Wednesday, October 19, 2011

2011 Tablesetting - Raising Money For The Mansion

Yesterday was the 2011 McHenry Mansion Tablesetting Fundraiser and this year we thought it was for the birds...no really, that was our theme...Birds of a Feather!

this pic is from my phone

The creative process is a strange and wonderful thing and it's that process that makes doing events like this so much fun.  We knew we wanted to use china and glassware from Linda's grandmother which has green, yellow and brown in it and we wanted a lighthearted theme without being "cartoonish" (is that a word?)  How we arrived from a cardboard carpet roll to our finished table design is that intangible thing that just happens when we start thinking out loud and then go shopping.  

This is McHenry Mansions' biggest fundraiser of the year...more than the Holiday or Mothers' Day Teas and a lot of work goes into organizing it.  There were thirtysix tables this year and what is so much fun is that in most cases, the tables created represented something personal to the tablesetter.  The first day it is open to the public for viewing for $10 and the following day is the actual luncheon.  This year it was catered by Green's Market...one of our faves and I should have taken a picture of our lunch...Delicious!  
We always seem to take the DIY approach to many of our projects so armed with glue guns, lots of moss, birds, sticks and a few other things we came up with our creation and we'll show you some of the other tables that were our favorites...enjoy!


We cut down the cardboard tube and secured it in a gallon can filled with plaster of paris.  Doesn't it look great?  Ummm, no!  


Here is the table being setup.  Building the layers is wicker for texture, a green charger and the china.


Now, let's bring in some color and our bird notebook favors for our lovely ladies...

Each placesetting had a different color napkin, pulled from the color of the tablecloth.  You can see how lovely the china is here.





It's very tall...people asked us where we bought it.  Um, we made it actually.  We should have taken pictures of putting it in the car...YouTube worthy!

Little birdies...

We rented chairs and decided to dress them simply with burlap and ribbon as the centerpiece was, did we say it before?  quite large.

   Now some more inspiration.

Autumn beauty

CandyLand...there's enough to last til Halloween!

 a little honey for you


This table incorporated items brought back from a trip to China

Can you tell this was the guys table...

You can take a trip to Africa...

or go to a nine year olds birthday party...

See how everyone's inspiration is a little different?


Ok, so Grand Events has a little advantage over the rest of us...


and finally with Christmas just around the corner, some little elves made an appearance!


 how cute are these chair covers?

Very Creative People...!
McHenry Mansion has a dedicated group of docents who were the servers and committee members...they did an awesome job and we can't wait for next year!

Elementally,

Linda and Michele















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