"Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah...

...Two is twice as nice as one." Let's Get Together by Hayley Mills.

Hello lovelies! Happy February! Where did January go?

I have a DIY for you today, or really, more of a guide about centerpieces.

So often our kitchen tables form the center of activity for our homes, and that means that form is sacrificed to function. Here's a few tips on creating a centerpiece that allows you to get your stuff done...but not to sacrifice beauty and atmosphere!

Centerpiece Guide - Casual Candlelit Romance:

First things first, frankly, I like to cover the fake-wood top of my table. Convenient, yes, but attractive...not so much. So a little lace tablecloth (inherited) is easy to whip on or off, and changes the entire look of the table. I'm also a huge fan of runners, but I don't have any not-christmasy ones.

Second, mobility. I need to be able to whip this baby on and off the table for games, messy meals, large projects, etc. A cake plate adds nice height, unifies the whole arrangement, and allows me to move it in one go, not several little trips. Also, I like to put my centerpiece as much out of the way as possible, so right in the middle or down the center. This allows for minimum interference with daily life. It also provides just one more step in the nice height variation we have going on here.

Third, personalization and variation. I raided a dollar store for some of these, used a few old stand-bys, and found a new use for our saved Irony Merlot bottle! It makes a nice drippy candleholder, don't you agree? I have my precious mercury glass, my wedding memorabilia, and a few new simple additions to fill in! (Btw, the extra candles make it just bright enough for a romantic candlelit dinner for two...since Valentine's Day is coming up later this month!)

Forth and Finally, hope for the best, but plan for the worst. I don't intend for all my candles to leak, but that's in the nature of candles. I put down disposable paper doilies to catch wax drips and protect my cake plate. I also used a little dab of "stickums" to make sure the tapered candles (--er, stubs, in this case) wouldn't tip over if the table was knocked. And since the wine bottle is particularly delicate up there on the cake plate, I stabilized it with a little knob of sticky-tack to make sure it wasn't going to wobble.

Izzy approves!

Happy decorating!