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itty bitty treats

June 16, 2011 by girlinspired 29 Comments

I had so much fun making a ridiculous spread of itty bitty treats for the little tea party birthday party.  Olivia helped me with almost all of them.  The little girls also trickled in and out of the kitchen, watching and helping where they could.  It was easy to make most of the desserts ahead of time.  The molded candies hold up without a problem; the cakes and cupcakes were baked and frozen several days in advance.  The day before the party, we finished nearly all the details.  On party day, Liv and I assembled the tarts and filled the cream puffs.  The finished treat table was beautiful and irresistable.
The girls were darling piling their plates with every little treat their hearts desired.  I quite enjoyed piling my plate, too.  I can’t lie.
The tarts were absolutely
to-die-for. 
 
No question my favorite amongst the treats.  Recipe compliments of Martha Stewart; I just modified it for mini tarts and it worked perfectly.  And I have to say, Martha has yet to steer me wrong on a dessert recipe.  I’ll be making this one again, very soon.  Like, say, for Father’s Day breakfast?? 
 
The ingredients for the tarts are very basic.  And they’re perfect right now during berry season.  Please make these; just splurge on the calories, use real butter, heavy whipping cream, whole milk, the good stuff.  Just this once. 
 We’ll talk cakes in a separate post.  They deserve their very own discussion.
Doesn’t everything look even better under that chandelier?  I’ll share some of the other decoration details later, but I hope you can get a feel for the chandelier from these pictures.  A bit hard to catch through the camera lens. 
I haven’t made cream puffs in probably 15 years.  I forgot how simple they are.  I had planned to just fill them with freshly whipped cream, but I had plenty of pastry cream leftover from the tarts; I used a pastry bag and piped it right into the puffs.  They were another adult favorite.
This was more of a visual presentation, but if you have any questions I will most definitely try to answer them.  

Filed Under: Parties, Popular Posts Tagged With: cake, party decor, sweet treats, tea party

a sweet tea party

June 14, 2011 by girlinspired 12 Comments

It was a beautiful day for a tea party under our oak tree.  Summer arrived just in time with her warm sunshine and light breeze.  Everything was just how I pictured and the girls were so happy, lost in the wonder of sweet treats, pretty tea cups, and each other’s giggles. 
Look at that cute chandelier makeover that made its way to the tree!!
 
I took about a thousand pictures, but never felt that I had really captured the magic of what was in front of me.  I’m pretty well practiced with indoor pictures, but the whole -sunlight filtering through the tree branches was a challenge.  Nevertheless, lots of fun and tea party details to share.  Take a closer look at all the adorable little tea time treats we made.  Follow this fascinator hat tutorial to make some whimsical hats of your own!
The more I look at these pictures, the more I see the magic, actually…
 

Filed Under: Parties Tagged With: cake, CoffeeShop actions, family stories, party decor, sweet treats, tea party

dainty girls need dainty napkins

May 20, 2011 by girlinspired 10 Comments

If you haven’t met my girls or already guessed by the nature of most every project that I post, let me be the first to tell you that I have three very girly girls.  They love all things pink, lacy, puffy, twirly, sparkly, dainty, and girly.  Which, I suppose, is how my friend, Christene, knew I would love a little collection of hand-embroidered flowers. 
 
Her husband’s grandmother, who was a seamstress for THE Charlie Chaplin, made them and passed them down to her.  Amazing.  So, Christene gives me this little pile of flowered goodness and tells me to make use of them.  And as I’m walking out the door she says, hey! you should make little napkins for the tea party with the flowers!  Brilliant!  So I did. 
This is a very quick project.  You finish a set of four basic napkins in less than 30 minutes.  I used Kona cotton because that is what I had on hand.  Use any material you’d like.  I cut 6-inch squares, pressed them well, then serged a rolled hem around the perimeter, and pressed them again on the diagonal.  I used my sewing machine to embroider Addison’s name on the napkins and then sewed just a couple stitches to hold down the embroidered flower. 
Christene thought it would be fun for each child to have their own little napkin.  Yes. darling, right?  And since it was such a quick project, I made a little set of four for each of the girls.  I haven’t sewn the little flowers onto all of the napkins and I think I may put something else in the corners so that I don’t use up all the treasures.  I like to hoard things, you know.  But I thought the napkin sets would make cute party favors!  See?
If your sewing machine doesn’t do letter embroidery, don’t sweat it!  Try some of the other stitch functions or just plunk a little accent on!  Like this….
Here, I did a scallop stitch all the way around the napkin and then just trimmed the fabric close to the stitching!  Soooo sweet! 
 

Filed Under: Crafting, Patterns and Tutorials, Sewing Tagged With: embroidery, fabric, girl time, tea party, vintage finds

treasure hunting

May 6, 2011 by girlinspired 7 Comments

While the big girls were in school, Addie and I went treasure hunting at the local thrift stores, and of course, my favorite little antique shop.  We had a special mission, to find some pretty teacups for Addie’s birthday party.  With all the upheaval around here lately, we’ve decided to have a family celebration this year, and what’s better than an intimate little tea party!!  
one of my favorite finds
We ended our shopping trip with quite a carload of treasures!  We found teacups and saucers, pretty little serving dishes, and some vintage linens.  My antique shop guy really came through for me with an entire box of unopened china.  Can you imagine? 
The vintage packaging nearly sold me, but the pink rose pattern sealed the deal!  I got the whole set, plus creamer and sugar bowl for the replacement cost of the sugar bowl alone!  We were definitely in the market for prices that would make inevitable breakage a non-incident. 
I love a successful shopping trip.  So much better than swimsuit shopping! 
Alrighty, I’m off to Mother’s Day tea at kindergarten!  Wishing all you moms a lovely day to celebrate YOU this weekend!

Filed Under: Crafting Tagged With: party decor, tea party

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It is my hope that you will find inspiration on the Girl. Inspired. blog. All photos are copyright protected by Girl. Inspired. If you wish to share something that you have seen here, I am absolutely thrilled! Please use only one picture with a direct link back to the project you are referencing. Thank you so much for your understanding!

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