outdoor entertaining space

Christmas in Australia falls in Summer so we like to be outside - unless it's scorching hot. For the challenge I didn't want to spend any money so used what I had around the house to pull together a tablescape for 10 people. I planned to do a kids table too but ran out of time and patience... We would be sitting outside - our courtyard is quite private and would be perfect for a lunch as the sun doesn't pour into it until the later afternoon (like when these pictures were taken, hence the overexposure!) This picture: Our dining table seats 8 at a pinch with the two benches on either side and chairs at either end. But it's squishy, so when I took it outside, I used our outside table as a second one. It's a fence-paling table on trestles and is a fair bit lower than our dining table. I didn't want the height different to be a weird annoyance if I pushed them together to create one long table and I also didn't want to break up the company by having the two end guests with their backs to each other. So I created "one" long table with a gap in the middle and didn't seat anyone in the gap. I hung baubles over both tables and placed glittered jars on both surfaces, but they weren't an exact match. When putting together an entertaining space, look around you and work with what you have - that can dictate style and colourway. I knew I had lots of silver and grey in my place and there were lots of purple flowers blooming in my neighbourhood so they were the colours I went with. The bluey-purple dye was the perfect way to bring the colours together and cost next-to-nothing and can be used in various ways afterwards.