HOME: Spooptober Settings, Family Style
Happy Spooptober! It’s finally feeling like fall has settled in around here… And now, looking like it too? This is one of my favorite times of the year. Can you tell? I mean, to be fair, a lot of the spoopy decorations stay up year round, but they really feel right, right about now as the fog settles in and the leaves go all technicolor and then muted. It’s spoooooooooky season!
I’ve got our spooky table set with a mix of birthday presents, antiques, antlers, and heirlooms (and some items that are several of those) and the obligatory decorative gourds (these are volunteer plants from the garden, a perpetual gift from the friend who gave them to me in 2013 and which have popped up most years in various places around the yard), and the Raven ZZ plant that has more than doubled in size since I brought her home.
The fella’s mom sent us a new tablecloth (now, a different plaid than our everyday ones, that perfectly matches the dining room plaster) and the pumpkin runner for my birthday. My mom was finally able to visit back in August, and brought with her a bunch of china and glassware that was my Gram’s, my Nana’s (her grandmother) and Grandma Tena’s (my great-great grandmother), and these little whimsical landsknecht glasses.
The two handblown bubble glass goblets with little landsknecht transfer designs were from a very crotchety Austrian Lutheran farmer whose land my mom’s partner farmed for years in North Dakota. I watched his wife roll out a perfect pie crust on her kitchen table the one time I remember visiting them during one of my summers spent up there (although I have spent a fair amount of time on that farm, mostly exploring the old barn, and doing less fun things like picking rock?). The image on these glasses is from a costuming manual published in 1905 (Geschichte des Kostüms), so these are probably early to mid-century? Let me know in the comments if you know anything else about them!
The antlers are from a deer the fella got on land that used to be his grandparent’s farm (as is the euro mount above the dining room door, on a slab of walnut from his dad’s workshop…). Our everyday dishes, which you’ve probably seen a lot of if you’ve looked at any of the food and recipe posts here are Homer Laughlin Americana wheat transferware. They were K’s grandma’s dishes. He was helping out at his uncle’s shop, who used to resell some vintage pieces and do furniture refinishing… and said he liked them. “You like those? They’re yours!” I absolutely love them too. They go perfectly with the other mid-century mixed pieces I have thrifted over the years, and I love that we can weave our family tables and stories together like this, albeit with a warp of bits of whimsy- like a skeleton holding a parasol while riding an antler, with his spider familiar perched on his shoulder? Why not?
All Hallowed Halloween and Spooptober Post Roundup
BAKE: Spoopy Spice Samhain Funfetti Witch Cake
HOME: Spooptober Settings, Family Style
BAKE: Pumpkin Spice Caramel Cheesecake Brownies for Samhain (or any other day)