You may not enjoy the scent of cow manure or the sound of a rooster's crow at the break of dawn, but you can still bring a little farm life into your home without counting Babe as one of your dependents. Velocity has introduced
Simrin Farmyard Placemats ($36) into its collection of fashionable table linens, and I think they're just the thing to give us all a taste of the old days, short of rearing animals ourselves. The placemats are made from 100 percent cotton, and can be easily machine washed and dried.
When it comes to pumpkins, we often think of
jack-o-lanterns and
pumpkin carving at
Halloween, but the gourd-like squash is stylish all season long. There should be nothing preventing you from decorating with pumpkins until Christmas comes along . .
The Petek Guven
Mr. Casual Placemat ($49) and
Miss Noble Placemat ($49) are two cheeky characters well-trained in etiquette, who'll give your guests a good laugh before they're served the first course. Each placemat has two slits on each side which work as fork and knife holders; so unfortunately, the placemats cannot accommodate the silverware required for a seven course meal.
Much like shoes and handbags, you can never have too many placemats — or any table linens, for that matter. They're simply an effortless accessory that dresses your dining room up or down. Inviting the parents over?
If a cactus could ever look cute, JackRabbit has devised a means to that end with the
Cactus Picnic Napkin Set, a set of four 10-by-12-inch handmade napkins screen printed with a grid of perky green cacti. I can't think of a better occasion to debut these prickly succulents than a backyard barbecue — or perhaps a
Park(ing) Day picnic. While the weather is still warming up here in San Francisco, temperatures are turning chilly elsewhere, so you'd better snatch these babies up fast and throw some T-bones on the grill.
