Z Gallerie, Glam, Peacock Inspired New Year's Eve Tablescape

***Join me over at my new blog:  Life a la Mode***

In the true spirit of retail, I've decided to skip the current holiday in hand and just go straight for the next one ;-).  Ok so those who know me, know I'm entirely kidding.  I'm starting to get Christmas all out and put together but I'm moving a little slow this year.  But when Kate at Centsational Girl announced her tablescape contest, I knew I wanted to do a New Year's Eve table so that I could do something a little more blingified (yes, that's a word now)...which generally isn't me.  I'm not so much the blingy girl.  So despite the fact it's just after Thanksgiving and I've done exactly ZERO posts on Christmas at this point, I'm going to talk about New Years.  This Z Gallerie, Glam, Peacock inspired New Year's Eve table to be precise.

It all started with these plates, which I found this summer at HomeGoods. 


I bought them on a trip into the store where I lied to myself swore I would just be browsing, but I bought them anyway.  Does anyone else do that?  I hope so.  I just kept circling the store and coming back to visit them, so I compromised and only bought the salad plates, 'cause that's pretty much the same as just browsing, right?  I can hardly be held accountable when they were only $3.99 a piece.  :-)

So I've had them now since this summer and the more I looked at them, the more I thought of peacocks.  Since peacocks are considered good luck in some cultures I thought they would make a fantastic New Year's place setting (…in the spirit of equal time I suppose I ought to mention that in other cultures they are the um…"evil eye" but we won't go there…).

With a peacock theme, I knew I wanted to glam it out a bit.  But I'm not usually a glam girl.  So I turned to my favorite things:  pinterest and web surfing. I checked all my favorite stores for their new holiday offerings including Z Gallerie.  Z Gallerie is amazing but usually well out of my "willing to spend" price range.  You know that price range, right?  The "I-LOVE-this-but-there's-no-way-I'm-paying-$X-for-"Y" item."  Well, I had that feeling looking at their mirrored placemats, a set of 4 for $140.  

Image Z Gallerie

Thirty-five bucks for ONE placemat.  Not.So.Much.  So in the spirit of affordability, here's my knock off:

6 Dollar Store Chargers - $6.54

Pound of bling - $10.40

6 12" round craft mirrors - $16.35

Felt (for underneath the mirrors on the chargers to support them…this I already had on hand)

$33.29 for 6.  Yup.  $5.54 each.  A fraction of the cost and they make quite a visual statement.  The great news is you can scale this back even further for more affordability and nix the mirror and just go with the bling.  That makes them about $2.80 a piece.  And BIG props to my mom for gluing many little blingies.  :-)

Next inspiration?  The Vargus Vase.  This piece is gorgeous.  And at $150 it oughtta be.  

Image: Z Gallerie

My 90 minute, $10.94 knock offs:

2 Dollar Store Vases - $2.18

3 Dollar Store strands of 18' garland  3.54

Gold spray paint $5.22

$10.94, 90 minutes from start to finish for 2 vases.  Yup.  $5.47 each.  Gives me that texture and gold glam that I was looking for.  Just what I was looking for to put my peacock plumes in to anchor the table.  I'm lucky enough to have an SAS discount fabric store near me.  I love that store.  And they have peacock feathers for .69- 1.49.  LOVE.  I got all my feathers for around $15. 

I love confetti at New Year's.  I don't love cleaning it up.  And I wanted to take it to the next level.  I get "pretty, shiny syndrome" when I'm in Z Gallerie from all those mirrored surfaces.  So I went with it and used craft mirrors as my "confetti."  Craft mirrors,  6 variety packs:  $10.81.  Plus the hubby likes them because "they look like the terminator when he melts before re-animates."  Men. :-)
ooooohhhh...shiiiinnnyyyy

I love how it reflects all the other decorations...here you can see the ornaments hung from the chandelier.

Now enter monsieur peacock with a peacock wreath from Michael's - $15

Battery operated lights:  free to me 

Stemware - free to me…love shopping from my own stuff!  I used different stemware to vary the heights and add visual interest. 

Mirrors on top of stemware:  Dollar Store  $6.54

Pulling double duty as centerpiece and dessert are these clever NYC ball drop cupcakes.   I had everything on hand for this except gold wrappers.  

(the ball drop cupcake idea is borrowed from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen…She's amazing and she has a tutorial on her site).

I did mine slightly different.  Instead of using a donut hole I made a cake ball with the extra cupcakes as I was only needing 6 for the table.  I went with a monochromatic look and glammed it up by spraying it with edible pearl spray.  I've had this on hand for over a year and this is the first time I used it.  Now I want to spray it on anything that will stand still.  It makes everything so shimmery!  I also added clear edible glitter on the frosting.

The tablecloth, napkins, dinner plates, vintage crystal champagne bowls and sterlingware are all from my butler's pantry.  The tablecloth is from Bed Bath and Beyond, napkins from Cost Plus, dinner plates were from Crate & Barrel's holiday collection about 5 years ago.

 

"Chandy" decor: 

I took some of my Christmas ornaments, put a peacock feather in a few and hung them from my lantern chandelier.

Place Cards: 

What's New Year's Eve without a resolution?  How about asking your guests before hand what they plan to resolve and doing up some place cards subway style?  Instead putting these on the table, I used some ribbon I had on hand and decorated the chair.  The only cost to me on this?  Six dollar store frames spray painted the same gold as the vases.  And they can take them home as party favors to remind them of what they need to break come January 2nd.  Or maybe that's just me? 

Noisemakers:

Why are all noisemakers out there so...unfortunately ugly?  I had to make my own.  For these guys I used a pack of 6 pre-made dollar store noisemakers.  I ripped the body off of them, used it as a pattern and cut new bodies out of some sparkly paper, hot glued a craft boa around the bottom and added some glitter tape to the top and now I have grown-up, glam noisemakers.  Cost for all the supplies? $6.70 total, just a little over a buck each.


Ok so now that I'm all ready for new year's, anyone wanna come over now and pretend?  Cuz...ummm...I don't think these cupcakes are gonna keep.  :-) 

In case you haven't seen enough...

**all prices include tax and reflects discounts taken buy using rewards points and coupons!  Yes, I'm that girl who uses a 40% off coupon on a $1.99 item.  And I can hit 3 different craft stores all on my way home from work!

Linking to:
Centsational Girl
Savvy Southern Style
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Between Naps on the Porch
No Minimalist Here
Stuff and Nonsense
A Stroll Thru Life
My 1929 Charmer
Oasis Accents