Playing in the Waves Tablescape

Did you ever ask yourself....where is your most favorite place to be if you could fulfill your dream?  Would you choose mountainous terrain?  A bustling city?  A small town?  I certainly can appreciate all of them at one time or another, but there is one destination which really stands out on the top of my list.  You might agree with me if you selected to be near the water, like seaside, oceanside, lakeside, where there is tranquil, blue-green water and a cool, gentle breeze.  

Can I obtain the serenity of a beautiful beach while living in the midst of rolling farm land?  I can, if I create my "Playing in the Waves Tablescape."  As I began to gather pieces together for this table, a calmness came over me like that of being splashed by a wave.  The subtle colors of light blue and cream has always induced a sense of peacefulness.  

I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it.  It immediately reminded me of waves at the lake.  The wavy pattern is made with soothing beach and sky colors.  I just had to buy it and sew a new table runner. It worked beautifully to bring all of the pieces together.  With the absence of a tablecloth for this tablescape, the runner took center stage, lending to more simplicity like that of the beach.

The set of four raised seahorse and shells salad plates captured my heart for this tablescape.  I had them in my collection for quite some time, but I didn't know how I was going to use them.  They now became my inspiration piece for this table.  

The beauty of natural shells.  I just love the variety of shapes and neutral colors.

A charming sea shell napkin ring.

Another coastal element for the table......a white fish plate.  It is so much more interesting to have a stack of plates of different shapes and sizes and a variety of textures.

The seahorse and driftwood candle holder makes for a perfect centerpiece and complements the seahorses on the salad plates.

Let's try some clam shell cookies to replicate the decor shells and help celebrate the restfulness of the beach.

The recipe for the clam cookies, which is actually made with my Mom's Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, was previously included in an earlier posting, but is repeated below for a quicker reference.  I used my Peanut Butter Cookie Dough recipe for this cookie since the dough makes a firmer cookie and works well baked in a clam shaped madeleine pan.  I also purchased a small container of ready-made vanilla buttercream frosting for the interior of the clam since I did not want to make a large quantity of my own frosting.  The blue pearl candy is a Sixlet, which comes in a variety of pastel colors.  The firm buttercream frosting helped to keep the"pearl" in place.

Clam Cookies- (Mom's Peanut Butter Cookies)

1 C shortening or Butter, softened

1 C sugar

1 C brown sugar

1 C peanut butter

2 eggs

Beat well and add:

2 1/2 C flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix until it forms a ball.  Pinch off and form into gum ball size.  Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  **For the clam cookie, pinch off enough dough to fill each clam on the greased madeleine pan making sure each clam isn't overfilled.  Each clam should be filled to half or three-fourth full. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes depending on how each clam was filled.  Watch it carefully as it bakes.

Remove the madeleine pan from the oven and let it cool slightly.  Lift each cookie from the madeleine pan.  Let the cookies cool completed before adding some vanilla buttercream frosting on half of the flat inner side of the cookie. (I do not fill the entire cookie because I want more of the angle and I do not want to make the cookie even more sweet with too much frosting. ) Add a line of frosting to the other edge of the flat side of the cookie to keep the top and bottom cookies in place.  Place a pearl Sixlet in the middle of the frosting that was just added, making sure the pearl is toward the edge of the wider side so that it is visible once the top cookie is in place . Make sure the cookie which tops it off  has the textured clam shell lines facing up.  Dust with powdered sugar.

Could you feel the calm?  Even if you cannot get to the beach for a visit, design a tablescape that makes you feel as if you did..............it is amazing what a little time playing in the waves can do.