It’s sometimes hard having a love affair with tableware. (Oooohhh, a rhyme!) You often can’t even convince your friends to attend free events like the DIFFA Tabletalk Design Seminar at Masin’s Furniture in Bellevue. I tried to no avail, so flew solo and had an interesting afternoon the other weekend.
[Happy Tobi – not for long!]
It started off a little awkwardly with me coming in a couple minutes late, being greeted by a perfectly nice seeming woman in a conservative black suit who said simply, “Hi.” I replied, “Hi, I’m here to check in for the tabletop event.” Conservatively-suited woman responded, “I’m Tobi Fairley.” Oopsie. I’d just tried to check in with the guest of honor. Search “McKayla Maroney is not impressed” to see Tobi’s accompanying facial reaction.
I tried to hang back after that, you know, become invisible. Tobi spoke more about her redesign of the Masin’s front entry than her tabletop for the previous night’s event, so it seems fitting that I include a shot of the bookshelf she styled.
Mindy Lockard, an etiquette expert and writer of The Gracious Girl blog spoke about table etiquette, etc. She was approachable, interesting and provided a good recap of those etiquette dinners from college. All that while wearing an awesome dress with killer heels. Definitely check out her blog.
The seminar wrapped up with Kathy Greeley- designer, hostess, author and southern lady. Oh, and what I want I now want to be when I grow up. She was promoting her new book, The Collected Tabletop. It sounded a bit like she got shortchanged in the supplies stakes when it came to producing her table, but she made it work. As she explained how she borrowed pieces, she introduced me to an antique shop I didn’t know in Bellevue, Haystacks Antiques.
Immediately after leaving the event I headed to the Haystacks Pop-Up Shop and then to the original location. At the Pop-Up shop I found these awesome vintage glasses. They have a gilt, sorta Eastern motif that’s a little difficult to photograph, obviously. At the original location I found a set of 10 pressed glass dessert plates that will coordinate nicely with a lot of other pieces in my collection. Sold! Sold! Sold!
Whaddya think? Did I choose wisely? Who am I kidding…I don’t care if you think I did or not because I’m in love, but what is your weakness when you hit the antiques shops?
virtuous wrongdoing 