Someday Afternoon Society and the Birthday Tea

The Someday Afternoon Society is one of my side projects. I often don’t focus on it but it is always hovering in the background of my mind. The Someday Afternoon Society is a promise that I make to myself to continue to engage in fun, fulfilling activities that I always said I would get to “someday”. Over the weekend, I had a Someday Afternoon Society meeting. I held a tea party for my sister’s birthday. The event was inspired by a recent St. Valentine’s Chocolate Tea and by my amazing and unique sister, of course.

​I was browsing around at the Salvation Army during the weeks before my sister’s birthday and I came across a beautiful, 14 karat gold tea set. It was not a completed tea set but it was one of the most complete sets I had ever come across. I am not much of a tea drinker, but I was captivated by the old set. My sister collects old tea cups and her birthday was on the horizonso I snapped a picture and sent it to her to see if she would like it. I almost left it there. At the last minute, she responded and the set was purchased. There were 6 tea cups, a creamer, a dozen saucers and 6 shallow bowls. The dishes are adorned with a small blue and red cabbage rose inside the cups and gilded edges with the perfect amount of crazing. Having just attended the Victorian tea at the Mary Stegmaier Mansion, an idea formed inside of me. I would hold a tea in honor of my sister’s birthday. All of the pieces came together at the perfect time to inspire this Birthday tea! 

My sister also noted this would be her “Year of the Gnome”. In honor of her current gnome infatuation, I looked for some gnome-y décor. The Dollar Tree and Dollar General provided some cute and inexpensive little gnome and fairy garden figurines. Those were used to decorate the table and cake. A few other décor items were purchased, white doilies from the dollar tree, a sparkly rose gold table runner and rainbow backdrop from Five Below, and Bigelow Tea, variety pack, from Amazon. I also borrowed a fancy ceramic tea pot from my younger sister. I used my vintage tatted table covering over a white table cloth and added candles and mini daffodils I had transplanted into a vintage planter to adorn the table. 

The menu included cucumber sandwiches and small ham finger sandwiches prepared with fresh Italian bread. Fresh grapes, pretzels, crackers and jam were also available for nibbling. My mother provided fresh cheese buns from Sanitary Bakery, one of the birthday girl’s favorite treats. I took a chance in making a cake and some cake pops. I used two funfetti cake mixes to make two small, round cakes and a larger cake for the cake pops. I also used simple syrup to sweeten the cake. To match the theme, I made a gnome home cake. The cake was decorated with chocolate melting candy “bark” and green frosting “moss”. Some of the cake pops were fashioned in to mushrooms to add to the fallen log gnome home cake. 

To make the event more special, we dressed up and wore hats. In addition to tea, I served mimosa’s with champagne for the adults and sparkling cider for our under-age attendees. It was small, intimate girl’s tea for my mother, sisters and nieces. We spent our time talking about memories and future plans while French café music floated around us. It is a fun and beautiful memory of time spent with people I love.