I love lilacs! Their sweet, heady scent wafts through my Victorian cottage during the season, as the bushes are near my bedroom window and it is so refreshing after a long winter to open the window and let in the beautiful scent. It is so sad to see them go, but there is a way to remember them when the blooms fade-at a table setting!
Out of all the color combinations you can create with Fiestaware, my favorite is White, Lilac and Sea Mist Green. Since I used White for my May the 4th Be With You table setting, I used only Lilac and Sea Mist Green Fiesta (various places) at each place setting. Also, since we were still in stay-at-home orders, it was just Jamey and me so a setting for four was just fine, though he still thinks I’m off my rocker! The white table cloth and matching napkins are my “workhorse” linen-look hemstitched set by Mainstays (Walmart), bringing in that all-important white to the setting. I just don’t think this color combination would work well without the use of white somewhere! Great-Grandma Mayer’s Coronation silver plated flatware goes so perfect with Fiesta, and really sets off this particular color combination. (I recently added to the flatware set; a set of sugar tongs used in this setting, and the elusive soup ladle for use with a soup tureen, both found on eBay!) My everyday drinkware, Central Park by Anchor Hocking (Walmart), is for water. Silver plated bird salt and pepper shakers of unknown manufacture and a sterling silver set by National make an appearance on the table (both thrift store finds), and the centerpiece is simple-a pair of Fiesta round bulb candlestick holders in Sea Mist Green (I think Dillard’s in Helena, Montana), a Fiesta White Medium Vase (Betty Crocker) filled with beautiful lilacs from my garden, with the vase on top of a Fiesta Lilac salad plate (a shop in Bozeman, Montana, but I forget the name, it was a jewelry shop, though.).
On the Pepin Sideboard, the beverage service consists of Fiesta Lilac coffee server and a hostess set of a covered sugar and creamer on a figure-8 tray (eBay); Fiesta Sea Mist Green teapot (J. C. Penney), mini disc pitcher and tripod bouillon bowl (Dillard’s in Helena, Montana) on a Fiesta White figure-8 tray (Herberger’s); and a White Fiesta carafe for water (Herberger’s). My new Coronation sugar tongs are found in the bouillon bowl, and the matching sugar shell for Great-Grandma’s set is in the Lilac sugar bowl. Also on the Pepin Sideboard are a Fiesta Sea Mist Green bud vase (Dillard’s) filled with white lilacs from my garden, on a Fiesta Lilac saucer (that Bozeman jewelry store), and Skinny’s picture in a Fiesta picture frame in Sea Mist Green, a licensed product for the line made by The Weston Gallery, A Wilton Industries Company (Herberger’s).
On the menu was:
Chilled Avocado Soup
Simple Vegetable Salad with Green Goddess Dressing
Chicken Rice Casserole, Buttered Green Beans
Mixed Berries, lightly dressed with Grand Mariner, in shortcake cups and homemade whipped cream