Friendly Dinner Tops

"You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love." -Julia Child

My vocation has led me to live in a variety of places during my life. Whatever the destination, a move is always a stressful and emotionally exhausting experience. It always helps to reacquaint with new and familiar faces, and this has encouraged me many times, after landing in a new home, to leave my shell and join social interactions. 

The anticipation of Spring 2011 brings about the one-year anniversary of my relocation to Chicago. I can't believe how quickly time has passed, and how accustomed I've grown to my new surroundings, even making a few new quality friends away from New York City. 

While generally writing about my travels, I try never to dismiss opportunities to share good experiences while at home. Some of the most memorable and warm moments are when close and thoughtful friends get together for a home-cooked meal--especially when friends invite me over. Universally, being invited to someone's home for dinner is huge: an intimate invitation of the host opening his or her heart for genuine friendship. It is an honor and the experience is even richer when I become comfortable while appreciating the new, unfamiliar, and sometimes even lonely places. 

I'd like to share some snaps shots of tabletops during my intimate but casual dinners with friends and newly acquainted ones. Whether I was hosting or being invited, these tabletops are not extraordinarily formal or luxurious, but rather thoughtful, elegantly simple, and seasonally appropriate.

Like other travel snap shots, I look at them and recall happy moments, this time through non-architectural, intimate tabletops.