
Time for Sunday Favorites again. And today is a special Sunday Favorites. It's the 1 year anniversary of this fun party hosted by Chari at
Happy to Design. She is hosting a giveway in celebration. She is giving away a $50.00 gift card to your choice of 5 different places (see above mosaic). Be sure to visit
Chari to find out how you can win her giveaway. But I have to warn you, I'm going to win. But I'll at least let you compete. And be sure to wish
Chari Happy Anniversary and thank her for hosting such a fun & easy party. And you know that I love anything that is easy. Well most everything. And who doesn't love a giveaway? Especially a $50.00 gift card giveaway!!!
Now on to my Sunday Favorites post:
Those who know me the best know that I can be lazy, or to be politically correct, motivationally challenged. So when
Chari first came up with the idea for a weekly blog party where we didn't have to make a new post, but could share a post from the past, I was all over that.
This week for her anniversary, we are suppose to share one of our all time favorite posts from the past. So I'm going to share a post I did on my family blog
Manning Family Tree for Tablescape Thursday back in May 2009 . I'm sure a lot of you may have already seen it, but there might be some who missed it. Plus it's my favorite tablescape that I have done so far & I love seeing it again & I hope that you will too.
Now I don't have any daughters (boo hoo) or any grand daughters (we can always hope). But I do have 2 nieces who I call my faux daughters. I'm lucky that my nieces only live about 15 minutes from me, so we see each other quite a bit. I decided that we would have a tea party. Only problem is, I forgot to invite them and we don't drink tea. But I love tea cups, tea pots & everything else that goes with a tea party, so I thought I'd throw a faux tea party for my faux daughters Danica & Taylor.
Since the weather has been beautiful here in SoCal aka: Southern California, we would have our little tea party out by the pool. Oh, oh, looks like someone forgot to put away the extension cord & hose as well as sweep before taking the photo. Men!!! (Did you notice that I'm not taking the blame?)

Here is the tablecloth I started with (I really took this photo when I was putting everything away, but if I hadn't brought it to your attention that the cement is now all cleaned up, you wouldn't have even noticed. Would you?) I got this tablecloth at a thrift store when I lived down in San Diego county. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but knowing me, it wasn't over $5.00. Most likely only a couple of dollars.

Then I used my Bordallo cabbage plates. I only have 3 of the dinner plate size. That is why this tea party is just for 3 of us. The plates came from Ross back in Jan or Feb. I got them on clearance for I think $3.50 each. The silverware is new!!! I got it at Ross a few weeks back. $12.00 for a service for 4. I love the dark color of the bamboo.

Next I layered on my thrift store china salad plates that I got a few weeks back. I paid $2.00 for 4 of these plates plus 2 smaller plates in a different pattern. I love the pink flowers with the green cabbage plate underneath.

Here is a close up of my new silverware.

Then on top of the salad plates I put a different tea cup at each place setting. This is for me. This is my favorite tea cup. It is by Lefton. I got if off eBay. I may have splurged & paid $10.00 for this. I loved the green color with the pink roses.

Here is the tea cup for Danica. This came from ABC Distributing catalog. The bottom says "Formalities". I paid $4.95 for this tea cup. Again, I love the pink roses.

And the tea cup for Taylor. I used a Royal Albert American Rose tea cup but put it on a completely different saucer called June Bouquet by Duchess bone china England . But I think it goes together as they both have pink roses. Both the tea cup & saucer came from the thrift store. Most likely paid less than$1.00 each.

I then attached little vintage napkins along with a reproduction vintage print as a name card to each tea cup handle with a drapery ring (in this case it is more like a hook). I love the medallion that was on the ring. I think it looks vintage. I'm finding that drapery rings work great as napkin rings. And they are cheap. I got these at Ross & paid $2.99 for 7 or 10 of them. Since they are actually hooks, they will come off easily from the cup handle. The napkins were part of a lot of 40 vintage napkins that I won from eBay for $9.99. I also put a packet of flower seeds (25cents each from Dollar Tree) at each setting as a little take home gift. I have them on forks bent to make easels (forgot to take photo). Here is my place setting. I love Shasta daisies. They were my favorite flowers when I was a teenager. Now my favorite flowers are roses or hydrangeas.

Here is Danica's place.

And Taylor's. Don't you just love the basket on the napkins?

For the centerpiece I started out with this wooden basket that says "Fleurs" on the side. I got this at Costco at the beginning of the year. They originally came with succulents in them, but they were dying so this was a clearance item. I got it for $6.00. I think they originally sold for $20.00 or so. Since I don't like succulents, I didn't care if they were dying as I was throwing them out anyways. I only wanted the wooden basket.

Then I added some silk peonies. I thought the color of these flowers matched the pink in the flowers on the tablecloth.

Next came a birdhouse. I got this a few years back to use in my wedding. Can't remember where I got it from though. I just love this birdhouse. I sat it on a vintage napkin inside the box.

Then I added this little birdie & bird nest. This came from Michael's last year on 50% off sale.

And then I added this iron candelabra. I got this at a trade show in Vegas a few years back. I paid $2-3.00 for this.

I love how this turned out.

I guess I should have lit my candles. Oh well, just pretend they are lit.

My tea service items all came from thrift stores, eBay or were free. The pink & white pitcher was an eBay find I'm sure I paid less than $10.00 for it. The tea pot was a freebie from my niece Danica. She had bought it at a thrift store to use for a friends Mad Hatter birthday party. She gave it to me after the party. The sugar & creamer came from a thrift store.

I just love my tea pot!!! I normally collect china that has roses, but I love how this pot has little blue flowers. Something different from what I normally collect.

The goblets are my Libby glasses from Walmart. I think they were like a dollar a piece.

I love how each place setting is a little different.

But they all still look good together.

One final look at the table. Did you notice that the concrete is now swept? Isn't hubby a doll for doing that for me?

Thanks for joining my faux tea party. Now I guess I better invite Danica & Taylor over for a real tea party. I know they will be asking for one when they see this.
Update: Since I first posted this on my family blog back in May, my niece Danica has asked for a real tea party. So far, we haven't been able to get together to do so. I hope you liked my little faux tea party and that I cheated a little. But wasn't it worth it?