Some pictures from the ladies tea and gift exchange this week:
(Small hands helped set this pretty pink table)
Pink and white checked heart-shaped placemats with white cotton backing, and apple blossom pattern Acropal dinnerware, similar to Corningware. The dinnerware and gold forks, knives and spoons all came from Wal-Mart.
Pink napkins for the tea/dessert table are tied in Victorian calling cards, lace and string of beads. Free Victorian clip art for crafts are available.
A tea serving table prepared with hand sewn table cloth and little Victorian cards scattered on it, and several unique serving dishes. A young homeschooler crocheted those little drip catchers for me, from an old book called Workbasket.
Another table with a hand made table cloth and centerpiece bowl with decorative cards.
On the heart-shaped invitations, which were the Valentine cards you saw in a previous post, I requested that each person bring something from their home they did not want anymore, which would be suitable for a gift for one of the ladies there. Everyone got to choose what they wanted. Here is one of the gifts: a scented jar candle with a wax cherry, on a hand crocheted doilie. It is nice that some ladies are still doing that, and I intend to post a history of the doily sometime in the future. It was invented by a man of the surname of D'Oyley, who sought to make affordable placemats for people outside of the royal class.
One of the give-aways at the gift-exchange was a rose-shaped iron wall hook,
and an architectural-look wall hook,
and a magazine which was a gift to someone,
and this lovely artificial bouquet in a crystal-look plastic vase filled with clear pink floral marbles.
Each guest was given a hand made cinnamon ornament tied in a wired chiffon bow.
Children made heart-shaped paper airplane gliders that flew beautifully!
Even a left over skein of yarn was an appreciated gift for someone.
Other gifts included heart-shaped tea balls, China Rose Tea, tea cups, and tea towels.
13 ladies attended this event and the group sang in harmony several songs:
The Love of God (is greater far)
It is Well With My Soul
This World is Not My Home
Someone read Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter about the faith of the Hebrews.
Food served was:
Chopped vegetable salad
Raspberry Dessert
Homemade cheese ball and crackers
The Tea Table contained
Tea: Sugar Cookie tea from Celestial Seasonings
Yorkshire Gold
Pink Cupcakes
Sliced Pumpkin Bread
21 comments:
I wish I could do something elegant like this, but ....I guess I'll enjoy your day instead.
Lydia,
Oh me!!!!!! I wish I could have come!!!!! I know envy is a sin, but........yes, I am most envious at this point!! :-) the gifts given were lovely, the fellowship sounded wonderfully authentic and soul-feeding, and the menu - Please please post your potato casserole recipe, your cheeseball recipe, and your raspberry dessert recipe. What a gift of fellowship almost unknown nowadays! I'll give you an Aussie twist for next time - Pumpkin scones...
http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s1143809.htm
My mother used to make these for us sometimes during winter when we came home from school; with just butter on the split hot scone - delicious!! Don't worry about the 'electric mixer' instrructions; by hand is just as easy; remember to keep your butter out until it is soft, though, and allow the egg to reach room temperature before using (then the mix will not curdle). Bring these to table wrapped in a neatly pressed cotton tea towel on a nice serving plate. this will keep them warm and the cotton tea towel will allow the scones to breathe and not go limp from the steam. (this is how mum always served scones).
I dearly wish I could say - 'I'm on the next flight to the US and be ready to expect me in around 48 hours!' God willing, one day.
doi·ly noun \ˈdȯi-lē\
plural doilies
Definition of DOILY
1
: a small napkin
2
: a small often decorative mat
See doily defined for English-language learners »
Origin of DOILY
Doily or Doyley fl1711 London draper
First Known Use: 1711
Rhymes with DOILY
oily, roily
What pretty things you had! I wish I lived closer and could enjoy such a gathering as you had, but it makes me happy that you post about such things, so we can somewhat "experience" it from afar.
Many blessings,
Mrs. Q
What sweet ideas Lady Lydia!
What a nice time the ladies must have had. Thank you for sharing this nice post with us.
L.Rose
www.singlehomeschoolingmommas.com
The recipes were other people's donation to the lunch, but I made the potato casserole.
I bag frozen Southern style hashbrowns, 1 cup milk, 1 bag shredded mixed cheese (Monterey Jack with Colby)
Put the hashbrowns in a baking pan with the milk and cook at 350, stirring every half hour until the potatoes have thawed and absorbed most of the milk. Cover with a piece of foil while baking. It make take an hour or more, depending on how hot your oven is.
When the potatoes are soft, add the bag of shredded cheese and serve. If they potatoes get a little dry before serving, just ad some more milk before addding the cheese.
The raspberry dessert comes from the lady on the next farm to mine who has raspberries. She uses cream cheese as a base on top of type of a flour type crust. The topping is her raspberries that were frozen, and then pureed with something...I am not entirely sure of the recipe.
The chopped salad is cabbage, carrots, green or red peppers, and any hard vegetable that you like. Make a dressing with sour cream and seasonings.
This menu is great with hot rolls too.
such a lovely time you must have all enjoyed together!
Lynn M
Very nice table. I love the napkin holders.
I just want you to know I really enjoyed your previous posts. That's why I keep coming back. Keep up the great job, and yes it's a job! LOL
Penne
Hi Lydia,
you appealed to all the senses and then some. My guess is that you had your very talented daughter play the piano for the group too.
I really enjoyed seeing the pink sprigged tablecloth then the checked place mat layered with the floral dinerware and the napkins.
It gave a garden effect. The centerpiece candle was perfect.
Pink stemware was the last great touch.
Knowing that you invited the Lord and gave praise to him in your tea was the best part of all. It made the tea all the more sweet.
Thank you for sharing, it was delightful.
Blessings, Janet W.
Janet and others, thank you for your gracious comments.
The singing was very sweet. Some of the men were in another room and afterwards said it was an exquisite sound coming through the walls.
Janet
The centerpiece is one of those flameless candles.
Lady Lydia,
The pink tablescape looks beautiful. I remember going to a luncheon at the Plaza Hotel in New York when I was much younger. The pink and silver tablesettings they had made a big impression on me. Your beautiful valentine luncheon table gave me the same feeling. I am sure your guests felt very special.
This was all so lovely. Everything was affordable, yet elegant. What nice ideas. One of my children is going to make First Holy Communion in the spring and family will visit us afterwards. This post gave me some ideas that I could adapt for that special occasion.
I enjoy many of the older posts you have linked with the pictures at the bottom. I saw one recently on The New Frugality, and was hoping to print it out, but the link changed before I got a chance and I don't know how to find it. Is there a way to do that? I'm sorry if there is and I just missed it but that post contained some excellent advice I don't want to forget!
Thank you.
Lydia, you said that the dinnerware and gold flatware came from Walmart? I am wondering if the goldware is the new disposable kind that look quite real. I could only find it in silver and would really love to buy some of the gold. Could you please tell me exactly what this was? Thanks.
Emmarinda, It is real steel flatware, gold-plated and comes out before Christmas, but you might be able to find it online. It is only about $9.99 for a four place seting, so a person could easily affort 4 boxes. There was also a serving set that you could buy but there were none left. You cannot wash these in the dishwasher or combined with stainless steel. The stainless steel tarnishes it. I hand wash and rinse and towel-dry mine.
How lovely and those cookies were adorable.
Everything is SO pretty! :) I LOVE those pretty plates on your table...they look just like something I'd swoon over! lol
Missy
This is very pretty and would be an equally nice setting for an Easter Tea or dinner on Mother's Day. I like your tea cart. This is something that could be accomplished by nearly any homemaker with what she already has on hand.
What with thrift stores and antique shops homemakers could get a collection of beautiful teacups and saucers, especially since many of the dinner sets today now come with mugs. On the internet you could find shops that have china patterns that are no longer being produced. Lately I have noticed that Target has some teapos on their shelves that fit the season and are also reasonably priced.
I too am looking forward to future sewing and crafting post.
What a gorgeous Valentine Tea-I LOVE all of the pink. What a bright spot in these cold winter days. Thank you for sharing the lovely photos and ideas!
~Rhonda
Someone emailed me about the tea cup placement not being in the proper area of the setting. I had help from a small helper, a little girl, who was excited about these dishes, and I didnt pay much attention. Just glad for the help. Every little bit counts when you are busy. I know that children do not get every detail when they are helping in house keeping, but it does save some time.
I noticed that there are some table setting ideas on my blogroll and that they use a number of different dishes and syles. If you only have one set of dishes, you can make table cloths and placemats and centerpieces different that match, and give it all a different look. For example, this rose blossom plates in the pictures here could be set with a solid dusty rose table cloth and the centerpiece could be changed to something more bold. If your plates have several colors in them, just make placemats and choose napkins that pick up those colors. You do not necessarily need many sets of dishes if you are unable to get them.
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