Special Friends Tea Party

My special friend, DeAnn, drove 75 miles north to help me host a tea party for a few other special friends. All of these ladies are the friends I have known for 30 or more years. I moved here five years ago, but we have remained friends even though we don't get to see each other often.

Some of the details of the tea party: A burgundy tablecloth was used to compliment my Old Country Roses china. The centerpiece was a chintz OCR hatbox vignette of vintage things in and around it. The hatbox was atop a ribbon table runner, vintage crocheted gloves, pearls, and a wine colored scarf overflowed out from under the lid of the hat box. A small oval picture frame holding a picture of my grandmother at age 16, a small beaded purse, a figurine, a perfume bottle, hankie, vintage earrings, and tiny crocheted baby shoes surrounded the hatbox. Two candles in the shape of vintage shoes filled with roses were on each side of the hatbox.

Gold leafed chargers, white paper doilies, were topped with Old Country Roses plates. Floral OCR napkins were tied with red velvet roses. Food on OCR three-tiered servers, yellow depression glass, and platters decorated with fabric ribbons intertwined.

Menu: Ruth Ann's chicken salad in phyllo cups; Cucumber sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, and pimento cheese sandwiches. Lemon scones, lemon curd, strawberry bread with cream cheese mixed with strawberry preserves; lemon bread, cold veggie pizza; Sausage pinwheels; Russian tea cakes; and mini surprise filled pound cakes. I also made butter pats into shapes of roses.

We read "Of Teacups and Friends" by Linda gaither. I told about the Earring story. We looked at pictures of past parties in photo albums and some copied recipes. This was a first home tea party for three of my friends, they seemed pleasantly surprised and pleased! I enjoyed doing this for them, I only have tea parties for my very special friends!