Tea Party

Envelope Seals by Vistaprint

Happiness is linked to relationships, I decided this year I wanted to work on strengthening the important bonds with family & friends in my life.

Be More Social - check out what I've been up to so far this year here

I've been making a point of scheduling in time with the people that matter.  What better way to get the girls together than over some nice food & drinks?

I started looking at invites cos I wanted to make it a bit more special than just a text.  I had no idea what kind of get together I wanted then I found this cute floral teapot range on vista & bam suddenly I was having a tea party!

It was great I personalised invites, researched menu ideas, practiced baking & thought about little take home gifts.  It was so lovely having a special occasion to look forward to & plan for - kind of took me back to planning the wedding lol

Vista print I found the cute teapot above & ordered invites & stickers.  I pinned loads of recipes to my tea party board on good old pinterest, then I skimmed it down till I had my menu.

Homemade Scones with local jam & clotted cream

A selection of sandwiches

Chicken with Tarragon

Lemon, Cucumber & Prawns

Local Cheddar & Arran Mustard Ham

Egg & Cress

A selection of canapés

Pesto with Garlic Herb Cheese in home made pastry cup

Sundried Tomato, Mozzarella & Parmesan bites

Mini Quiche Lorraine

Mini Cheese puffs

Oatcakes, Chicken Liver Pate with Caramelised Red onion

Home made biscuits

Sweet Orange Biscuits

Mega Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cupcakes

Raspberry & Almond cupcake with Vanilla Icing

Banana cake with White Chocolate Frosting

All served with Pink Fizz & a selection of teas

I had no less than 14 different teas & I made everything from scratch! Not a packet mix or shortcut in sight!  Well unless you count the caramelised onion & the jam were out of jars.  I even made the pate, with a great quick cook recipe from my mother in law.

If your thinking wow that's a lot of food - you'd be right!!  I worked my butt of in the kitchen pulling off that offering, which was not to be out done by my 'new to me' tea set!  

Crap photo - doesn't do it justice! You'll just need to pop round for tea to see it for yourself

As the girls gathered we started with the pink fizz in my dainty china cups.  It was great, then we settled in for some good nattering in between bites of mini foods!  Everything just looks so much cuter when it's mini - fact!

I would thoroughly recommend throwing a wee party for no other reason than because you can!  Enjoy & spoil your friends.

I got a lovely wee set of cookie cutter stamps with pretty boxes to give away as goodies as a parting gift, Say it with Biscuits.  I didn't quite get the message to work out but the thought was there.

Source - Lakeland website here

The set was from Lakeland, I spent hours in here getting supplies such as my mini muffin tray, my pink sprinkles & my canapé cutting set (this was on sale & brill - silicone moulds in canapé shapes with cutters). 

I was so busy entertaining & basically trying to get everything ready on time that I only got a few crappy shots of my food after everyone had gone & it just looked naff :(  So you will just need to imagine the menu & think of a fab food blogger taking the pics.

Now I have my tea set & know I can actually pull off afternoon tea I will be repeating this again soon.

Who knows what the next them will be maybe cocktails (my fav drink) will make an appearance?  I read about Pot-tails in Edinburgh, basically a tea pot filled with cocktails served in china cups - I could do that right?

When was the last time you got your friends together?

Do you like tea & cake? 

What would be on your afternoon tea menu?