Garden Tea Party

Last weekend was a good one. My Emma turned 7 and we celebrated in style with a garden tea party.

The inspiration for the party came from meeting Jodi Levine at Altitude Summit a few weeks ago. I have to admit that I was freaking out a bit when I realized she was the craft editor of Martha Stewart Living and also was the mastermind behind Martha Stewart Kids Magazine! The Martha Stewart Books and Magazines saved me at a time in my life that my husband was gone a lot and I was feeling lonely as a new mom. I discovered the magazines, started diving into projects and it filled that little void of loneliness… Anyway, after hearing Jodi speak I went up and introduced myself and gushed a bit over how much I had loved the magazines. She was so sweet and gracious. She gave me a hug and gave me a copy of her new book Paper Goods Projects!

As I flew home from the conference I poured through the pages and fell in love! I mean the coffee filter water lilies? Are you kidding me? They were so gorgeous and simple! All the crafts in the book are easy to make with everyday supplies found at the grocery store.

Once I arrived home (and discussed my plan with Emma) we got to work dying coffee filters.

Aren’t these colors lovely? Emma and I had so much fun dying them all. She especially loved dropping in the food coloring to see what new exciting shade would emerge.

After the coffee filters were dry (it took a day or two) we got to work on the water lilies and the rest of the party decorations. It all turned out just as pretty as I had imagined. I love it when that happens.

The result was a garden tea party that this little girl adored!

I seriously cannot get enough of these coffee filter flowers. They are just so beautiful and delicate.

It was Emma’s idea to have a blue table cloth to make the lilies look like they were floating on the water. I love the blue against the soft pinks, peaches and yellows.

We had tea (hot apple cider) in teacups, but I also wanted to have cups for water. These little flower adorned milk bottles were perfect.

The “tea” was poured from this flower teapot. It was given to me by a friend when my teenage girls were small…

I rounded out the decorating with giant tissue paper flowers…

Everyone went home with a goody bag (another simple idea from Jodi’s book.)

And the best part was that this little girl had a blast!

And I think these girls did too 🙂

Happy Birthday Emma!

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