I understood Canadian Thanksgiving was coming up. I really did. There are pumpkins in the stores, turkeys in supermarket coolers and every time I look at a Pinterest board there's something made out of straw and burlap staring back at me.
Also, it's right there on the calendar. The problem is I didn't check the calendar. I just sort of based my knowledge of "thanksgiving is coming up" on the general idea that I feel stupid wearing shorts and flip flops into the grocery store, so it must be coming up soon.
What I didn't realize was it was coming up this weekend. I need to shove some bread crumbs up a turkey's ass and QUICK. I'm not really sure why we have turkey for Thanksgiving. I've never met anyone who really loves turkey. It's almost always dry, doesn't have a lot of flavour and takes all day to cook. It's like the fruitcake of the meat world.
But surround it with cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and an embarrassing amount of farting and waddling and there you have it. The annual Thanksgiving dinner.
Since I am the one who hosts my family's Thanksgiving dinner every year I need to get going on it. S.T.A.T.! (Start Thanksgiving Activities Todayish.)
The table is set. I have that much going for me. Well that and naturally curly hair. Huh. Now that I think of it, that's actually Frieda, the least popular character from the Charlie Brown cartoons.
This year I went with a rustic, dark, moody feeling. Warm and cozy. Like an autumn Thanksgiving should be.
The table has a rough burlap runner down the centre with a piece of hardwood on top of that. When dinner is served, the arrangement will get removed and all the dishes of food can go right on the board.
There's even more layering with cutting boards on top of the wood board. This one is my favourite from Cattails.
One of the things I'm most excited about is the fact that all of the food served will have been harvested from my garden. Everything. (aside from the poor Turkey) I'm serving a classic Thanksgiving dinner with side dishes that are slightly elevated. Just a little bit. For fun. Elevated as in "churched up". Not elevated as in levitating.
Ground cherries will be scattered on the table.
And there will be bowls and jars of my kosher dill pickles which turned out DELICIOUS. I've eaten 3 jars already myself. Which is all kinds of wrong but all kinds of right.
I'm expecting the black sea salt to be a hit. Mainly because it looks so good on the table. Weird little things like using black salt in a black dish are what bring the whole moody table together.
So if you're wondering about how to do your Thanksgiving table (either this weekend or next month) pick some sort of theme. It could be something as literal as classic American Thanksgiving, a crisp black and white theme, or something a bit more esoteric like a mood. If you aren't feeling all that imaginative, just open a magazine or look at a blog and copy it. That'll take all the guess work out and make it way easier. Which leaves more time for making more stuffing. You can never have enough stuffing. Ever.
Of course, if there are those out there who are frightened of black salt, there will also be white.
The dishes are round matte black dinner plates that I found at my local thrift store. I got the whole set including lunch plates and bowls for $9.
The salt dishes were on clearance at The Keeping Room, I bought the vintage cutlery (that I've been LOOKING FOR for ages) from a local reader! Thanks Cornelia!
Betty made the napkins, and half of the flowers in the arrangement are from my community garden plot. I planted the Amaranths in the spring specifically to use in my Thanksgiving arrangement. Normally I'd *think* about doing that and then promptly forget all about it. For some reason, I didn't. I suspect I forgot something much more important.
Well, like when Thanksgiving is, for instance.
This is one of two tables that will be set. The other one will be one room over, in my front hall, so the 12 or so people (it's up to 15 now) can fit comfortably. Plus the foyer is the perfect spot to sit people I don't really like. I'll tell them they're in the foyer because it's away from the mess of the kitchen and because they're my favourites I wanted to seat them there.
For your table to have an actual harvest feel, put food on it! Don't just put out pretty decorations and arrangements. And like I said, once the dinner is served the big arrangement in the centre will be moved away, and the food will make its way in on old, rustic stoneware and enamel platters.
The total cost of the arrangement was $27 for the ornamental cabbages and miniature red snapdragons. The lime green trailing flowers and the tall burgundy flowers are from my garden.
Every year I do this and every year it's the same. I think I can keep it together. I think that things will go smoothly. It will be a restful, warm and inviting Thanksgiving with my family close. We'll all enjoy the food, the kitchen will not become a disaster and the night will end with us crowding around the fireplace singing Frank Sinatra.
Instead, someone's fingernails will catch on fire, one of the kids will barf, my mother will forget her camera, everyone will get a stain on their shirt and the night will end not with song, but with us measuring the size of each others heads.
Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians. I have my fingers crossed that your Thanksgiving will NOT be like the pleasant, fancifully perfect, imaginary version of mine.
Because the real thing is way more fun.
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Darlene Cox
First of all YEA!!! It is Thursday so we get a posting!!!!
Secondly - I adore your dead tree on the wall!!! I have to borrow that idea from you
How did you attach/hang from the wall?
IRS
The centerpiece is gorgeous. I would leave it on the table the whole night, not just because it's lovely, but because it's huge, and in my family, anything that blocks our view of each other also serves to cut down on petty arguments. As does lubrication with plenty of wine. Which I don't recall you mentioning. Will you be serving libations? Or perhaps your family is better behaved than mine.
Karen
Wine and beer. Maybe a martini for my uncle. We're not huge drinkers. Frankly the huge drinkers have died. Hence the rest of us not being huge drinkers, lol. ~ karen
Melissa
Happy Thanksgiving!
mimiindublin
Is it not still summer????
I (0bviously) can't get my head round autumn at all, but I loooove your sheepskins on the benches, cool!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Karen!
Karen
Thanks Mimi!~ karen
LeeAnn
Beautiful. I love the black plates and black salt. I've just bought a black linen runner for our old wooden table. Think I'm going to get some matching serviettes made. The large painting in your pics is stunning from what I can see. Any chance you could post a picture so I can see the whole painting? I'm an artist and paint portraits in chiaroscuro style. Love to see :) Happy thanksgiving and don't stress.
Karen
Hi LeeAnn. You can read a tiny bit about how I got the painting and see a slightly larger version of it I think, here. ~ karen!
Cathy Reeves
1. Gotta mention the (old) kitchen floor--it's the best example of "truck stop tile " that lives in virtually every Florida home we have looked at. At least the ones in our modest soon to be retired price range. Pure horror.
2. What is the history of Thanksgiving in Canada?
3. Have you used the chicken towels?
Ev Wilcox
Centerpiece is very nice, black tableware (and salt!) is also very nice. Think it is wonderful that you grew your own Thanksgiving! Love the plank on the table idea for hot dishes and am going to propose this to husband! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Karen. Miss the daily posts. Just sayin'....
tajicat
Beautiful! Love the center piece, wonderful that you can add so much from your garden(s) for the celebration. I hope everyone appreciates the work you put in. Happy Turkey Day! :)
http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving/
Penley
Looks wonderful! Particularly love the flower/greenery arrangement in the middle. It's always strange following internet-land at the change of seasons - we're going full boar into spring here in Queensland (and up here in the sub tropics spring lasted about three days and it's now officially summer) so it's difficult to imagine you northern hemisphere people gearing up for the winter. You're thinking pumpkins and turkey and we're thinking BBQ's and mango salads. Makes for fantastic diversity!
Karen
That is funny! I think about that all the time because a lot of my readers for whatever reason are from Australia and New Zealand! So it's always opposite of what I'm talking about, lol. Except when I'm talking about washing machine motors. It always seems to be washing machine motor season no matter where you live. ~ karen!
Daphne
Stunning tablescape!! Also ,love the dried brush/bush/weed whatever it is,diy or purchased ?
amyfaith
Ok, funny amaranth story: tonight (seriously, just a few hours ago), my son gets on my computer and says to close my eyes 'cause he wants to show me something. He tells me that he wants to show me the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Now, this is a 14 year old boy, and so his interests and humor tend toward either crude, or very crude. I was, of course, certain that he was trolling me, and fully expected to see something totally rude and/or gross. Instead, I opened my eyes to image upon image of amaranth in full vibrant flower.
He tells me that he and Nathan (another 14 yo boy!) were discussing today just how lovely amaranth is and perhaps they should try to grow it next spring.
Wha?? It was as if I got transported to some bizarro land where up is down and left is right.
And Karen? Your table AND your ability to get things done are, as always, an inspiration. Happy Thanksgiving.
Karen
LOL! Well they're always surprising aren't they, lol. Amaranth is easy to grow and there are a few different varieties. Tell them to do it! ~ karen
amanda
the first year after moving out of my parents house, I was so very proud of myself for remembering Thanksgiving, and buying everything necessary to host a proper dinner...and then on Christmas Eve the bf and I realized there was nothing in our fridge but beer and milk. Christmas dinner that year was a grilled cheese sandwich and too many margaritas...but hey, it makes for a fun story now.
tracy
Btw- that painting is a fabulous focal point in the room and takes this look to a whole other level! Heirloom or a fabulous find somewhere?
Karen
The great big portrait you mean? That's Margaret. :) You can read about how I got her here in this post on my house. ~ karen!
tracy
Love, love it! So unique, so rustic and harvest like! This aesthetic is so you and a refreshing departure from the typical pumpkin and dried leaf table decor we're all so use to seeing this time of year. Kudos!
Grammy
Happy Thanksgiving. Your family is more entertaining than mine, because I don't know them. You'd probably think my family is a laugh riot. C'est la vie.
Elizabeth
I timed it right this year. I am in the States fir Canadian Thanksgiving, and with luck, will be in Canada for US Thanksgiving.
mia pratt
Your Thanksgiving table is marvelous, an absolutely perfect combination of rustic and contemporary. Wow, I'm taking notes on ideas for setting mine this year (American Thanksgiving in Mexico). I just can't get in the mood for a Mexican Thanksgiving, so I'm going to stick with one that reminds me of the good old days with family in the US, with a few local substitutions. Thanks for the inspiration<:}
Susan
PS...you lost me at the ground cherries, an icky memory from my kidhood, my Dad loved ground cherry/apple pie. Which I would make, and hated. My apple pie on the other hand, is fantastic. Even won a local pie baking contest..won me an apple shaped cutting board! Came in second the next year, lost to a stay at home Dad. I never entered again, couldn't take the rejection...
Love the black salt, and dishes.
Susan
What's that tree thing on the wall?
Love it...I need one now!
Jan In Waterdown
I noticed that funky piece of wall art too! I'm guessing Karen saw this thing growing in her garden, yanked it up, shook off the dirt and plunked it on her wall!? It reminds me of the fab textile work done by local (Greensville) artist Lorraine Roy, whom I recently "discovered" on the Dundas studio tour. You can see her stuff on lroyart.com . . . it's lots of trees and roots and gorgeous colours . . . would love to own some! Have a yummy Thanksgiving everyone and a restful day afterwards!
Erika
Absolutely fabulous! Although your Clockwork Orange chairs creep me out a bit.
ruth
You table is wonderful! I like turkey.