Shells and Tiny Pumpkins Create A Fall Centerpiece

1. Step One: Find the really dirty, dusty, tarnished silver plated tray that I have been hauling around for 10 years.  (Where in the world could I have stashed it this time?)  Tom finds it under the bed...

2. Apply elbow grease to black tarnish.  Ewww.... sort of disgusting. Gosh, I hope this works!

3. Go to farm for fanciful pumpkins. (need cute boyfriend to push wheelbarrow!)

4. Dig out fall collection of amber, yellow, brown and sea green sea glass (box in the garage?)

5. Find collection of shells (I keep a pile of neutral bleached out pieces for fall) and interesting pieces of found driftwood. Believe it or not, the acorns were collected on one of our forays to Angel Island this summer - could not resist putting them in my picnic basket before we came home.

6. Add Candles.

Voila'! 

A new centerpiece for our coffee table this Autumn at our new home. 

I love doing this every year, as it gives me a chance to sift through our found sea glass and shell memories as we create more...

Dinner Party at the Beach

Maureen and Peter come to dinner, bearing gifts of Chardonnay and flowers on a warm sun-filled early October evening on our California coast.

So excited!  Our first official dinner party guests to our new tiny place in Half Moon Bay. The company was wonderful, the Cioppino turned out DELISH, and I think a good time was had by all.

Tom and Peter watching the last bit of sun drop into the Pacific - incredibly gorgeous! Have to pinch ourselves at how lucky we are to be so close to the ocean

My cute octopus has been waiting for months in a box in my office - just needed the right time (and the right company to show off for!) to light all his candles.

 New Coquille Pitcher.  Served ice water, but think this gorgeous piece would also look great with a bouquet of fresh flowers...

From our new collection of linen placemats and oversized napkins.... (hoping to have napkin rings on our site very soon!)

Cioppino!  

Super, super easy to make - just start with great seafood.   I recommend sticking with what is in season, and what is on sale.  For our party with Maureen and Peter, I used salmon, clams, mussels, large scallops and large prawns.  No crab legs as they are not in season right now, and sometimes it is a bit more than messy to have the crab legs in the Cioppino with dinner guests.

Also must have - fresh sour dough bread for dipping! We are very lucky to have several bakeries in our little town.  I grabbed a wonderful, still warm, loaf at Moonside Bakery off Main Street in downtown Half Moon Bay to share with Maureen and Peter.  YUM.

Served an Mediterranean chopped salad in our new Octopus Bowl and Crabby Servers from our Sea and Shore Collection.  (could not resist having these for our house! )

Maureen even brought dessert!  Way too cute - and super yummy.

That was so fun, and we were sorry to see them leave....Can't wait until our next dinner party with friends! 

Sea Breeze Glasses

Moby Whale Wine Glasses

Caron's Fall-Thanksgiving Dining Room

Hope you like our creation!

We had so much fun rearranging our dining room furniture and creating new vignettes of beach art on our

walls - hope that we can give you a little inspiration for your coastal fall dinner parties too.  

I created this Fall-Thanksgiving tablescape as an excuse to show off some of our coastal home decor at Caron's Beach House, but it quickly became a labor of love as I found all kinds of treasures in our home that I could mix and match to create an aqua blue, light green and white color palette that compliments our small space. Perfect timing too - we had guests come for the weekend for the Ducks-Stanford game! (we don't discuss the score....)

Poor Tom, he had to put up with eating at the kitchen bar for a few days as I made a total mess (creative minds sometimes are messy)  in the dining room. I really need to think about making up an award for "Best Boyfriend"... he would win every day!

I chose to stick with these three shades found in nature, because of where we live in Northern California, and because we already have these colors in our every day dinnerware. 

  It's easy to find a plethora of green and blue tints in our natural greenery, but not so much "traditional"  fall color.  All of the greenery was found out on a walk in front of our house - you can do the same thing by just looking around your own backyard!  

Mixed in some of my found large blue mussel shells, Tomales Bay oyster shells, green sea urchins, bleached moon snail shells and sand dollars, a few white starfish and golden periwinkles. I also added driftwood pieces to reinforce the "beach" feel and natural color palette.  (goodness knows I have enough pieces collected on our deck!) The yellow-white little pumpkins are courtesy from Trader Joe's;  my go-to for fresh seasonal flowers and greenery.

And of course, my special Half Moon Bay blown glass pumpkin from last year! 

Love my Jonathan Adler Sailor and Mermaid salt and pepper shakers! Great gift from my daughter, Allison.

CBH Products featured:

Brown Shell Burlap Table Runner

Art and Pillows from My Island Art

Solstice Driftwood Mirror

Coastal Fish Flatware

Aqua Coral Linen Napkins

Stemless Sea Shell Etched Wine Tumblers

New Sea Breeze Wine Glasses

Our guests oohed and ahhed and then feasted on one of Tom's fabulous steak creations, fresh green beans with Chantrelle mushrooms that we picked up at the Ferry Building, vanilla sea salt heirloom tomatoes, and roasted baby red potatoes.  Served with Joel and Tracy's gift of  Hawley's Zin from the Dry Creek Valley.  Perfect way to host a fall dinner party!  

Autumn at the Beach - Tablescape ideas #3 A Dash of Coral and Sea Stars

Living beside the sea doesn't always mean aqua, blues and greens - here's an idea for a pretty coastal tablescape using chocolate brown linens for fall.   Decorating for Autumn just means using a little more creativity at the beach!

White shells, pretty plates, elegant wine glasses and a dash of rattan in the chargers makes this one of our favorite ideas!

(P.S. Yes, you can find these linens on our site: Caron's Beach House.com)

Candlelight Ideas for Fall at the Coast

This is such a simple, easy trick to add a beautiful warm cozy feeling to your coastal home!

Doesn't have to be expensive, and you can probably put together any number of things that you already have in your home - just use more neutral or "autumn" types of colors; amber sea glass, white shells, vanilla votives - here's a few ideas to get started!

My friend Cami's creation! Found sea glass and pretty autumn scented pillars

Mason jars, grey beach sand and white votives.  Ocean Elegant!
via NauticalCottageBlog.com

Easy candle hurricanes complete with beach sand, simple tapers, caramel and white shells.
Elegance at the beach!

Grey beach stones mixed with found weathered seashells - so beachy!

via

And finally a peak at our fall centerpiece for this year!

I love this big flat bamboo bowl that I found several years ago, it's my treasure "collector" when we walk in
the door from the beach.  Shells, driftwood, sea glass, stones, even a few acorns that we picked up in Napa.   Then I added to our collection with pear-scented dark green candles, dried Autumn gourds and my saved

orange tumbled glass from last year. 

I am a big believer in making decorating at the beach easy - and always a reflection of who you are.  Creating an easy centerpiece with found "found" seaside objects is just one more way to accomplish that.

Coral Table Runner

Green Starfish Pillow from Kevin O'Brien Studio