A Rustic Autumn Table

Have I mentioned that I just love autumn?  The warm colors seem to fit in so well with our old house, so it seems to be an especially enjoyable time to do some decorating.  I had a great time taking a break yesterday and creating a fall table. 

 It all started while the girls were napping and I decided to use some apples a friend had given us and bake a rustic apple pie for dessert.  The apples were such a beautiful rich red that they inspired me to clean off our dining room table and put together a fall centerpiece. 

I thought it would be fun to see if I could put something together using only things we had on hand and elements from nature. 

 I immediately thought of an old plank of wood we had sitting on our back deck.  It was a piece we had to remove from our eaves when we built in the bookcase upstairs recently. I knew there was a reason I convinced my husband to set it aside instead of burning it!

 We didn't have any fresh flowers or even any fall foliage, but then I thought of some corn cobs and husks I had seen on the side of the road just down the street.  Just recently the combine had gone through and there were some pieces tossed outside of the fence. I'm sure the cars that saw me gathering these as they drove by thought I was crazy!

 I set some apples along the plank and scattered some acorns we had just gathered recently.

My goal was a rustic autumn table fitting for our farmhouse.

I selected some mismatched dishes from the china cabinet that had those warm, rich colors of fall.

 The silverware was wrapped with some burlap (which obviously is not a good use for a napkin - smile) and some felt silverware rings my mom had made for me a couple years ago when Thanksgiving was hosted at our house. 

 I wrapped some corn cobs with twine and let them hang on the sides of the table for a little something extra.

I have to say that I really loved the way the table came together and I almost hated to put it all away.  (smile)  However, I loved the wood plank so much and the corn cobs on the table that they will remain for the season.

By the way, the rustic apple pie was just delicious.  I use apples in recipes all autumn long... I never get tired of them.  I had to share the recipe, which you can find here.  (I did only one thing different... I used raw turbinado sugar instead of brown sugar.)

Our dining room is actually one of my favorite rooms in our house but I have such a difficult time photographing it!  It must be all the natural light that filters in and unfortunately I have not mastered the manual settings on the camera to manipulate it.  And more times than not, I have one girl or both that run through the room as I'm taking a shot.  (smile)

Disclaimer: While most of my blog posts originate from a real life event, this table setting was created purely for enjoyment.  It's times like this I'm glad I have the excuse of a blog post to use as a creative outlet!

Hope your week ahead is wonderful!