Friendliest Village

Johnson Brothers Friendly Village is one of my favorite patterns. I love the peaceful scene of snow falling softly on bare trees and evergreens. When dear hubby and I were first married, we lived in a suburb of Philadelphia that was filled with red brick colonials; I loved walking our dog, Cheli, in the evening with softly falling snow around the neighborhood. The stillness of falling snow is remarkable, with only the crunch of boots breaking the silence. The snowy scene on this plates brings these memories back to me.

I don't believe I've ever used Friendly Village for a fall table setting before; I usually reserve it for winter settings in January. While not all Friendly Village patterns are winter-themed, they do cover all seasons. I'd really like to see the spring patterns—pinks and browns look beautiful together. This earthenware pattern was produced by Johnson Brothers starting in 1953 in Staffordshire, England. In 1968, Johnson Brothers was acquired by Wedgwood, and production in England ceased in 2003, moving overseas. It is still available for purchase on Amazon.

I love how this fall table turned out. The plates feature soft pastels in shades of pink, red, blue, green, and yellow. The brown is a deep, inky umber rather than a warm chocolatey hue. The green is a lovely sage, which I knew would pair perfectly with the chargers my friend Kissy and I painted for Thanksgiving two years ago. We spent so much time perfecting that table and those chargers! Oh the agony! Framily Thanksgiving I'm glad to have the opportunity to use them again on this table.

The fall colors in this pattern are subtle, so I chose colors from the plate—sage green, golds, and brick reds. The tablecloth is a lovely fall rusty brown, and I found this runner in my linen cabinet that matched perfectly! Initially, I considered using either sage green gingham or brown gingham napkins, but neither was right. A perfect fall plaid in ivory, gold, burgundy, and sage green brought everything together.

I had envisioned setting the table with gingham napkins, my tortoiseshell stemless wine glasses, and napkin rings adorned with little berries, but none of these items ended up on the table! The tortoiseshell glasses were too warm a shade of brown. Instead, I opted for my youngest son's preferred glasses from Ikea, a similar deep brown to the brown on the plate, a glass called "VARDAGEN." I also have these in a light aqua blue for the summer. In Swedish, "VARDAGEN" means "the everyday life" or "the weekday," and we indeed use these glasses daily. My youngest prefers not to drink from plastic, so he always chooses these. The water goblets are my everyday Noritake Breeze in a smoky, sage green that matches the chargers. I recently found two more to add to my collection, bringing the total to seven. I'm still searching for one more to make it a complete set of eight!

For many years, I have been collecting faux sugared fruit. I am always searching for more at estate sales, antique stores, and Goodwill. I love using it during the fall and at Christmas. I had just arranged a bowl of fruit for the coffee table in the living room and thought it would look nice on this table — and it does! Grapes, apples, pears, pomegranates, and plums are all nestled in a vintage Fiesta salad bowl in original red.

On November 1st, all Halloween decorations come down at our house, and the fall decorations go back up. I usually decorate for fall with sunflowers, apples, and leaves from mid-September until Halloween.

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The autumn colors are fully showing here in Northern California, and the house is decorated both inside and out to complement them!

The Thanksgiving menu is finalized, the table is design is set, at least in my head, and before we realize it, Christmas will arrive. We are savoring these final lovely days of autumn!