Wow, it has been a while since we have had company here for dinner, partly because other people have been entertaining us (yay!) This weekend we welcomed our friends Mark and Flora and got back into business. My thoughts turned to the shibori indigo cloth I made last summer...blue and yellow...just the right colors for this fabulous island summer weather. Last year the cloth was having trouble giving up the wrinkles the shibori process gave it and it is still hard to iron, but a couple of washes have helped it relax a bit. I put it on the table with some possible dish choices 
and thought, "oh yeah, now I remember." Last year I used daisies as a centerpiece and although the colors and the feeling were right, the table failed to sing. Now here I was assembling the same stuff again. What could I do to make it more compelling? The glassware seemed especially dull, so I pulled out everything I have and when I got to the green ones I used last Thanksgiving, I felt a spark. Add green. I went outside and cut some salal from the woods (dark leathery green leaves that hold for days without water) and put them with butter yellow roses, yellow candles, blue glass floats and greenish glass cruets, interwoven with blue and green ribbon and anchored by a true blue bottle I found lurking in the back of the cupboard. The table became much more engaging than its first iteration, with colors that mirrored the sun splashed water and evergreens outside.
The stuff fell naturally into an asymetrical arrangement and I didn't argue with that. I did have quite a tussle with the photography, which makes me think I need some help in that department, but once our friends arrived those worries receded and we had a very pleasant evening. The table setting did its duty and only now in the aftermath am I revisiting what I need to do to improve my work.