A Southern Belle Afternoon Tea Bridal Shower

Hello friends.  This last weekend was "Bridal Shower" weekend for my daughter, Bethany.  She had two bridal showers, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  This post will tell you about the Southern Belle Afternoon Tea Party shower, which was held on Saturday at the home of my next door neighbor, Penny.

Penny planned a lovely, elegant, yet relaxed shower with fabulous finger sandwiches, delicious hot tea, and a lovely (and yummy) cake.  Penny borrowed my tea and sandwich server sets for the guests to use.  The dishes are some what old fashioned, the tea cup sits on the little plate along with your finger foods.  This shower was perfect for my vintage themed bride! 

(Bethany and Penny posing for a photo)

I crafted quite a few items for this shower, beginning with the banner pictured below.  You might recall the banner from THIS blog post.  The pennant sections feature Southern Belle Secrets. 

The center pennant panel on the banner defines a Southern Belle.   Some of my very southern friends liked the definition!  They thought it was much better than "simpering female"!

Being me, as well as being the mother of the bride, I decided to embellish my gift bag to match the theme of the wedding.  I used a cut file from the Silhouette America store, though I added a second layer behind the teapot and teacup. 

 I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder and embossed the top layers before adding foam tape strips to the back of the cuts to adhere them to the gift bag.

And again, because I AM ME, I crafted my gift card to again match the theme of the shower.  I used a dress shaped card and inserted a large hat into the cut file.  I then added extra flowers and other details to dress up my Southern Belle card.  

I was especially pleased with the way the hat inserted into the file.  I cut a top later for the hat and did a bit of shading with markers before adding the band and flowers.    I finished the card with a lovely stamp which reads "True love stories never have endings".  That is my wish for Bethany and John.

Other than the dinner plates and salad plates to her place settings, I also gave Bethany an extra little gift.  It came wrapped in a brown gift bag with tissue and ribbons, so I only had to craft a card for the gift.

I found this fun vintage sofa cut file in the Silhouette America store and thought it would be PERFECT for Bethany.  I copied the background of the sofa, duplicated the cut a second time and welded the two pieces together, attaching them at the top back to create a card base for this sofa. 

I used three colors of card stock to cut the card/sofa elements.  I used an Anna Griffin embossing folder to emboss the upholstery pieces before assembling the card.

I finished the card with ribbons, pearl brads and a Happily Ever After stamp on the back of the sofa.

The final bit of crafting I did for Bethany's Southern Belle shower were the party favors.  I had intended to use organza gift bags with tea inside and attach Love is Brewing gift tags.  Cute idea, huh?  We it was all good until I opened my South Carolina Plantation Tea and found the silk tea bags were in envelopes far larger than I had expected.... And of course I made this discovery the night before the shower!  Yikes!

I had already created the tags (above) for the bags using the "print and cut" feature on the Silhouette, so I just switched gears and created a new gift packaging.  I took an SVG purse card pattern and made a few edits to create a simplified version of the purse.  I cut the purses in three pieces: the basic top opening card piece, the handle/flap piece and the little banner piece.   

The purses came out beautifully once the tags were attached.  And inside?   Two special silk tea bags for an afternoon tea party favor!

Below is a photograph of the lovely - and delicious - cake that Penny served.  The writing on the cake reads, "Showers of Joy, Bethany"!  

I confess that I forgot to take photos before we ate so I missed the full table effect - and all of the pretty dishes, but I did snap a photo or two before we cut the cake.

Below is a blurry (read "soft focus") photo of Bethany and I.

And finally a photo of Bethany and her future mother-in-law, Kathy Ross.

I cannot thank my neighbor enough for hosting this beautiful shower.  And also thank you to the wonderful ladies who attended "showered" Bethany with gifts and love!

Family Healing and Remembrances

(Doug and his mom, Mother's Day 2013)

Hello everyone.  As you read this Doug and I are in Chattanooga with his family.  Doug's mother very unexpectedly passed away earlier this week.  It came as such a shock to all of us.  Aside from mobility issues, his mother was not ill.

Please keep Doug, his sister and two brothers, and the entire extended family in your thoughts and prayers. This is going to be a painful time for all involved, but I am hopeful that together it might my be a healing time too.  

Ice and Snowmageddon

Hello Friends!  Welcome to Icemageddon!  After a weekend in the 60 degree temperatures, Mother Nature has once again teamed up with Mr. Freeze (think Batman villain) and they are implementing their diabolical plan on the Southeast. Things were so bad here that the Weather channel's Jim Cantore was in town, informing us that we are located in the epicenter of this storm.  Thanks Jim, I think we figured that out with a glance at the  map!

When you look at these photos you should be aware that it has NOT snowed yet. We are supposed to get snow starting tonight... anytime now, actually.  The white in these photos is ice.  Everything is iced over here in Aiken.   The first three photos are from my front yard.  I am currently avoiding the back yard.  Doug told me that part of the woods came down on our azaleas.  I should have asked about my blueberry bushes, but to be honest, I am not sure that I want to know.

I ventured no further than half way down our driveway and across into our front yard.  Doug went and knocked ice off of the DirecTv dish and he went out back with the Duncan.  Not me, man.  I am cozy and warm and staying inside.

Meanwhile, facebook is full of photos of our frosted town.  The traffic circle on Lauren's Street is generally a very busy place.  Not so today, though there are some tire tracks in the ice.

Lauren's Street, the main shopping area down town, was closed today.  In fact, everything was closed today.  Aiken is officially iced over.

I hate to see this, in the photo above some of the very old magnolia trees have lost large limbs.  I have had limbs falling in my back yard as well.  When they break it sounds like an explosion.  The limbs just cannot support the weight of 1.5 inches of ice.  By the way, it was not really snowing.... Google added the snow to the photo for me.  I thought it was pretty so I kept it!

And for you golf fans (MFJ - Jayne) this is for you:  This is a photo from the Augusta Nationals today.  It is only seven weeks until the Master's tournament. The grounds keepers are going to be busy removing fallen and broken trees and limbs, as well as clearing the debris.   But in seven weeks this same scene will be resplendent with a green carpet of grass and fabulous blooming azaleas!

Not wasting my day too much, I have been working on Valentine's for Bethany's students.  I should have plenty of time to finish them as there is not school today or tomorrow for local students and teachers.  Hopefully we will be back to normal by Friday.  I am just thankful that unlike 10 years ago during the ice storm, we have not lost power.

Happy New Year & New Opportunities

Wow, it is already Jan 5th and I am FINALLY doing my first post of 2014.  If you follow my blog, you know that life has been busy and eventful for us.  We are waist deep in wedding planning, an experience that Bethany and I are both enjoying.  She has such lovely vision and ideas about what she wants!

The photo above is one of several that I took to use on Bethany and John;s Save the Date postcards.  This is the photo that I chose to use.

Holiday Happiness Continues

Hello friends!  I thought I would be posting a New Year's project for the New Year Linky Party at Bitten by the Bug 2.  But after lots of company, a tummy thing, and even more company, I did not get my New Year project completed.  I did, however, have a wonderful surprise visit from my older son last night!!! 

The big news at our home this Christmas season, is John and Bethany became engaged!  He took her to Asheville, NC to the Biltmore Estate on Friday, December 27th and proposed.  We knew this was coming, but I could not help but admire what a wonderfully romantic setting John chose for his proposal.  As you might guess, my life has transitioned into wedding planning as they plan to marry this summer!

Since I have no project to share with you, I thought I would share a few Christmas morning photos (in which half of us are still in our PJs - including me!).  Above - Doug models his Dr. Who hat and scarf.  Below - John is thrilled that Crissie restocked his classroom supplies!

Ian LOVED his new bass and did not want to put it down to open his other gifts.  I told him that he acted the same way over the Little Tykes car when he was two. Every other gift was opened from inside the car we named "The Flintstone-mobile".

Bethany likes sloths.... Aaron and I each got her the same sloth for Christmas.  She was thrilled with her twin sloths!

Santa, that awesome fellow, brought me cutting mats and a great die and stamp set.  I was very happy!!

Not to leave Duncan out, he too received two gifts.  He is so sweet and so happy when he opens a new toy!

Aaron and Crissie were funny.  He got a KitchenAid, and she got a tent!  Role reversal much?

And here they all are: Ian, Bethany, John, Crissie, and Aaron.... and Duncan the wonder dog, Edgar the pug and Magnus the puggle.  What a crew!

Please DO go by the BBTB2 blog and join the New Year's Linky Party.  I think it is going to be fun!!

Merry Christmas!!