Hello, beautiful friends! I hope you all had the best holiday weekend and are slowly easing your way into this four day work week. If you were following my stories this weekend, you probably saw that my house was (and still is) a complete mess as I prepare for my living room to be painted. As grateful as I am to bring fresh paint to this room, who knew emptying this room would be so much trouble! Because of the needed prep, literally everything had to be removed, not covered, in just a few days and shoved, for a lack of better words, into other rooms. I am keeping my eyes on the prize of the weekend AKA when the room will (hopefully) be done.
In happier news, I am so excited to be sharing this fun group Galentine’s/Valentine’s Day tablescape for six. Honestly y’all, my love of setting a table is even apparent around the holidays. I find that setting the table works as my “holiday” decor more than decorating my entire house for any holiday. I went a little overboard with the pink on pink on pink but overall, love this table so much and feels like this one is my new favorite beating out this Spring table from Austin. Let’s get into it!
Let’s address the most fun elephant here: paper hearts! I have been holding onto these note for tables but actually for handwritten notes. I absolutely love sitting down and writing a letter to friends and love to add a little something “special” and that’s where these hearts come along. The hearts and of course, small gift cards to Jeni’s or a local coffee shop or a favorite drive-thru restaurant. Add these hearts, or another fun paper glitter (which is easier to clean up compared to regular glitter) and a gift card to your hand written note and you will truly brighten your friends day for a few bucks and a little bit of time.
So many of these other pink items, like the scallop placemats and scallop napkins, have been in my drawer for forever waiting to be used. I also thrifted these Churchill plates about two years ago and even those they are not perfectly pink, they are a mix of dark pink and red, which was perfect for this table. I have these same Churchill plates in blue, of course, but now feel like I need a full set in this color way. These taper candle holders were also thrifted in 2020 or so when I was still living in Raleigh at the same time I actually purchased a large lot of the blue Churchill plates from a vintage dealer right outside the city. I’m so grateful for my ever-growing Estelle Colored Glasses collection that allows me to have three different shades of pink glasses in three different styles 😆 and a matching decanter that I picked up during the annual birthday sale in October #CantStopWontStop. The head of the table plates are probably one of my best thrift finds from my time living in Charleston where I snagged them for $1.50 each and now see them selling for upwards of $80 per plate – a true steal!
Finishing off with some cute hugs and kisses xoxo gummy candy from Trader Joe’s and a few “new” items like the boopie glasses and taper candles that I thrifted off FBMP. A few of my forever favorites include this textured white tablecloth from TJ Max, gold silverware from forever ago and vases I picked up locally from an interior designer. And just like that y’all, the table was set for a group Valentine’s Day meal. Since I don’t cook, what I like to serve when hosting several people for an actual meal is pasta. I select my favorite local Italian or pasta restaurant and a place a family style meal order that usually includes a main dish of pasta or chicken parmesan, family size salad, bread and (sometimes) dessert. By catering, I can focus on prepping small bites for when people arrive and cocktail options. This also allows me to have a clean kitchen that I don’t have to worry about people crowing because there’s not a ton of work that needs to be done outside of reheating and serving or setting up the food buffet style for self-serving.
In the past, I’ve had friends make the meals and they prefer a sheet pan of baked veggies with a yummy roasted chicken or braised short rib, when they were feeling fancy. No matter what you decide to serve, I find that people are always so grateful to get together and be in a room with others and have an excuse to dress up + leave the house.
Sweet friends, I hope y’all had the most lovely holiday, no matter how you celebrated it, and loved catching up today with me. I’m so excited for Spring to be here and have more of an excuse to host friends and enjoy every minute of time with others I can get. Can’t wait to chat with y’all again soon <3 -xo, Azanique ❤️
