...OF SPRING AND SUMMER...: Flowers and Ribbons - # 2

Over time you have probably noticed that I often feature beautiful ribbons. I'm part of a team of international bloggers who use ribbons from Jane Means' ribbon collection. Jane provides us with ribbons and we use them in some of our blog posts.

I have decided to do a regular monthly series of blog posts where I will use Jane's ribbons in combination with flowers and foliage.

This month I thought it would be nice with some easy tips on how to make your table settings festive - just in time for all the holidays coming up. I have chosen to decorate three different coloured napkins with ribbons and a selection of plant material.

I have used three different colour schemes - purple, black and red. The ribbons are all grosgrain - with off-white stitching down the edges - all from Jane's collection.

The plant material is selection of berries, hips and foliage - Ilex berries, crab apples, small rose hips and Eucalyptus leaves.

They are all quite tolerant of being out of water for several hours before they start looking a bit sad - so very good for decorating table and napkins.

In all the three colours I have simply used ribbons to tie around the middle of the rolled up napkins and I then tucked a small branch of plant material under the ribbon.

This is a quick, simple and very easy way of making your table look colourful and festive.

If you make an additional flower arrangement - remember to make it low enough - so that people can see and talk to each other across the table. If you want to make a taller arrangement just move it to a side table when you are ready to sit down.

Some people also say that you should not use strongly scented flowers in and around the dining table. It's believed that a strong scent conflicts with the aroma of food or wine - so stick to unscented flowers around food.