You may have guessed by the title, but we had a tea party! The last one I had was a baby shower for my beautiful friend Naphtali something like 4 years ago and I was itching for another, and who better to do that with than friends who love to create pretty things!

I absolutely adore the gals at Duly Noted. I love the little shop too. (Well I guess it’s not so little now, they recently moved!)  It’s a great little shop in Halifax with stationary and pens and other lovely local find!  You should check them out at their new location on Doyle Street in Halifax!

Rebecca rocks invitation and graphic design at Duly but also has her own beautiful line of cards called Paper Chain and does design work of her own!  Lisa consults with all the couples (or families etc) on what they’re looking for in invitations and is so artistically talented it’s incredible. She used to be an art teacher and currently launched a website for her beautiful calligraphy work!

This summer…well September…we joined forces to set up a special outdoor tea party! We all used our skills and contributed treats to a tasty tea! Rebecca made the baked goods and beautiful naked cake, her amazing neighbor volunteered her backyard and we carted almost all of the contents of Rebecca’s apartment across the road and up the hill to create the outdoor design. Lisa made cucumber canapés and beautiful calligraphy pieces. I brought the fixings for a charcuterie board and sparkling lemonade to round out the feast.

I just have to say, it’s pretty awesome to find like minded people who enjoy the same things that you do. And if you don’t have those people in your life yet, I recommend trying it out! I know it sounds silly, but putting it out there and trying to connect with people in a new way, it doesn’t always work out the way that you wanted, but it is certainly worth it when you make a connection and find common ground! (If you didn’t catch that ladies…I am thankful for you!)

We brought a collection of furniture, blankets, pillows, candles, linens, and other “odds and sods” in laundry baskets and Rubbermaid totes over to the neighbor’s backyard. I think that we must have taken at least twenty trips for set up and another twenty for tear down… but  I didn’t actually count! The first thing we did was set up our blankets and tables. Using a variety of Rebecca’s books we propped up the tables to make them flat (or so we thought… the falling candlesticks all day may have proved us wrong on that) to provide our low table so we could sit on the ground in our sea of pretty pillows.

We used the clothesline to hang a variety of sheets, curtains and tablecloths to create a kind of boho background and added a little glass jar banner from Rebecca’s. Lisa cut some greenery from The Flower Shop and gingerly placed them in the jars. It was glorious to push the clothesline and have the flowing linens become the backdrop for our table. ***swoon***

We placed the beautiful centerpiece in the middle of the large square table we created and then set up dainty table settings using Rebecca’s china (she is the tea party master and has all the essentials). We also used my mom’s crystal glasses to have sparkling lemonade and berries, a simple touch that added some glam to the glasses! We brought over the food. grabbed a couple of photographs and sat down together to enjoy the spoils of our hard work. The ONLY downside to this endeavor was the swarm of wasps who were eager to be close to all the sweets, and Addy who had recently been stung being extremely scared and screaming every thirty seconds or so. Thank you ladies for having tea with me, and thank you for being amazing and letting my Addy girl join in!

I’ll share some tripod taken photos of us girls enjoying our tea but for now I hope you enjoy the beautiful set up we put together!