Last Monday was my birthday (23!) and in the first part of November it will also be Waffles birthday. To celebrate I decided to hold a tea party for a few of my friends in my back yard! It was not as stressful as I thought, though I did have a moment where I was quite frustrated with cake... I baked pretty much everything from scratch except for the tart cases, which I cheated with and my mum was kind enough to make the scones! Thali helped with the macarons and sandwiches as well, which made everything that little bit easier. Waffles was sweet enough to gift me some fabulous eyelashes and some chocolate tea; pretty much the best thing ever. It's like a hot chocolate, but it's tea. You can almost pretend it's healthy. Almost. If you don't have two sugars.
In the end everything went smashing, I think. We spent about six hours just milling around, chatting, we played a Unicorn board game that Rachael had been dying to play and then we paired up to play scattergories. I think next time I will leave a bit of a break before I throw food at people, something to think of next time I suppose.
In preparation I went searching for some tea cups and few other things I didn't have (the glasses and plates, which I picked up from IKEA) namely the tea cups that I got from an op shop for just $8. Unfortunately someone else had claimed two of the tea cups from the set of eight, which meant there were only six. Before I got those however, I had been considering buying these pretty butterfly tea cups from T2. In the end Thali gifted me this pink one (which I ended up using, and am using right now). It's so pretty and it's not quite silver, more of the gunmetal colour which is one of my favourites.
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| Magical floating watermelon~ |
I set out some cheese and crackers and some fruit and biscuits for the first arrivals to tide them over. Then once everyone arrived we set out the sandwiches and the vol-au-vents. I kind of made... a lot of food. Maybe too much because I was worried. My father brought me roses from their (now old) houses garden so that I could decorate a little. They were the perfect touch in some miniature glass milk bottles.
Then I brought out all the sweets. All of them. There were scones with raspberry jam; three types of tarts (rose cream, green tea cream and plain); brown sugar swiss roll; rose and green tea filled choux pastry; tuiles; baked rose custards; cream and mousseline trifles (that stupid cake somehow saved) and macarons! Green tea and rose and plain rose. Obviously, it was far too much for my poor guests to eat at once. But I was eager to sit down with everyone, so it all went out together. It was easier, but as I said, I think I will wait longer between savouries and sweets.
I have an outfit photo, but I didn't like my face in it! So I hope Kairii doesn't mind me using this photo, it's one of my favourites! Most of the pictures from the day turned out rather silly actually. I guess that means we were too busy having a good time or something! My outfit was pretty basic anyway, despite my theme of mint and pink, I went with Cherry Berry Bunny because it was what I felt like wearing. Sadly my birthday present to myself, Rose Toilette in mint, would not arrive in time. Next time, I suppose I shall wear it.
After we eaten a bit we chatted and were generally silly. We served two types of tea from T2; green rose and french earl grey. They were both delicious. On top of that I served a kind of punch which was a combination of Apple and Grapefruit Mineral Water, Lime Soda Water, Lemonade and a dash of mixed berry cordial. I froze some lemon and lime slices as well to add to it and of course there were strawberries. I specifically mixed it in the hopes it would come out a charming pink clear pink colour, which is why there was no fruit juice.
For the first time ever for me, we played scattergories. We didn't have the board game itself, so we sort of grabbed some note pads and pens and came up with some categories and went for it. It was an interesting game, I think I need to purchase it to bring along properly for our next get together.
Overall I had an amazing day, it was well worth the days work beforehand to be able to spend those precious hours with my friends laughing and chatting and eating. Lauren stayed afterwards to help us clean up, which I was grateful for. Dishes are my arch nemesis after all. I should also mention that most if not all of these pictures are thanks to Thali, who I passed my camera off to, thankfully. Otherwise I would have nothing to show you!
For my actually birthday day, I didn't have to work for the first time in six years! It was fabulous and the perfect end to one of the best birthday weekends ever. I think for the first time I did something for myself, and I invited along my very close friends who probably expect the least of me and are just a joy to entertain. I think that really helped, not having to live up to anyone's expectations as well as having a group of very happy, chatty girls. Secretly, I think it was really great to not have any boys around- you can be more free in the things you say and speak about! It's nice to have a space to yourself sometimes.
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