I’m back in my crafty era!! I used to be really into arts and crafts when I was younger—drawing, scrapbooking, jewelry-making, etc.—but as I got older I just didn’t have the time or space for it anymore. I’m so excited to have been getting back into it the past couple of years. It started when I finally brought my sewing machine from Boise to Denver and my sister-in-law started a lil’ weekly winter sewing night. Now I have a lot more space since moving to get into DIYs, and I can’t get enough!

I knew the second I had room to have a real table that I wanted to make seasonal tablescapes, a la Sandra Lee. When I was really little my mom and I used to watch Food Network before I went to kindergarten, and Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee was one of my favorite shows. Not only did she cook a yummy meal, but she ended every episode by showing the extravagant tablescape she created to match the theme of the meal. Even as a five-year-old I knew I wanted that some day!!

I started the process by pinning a bunch of table inspiration on Pinterest. I wanted something really bright and colorful—particularly with a lot of orange because a) I love the color and b) I have shades of burnt orange elsewhere in my place. Unfortunately, I waited a little too long to start shopping for materials, so by the time I went out everything had already switched to Halloween! In early August! (I won’t make that mistake again—I already bought fabric for my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas tablescapes.)

I set a goal for myself to keep each tablescape within a $100 budget (and of course, I started a spreadsheet to track it). I thought $100 would be plenty, but it turns out it didn’t carry me as far as I thought it would. However, I intend to reuse a lot of things for future tablescapes, so it makes sense that the first one would be a bit more expensive.

I started the hunt with fabric for the placemats I planned to sew. I haven’t really shopped for fabric since JoAnn’s went under, so I had to do a little research first. Michael’s had basically nothing, but thankfully I don’t live that far from a Hobby Lobby—while their selection wasn’t quite as good as JoAnn’s, it wasn’t bad, either (though it is more expensive). Like I mentioned, I was envisioning something really bold and colorful for my design, but the fabric options didn’t really fit what I had in mind. I decided to settle on a pale yellow and beige gingham fabric, thinking I could add color elsewhere. The placemats cost $17 in fabric and took 5.5 hours to make, which is almost half as much time as it took me to make the first batch of placemats I ever made two Christmases ago.

I ended up making several more trips to Hobby Lobby, trying to bring my colorful vision to life… but kind of failing. I loved these sage green plates, which cost $37 for two sets of 4 (ate up a lot of my budget). I also got some fun candles and candle holders ($14). But then I realized… the colors were looking very muted. I went back for the striped rainbow fabric to make a runner ($8) but later decided it looked like a sad, washed-out nursery. I felt a bit discouraged at this point.

I forged on making the runner, which I freestyled and only took a few hours to make (stripes are a pain to line up). In true “me” fashion, at this point it was only two days before the big brunch I planned on hosting with my parents, brother and SIL, and aunt and her family. In a last-minute attempt to add some color I ordered some fake pink flowers on Amazon ($22) and bought burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby ($2) to make napkin rings out of an old paper towel roll (at 11pm the night before brunch, of course). I also used Dos Equis beer bottles and twine I already had to make the “vases” and threw around some fake leaves I had leftover from my Ren Faire costume, which helped the colors look less “baby.”

The real color came from the flowers I bought and that my SIL brought me! I don’t like centerpieces that are too tall, and the beer bottles turned out to be the perfect height. All-in-all, it wasn’t the tablescape I had originally envisioned but I LOVE how it turned out. I went slightly over-budget (spending a total of $107) but I plan to reuse the napkins for at least the Thanksgiving tablescape and the plates for Christmas.

The brunch was a huge hit, featuring a Bloody Mary bar, eggs, bacon, hash browns, cinnamon rolls, and fruit salad. YUM! I can’t wait to get started on my Halloween tablescape next—I better get on it considering it’s already halfway through September.

Miles of smiles,
Grace