Happy 18th Birthday Tea Party!

Rebekah requested a mismatched tea party. In other words, she wanted to use china, but not our finest china set that all matches. I came up with the theme of pink and white with blue and gold accents. Then I started pulling things from around the house. We had almost enough tea cups that had been picked up from thrift shops for our picnic basket, but I was lacking one. I also found that it would be nice to have some simple white plates to pull all the mismatched items together. So,  I headed out to a few thrift stores. I scored at the second-hand store and found a tea cup, six white plates and several tea bag coasters for a total of $15. I plan to keep the plates. We may donate the tea cup and some of the tea coasters back to the thrift store, because they are not really our style but worked for the moment. I sometimes treat thrift stores as rental stores. I can use it for the moment but don't need to litter up the house with tons of rarely used and uncherished belongings. After all, it would have cost $15 to buy all these items in paper form, and then they would have been thrown away. It is better for the environment, too. I also picked up some country pink roses from Trader Joe's.

Finally, I was ready to set the table. I didn't have a pink table cloth so I used my daughter's childhood twin Matelassé blanket which was packed away. It worked perfectly as the base. Then I took a lace dresser runner that was in the waiting to go to Goodwill bag, because it had a snag in it. However, the roses and tea pots covered up its flaws. 

Next, I added all of the dishware and flatware. The table was really starting to come together. I made roses with our pink napkins. YouTube has so many instructional videos on folding napkins. 

Rebekah's place setting with one of her favorite cups. 

The final touch was the candlesticks I had found at a thrift store last year.

I overheard Rebekah saying she hoped there would be balloons at her party, so I stopped by the party store and picked up this adorable bat bouquet. One of Rebekah's favorite animals is bats. It was actually meant to be a Halloween bouquet, but I added the #18 balloon and it worked perfectly. 

Lastly, the food...Rebekah requested all of her favorite foods. She wanted homemade 18 hour bread, ham quiche and apple pie. I made the apple pie in advance and froze it until it was time to bake. The bread was started the night before and the quiche was made that day, with pie crust my husband had made and frozen in advance. 

She was a very happy birthday girl. I love my kids so much! It is amazing to realize that they are now all adults. I am so enjoying watching them bloom. The harvest is beautiful.

Blessings, Dawn