Another weekend, another tea! This time, it was a tea held simply in honor of my 12-year-old friend Lyndsi. I met Lyndsi years ago through her aunt, who is one of my best friends, and one day I mentioned we should have a tea for her "one day." For years (I'm ashamed to tell you how many) I have said yes, we'll have that tea "one day" but never scheduled it. When my friend recently mentioned that Lyndsi was still hoping we'd have that tea "one day," I realized it was time to pull out some pink stuff and have a tea for no other reason than simply to honor Lyndsi.
I looked for a new pink tablecloth, but you know what I ended up using? This old pink crocheted bedspread I found in the linen closet. Why not? The Johnson Brothers Rose Chintz looked nice against it, I thought.
I used tea and toast sets since I had seven guests and was serving this tea "buffet style," so guests could get a set at their leisure and head to a comfy spot in the living room. Miscellaneous tea and toast sets were used because, as Shabby Chic founder Rachel Ashwell says, "Mismatched is OK; ugly is not." (If you look at the top of this photo, you can see in the background the empty glass plate with a piece of paper written with the name of the food to go on it. That's one of my methods of making sure I've set out enough serving dishes before a tea.)
Of course we had to have madeleines (orange flavor) and White Chocolate/Cranberry/Walnut Tea Bread (left over and frozen from last week's tea, it kept beautifully).
The store was out of mini-croissants so I had to use plain old wheat bread for the Chicken Salad Sandwiches (I ran out of prep time and had to leave the crusts on! Yuck!), but mercifully I had time to cut out teapot shapes for the bread for the Cucumber Cream Sandwiches. (Lyndsi seemed impressed by the teapot shapes, which of course made me happy.)
Into every tea a little chocolate must fall, so we had Chocolate Truffles rolled in pecans and dark chocolate cocoa.
And Mini-Chocolate Chip Scones with cream rounded out the menu.
And the tea party favors this time? Pink tin roses were placed in napkins folded into a knot shape.
And finally, the child who waited so patiently for her tea party deserved personalized candy bars, embellished with pretty scrapbooking papers.
Your tea table looked lovely. What a lot of great ideas. I really liked the idea of using the tea and toast sets. The tin roses and decorated chocolate bars looked great, as did the food. Lyndsi must have been thrilled with her tea party.
ReplyDeleteHow precious of you. I know Lyndsi felt loved and honored. Everything was lovely. tammyp
ReplyDeleteGORGEOUS! Wow - Lyndis is so lucky to have a special friend like you! Yum - what's your madeleine secret?
ReplyDeleteI mean Lyndsi!
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet thing for you to do. Everything looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteAngela, your table looked fab; and here I thought I was the only one obsesive enough to lay out slips of paper on the serving dishes to make sure everything fits!!I knew we had something else in common besides our love of all things tea!
ReplyDeleteUmmm...where is the tea for Misty? I'm waiting...""taps finger::
ReplyDeleteEverything looks and sounds grand!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Lyndsi felt like she was the "Queen"....that will always be a very special memory to her in her heart now I am sure of it.
That was so sweet of you to do this for her.
Joyce
I was one of the lucky ones to be invited to Lyndsi's Tea! You are all right to praise Angela. She does have a very kind heart and we had a great time. It was very special for Lyndsi. It was a perfect tea in every way, the table, the teas, the snacks and the people. I look forward to being invited back to another tea. :)
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