Tea Party!

I had a wonderful day today with 5 of my girlfriends to have a tea party! I first fell in love with the idea of tea parties when I was a girl and got Samantha from the American Girls collection. In her books from the Victorian era were pictures of tea parties and I wanted to be just like her (and when I am now finally old enough to buy her tea party set she has been discontinued boo!) My mom was nice enough to take me to tea several times when I was younger. Now that I am older, I am so happy that I can hold my own tea parties! Several years ago I found a great tea set at goodwill for 10 I am sure donated by some nice old lady and I am very grateful to put these pretty set to good use.

For this party I first spent some time making tissue pom pom decorations from the Martha Stewart website. I made the theme blue and yellow, to match the blue flowers on tea cups.
The Menu:

• Cucumber, chive and cream cheese sandwiches cut into rectangles
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into rectangles
• artichoke dip and brie cheese with crackers
• Scones with lemon curd, jam and Devonshire cream
• Blueberries and strawberries
• Mini-cupcakes
• Chocolate cookies
• Scones
• Fruit tarts
• Bellinis
• Black Dragon Pearl tea and Youthberry herbal tea from Teavana
• Sugar cubes, honey, cream, and lemon slices for the tea

I cheated on the cooking – thanks for the local AJ’s and Trader Joes for some of these items! I did make the devonshire cream myself and all the sandwiches. If I plan better next time I will make it from scratch! Trader Joes has a great lemon curd if you are looking for that!

Really though – the party is all about the tea. A local Teavana opened up close to where I live and I got the loose leaf tea and a couple of new strainers! I used to use the ball type strainers, but these new ones are much better!

Here are a few pics of the party! Thanks to my girl Kelly who brought over some cute cupcakes and now inspired me to make something from Bakerella!