Celebration Cupcakes

We like to celebrate achievements, big and small, and what better way than to serve festive cupcakes for dessert.

These are chocolate Celebration Cupcakes with buttercream frosting however, I made them gluten free for this special occasion and we couldn't tell the difference. YUM. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Patriotic Dessert { gluten free }

These were the best little desserts and so festive for Memorial Day. 

I made our favorite blackberry cobbler however I also needed a gluten free dessert and decided to make these quick and easy fruit parfaits.

I made extra and I am glad I did since some of us had both cobbler and a parfait!

We love our desserts.

Happy Tuesday!

Explosion Boxes ~ The Secret Garden Tea Party

In case you were wondering, an Explosion Box is a special card that looks like a box however once the lid is removed the sides fall open to reveal pockets, messages, gifts and a variety of other surprises tucked inside. 

This was a project I knew I had to try and thought it would be perfect for our Secret Garden mother ~ daughter tea party. My original plan was to make one for each guest and inside they would find the Tea Party Program, Menu, Game and a small gift.  I had all of the boxes cut out and ready to decorate and fill but I quickly discovered that these sweet little boxes take more time to assemble than I had originally planned on.  So, I set aside all but two, one for our mother and one to hide our game in until it was time to pass them out. 

The inside of the boxes are somewhat similar since my intention was to make all the boxes the same so, in theory, the assembly would go faster. The outside seemed to go pretty quickly however once I started on the inside things began to slow down due in part to the constant flow of ideas. That always slows me down.

The pockets with the blue flowers hold the program and the menu. The envelope with the tie closure held The Secret Garden Game { aka: cootie catcher }. The envelopes are made from pictures of quilts in my quilting magazines so each one is different. I drew a template that fit the magazine pages as well as the square in the box and then traced, cut and glued all the pieces. Last but not least I attached a tie closure that wrapped around a punched flower. 

For this blue box I made an extra feature to put in the middle since the games would only be there temporarily. A bouquet of flowers seemed perfect for the center and they match the Pomanders I made for the  tea party table.  The crown on top represents our Queen Bee. 

The pink box below is the one that was given to the Queen Bee.

For this box I used coordinating paper but used the same layout. My idea was to have the two different colors of boxes so half would match this box and the other half would match the blue box except for the envelopes which were all a different quilt pattern. 

The boxes were to each have the bird seed party favor inside as this one did. 

This was such a fun project!

Although I wasn't able to make as many as I had planned I look forward to making more explosion boxes for other special occasions.

Happy Saturday!

DIY Tea Cup Bird Feeder ~ Mother's Day Gift

A tea cup bird feeder seemed like the perfect Mother's Day gift since the theme of our mother ~ daughter tea party this year was

The Secret Garden.

The first thing I had to find was the perfect tea cup. Everywhere I went I checked out cups and saucers. They didn't necessarily have to match, it could be old or new and, if possible, had to be somewhat sturdy since it would be outside in the elements.

It took weeks of searching but I finally found the perfect set while I was at out of town, at OSU Mom's Weekend, and it was definitely worth the wait. Once I got home I glued it all together, printed up a tag with instructions, filled a bag with bird seed, wrapped it all up with cellophane and tied it with satin ribbon.

Hopefully it will be a fun reminder of all our special mother ~ daughter tea parties.

I think our garden could use a Tea Cup bird feeder!

Happy Tuesday!! 

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ game

Every year at our mother ~ daughter tea party we play a game or have a simple activity at the table. This year we played a trivia game using custom made cootie catchers/fortune tellers.

To create the game I used tea party words and graphics as well as trivia questions I used from The Secret Garden book. In the middle I added a garden quote, also from the book, and surrounded it with a frame. Once the graphics and words were in the correct places I printed them on off~white paper. Next I folded each one into a cootie catcher, folded all of them in half again and tied them into little packages with bakers twine. They were then hidden in a box on the table. 

When it was time for the game we opened up the box to reveal the little packages. After they were passed out and unwrapped we paired up and took turns answering the questions or at least trying to guess.

The answer keys had been placed in an envelope and tied with a ribbon. Once everyone had played a few rounds we opened the envelope and passed out the answers. 

A simple and fun little tea party game that could be adapted to any theme. 

To find out more about our mother ~ daughter tea party go to:

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ Invitations

The Secret Garden Tea Party

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ Treats

Rainbow in the Clouds

Have a Beautiful Sunday!

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ treats

Tea parties are all about the tea and the dainty treats. A fun part of the preparations is coming up with a menu that coordinates with the theme however the hard part is narrowing down all the ideas. And, if you're like me and can't narrow them down, then you just keeping adding! This years menu included a couple of new additions: Soup & Sorbet.

We served the soup in miniature mismatched tea cups and saucers. There were 2 choices of soup: Pear Potato & Tomato Basil, however, after taking requests we ended up serving both. The Pear Potato was topped with homemade creme fraiche, a sprinkle of chinese 5 spice, a few red pepper flakes and a sprig of thyme. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the Tomato Basil soup however it can be found here.

Next we served Raspberry Sorbet followed by Lemon Scones with homemade Devonshire Cream. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the scones either. There are so many things to photograph I occasionally miss a few. Thankfully I have posted the scones before so you can find them here.

Once our palates were cleansed we were ready for the savories.

Our Savories included:

Apple Chicken Sandwiches {GF}, Cucumber Flower Bites {GF}, Egg Salad Finger Sandwiches, Deviled Eggs {GF}, Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Tomato Pesto Herb Sandwiches.

The gluten free choices were very popular.

Below the Cream Horns are the Tomato Pesto Herb Sandwiches.

The tea party sweets included Mini Snickers Cupcakes, Cream Cones, Pavlova{GF} and Chocolate Covered Strawberries {GF}.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries are a favorite.

The Pavlova reminded me of little bird nests which I thought went well with our theme. 

I made the Snickers Cupcakes for a baby shower a few weeks ago. They got such good reviews I decided to add them to the menu but made them tea party size instead.

Our guests chose Earl Grey Tea and we served Grapefruit Sparkling Water as well. 

On Monday I will share the fun Secret Garden Tea Party game we played. 

Have a wonderful Saturday!

The Secret Garden Tea Party

Last Saturday was our annual mother ~ daughter tea party.

I decided to go with a garden theme this year which made decorating fun and easy. Since we have lots of ivy in our yard I decided to use natural instead of buying faux ivy. A few weeks before the party I cut a couple vines, rinsed them well and then hung them for a few days to see how long the ivy would last indoors. It held up fine so I was able to go ahead with the fresh, natural ivy down the center of the table. I also had a bag of velvet Petals that are ordinarily attached to quilts and clothing for embellishment however I thought it made perfect table confetti.

One of Miss E's old childhood suite cases was just the right color and size to hold a cake stand covered in old lace with a tarnished silver tea pot on top. The original plan was to purchase some Peonies or possibly hydrangeas to arrange in the tea pot however while I was walking by our front window the week of the party our big pink rhododendrons caught my eye. They had just started blooming so it was covered in flowers. I went out and snipped off a stem and loved how it looked with everything so went with that instead. 

The table decorations also included some DIY crafts. I made a chicken wire cloche and a couple pink Pomanders which where all part of the centerpiece. Of course I had many more crafts in mind but my table just wasn't as big as my imagination. 

A program and menu were set on each plate and the napkins were tied with pink satin ribbon.

Another fun project was making the boxes that were placed at each end of the table. The one above was about to be opened and so it had been moved to the plate when this picture was taken. I will share more about the boxes in an upcoming post. 

The beautiful Forget Me Nots were from my youngest sister. The invitations I made had Forget Me Nots printed on the seed packet envelopes and since she has them growing in her yard she decided to bring me a dainty little bouquet. They were so sweet all tied up with twine.

I will be sharing tea party treats, games and more fun projects in the coming days so be sure and check back. 

Have a wonderful day!