Spring Breakfast

Mixing and matching old glassware in various shapes and sizes is easy if the pieces share a common theme, such as the etching on these. Bamboo-handle silver adds another outdoorsy detail.

Elegant china gets a casual treatment when set on woven chargers and topped with a heavy linen napkin tied with twine and one perfect radish.

Clever details such as this chandelier shade lend a lighthearted touch to the morning festivities. Pull the outer leaves from an artificial cabbage and tie them with twine around rattan chandelier lamps a day or two before the celebration.

Called into action from the potting shed, an inexpensive terra-cotta saucer serves as a whimsical coffee- and tea- service tray. Fresh garden vegetables fill the lower tiers of a wire basket, and flowers nestled in a bed of lettuce top it off with a joyous finale. Wrap the flower stems loosely with a rubber band, and tuck the bouquet into a small canning jar filled with water before hiding it inside the leaves. Soak the vegetables in a chilly bath, then blot dry and arrange just before the first guest arrives.

Displayed on a bed of garden lettuce in a footed china compote, hard-cooked brown and white eggs are traditional Easter fare.

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