A tablescape collaboration with Morgan Dyer and Anna Stabler

What was the last thing you made for the joy of it? It’s a skill we don’t talk about enough in hustle and bustle culture, letting joy lead the process. Not letting comparative, competitive, or self-doubt thoughts get in the way. Is it making you giddy? Are we having fun? Was something “ooo” and “ahh” evoking? Like when sunset hits the disco ball in the window at just the right angle and the whole room explodes with mirror ball magic?

While Anna Stabler lives in bustling Brooklyn, New York, Morgan Dyer’s pace runs slower in seaside Rockport, MA. What they both have in common is their love for a tablescape surrounded by those they love, art, food, and good conversation. The beauty of the tablescape can happen anywhere–at any time. A picnic in the park or beach, a quick Sunday drive down the backshore with snacks atop the center console. Impromptu pizza and wine with friends passing by the neighborhood; a book club dinner on Zoom. They both encourage each other to notice these moments as they’re happening and make them special.

During the pandemic, they found themselves creating space for the smaller gifted moments, they created handmade goods to reflect and use in these moments… for the joy of it. The tablescape series is a pen-pal quarantine story that will continue throughout all four seasons, the first being Winter.

Morgan’s Winter Tablescape Story

Brunch & Books

The sunshine gleaming through the big windows in the Main Street apartment reveals that it is late morning. Breakfast has come and gone, morning traffic has subsided and my partner and I are just waking up. A luxury that only an Omicron quarantine can bring.

The scent of coffee fills the air while we quietly read our books, softly waking the mind— hunger approaches and Saturday morning brunch begins. The dining table in our place is a multitasking one. Sketchbooks, pens and pencils scattered. A jar of tabasco and green chili sauce work as a normalized centerpiece along with the stack of art books and screenplays.

This brunch calls for something special, because, why not? I unfold Anna’s bright blue ice-dyed tablecloth shipped from Brooklyn that, hand stitched in the center, reads, “COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY” – affirming that this Saturday brunch session deserves to be as fun as we want it to be — for no particular reason.

Breakfast tacos and grapefruit bubbly. Bright orange napkins wiping salsa off our cheeks. Sun showcasing the hot steam rising from the corn tortillas thoughtfully snug inside a hand-painted napkin. Anna’s sculpted wine charm around my glass, reflecting colors into the crystal. As the half-drank bubbly sits inside the wine tote, keeping chilled, we laugh at my attempts at reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth out loud…a Saturday morning production. To me, this is how every day should be– freedom to laugh, the excuse to use the special napkins, and cover the tablecloth with remnants of a savory meal… in this case, grated cheese and black beans.

HOP TO ANNA’S TABLESCAPE STORY