A Chuck Wagon

Plan B...

This is not the table we had planned for this week. We had another one all ready to go… Unfortunately, the weatherman had other ideas, and we had to take a rain check.

So... we just went with the flow. We’re nothing if not flow goers.

We thought to the weekend ahead and let it dictate a little inspiration. You see, we’re not only having a Hallelujah Night Chili Party at our church, I’m also planning to attend a Soup Party in Blogland as well.

This one...

We decided to put together a chili inspired tablescape

which I insisted that we call

A Chuck Wagon

 instead.

A chuck wagon must use cast iron cookery. Fortunately, the Duchess has plenty of it. She loves to use old family pieces in her decorating. (If you have read here for long, you’ve probably figured that one out already…)

We wanted to use an old cast iron spider that had belonged to her grandmother, but it was nowhere to be found. We finally discovered it down in the bottom of a huge old crock where it was moonlighting as a plant elevator.

So technically… that’s an antique crock pot in the center of our chuck wagon table.

Another cast iron pot holds fall mums and little red peppers.

Bandanas were the only logical choice for chuck wagon napkins. Instead of napkin rings, we stuffed our bandana napkins in some denim pockets cut from a pair of the husband’s old jeans.

Next, we had to invite our invisible friends. We weren’t quite sure who would like to come to a chuck wagon so I let the invisible guest pickometer do the choosing.

I just typed in the words red hot chili peppers…

and I'm not the least bit responsible for what popped out

I report. You decide.

In keeping with the cast iron theme, we made iron placemats by putting together two rectangular wall trivets from Willow House.

We used some  denim blue plates.

These actually came from a local grocery store this summer.

The salad plates are a clear plate with a bandana print on the back side.

The little chili crocks belong to the sister and have been in her kitchen for decades. They have little roosters on the back, but we flipped them around. We'll just keep that our little secret.



We used these cobalt glasses because of their color. The fact that we put stemware on a chuck wagon has no basis in reality whatsoever.

A lantern from my father’s collection on one end…

And a tiered iron basket for bread on the other

And that’s pretty much it.

Not too shabby…

It might be a Plan B chuck wagon tablescape,

but those Red Hot Chili People

are definitely
 the A List
so it all worked out in the end.






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