This is the time of year that I wished I had an outdoor fireplace…

I’ve always wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving outside…

When I heard about the Studio Blog’s contest here

I was seized with the impulse to exorcise my “Rough Luxe” demons..

I’d been painting a kitchen fireplace several shades of lime wash gray

and had moved on to my cast stone dining table outdoors…

Everything that I wanted to project inside my house spilled out onto the stone tabletop…

the dull and shiny metal patinas, traces of gilding, punches of aubergine

and violet and chartreuse green moss, ethereal white poised above the gray…

I absolutely love how the contest encourages you to use what you have…

so out came the aged tin sap pots, last year’s moss, the eggplants from

the garden, and lichen encrusted branches cast aside by

some of the austere oaks surrounding the patio…

and that floriferous passion flower that has so overtaken

the side garden gate that I can barely push it open.

Gilded edged porcelain…but with rough “fiddlehead” flatware

instead of silver, my Astier de Villate gravy boat at the ready..

the crystal stems icy and scintillating against the rough gray tabletop…

I have a chandelier that I keep in a corner of the dining room

on the floor…a spare…so I can plug it in and hang it from

the bay tree over the table in the spring, summer, and fall…

Whether you enter the contest or are just getting ready for the big day…

look around you, pull open the cupboards, and have fun.

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Also visit The Brocantess here for a great give away contest