Mamma's Day/Advice from Paula Deen

Out of gift ideas for Mother's Day? Then, why not focus on creating a memory, like having her over for lunch or tea. Paula Deen, chef of all things decadently-Southern, has served-up some tips on how to set the scene for a dainty girls luncheon.

1) CHINA - Pull out your antique china or borrow a setting, like this antique baby blue and pink floral pattern with a gold trim or a similar girly-feeling design. She bought antique brooches to adhere to each white napkin to dress-it-up and gave them to her guests as a favor. Perhaps the guest of honor, mom, gets a very special one?

2) PLACE HOLDER - To mark your guest's seat, borrow Deen's idea to cut up pieces of stock card and paste an old picture of your mom, or your guest's mom, to the front. In order to keep the cards from falling over, she punched a hole in the top and threaded a long-stemmed rose through the hole. Where the end of the stem touches the table, Deen placed a small ball of gum paste to keep everything in place.

3) LINENS - Throw some fresh linens over the table. In this picture, Deen uses a light pink color. If you don't have a linen table cloth, be creative with other fabrics that might be stowed away in your linen closet. Deen's tablecloth is actually a drapery panel!

4) GLASSWARE - Mix-and-match whatever old vintage glasses that you may have your cupboard, or venture out to the flea market to buy a set of four wine glasses to add to the ambiance. At Deen's table, she intermingles etched clear wine glasses with light blue hobnail sherbert glasses.

5) FAKE PEARLS - If you are not going to wear them around your neck, then think how to use them on your table. Deen has a simple arrangement of white roses, which are perfect in their most simple form, but look how she draped several strands of pearls around the bottom of the vase.