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!

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ bird seed favors

These bird seed party favors were easy to make ahead and

the perfect little take home gift to hand out at the end of our tea party. 

Check back tomorrow for more details about our mother ~ daughter Secret Garden Tea Party. 

Have a wonderful day!

The Secret Garden Tea Party ~ invitations

May + Mother's Day = Tea Party! 

Our traditional celebration all began many, many years ago as an annual Mother ~ Daughter Tea Party at our church in the little town we grew up in. The church put on the event for approximately 20+ years and some mothers and daughters  came from miles away to attend. Our mother was always involved with the church tea party and we had a table every year.  However, the much loved tea party finally came to an end at the church and that is when we began having our own annual party on the same Saturday before Mother's Day. If we counted right,  this year was our 8th family tea party.

It took me awhile to settle on the final design for this years invites. Narrowing down all the ideas I had was hard however it finally came together and this is how they turned out. 

Inside hand made "seed packet" envelopes were "tea bag" invites with hand cut "keys" attached with ribbon which were then all wrapped up in a doily "gate" and closed with ribbon and hand punched and stamped "locks".  Lots of parts but fun make. Tomorrow I will share more about our special 

Secret Garden Tea Party!

Happy Monday!

  

BIG chocolate chip cookies

As Papa Bear always says...

...go BIG or go home!

The bigger the better when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. I added some chocolate chunks as well chocolate chips so they are full of YUM!

Enjoy the SUNNY day!

DIY chicken wire cloche

I made this cute cloche last night using some leftover chicken wire from the bridal shower crown I made for our daughter~in~law in 2011.  As luck would have it, I also happened to have a glass drawer pull that worked perfectly for the top. Once I finished cutting, shaping and wiring up the top and side I decided to make a tag to hang on the cute knob. I found some rub off numbers that were just right, cut out the tag and hung it on the top. It was finished in no time. I plan on using it as a decoration for my mother~daughter tea party in a couple weeks so look for it in the tea party posts.

Have a terrific Tuesday!