It's a cheese board; it's a centerpiece; it's a place to corral cocktail garnishes. It's a basic white platter (this one's from cb2.com), the most versatile item in your cupboard.
Float flowers like these peonies in small bowls, and arrange them with votive candles for a quick, modern centerpiece. On a long table, you can place a few platters down the middle.
With the help of these candle and flower centerpieces, the whole table will shine. For each one, use candle wax to attach a small floral frog to the center of a shallow bowl. Push a taper into the floral frog to secure. Pour water into the bowl. Clip amaryllis blooms (or other large flowers) from their stems, and arrange them in the bowl around the candle.
A New Year's Eve celebration wouldn't be complete without a glass of Champagne, so bubbly is a perfect theme for end-of-the-year festivities. Ball-shaped ornaments displayed in glass flutes mimic the rising bubbles. (We mixed vintage balls with clear ones.) Gather flutes in varying styles, and cluster them on a cake stand to craft a truly effervescent centerpiece.
What was good for Christmas is even sweeter for Easter.
Fill glass food jars with bulk candy arranged in colorful layers. Or create an Easter basket effect by nestling a white-chocolate bunny or lamb in green paper "grass." Finish with ribbon and a tag, or attach a note to the lid using double-sided tape.
Step aside, pumpkins -- here's an unexpected and inviting accent for the dinner table. We used daikon radishes and turnips, but any root vegetable will work. Using a knife, slice off enough of the leafy top to create a flat base. Insert black-headed pushpins to form eyes; for the mouth, cut a half-moon into the vegetable with a paring knife, and fill it in with a black marker. Arrange several in a shallow bowl, varying the heights and the shapes.
Create an hors d'oeuvre centerpiece that recalls a vegetable patch. Buy a large, deep galvanized-metal planter from a garden-supply center, line the bottom with sprouts, and pour in enough water to moisten them. Arrange vegetables, such as cherry tomatoes, carrots, radishes, asparagus, and cauliflower, in sections inside the container, varying the colors. Serve immediately with herb dip, or cover with moist paper towels and refrigerate up to 2 hours.
