A Gatehouse No1 Christmas Open House

Last week I was invited to participate

in a Gatehouse No1's 

Christmas Open House

and do a tablescaping demonstration.

Evan's Gatehouse No1 is

a high end furniture store that

has a fabulous selection of Christmas decor.

Their Christmas Open House was a

week long celebration with classes

and demonstrations every day covering

decorating wreaths, decorating a Christmas

tree, creating a Christmas mantle and 

overall holiday decorations.  

One of the

teachers that I just adored,

Joey, has the honor to

decorate the Governor's 

Mansion for Christmas 

and I can see why.  She was

amazing.

I was allowed to go throughout the store

and pick anything I wanted 

to decorate my table.

 After seeing all of

their wonderful items 

I decided I had to create

two tables, 

one for children and one for

the adults.

I fell in love with these 

Mark Roberts Christmas Fairies

and wanted to make them the focus

of my centerpiece for the 

children's table.

They were just enchanting and since

I had no budget, I could choose as many as

I wanted.  Oh to be able to decorate like this!

The Mark Roberts Christmas Fairy Collectibles

are one of their best sellers during the holidays.

(They sold me on one!!!)

You know me, I love fairies so this table

was just magical for me.

Gatehouse No1 doesn't sell plates, flatware, goblets

and other tablesetting items so I needed to 

bring my own.  I decided on my fun 

candy cane plates and bowls

for the children's table.

They had wonderful pieces that matched mine like

this fabulous cookie jar or canister.

They also sell this cute bowl

that looks like a piece of candy and

the polka dot cake pedestal.

Since they specialize in trees, I asked them

to create a Christmas tree for part of my

centerpiece.  I love how it turned out.  The store

is just stuffed with all of the items you need to

create any style of tree like this.

I taught them about making your own napkins

and runners using a serger.  I layered an organza

napkin over a red cotton napkin and topped it off

with a jingle bell napkin ring and candy canes.

There is nothing more magical for a children's

table than candy on the table.

(This runner sells at Gatehouse No1.)

I taught them about 

layering and stacking your dishes

and about mixing and matching and

gave them ideas for great sources

for reasonably priced tablesetting items.

And I stressed how fun it is to keep

your table set during the Christmas season

to make it a centerpiece of your holiday decor

and to showcase your beautiful pieces.

They invited Miss Utah County,

my good friend Hannah Harkness,

to the event and also her Little Miss Utah County,

my granddaughter, but I will show her

in next week's post

when I show you the adult tablescape.

(To get instructions to make my

apron click here!)

Of course Hannah had a lot of fun

at the event as she hosted

and greeted everyone 

at the door and entered them in 

the giveaways.  She also 

introduced me to the crowd.  She is

just wonderful!

So I had to showcase her in a few of my photos!

I was honored to be a part of their

fabulous Christmas Open House 

celebration.

My favorite parts of the evening were

1.  My son who came with his family and teased

me and said, "What are you going to say?  Here's 

a plate and then here's another plate?"  I said,

"Oh, honey, you don't know anything about this

kind of stuff!"  Afterwards he said I had done a

great job and that he had really enjoyed it.

2.  My granddaughters (the above son's children)

who came through the door with their eyes

big as saucers and one said, "Grandma, why are

you all dressed up like this?"  I replied, "I am

Mrs. Claus tonight."  Then she said, "Why are

they having this big party?"  And I wisely

responded, "To get you excited about

Christmas!!"

3.  My hubby who carried 3 huge boxes of my

tablescaping items who came home from the

event and said, "Let's get started decorating

for Christmas.  I want to bring the giant

nutcrackers upstairs tonight!"  I loved that

the magic of the event had worked on him but

I made him wait (at least a week!!!)

4.  Meeting followers of my blog there and

making new blog friends.  Two Christmases

ago hubby had made me business cards with

my blog on it so that when people ask I can

hand them out so it was a lot of fun making 

new friends at the event.

5.  My daughter chose the

cookie jar and cake pedestal

for her birthday presents to go

with her set of candy cane dishes.

6.  And of course having friends and family

there to support me too.

Next week I will show you the second 

tablescape I created.

A big thank you to 

Gatehouse No1 for inviting me

to participate in their

Christmas Open House.

I will be posting with

Let's Dish

Tablescapes Thursday

Tips Tidbits and Tutorials

Seasonal Sundays

Pink Saturday

Sources

Candy cane dishes and bowls - Wal Mart 

(a couple of year ago)

Red ruffled chargers - Wal Mart 

(a couple of years ago)

Green flatware - Tuesday Morning

Red flatware - Home Goods

Red goblets - Costco (many years ago)

Napkin rings - Home Goods

Placemats  - Tuesday Morning

Bubble goblets - Tai Pan