Jane Austen Birthday Party: Party Favors II

So as you know if you have been following my page, I just celebrated my 29th birthday with a Jane Austen Garden Tea Party.

In my earlier posts, I have shared some of the earlier pieces in putting the party together and of course I had to go over the party favors.

But I realized after I posted it, I completely forgot to include what I put in the gift bags for the little girls who attended my party!

From Clueless

So like for the adults, all the girls were given a teacup of their choice. I had picked out a few small ones especially for the little girls Each cup cost no more than $4, varying from $2-$4.

I needed more bags than the ones I purchased at Hobby Lobby, so I ended up going to the dollar tree where I got three brown bags with pink sparkles for a $1.

The girls were also each given a reusable teabag from Madsen Creations and for the material I chose this beautiful flowered print in the shapes of different fruit. Strawberries and pineapples were a must have in regency times.

Each girl was also given a beautiful gold teaspoons from Best Starloop. A set of 16 for $15.99 ($0.99 each).

And each girl was also given a bag filled with loose leaf tea I already owned, giving each person a different tea. The tea I used was: Adagio Tea Scottish Breakfast, Caroline’s Coffee Roasters Princess Earl Grey, Crafted Leaf Golden Tip Lapsang Souchong, Good Earth Rosa de Jamaica, Harts of America Sleepynight Tea Extra Strength, Tiesta Tea Fruity Paradise, Tiesta Tea Nutty Almond Cream, Tiesta Tea Royal Breakfast, Tiesta Tea Victorian Earl Grey, and TWG Singapore Breakfast

I also gave them each Chocolate or Vanilla wafers, each one only costing $0.38 in the bulk section at Winco.

But while these were nice, I also wanted to make sure the girls had more fun in their party favors. They also were each given a rose pen and a slinky (the pens were $1 at the Dollar tree and the slinkys came in packs of 2 for $1. I also gave the girls the leftover balloons from the pack I used to make my teapot piñata.

They came out to be about $8 a party favor. The girls all liked it and used their bags to store their candy from the piñata.

We are almost done with my party plans. Can you believe it? Just a few more things to share.

For more of my Jane Austen Birthday plans, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Party Favors

For more Jane Austen party ideas, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: What’s in Your Purse Game

And in other news, Happy 4th of July! I hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!

Jane Austen Birthday Party: Party Favors

So as you know if you have been following my page, I just celebrated my 29th birthday with a Jane Austen Garden Tea Party.

In my earlier posts, I have shared some of the earlier pieces in putting the party together and of course I have to include the party favors.

So for the first thing I wanted to do was have teacups for everyone to drink out of, whether they wanted tea, lemonade, or water; and have enough for them to all be taken home. I found two at a local vintage shop, fourteen at Goodwill, and two more at a different vintage shop. I tried to have a real variety so there was sure to be enough for everyone to have one they would love. Each cup cost no more than $4, varying from $2-$4.

I was just going to buy plain brown bags for people to take their favors home in, but when I went to Hobby Lobby I found a beautiful printed set of 12 for 6.99 (making them about $0.58 each). You can see three of them that I used for the prizes.

To go with the teacups I ordered reusable teabags from Madsen Creations and chose this beautiful flowered print in the shapes of different fruit. Strawberries and pineapples were a must have in regency times.

I also ordered these beautiful gold teaspoons from Best Starloop. A set of 16 for $15.99 ($0.99 each) was a great deal, and they are so beautiful.

I also filled a bag with loose leaf tea I already owned, giving each person a different tea. The tea I used was: Adagio Tea Scottish Breakfast, Caroline’s Coffee Roasters Princess Earl Grey, Crafted Leaf Golden Tip Lapsang Souchong, Good Earth Rosa de Jamaica, Harts of America Sleepynight Tea Extra Strength, Tiesta Tea Fruity Paradise, Tiesta Tea Nutty Almond Cream, Tiesta Tea Royal Breakfast, Tiesta Tea Victorian Earl Grey, and TWG Singapore Breakfast

And to finish it off I decided on Biscoff Chocolate and Vanilla wafers, each one only costing $0.38 in the bulk section at Winco.

They came out to be about $6 a party favor. A great deal? I think so and a cute party favor.

We are almost done with my party plans. Can you believe it? Just a few more things to share.

For more of my Jane Austen Birthday plans, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: What’s in Your Purse Game

For more Jane Austen party ideas, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Guess How Many Sugar Cubes

Jane Austen Birthday Party Menu, Plus How to Dip Cookies in Chocolate, and a Sugar Cookie Recipe

So as you know if you have been following my page, I just celebrated my 29th birthday with a Jane Austen Garden Tea Party.

Some of you might be wondering why I am so extensively going through all the party planning and it was because I had been planning to have this two years ago, but life got in the way so I decided to wait and now I’ve finally been able to have it.

Party time!

So far we have gone over invitations, decorations, prizes, activities to have, how to make your own piñata, etc. Before we go over the games I thought I would share the menu.

So starting with sandwiches, remember how we’ve been having those The Magician’s Nephew Bible study/book club/tea party? Well, those have also been a dry run for me as it gives me a chance to try out recipes and see which ones I really love. I decided to start off with one I really loved: Curried Egg Salad Triple Stacks Sandwiches

I also really love cucumber sandwiches and wanted to use the recipe from Spend With Pennies but to save time I used Chive and Onion Cream Cheese Spread.

I know not everyone will be into them so I needed some regular sandwiches. I decided on Turkey-Apple Tea Sandwiches:

And I rounded it out with Tea Time Magazine’s Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches:

Out of all of them, the Ham and Cheese did the best. They were all gone before the party’s end.

My mom made a salad for a side and then we went to the strawberry farm down the street and bought a ton of strawberries. Yep, I wanted it to be like Donwell Abbey.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any scones. I had wanted to make some, but I ran out of time. I had also planned to buy some, but when I went to the store they were all out.

But I had lots of desserts! I had made them a few weeks earlier and put them in the freezer until the day before the party. The first cookie I made was Crispy, Chewy, Matcha Green Tea Cookies.

People didn’t really like these as much as the other cookies, but I love them. They were eaten, just not as much as all the others.

The next cookie I made was Basic Shortbread:

But I used a cookie cutter to make them into teapot shape; along with cutting the other half of the cookies into a teabag shape. And I dipped them in chocolate

Chocolate Dipped Cookies:

1. Have your cookies baked and cooled.
2. Using a double broiler, melt a chocolate bar or chocolate chips.
3. If you do not have a double broiler, get two pots about the same size or have one be slightly smaller than the other. Heat water in one until it boils. Turn down the flame and take the other pot and hold it over the one with boiled water. Place the chocolate in the top pot and stir until melted.
4. When chocolate is melted, dip cookies and lay on wax paper. Put cookies in freezer or fridge to get chocolate to harden.

The last cookie I made was Better Home and Gardens Sugar Cookies.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 Cup of Shortening
• 3/4 Cups of Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
• 1 Egg
• 4 Teaspoons of Milk
• 2 Cups of All-Purpose Flour (Sifted)
• 1.5 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Directions:

1. Throughly cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla.
2. Add egg; beat until mixture light and fluffy.
3. Stir in milk.
4. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Blend dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
6. Divide dough in half.
7. Chill for one hour.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 of an inch thickness.
9. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.
10. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees F for 6-8 minutes.
11. Cool slightly, then remove from pan.

I had wanted to make Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake but I ran out of time and I ended up just buying an Almond Poppyseed cake from Raleys. It was good, but not as amazing as the Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake.

My friend also made Carrot Cake (my favorite) and carrot cake cupcakes. I didn’t take a picture of the cake (so good) but in the picture below, where the cupcakes are is where the cake was placed. All the cupcakes were gone by the end of the party. The recipe is a secret or else I would have shared that too.

I’ve been having so much fun sharing all these things with you, and even though the party has ended I will be continuing to share all my other party plans!

For more of my Jane Austen Birthday plans, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Croquet

For more Jane Austen party ideas, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Paper Fan Making

For more desserts, go to Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies

For more cookie recipes, go to The Picture of Earl Grey Tea Cookies

For more recipes, go to Savory Beef Hand Pies

Strawberry Lemonade

So you all know how much I love tea:

But unfortunately, not everyone does. Especially most of my nieces. So what to make for a tea party, that isn’t tea?

Hmmm…

How about some Strawberry Lemonade, made from real strawberries?! That sounds great to me! This recipe comes from Allrecipes. 

Ingredients:

• 8 Large Strawberries, Halved
• 2 Tablespoons of White Sugar
• 7 Cups of Water
• 1 Cup of White Sugar
• 2 Cups of Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

Directions:

1. Place the strawberries in a blender with two tablespoons of sugar.
2. Pour in one cup of water and blend until the strawberries become juice.
3. Combine the strawberry juice, 6 cups of water, 2 cups of Sugar, and lemon juice in a large pitcher. Stir until blended.
4. Chill before serving.

So this was extremely good! I used Meyer’s Lemons and if you do that you want to reduce the sugar as they are sweeter than regular ones. But otherwise it was fantastic and came out a pretty coral orange color.

For more lemon recipes, go to Ginger Cardamom Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies

For more drink recipes, go to Skinny Chai Tea Latte

For more recipes, go to The Picture of Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Blueberry Earl Grey Tea Smoothie

So you know me. I love tea.

There is nothing better than starting your morning, afternoon, evening-or every hour with a wonderful cup of tea.

You may or may not know that I also love smoothies. I get up early every day so it is nice to be able to run out the door and drink my breakfast on the run.

So as I was looking through Pinterest, I found a recipe Berry Colombo Smoothie, from RefuTea. I don’t have Colombo tea, so I had to use a different brand and I didn’t have strawberries, so I had to leave them out. Oh well.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Frozen Strawberries
• 1/2 Cup of Frozen Blueberries
• 1/2 Cup of Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 Cup of Earl Grey Tea

Directions:

1. Brew the tea, using 1 tbsp as you need to have the tea be strong.
2. Blend all together until smooth.

I thought it was pretty good. I couldn’t really taste the tea really, but it was still good.

For more recipes, go to Basic Chicken Salad

For more tea posts, go to Teatime is So Much Better With a Teapot

For more blueberry recipes, go to Irish Blueberry Scones

For more Earl Grey Tea, go to London Fog Smoothie