Pride and Prejudice: Tea Party Placecards

"If he does not come to me, then," said she, "I shall give him up for ever."
The gentlemen came; and she thought he looked as if he would have answered her hopes; but, alas! the ladies had crowded round the table, where Miss Bennet was making tea, and Elizabeth pouring out the coffee, in so close a confederacy that there was not a single vacancy near her which would admit of a chair. And on the gentlemen's approaching, one of the girls moved closer to her than ever, and said, in a whisper,
"The men shan't come and part us, I am determined. We want none of them; do we?"
Darcy had walked away to another part of the room. She followed him with her eyes, envied every one to whom he spoke, had scarcely patience enough to help anybody to coffee; and then was enraged against herself for being so silly!
"A man who has once been refused! How could I ever be foolish enough to expect a renewal of his love? Is there one among the sex, who would not protest against such a weakness as a second proposal to the same woman? There is no indignity so abhorrent to their feelings!"

-Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

I realize that quote has little to do with place cards. But it mentions tea, and I love that scene. So there.

We wanted to invite you all to a "Pride and Prejudice Tea Party." This post will be the first, and in it I will show you how to make some cute little Tea Party placecards.

I began with a basic shortbread sugar cookie. I didn't want a soft cookie, because it wouldn't be sturdy enough. I cut out rectangles and then sliced off the top two outer corners to make the shape of a tea bag. I baked and cooled these cookies.

Then I made my favorite royal icing recipe...

and piped it on to each cookie, and left them to harden...

Then I printed out these Jane Austen silhouettes. I made them so that you can fold right down the horizontal middle there and then slice between each silhouette to have a double sided tea tag :)

I used an edible marker to write the guest names on the cookies...

Then I threaded regular old thread on to a needle and gently made a hole in the top of the cookie, ran it through to the tea tag, glued the back and front of the tea tag together, and voila! A cute little Pride and Prejudice Tea Placecard.

Now I will tell you the truth! 

Okay, technically everything I said above is true, but there was a break after I left the frosting to firm up. You see, I have several children. One of them is fond of climbing on counters. She's almost 2. And she loves frosting....

And I had 30 minutes until the party. So after I cried, I just set them aside and told the guests they WOULD have had cute little placecards, but instead I have a cute little baby covered in frosting. 

A day later, I re-frosted the cookies and took the pictures. Yep, I couldn't let that one go.

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Huckleberry Finn: Tablescape

" It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all"

-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

To celebrate Huck Finn, I wanted to create a rustic tablescape in greens and browns to look like a river. I am not so sure that it looks anything like a river, but I had fun with it in any case. :)

I made fresh Blueberry Limeade

3 limes
1/2 C sugar (to taste- my limes were sweet)
1/2 C Blueberries
2-3 C water

Squeeze limes, add sugar to lime juice, press blueberries through a mesh sieve, add water and stir, stir stir! Serve over ice, garnished with lime slices and blueberries.

Made a little sleeve out of ripped packaging paper for the silverware

Added a lantern

 Made a centerpiece out of a galvanized container filled with the grass that seems determined to steal my garden from me...

And set a framed quote on the table. It's a lovely, calm quote.

And there you have it. Honestly, roughly 800 times during the writing of this short post, I have had some little person come to me with a massive crisis that I had to attend to, so it feels like I have been typing for hours. I better go before someone breaks another bottle, cries because their food fell on the floor, or steals a toy from a sibling. Happy Friday!

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Huckleberry Finn: Reason to Celebrate

"Tom was in high spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the most intellectural . . . He said that in that way it could be strung out to as much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record. And he said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it."

Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn Chapter 36

Let me just make one thing clear:  Miriam and I never win anything---well, at least anything good.  Once Miriam won a Christmas ornament at a family reunion raffle.  It was a porcelain clown cuddling a teddy bear.  The clown was crying.  

Just the sort of thing you want on your Christmas tree.

I once won the chance for a free weekend stay at a Las Vegas hotel, complete with a

Visa gift card, 

 a pushy saleswoman,

and a high-pressure time-share presentation.  

Boo.

Just when we thought "Lady Luck" had a grudge against us, Miriam and I found out that our Apple Orchard shoot is a finalist in the talent scouting party for Cottages and Bungalows Magazine!

Not only are we thrilled to be considered for such an honor, but we are just as ecstatic to be considered alongside such incredible talent.  Believe me on this one:  If we could get autographs from these ladies, we would.

Here are some highlights from the party . . .

A pumpkin wrapped in book pages from the adorable sister bloggers of At the Picket Fence . . .

A stunning tablescape by Maple and Magnolia . . .

An charming mantle from Ella Claire . . . 

A Halloween entry that will forever make my children jealous by It All Started with Paint . . .

A lovely "autumn armoire" from Common Ground . . .

And a super-thrifty and totally tasty tablesetting from me and Miriam . . . 

(Leave it to us to create edible place cards.)

Stop by Whisperwood Cottage to see more Autumn eye candy.

As for Miriam and I, we may just take that pushy salesperson up on the Vegas offer.  Something tells us our luck might be starting to change . . .

Little House on the Prairie: Apple Pie in the Orchard

"Ma was busy all day long, cooking good things for Christmas. She baked salt-rising bread and 'Injun bread,' Swedish crackers, and a huge pan of baked beans, with salt pork and molasses. She baked vinegar pies and dried-apple pies, and filled a big jar with cookies, and she let Laura and Mary lick the cake spoon."

- Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Disclaimer: The pictures you are about to see in no way actually represent the weekend our families spent together recently. The photos look so peaceful. Let me assure you that thirteen children running around the yearly hoopla that we call "Grandma Camp" is anything but. So, being the thoughtful and dutiful daughters that we are, we dumped our kids in our saintly mother's lap and ran as fast as we could to the orchard, or more appropriately: Heaven.  It was an idyllic setting for an apple-themed feast in honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Ma's dried apple pies.

We baked a homemade apple pie...

. . . set the table with these lovely thrift store finds, mixed with our ma's precious china . . .

...monogrammed apple placecards, using a gold permanent marker...

. . . And hung words in frames from the trees . . .

(We used some fall-themed words because this seemed like a perfect feast for apple harvest time)

Wouldn't you like to join us for a slice? They are very reasonably priced, after all :)

Finally, I would just like to bid adieu to Mrs. Wilder.  I want to thank her for the quiet moments this month when I have read to my little ladies about Charlotte the doll, and felt thankful for the simplest things. For the way I have seen their eyes light up when we talked about maple candy. Mostly, for the excitement in their eyes that started in mine many years ago. There's some sort of magic in her books that snuck into my heart as a child, and I haven't been able to let it go after all this time. 

Now, I hope you will stay with us in the coming month as we venture into a land of fairies and marvelous mischief: Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

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Irish Authors: A St. Patrick's Day Table

"After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives."
 ~ Oscar Wilde

For me, a good dinner starts with a good tablescape.  I like to think of setting the table as wrapping a present:  presentation is everything.  Besides, a well-wrapped gift (or well-set table) can compensate for a multitude of sins---like the alien salt and pepper shakers I got one year for Christmas.  They were wrapped in glorious, satiny papers and ribbons that glowed in the firelight.  I never saw them coming.

Now I'm not saying that we all need to set amazing tables for St. Patty's Day to make up for the ensuing Irish cuisine, but it wouldn't hurt.  Two words:  "bubble" and "squeak."  Our sister Hillary ordered this traditional dish once at an Irish pub.  When the waitress brought Hillary a plate laden with some kind of pureed substance the color of despair, Hillary turned to me and said, "It looks like baby food."  As it turns out, "bubble and squeak" tastes a lot like baby food, too.  What Hillary could have really used that night was a lovely table to divert her attention from the Loch Ness reenactment swimming on her plate.  That, and a cheeseburger.

In the next few days I will be foraying into some Irish cooking, so today I tried my hand at a "diverting" tablescape in case things go horribly awry in the kitchen. 

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I started with a nod to Ireland's flag by using green, white, and orange accents.  

I then centered the table around a pot full of "gold" in hopes of luring a leprechaun to our gathering.  I'm hoping he does dishes.

Finally, I made a nod to Irish agriculture by making name cards out of potatoes.  

I simply tied a ribbon on one end of the potato and wrote the names on the other end in fabric paint.

And suddenly, with my table decked in fresh hues and produce, I'm actually anxious to start savoring the "bubbliest and the squeakiest" of Irish dishes.  Well . . . almost.

May you find many lovely tablescapes this St. Patrick's Day!

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Jane Austen Month, Day 23: Place Cards Fit for Pemberley

Many months ago, and in a fit of inspiration and deal-hunting, I purchased a package of paper doilies and stack of glass plates at Walmart.  For the life of me, I have no recollection of what I intended to do with them, but I am sure it was brilliant.  (P.S.  Still trying to figure out what to do with the Yoga DVD and the salad spinner that I purchased at the same time.)

Well, today I decided it was time to make use of these two random treasures hiding in the back of my cupboards.  I get weak in the knees for elegant, unique, and easy place cards, so I decided to try my hand at creating some of my own with my paper doilies and clear plates.  My knees are still holding strong, but I admit that they did get a little faint when I saw the end result:  a feminine place card fit for luncheon at Pemberley.

I started by printing off a name on computer paper in my favorite font, and then tracing the name onto the paper doily with a marker.  (I'm sure you could simply freehand the names, but I didn't want to risk flubbing up and wasting a doily.)  

You can find these doilies in the wedding section

You can buy glass plates "a la carte" at almost any Walmart-type store

I then placed the doily on a contrasting plate and put the clear plate on top. 

And there you have an elegant place setting in less than a minute's work.  

And who said impulse buying never paid off?  

Happy Austen week!

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Jane Austen Month, Day 15: "We dine with four and twenty families . . ."

I'm not sure what it would be like to dine with four and twenty families.  All I know is that dining with my own family can be a feat in and of itself.  For example, last Wednesday I decided that our dinner table had degenerated into something akin to a barnyard buffet.  I knew I wouldn't make my children into dignified diners overnight, so I decided to start small.  I made a special effort to provide napkins (yes, I know I'm aiming high here) under the forks so that the kids wouldn't be tempted to use the table, their pants, or the curtains for wiping purposes.  When my 7-year-old saw the napkins he said, "Wow! What's with the fancy dinner?"  Napkins = fancy.  Reason 104,689 why I will never be mother of the year---or a close friend of Miss Manners. 

Tonight was the real test of our family's etiquette metal.  Not only was it our annual family Valentine's dinner, but we invited Great Grandma along for the ride.  Because I doubted my children's decorum once the food was served,  I decided to at least start the meal out right with a polished place setting.

For the place cards, I purchased each of my children a cheap little box of chocolates and wrote their names on the box in metallic marker.  When they came to the table you would have thought that Santa Claus himself had delivered the post-dated goodies from his sack of treasures.  Who knew Russell Stover could create such happiness with chocolates that taste like candle wax?

I then served a salad on real salad plates, followed by real chicken that wasn't pureed and shaped into dinosaur nuggets. 

All in all, I would say the evening was a success:  the boys kept their napkins in their laps for at least the first 3 minutes of the meal, I only had to tell my 4 year-old once to quit dancing on his chair, and no one attempted any magic tricks with their forks.

I'm not sure if we will ever reach the level of "refined" dining in our home.  However, if we ever have the distinction to dine with "four and twenty families," they are sure to remember our dinner table as memorable one.


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