by Dorothy Marie Kucera

Created on: November 07, 2009   Last Updated: November 08, 2009

When your family and guests walk into your dining room, their eyes should focus on a lovely arrangement of colors and textures in the center of the table. It can make the simplest meal look elegant and for your more elaborate Thanksgiving meal, it will pull everything together beautifully. I read the best book, HIDDEN ART, by author Edith Schaeffer about how to decorate your table, even if you live in the jungle and only have a large, flat rock for your table. That explanation set the tone and confidence for all of my table centerpieces over the decades.

Each season, I change the dining room table centerpiece to the colors and objects matching the highlights of that time of year. For the fall season, including November's Thanksgiving holiday, I like to mix the colors of yellow, rust, orange, dark red and a pretty shade of brown with a few splashes of white. Objects can include silk flowers, little paper turkeys or pilgrims, leaves, grain, pumpkins and other symbols of harvest time. If you have beautiful Thanksgiving greeting cards, one of those can be incorporated, also.

To begin your arrangement, choose a container that you already have stored in the house. It can be a round or square gift or floral container or a taller, clear vase in a square shape that allows more space to put items down into it. Do you have a pretty basket that was given to you, an oval bread and rolls' basket, a pretty serving bowl that is round, oval or square or a lovely rectangular tray? Your selection should not be too large nor long because you have to set food bowls and platters around the table for your holiday meal. I have used a cut glass bowl, handed down from my grandmother, for years. It catches light and dresses up whatever I place inside the bowl. An oval basket works great with long grains of wheat.

Fill the bowl or container with glass marbles found at a hobby store to hold your objects in place. You can use other types of floral filler mediums, also. Be creative; what is already in your cabinets or drawers that will hold objects placed in or on top of them? I tried several floral fillers like colored grasses or spongy green blocks over the years but it was too hard to keep them clean. After throwing them out and buying new, I finally decided it was more cost effective and easier to wash the marbles and when using a clear bowl, it becomes important to not see items like sponge blocks showing.

Next, lay all of your candidates, vying for selection in the container, on the

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