A Beautiful Luncheon ... Celebrating a birthday of a dear friend.

Handcrafted Invitation  -- Made to look like a book.

The Lovely Birthday Table

Banners help to create that "festive" atmosphere.

Of course, every place setting must have a special plate decoration and a place card holder.

These place card holders have the initial of the person who will sit there.

 

Beautiful gold napkins folded with a knot in the middle and a surprise inside.  

The surprise is a paper napkin so that the gold pleated napkin just looks lovely and does not have to be used.

I spent some time creating a napkin ring.  The ring itself is a plastic shower curtain ring from Walmart.  Then I wrapped it in tulle.  I used various colors of felt to create the flower and then I used a larger bead for the center of the flower with little seed beads to accent the center bead and bring it all together.  I used white for the leaves with an edging of little gold seed beads.  Then applied a gold ribbon under the napkin ring, attached with a hot glue gun.  And I left the tulle ends a little long so I could include the tulle in the whole decoration.  Notice how well the napkin ring matches the bowl and plate.  : )   These are very special hand-made plates are from the Niagara China Company.  They are gorgeous and unique.

Of course every place setting has to have a special flower arrangement!

Everyone gets their own unique tea cup sitting on an antique Japanese plate probably painted in the 1890s;  although this plate may be German/Bavarian.  And a bank of candles to add to the party atmosphere - the birthday honoree must blow out all of these candles!

I hope you will take inspiration from this table setting and invite your friends for a lovely tea party!

So Many Tea Parties

It has been much too long since I last wrote.  I've been so very busy with tea parties and decorating for Christmas.  After Christmas, it was a daunting task to take down and pack away the ornaments from all seven (yes, 7!) trees.

Then there were tea parties galore!

This post sat in my drafts folder for months.  I am going to post it now, even though it is sorely late and out-of-date.  It was written at the beginning of 2016.

CHRISTMAS TEA PARTY

We had a lovely Minestrone soup, made from scratch and a delicious tuna fish sandwich, grilled with butter and Parmesan cheese.  We enjoyed the colorful place settings, especially the delicate and beautiful porcelain blue soup bowls from Japan.  The place cards not only showcased a little gingerbread man but included a tiny envelope with the story of where gingerbread men originated.  Fun!

The Fall Table Setting

A beautiful fall table setting with silk oak leaves wrapped around sparkly gold candles at the center of  the table; a little glass pumpkin on the bread plate adds to fall look.

Gold-rimmed glasses and gold sparkly flatware complement the gold chargers and the other decor.

 

An old napkin from the family estate, embellished with applique and embroidery held together with a beaded and wire floral napkin ring in similar fall colors all coordinates with the fall theme.

Tea Royale

Some days you are lucky by birth or by circumstance.  In this case, it was birth that gave me entrée to a lovely Scottish estate belonging to my cousin.  We had a traditional Tea Royale, which means we began with champagne and ended with Madeira wine.  In between sweet and savory treats were served up in the traditional way along with hot tea imported from Ceylon.

 

Let's Have a Tea Party!

Two of my old friends are coming for a visit and what better time to get all girly and have a tea party!

 Pink and roses - the perfect combination for a tea party setting

Delicate place cards continue the rose theme and add to the complete look of the table setting.    These place card holders were my mother's, passed on to me, and made by Stafforshire porcelain, England.

Elegant monogrammed napkins are another addition to say, "This is a special occasion!"

A unique lotus lamp that I purchased in Hawaii has seen many uses.  It sheds just the right amount of light on the table. 
 

A little tea table holds all the tea selections.

Another table holds the sugar and creamer.  An old but still elegant cigarette holder is the place for packets of Stevia. 

 These next three photographs show a little trick I learned years ago about how to shorten a table cloth that is not the right size or shape.  It adds that little touch of the rose theme down at the floor level.

I hope you enjoy having a tea party with your friends, for a special occasion or just because.

Birthday Table Setting

What's a birthday without a big banner??

For a person with more than nine sets of dishes and lots of miscellaneous dishes and bowls, the only ones that seem to appear on this blog lately are the blue glass dishes.  That has more to do with the fact that I just moved to a house that is less than half the size of my former house and there is no room for anything in my teeny-tiny kitchen.  I also like the fact that these dishes were made in the USA, so I use them a lot.

Hand made cards for the one celebrating a birthday.

 A funny little place card.  Hope you can read it.

Happy Birthday to all and wishes for many more, whatever day happens to be your special day!  Or, as a certain fictional hare would say, "A very happy unbirthday to you!"

A New Tablesetting for 2015 ...Something Blue ... Something New

Here is a new table setting, with some familiar blue plates and some new napkin rings.  The napkin rings were a gift from a friend who bought them in Brazil from an artisan.  They look like paper but are really made of metal.  Very unique.  Each rose is a different color.

I hope you'll be inspired to set a pretty table.  Do something romantic, even if it takes a little more effort.