Mad Hatter Tea Party

On Monday night I hosted a Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was a lot of fun and thank you to everyone who came. Here are some lovely photos from the night as well as the party plan :)

Theme: Alice in Wonderland (the book, not the movie)

Location: My upper deck (think almost tree fort since it is amoungst tree branches)

Food: Chocolate Peanutbutter Squares, Chocolate Eclair Squares, Buttertarts, Pavlova and Yogurt Chantilly, Raspberries, and Cherries (with chocolate chips)

Tea: Raspberry Chocolate tea, Red Vanilla tea, Orange Manderin Spice tea

Main Decorations: Card Chandileer (I made it and it took forever to sew all the cards together!), Eat Me and Drink Me cards on the food, Various Tea Pots, Cardboard Pink Flamingos, The Cheshire Cat (it was a cardboard smile hanging in the corner, see picture below), Flowers (I had roses on the table and then some other flowers around the edges), Christmas lights

Music: 1930's Swing cd. Later on I wanted to play a Bing Crosby cd and everyone else wanted Lady Gaga.... I won.

And here are some of the many pictures (it looked even cooler when it got dark and the glass droplets on the table, and the mirrors on the chandileer, were sparkling):

Cheshire Cat

And here are some pictures of my outfit. The hat was just a plain white beach hat but I added a feather boa, some pink faux flowers and a sparkley butterfly to make it more fun.

I made everyone wear a hat :)

Best hat of the evening:

Lets have a party!

The dress finally arrived! I will try and take a picture tomorrow but I am having problems with my web-cam and my camera doesn't auto-focus (it's actually quite a good camera but it is an SLR and I only have older lens that won't allow it to auto-focus).

So until then I thought I would post a passage from my mother's old home-EC textbook "Homemakers of Tomorrow"(1958). It is so ironic that it is one of my favourite books but my mom considers that course to have ruined her high school experience. She tried so hard to do well in it but it was the only course she couldn't get a decent mark in. Oh well, luckily for me she kept the textbook :)

This is from the section "Lets have a party- Invitations"

A sample telephone invitation:

You: "Hello. This is Mary Jane Forrest speaking. May I speak to Brian please?"

Brian: "Hi Mary Jane. Got your science homework done?"

You: "Not yet Brian, but I'll get around to it soon. Say: I'm having a few friends from school in for supper after the game next Saturday. Could you come? Six o'clock should give us lots of time to get to our house."

Brian: "Gee, thanks Mary Jane. Sounds just great. Sure, I'll be there."

You: Good: Be seeing you then. Six o'clock, bye."

Can't you just imagine how different that conversation would sound today? I doubt it would be nearly as polite and there would likely be some mention of getting "smashed"/ "hammered"/ "shmammered". Well there wouldn't be if I was giving the invitation. Actually I think my invitation would sound a whole lot like the one from the textbook (except I doubt the persons respond would quite the same...).

Image from :http://www.flickr.com/photos/59646927@N00/181721911/

I'm late! I'm late!!!

I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!

(but I wouldn't be if I had one of these adorable watches...)

Still awaiting my dress in the mail, but in the mean time I have been browsing through Etsy again. In honour of the new Alice in Wonderland movie coming out I have put together a list of my favourite pocket watches on Etsy (some I can afford and some I can only dream about...). I couldn't find many pocket watches that were actually meant to be kept in a pocket so some of these are actually necklaces (but still super cute!).
Antique Brass Pocket Watch Necklace- Timekeeper Series $9.90

Cute and simple, not to mention at a very affordable price.

Ancient. Vintage Style Pocket Watch Necklace in Black. $10.50

I just thought this one was so pretty and an amazing deal at only a little over $10!!!

Victorian Antique Black Nickel Pocket Watch Necklace with Pearl Sting $25

Ok this one I am completely in love with. I love the contrast of the more masculine watch with the delicate pearls. This would make a lovely birthday present (hint hint).

Max Factor - Exquisite Portrait Cameo Pocket Watch Compact Pendant Necklace $48

Technically not a watch but way too cute not to include on this list.

A Victorian Love Story- 1889 Pocket Watch Inscribed on Christmas Day Works Perfectly $250

Drool. I'm in love. This one in my favourite but the only way I could afford it would be if I sold a kidney. You don't really need both kidney's right?

What's the time Alice.... Alice in Wonderland Pocket Watch Necklace $25

And last but not least, a watch that really ties in with the Alice in Wonderland theme. Completely adorable.

Valentines Day Tea Party

Here's some photos from my Valentines Day Tea party. :)

Notice how I am the only one who got dressed up?

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The Menu:

-Lemon Strawberry Squares (from scratch)

-Vanilla Cupcakes (almost from scratch)

-Strawberries

-Chocolates

-Mini Biscotti (not from scratch but still tasty)

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The Tea:

-Vanilla Strawberry Rose tea

-Sugar Cubes (including some hand decorated ones I got as a Christmas gift)

-Milk (instead of cream since with all the other goodies I figured we should try and be a little healthy)

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The Table Setting:

-An antique lace table cloth over top of a pale rose pink table cloth

-My moms Royal Doulton teacups, saucers and plates (with a paper doily between the saucer and place)

-My white teapot and creamer

-Pink flowers from the farmers market ($10 for all of them including the pink roses!) in decorated jars (actually spaghetti sauce jars that I revamped)

-Biscotti wrapped with a paper doily and with a pink gift tag (with the guests name on it) attached with pink embroidery floss

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The Decorations:

-Silhouettes I made with my face on them

-Some red heart shaped balloons my Grandma bought for me

-A book on roses

-The pink cards are actually Victorian Parlor games I wrote out in case we got bored http://oldfashionedliving.com/parlour-games.html

-More paper doilies!

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The Outfit:

-Dress from Smart Set

-Crinoline from Hey Viv (see previous post)

-Black pantyhose from Giant Tiger

-Necklace made by me (go figure!)

My hair was done with hot rollers :)