A Novel Affair :: tea party :: Chapters 1~4

It is hard to choose a favorite part of creating a tea party however coming up with the menu and making the food is right at the top. This particular menu was especially fun because of the library theme and trying to match all the food to familiar books. There are also menu items from our own family story which made our theme even more personal.

Several weeks before the tea party I began jotting down food possibilities and I found there was no shortage on ideas. As the menu progressed and the party day got closer I started to think about how I wanted it to look. My thought was to try and make it similar to a restaurant menu. All I could think of was was a flat, front and back, menu on card stock or a single fold however neither one sounded very exciting. Then, three days before the tea party it came to me. It would be a colored three fold program/menu with photos. I spent that afternoon working on graphics and putting it all together and it was finished and printed that evening. I would have preferred to have an editor {miss E} go over it however time was running short so I took a chance and it worked out surprisingly well with only a few minor Uff~da's. 

The size was just right for the table and there was plenty of room for my exhaustive menu, which was practically a book in itself. There was also enough space to include the book and/or family references. And that, of course, is what made it so much fun. 

So to start, the place settings were basically the same as years past and I used assorted tea cups and saucers as I usually do. 

The napkins were actually sweet little hankies in assorted pastels which I have used at previous tea parties.

Each place setting had two goblets in addition to the tea cups.

That was to accommodate additional beverage choices this year which were added due to our literary theme.

We began our tea party with a blessing which was a Father Tim quote from one of my At Home in Mitford books and then miss E read the poem Why Libraians Wear Cardigans by Julia McConnell.

Next we brought out the tea and also offered Iced~Tea and homemade Anne of Green Gables ~ Raspberry Cordials. The Raspberry Cordials were very refreshing and a big hit.

Early the morning of the party I prepared the scones so that they would be as fresh as possible. Once the lemon scones were out of the oven I began making the gluten & dairy free Blueberry Scones and it was at that point Miss E convinced me that we did not need anymore food. As much as I wanted to serve them I knew she was right so I set the it aside for the time being. I did, however, end up making them the next morning since I had already mixed up the dry ingredients the day before. They turned out great but by this time I was not thinking about taking photos so that means I will definitely be posting them at some point, along with my recipe, once I get around to making them again.

We did serve the Lemon Scones, as planned, along with homemade Lemon Curd and homemade Devonshire cream. They are always a favorite.

Our beginnings included several delicious bite sized treats.

The dainty sized Adventurous Beginnings provided a lite but tasty start to our tea party as there were plenty more delightful chapters ahead in our story. I will be back tomorrow to share the last three chapters in our tea party chronicles so be sure to check it out!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

A Novel Affair :: tea party :: DIY crafts and games

Our annual Mother's Day tea party this year was a library theme. To set the tone for our party I converted our China hutch into a library book display case. To accomplish this I asked Mr. Wonderful to remove the two front doors so that the contents inside would be more visible. Once that was done I removed everything from the four shelves in the middle section so that I could create a little library.

Then I gathered some of our old books, tea cups and saucers, assorted flowers and our Scrabble game and went to work. The display was coming together but it seemed to need a little something else so I cut a bunch of paper circles, sewed them together on my sewing machine which turned them into a little banner and then hung them behind the books. It was just what it needed. 

The book display looked great however the shelves on both sides were still full of dishes which you could see through the glass doors and distracted from the focal point in the center. I wasn't keen on taking everything out though and had been putting it off for a couple days when it finally occurred to me to cover the windows with book pages instead. So, with a little tape and a bunch of pages I went to work. It didn't take long at all but I thought it still needed a little something else so I made some more banners. This time I made the circles slightly larger than the ones in the middle and then punched holes in the top and used cotton string to thread them together. Now the library book display was definitely the focal point. 

Next I made a couple cute book page topiaries for the tables. 

For the first one I punch medium sized flowers, used old assorted buttons for the center of the flowers and straight pins to attach the flowers a styrofoam balls. I also stained the edges of the flowers with ink for an aged look. 

Next I made a cupcake topiary and used white pearl pins to attach small flowers. I also made the cupcake liner it sits on and the tag and small flag. The tag is cut from card stock, stamped on the back and a reinforcement attached around the hole.  

The Admit One ticket on the top is from a big roll of tickets I happened to save from another event. I thought it would cute to add one to the top so I took some wire and twisted it with my pliers to make a little ticket holder. 

My old book pages came in handy for making napkin pockets too. Each pocket took one page which I trimmed, folded in half, scalloped cut the edge and then sewed together on my sewing machine with pink thread that coordinated with the color scheme. Then a heart was stamped in the middle of each pocket. 

The menu included both regular and gluten free choices so I decided to make matching book page picks to make it easy to identify the gluten free food.

Miss E read a fun poem about Why Librarians Wear Cardigans and then gave the guests a custom word search she made for them to work on while we served the Noveltea. 

Small recycled jars, filled with buttons and decorated with coordinating flowers, held pencils which were placed at each end of the table so that they would be handy for the word search.

We also played "Name the Book/Author" at the end of our party. I used some of my favorite quotes as well as some other popular quotes and printed them on library cards which I then decorated with my date stamp to keep with the theme. The cards were placed in each end of the long card catalog box on the table and then passed out when we played the game. Each guest took turns reading the quote on their card and the others tried to guess the author and/or the name of the book. 

It was hard to narrow down all the great things that could be created with book pages but time dictated how much I could actually do before switching gears to the food. The menu was a bit long but lots of fun. I will be back soon to share what we served to the book club members at A Novel Affair.

Happy Saturday!

A Novel Affair:: Welcome to the Library

Last weekend was our annual Tea Party which was actually more of a luncheon but either way we gathered at the “library”, sipped tea, ate dainty sandwiches and pretty little sweet treats all while talking about books, quotes and famous authors, and a few not so famous but loved just the same.

The desk on the porch was perfect for greeting the guests as they arrived and the kids old college books came in handy as a Welcome Sign. 

The book club members were greeted by Miss E, the Librarian, as they stepped inside the library and then gave each person a Woodlee County Library Card.

These little DIY Library cards were fun and easy to make. Once the front was finished though the back seemed a bit blah and needed just a little something so I drew a few lines and then used my date stamp to give each card a little more character. Now they were cute on the front and the back.

Once our guests signed their library cards they were reminded about OVERDUES with this funny poem, which is a family favorite, and then they were off to browse around the Library. 

 The first section in the library contained assorted Biographies and Cookbooks. 

These books were extra special to all of the book club members as they were related to the authors.

Next was the Children’s area which was full of classic books dating back several generations. Some even have family signatures and dates inside.

Poems and quotes were placed on tables along the way on to our Book Club gathering. 

 

Every library has a Card Catalog so I thought our library needed one too. Ours consisted of  these DIY Card Catalog drawers which held DIY bookmarks.

These cute boxes were originally made last summer by Mr. Wonderful for our nieces bridal shower so we repurposed them and added drawer pulls to the front for quick and easy library props. 

The Librarian and I also had fancy reading glasses to wear in the library,  with a chain no less. 

There is more to share from our afternoon at the Library so I will be back soon with more details about our fun literary tea party. 

Have a great Wednesday!

A Novel Affair: tea party/luncheon ~ Invitations

Mother's Day Tea Parties in May have been a tradition for our family for more than 20 years. Each one is unique and all the mothers and daughters try to attend if at all possible even when it is out of town. This year Easter was early which put it just a week away from Mother's Day so instead of  having two big family events back to back I decided to plan our special tea party a couple weeks later. Once that was settled I started working on a theme. 

It did not take long to narrow down my ideas to a cute library theme and then I was ready to start working on an invitation. Once I had a sample mocked up I showed it to Miss E to get her opinion. She is always a big help when it comes to reigning in my ideas. Around this same time Mr. Wonderful came up with an idea to do some interior painting at the folks house and suggested that we coordinate the tea party with the painting and invite both parents so that they have something to do while portions of the house are sealed off. It was a great plan however it occurred to me that it might be better to change the invitation design just a bit and refer to it as a luncheon instead. So I worked on the wording and made a few other minor adjustments and came up with A Novel Affair. Our theme was born.

The next step was to figure out the rest of the wording and of course the Title of the book.

There were a lot of fun details including the pocket to hold the library book card which I sewed together on my sewing machine and bookmark which serves as a useful little reminder. 

Also, no two invitations were alike. I used different paper and ribbon color combinations for each one, simply because it was so much fun.

It also needed a cute factor so I added the button flower to the corner and attached a coordinating tassel or ribbon on the bookmark.

To complete the theme I made my own washi® style tape to use as a seal for the envelope. 

Once the invitations were signed, sealed and delivered it was time to start working on the party. I will be back soon with more fun details about our {tea party} luncheon.

Happy Monday!