Happy Early Thanksgiving everyone!

While Thanksgiving is mostly considered a North American holiday, the idea of setting aside one day a year to give thanks can be seen all over the world. Most festivals are in some way connected to the United States of America,  like Canada and Liberia, while others have no connection what so ever. China, Vietnam, and many African countries have a harvest festival sometime in August, and Jewish families celebrate Sukkoth to remember the 40 year journey of the Hebrew people to the Promised Land. Our neighbor to the north feasts on Mr. Gobble Gobble on the second Monday of October. Grenada and Japan adopted the customs after American occupation of their countries, while Liberians, mostly descendants of escaped slaves, simply took the traditions back to their homeland.  All of these celebrations, while celebrated at different times of the year in many diverse walks of life, they all center around families and close friends gathering together to celebrate and give thanks for a bountiful harvest.

This makes Thanksgiving a great hosting holiday! Below are a few pictures of a few of our collections for table service. Our platters are great for turkey service, and, of course, don’t forget about our savory storage containers for all those leftovers!

Mosaic

Ziggy

Tapestry

Raj

Don’t forget about the kids table!

Have a fabulous Gobble Gobble day!

Catching up with friends and family, listening to music, and eating are pretty much my favorite things in life – Here are some snaps from this past Memorial Day where I did all of the above and entertained the day away – Being outdoors was an added bonus!

Wrap It Up

A fan of ours loved our Barcelona pattern so much she asked if she could wrap her Smart Car with it.

This is the end result, we love it.

Happy Driving Rhonda!

However, and whenever one gets the inspiration to create art is cool with me. Besides the crumpled receipts, shredded gum wrappers, sliding pennies and mangled cheap drugstore reading glasses floating around in my bag, I always carry one of our mini notepads to sketch, jot, think something through, and doodle.

We are proud to have a mention in the new Spring 09 Travel and Leisure Family Issue, which highlights one of the four assorted monsters that come bundled in our Monster mini notebook set. Like the controversial French leader Napoleon Bonaparte said ”Imagination rules the world “ As lovers of peace, who are we to challenge Napoleon.

Potato latke

Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Hellenistic Syrians in a revolt that took place around 165 BCE. This was considered a miracle, but Jewish legend gives an additional explanation for Hanukkah rituals. Once the Temple Mount in Jerusalem had been reclaimed, only one jar of oil was found – enough for one day to light the temple. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Hanukkah. If you are going to celebrate, … do it right. You’ll need a menorah, I like this one by Herbert and Jeanne Atkins available at Maxwell-Silver New York. You must eat potato latkes, this recipe is excellent. Once the latkes are done, gently place them our Regal Round Platter helping to keep the tradition of blue and white alive. For the sound track to your Chanukah celebration, check into Chutzpah’s record EPONYMOUS (click on “listen” to sample), and On December 23 head over to the HIGHLINE BALLROOM. where The acclaimed rock duo Good For the Jews bring their “Putting The Ha! In Hannukah” tour to NYC with a night of irreverent music and comedy. Finally for all of us that are confused about how you spell Chanukah, take a look at the Leevees utube video How do you spell Chanukah. Since Hanukkah is a Hebrew word, the transliteration is up for grabs, and as far as I’m concerned anyway you spell it is OK.

Herbert and Jeanne Atkins menorah

Highline Ballroom details

Regal round serving platter

Overview of a full crowd

FELIX gobbles the high contrast style prize

Autumnal MOSAIC melange

When I got the big yes! after timidly asking my sister in law Judy Coleman if she’d consider dressing her Thanksgiving tables in full French Bull fashion this year I was psyched. This was huge news in my family. Besides the always tasty menu, Judy’s scenic china, with illustrations of the American landscape and turkeys is a tradition that we all love and expect to see. “Mixing things up” can be tricky, but the neo, neo-con style Judy brought to the table was superb. Confident combinations of fine silver, white linens and seasonal floral arrangements with (our formerly) neo-retro radical French Bull dishes and accessories assures us we can break bread with any one. This November confirms CHANGE has come in more ways than one. A big thank you to my brother and sister-in-law Walter and Judy of Detroit, MI.

Rosie, Jordan, Jackie, Ronnie, Ellen, Bonnie, Brett, Kim, Adria, Walter, Danny, Joanne, Sarah, Judy, Howard, Mark

Sara, Jimmy, Ben, Mindy, Izzy

chat n chew

Round platters - dark or light?

Lazy susan puts a new spin on Judy's muffins