birthday tea party
A friend jokingly told me the other day that she envies the free time I have on my hands, to invest in preparation and decoration of such a lavish birthday party (referring to my daughter’s shabby high tea obviously). It is true that we practice decoration devotedly and on any occasion but not because we have free time or free money. We just find it important.
And beautiful birthday parties are important because the more harmony we create around, the better our life becomes. Even the smallest embellishment creates feelings of joy and plants thoughts of wellbeing in our subconscious. I’ve always thought that if a child gets used to homely exquisite details from an early age, it will inevitably develop a good taste and a sense of aesthetics. Time only proved me right. We are what we see, they say, and it is exactly how it works.
Setting a tea party table for several girls on a sunny Sunday afternoon was not only fun for me but also a great way to teach them style and tradition. My daughter and I spent wonderful hours in planning, folding, glueing, wrapping and china bone hunting in the antique shops, the latter subsequently becoming one of our favourite free time routines. This tea party turned out to be very simple in terms of investment and effort, but resulted in many sweet memories (and also sweets) for the kids.
We had just a couple of days to get everything done so we started with paper plates, cups and decorations from the nearest Chinese store, all in natural colour matching our house and our theme. Several trips to the nearby second-hand shops made us proud owners of vintage silver cutlery and 8 sets of porcelain tea cups, charming and translucent. Then jute placemats, lovely floral glass jars, a book stack wrapped in lace for centrepiece and a rose bowl full of cookies.
We dusted off the Christmas lights and hanged them outside for more ambience at dusk, I made a rustic fruit cake and voilà, a royal high tea amidst lush Australian greenery. My daughter was afraid that some of her friends might not like the dress-code we set (long dress and loose hair) but luckily, we ended up with a garden full of beautiful fairies who had tea, played paper games and got photos with flower wreaths and parrots.
