Dining Room at Christmas

This Santa cookie jar didn't fit on the counter top in the kitchen so he got plunked on a pink and white ruffled cake stand among the white amarylis on the dining room table and spent the season there very comfortably. I wish I could say that we use our dining room a lot but we don't. When we were looking for a house though it had to have a dining room to put my dining room table and chairs in.

The table was bought at the semi-annual sale that Klingman's of Grand Rapids had in a warehouse. My mom and I got up very early on a cold fall morning in 1991 and headed west about one hundred miles in search of a Baker dining room table at deep discount to go with the six Chippendale chairs that I had purchased with a large commission check that I had gotten for putting together a real estate deal. The chairs were the first really good pieces of furniture that I bought. Although I still cherish them their cost left little extra for a table to go with them, so off to the Baker Sale (that's what we called Klingman's sale because we all were looking for the Baker pieces for way less than half off the original price) we went and there was my table waiting for me and at a price that made it possible to take home that day. Though not in pristine condition, the double pedestal based Sheraton style table was exactly what I wanted.

Baker furniture stays true to the proportions of the original cabinet makers and for that, I guess they charge more, but if you look around you can get pieces more reasonably priced at small town antique malls, yard sales or even on Craig's List. I am a stickler for proportion and much of the new reproduction pieces are so out of proportion that they seem almost grotesque. The old classical revival pieces from the 30's, 40's & 50's are more affordable than most new well proportioned pieces and can still be found with a bit of treasure hunting.



The roads coming home from up north today were wet and slippery but I went slow and made it home safely. Had a nice time up their with family and friends but it is always nice to be home again. Look for party pictures on Sheryl's blog if you are interested. My camera is still touchy and the pictures that I took didn't come out that well. After reading Keri's post at Just Living Large's about Christmas cards I had to get busy and get some cards in the mail to avoid being a 'no card sender'. Dana was kind enough to help me make at least a few to send out with a picture of John & I with my grand's from last year. Keri's post made me think about how much exchanging cards means to people and myself. I always enjoyed sending them and receiving them but in the last few years just kind of gave it up until I read her post and it all rang painfully and joyfully true.