My hard drive crashed, so I am fumbling about with Mike's laptop, trying to get my photo out of my camera and into this post. Looks successful so far.
I have been thinking about this blog and all of the pictures and talk I have expended on my tables, using my stuff. I hope it is interesting, but I know that it can only have a general relevance to anything that you might do, because the settings rely so much on my dishes and tablecloths, none of which you would have. My collection of plates, linens and decorative items is highly personal, as yours must be. I would like to encourage place-making at the table for all the reasons I have droned on about in post after post, but I realize that people are unlikely to acquire the variety of stuff that would make it easy for their tables to respond to the season and the occasion. Dishes are usually the element of the table that are most expensive and therefore least flexible. I thought it would be interesting to take a dish pattern not my own and see if I could use it in four seasonal settings.
For my first project I borrowed a saucer from my sister-in-law, Lynne. She likes to use her Royal Doulton (Princeton pattern) dishes when she sets the table for guests. It is very high quality, pretty china with navy blue banding, restrained gray blue ornamentation, and gold accent bands. It is much more formal than most of my dishes, and quite traditional. It will be fun to see what I can come up with.