Using What You Have

It is so easy to overlook and forget about things you have put away in cupboards. The other day I decided to work from home, catching up on paperwork and such. It was also a beautiful day out on the island, so I thought I would make us a dinner that we could dine on outside. Only challenge, Ted had taken the car and rode it onto the ferry, to work in Seattle for the day. Gone was my possibility to go out and get flowers for the table, as well as any extra goodies. I would make do, and use what we had at the house. I love a design challenge.

We had stopped by the grocery store as well as a few of our favorite organic farm stands the night before, so I knew we were well stocked for the meal. I would take some of that stellar produce and make it part of the table setting. The heirloom tomatoes are like works of art, so I placed a few on the table. The nectarines were this intense red and yellow. Perfect. A color story was under way. We had just brought new napkins from the shop that have apples on them. Check. Well, really they are dish towels, but I love using them as napkins–I find many napkins to be small, so the oversized dish towel works like a charm.

The red apple John Derian plates pull the whole look together. In the way, way back of the cupboard were 4 red glass votive holders I had completely forgotten about. We had also served French lemonade awhile back to guests, and I had saved the bottles because I liked the shape, and thought they would make great single stem containers. I cut a few scented geranium stems from the pots lining the outdoor shower, and placed them in the bottles. Added bonus, the stopper on the bottle had a red lining. Even better. Another hit of red. No detail goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

And lastly, our obsession with those jam jars, which you might remember from an earlier post, has once again paid off. The tiny tomatoes worked so great in those jars. We were all set for a lovely late Summer meal on the deck.