfinished wood frame
• Glue
• Scrapbook paper
• Sanding block
• Foam brush
• Brayer
• Craft fnife
• Rub-on words

1. Cut paper to fit frame with 1/4 to 1/2-inch overlap.

2. Evenly apply a coat of glue to the top of the wood frame with the foam brush.

3. Adhere paper, rolling brayer of the top to smooth out air bubbles. Let dry.

4. Sand away excess edges or paper using the sanding block.

5. Lay the frame flat, paper side down and cut out the middle using your craft knife. Sand these edges.

6. Apply rub-on words to frame (optional).

XOXO-BeachBrights

www.beachbrights.blogspot.com