tea time!

once a year, my friend deon and i take our turns hosting a little club of women friends. deon and i really get into it and typically have some type of theme. this year we decided on a high tea party. i wasn’t real informed about the whole tea business but i am always up for a party.

we delivered the invitations about a 6 weeks ago

i made these from recycled wool sweaters and a pattern from betz white that i miniaturized.

i found a wonderful line of fabrics featuring funky cups so i picked up 4 colors(pink, green, blue and orange) for the backs of napkins and then a panel and made 16 napkins. easy peasy process…right sides together, sew leaving a turning opening, turn, press, and zig zag the edges. believe i would do it differently next time as it was a challenge to not have any of the front showing on the back or visa versa.

our centerpiece was a neat little wrought iron holder that deon had. we put a couple of tea pots on it along with a pink polka dotted cup and saucer. deon had a child size fiesta tea set and my friend, chris, had a longaberger child set that she let me borrow.

this is a couple of the place settings. we mixed and matched my fiesta ware dishes and stuffed the napkins in a water goblet. we begged/borrowed/stole crystal salt and pepper shakers and put one little bloom in each one. the teas were found in a funky cup at the each table corner.

we located 13 gingham checked aprons and tied them around the chairs. they really are beautiful. each one was different and had wonderful cross-stitching or embroidery accents. of course the pink was my fave!

and of course, the menu! i really lucked out and deon made all the goodies! it’s not like i didn’t do stuff…my jobs were….well, i don’t really know, but food preparations is really up deon’s alley so it’s all good.

it’s apparently a big deal to serve the goodies on a 3 tiered tray. check check! and you eat from the bottom up so first it was sandwiches…..ribbon sands, pinwheels, banana nut bread, and a cream cheese-cucumber-shimp combo. the next tier was sweets….that brought us cream puffs, cranberry suger cookie, and pecan tassies. and then the dessert tier had divinity, chocolate dipped strawberries, and lemon bars. we also had plates of scones with clotted cream (sounds like yuk but tastes like yum)

here’s deon educating all of us on the fine art of drinking tea. she got me to wear an apron but i drew the line at the hat!

and pix of the girls:

ginnie, rosanne, sharon (back of marlene’s head!)

sharon, cynthia, jean, susie

sue, diane, mary, donna and marlene (back of rosanne and ginnie’s heads!)

(back of jean’s head) susie, sue, diane, mary donna

and finally, deon and myself