Preparing for our holiday tea party…
Polishing Silver
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| For some unknown reason my teenage son “doesn’t mind” polishing silver. Perhaps it’s because he can sit in the basement, away from the rest of his family, watching TV while doing it??? Whatever the reason, he worked on my silver tea service until it sparkled using Wright’s Silver Polish. God LOVE him! |
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| To polish our silver flatware, the Steves put their heads together and decided to use our old, dusty As-Seen-On-TV Silver Lightning tray. Maybe because they were beguiled by the photo of Robin Leach on the front of the box, or maybe because this product relies more on chemistry than elbow grease. Again, whatever the reason, God LOVE them. Our fine flatware now shines! |
Washing Windows
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| Just add water, really! I was once accessorizing a client’s new home, and she handed me these purple microfibers to use while cleaning and placing her existing items about her new space. I must have been Oooooing and Ahhhhhing quite a bit about these mysterious purple rags, because a week later a package of them magically appeared on my doorstep. You haven’t lived until you’ve washed glass with just water and FlyLady.net’s Rags in a Bag. Plus her website is hilarious, stop by for a few rags and a laugh! |
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| Clean windows are quite a feat in a 85 year old home that has storms held in place with stripped screws and virtually NO sunlight the week we needed to wash them. THANK YOU Mother Nature for the few rays of sun we needed, THANK YOU Ritu Furlan for FlyLady’s purple awesomeness and THANK YOU Steve for your tools and perseverance! |
Spray Painting
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| Antique Gold A neighbor let me have a few of her ginko leaves for my table top decorations. We sprayed the dried leaves, as well as dried lotus blossoms that I used in my interior arrangements (photos of lotus blossoms to come in my next blog post), antique gold. The results were elegant AND economical. |
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| Antique Brass This tiered tray had matte-black metal hardware. For such an elegant piece the color did not seem to fit. So, we had to disassemble it then hit the hardware with a few coats of antique brass metallic. Now my tiered trays are appropriate for a tea party. *Photo Credit: Jan Loridas (my big sis:) |
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| Silver My kids don’t mind helping out if it comes to wielding a can of spray paint. So, we collected three different types of pinecones from; a nearby park, another neighbor’s house and our yard. Then Stevie gave them a few coats of silver metallic. (After photos to come in my next post.) *Pinecones will open up in the warmth of your home, so bring them inside a few days ahead of time. *Also, LOTS of sap! Be judicious where you use them. |
Candle Maintenance
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| Candles, candlesticks and hurricanes all were freshened, changed if necessary, cleaned, dusted and wicks clipped. |
Plant Maintenance
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| Replace My terraria were all watered, dusted and assessed. Some plants needed to be replaced. In this footed terrarium; out with the deceased, in with a new Baby’s Tears plant. |
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| Bathe Some plants as well as trees needed a long overdue bath, like this, now clean, Raphis Palm. |
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| Dress All potted plants received fresh spanish moss. There is nothing in this world worse than old, matted-down moss, NOTHING. My pair of triangle palms were happy to get a new dress for the party. |
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| Accessorize Wardian cases were all polished using the magic purple rags, of course, and plants inside trimmed. |
Ordering Replacement China
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| One of my best garage sale finds to date is this beautiful Wedgewood China, Queen’s Shape in ivory. I paid about $30 for “almost” a set of eight. Determined to use it for the party, last Monday I counted my missing pieces, looked up Replacements.com, ordered the items that I needed to make a complete set of ten and… |
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| …on Tuesday the replacements were on my doorstep. This process was simple, inexpensive and efficient. That went flawlessly, however I did have… |
The Obligatory Pre-Party
Freak Out
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| This is the champagne bucket I HAD TO HAVE! (Pottery Barn Hotel Silver-Plated Oversized Bucket) However, it was not in the cards for this party because: It’s pricey ($169) for something I won’t use “that” often. Where would I store an “over-sized” bucket when not chilling champagne? And, mostly because it was on back-order. Boo:( |
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| After frantically calling some friends to ask to borrow a silver bowl to no avail, and considering making an over-sized champagne bucket out of ice, (Cool idea, yes! But, the champagne was going to be served on our Barbara Barry center table and frankly, the idea of water on a Baker table frightened the hell out of me!)… sometimes the answer is right under your nose. Crisis averted. |
Committing a Crime
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| I wanted to serve “Soup Shots” but I had nothing in which to serve them. Of course, I find THE PERFECT THING, a 2 Oz. Mini-Skillit made by BIA Cordon Bleu, at my local grocery store. But, of course, they only had nine of them and I needed twenty. The only place I could order the rest was from BIA Cordon Bleu directly. With overnight shipping, they would arrive on Wednesday night for the Thursday party. NO PROBLEM…hahaha. They, of course, got stuck in Santa Fe. |
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| Naughty or Nice? However, I have friends that come to the rescue even if it means being a little dark and mischievous. Thursday morning, I was unable to go pick them up from the Fed-Ex Melissa, who earlier in the week offered to help, I’m not sure what laws we broke, An hour later, she texted me: |
Preparing for a tea party, is a piece of cake.
Katherine Tippett
May I ask what you have for breakfast each day? 🙂
Margaux Drake
Prayer, gratitude, probiotics and a shot of wheatgrass!
What I WANT for breakfast each day? A big ol’ pot of black tea. 😉
Mel
Glad to know the party took work. The end result was spectacular but it’s inspiring that you documented the labor and foresight that went into it Let’s buy a neighborhood Champagne bucket!!