You're Invited: A Mad Tea Party

[lezi]

This Christmas, because money's tight with all of my friends' families, I came up with the idea to have a tea party. Our presents to each other is food, which, I think, is brilliant. It's not like... a pair of gloves you'll never use, you know? Food is the perfect gift, in my opinion. :P

Originally, I told my friend that we should have a tea party as a joke, but you know those weird, eccentric ideas that take root and actually seem like good ideas? Well, it happened to me.

So now I'll be hosting a Christmas gift exchange-slash-New Year's Eve tea party for me, my two sisters, and three friends. My one friend decreed a formal dress-code, so I guess I'll just wear one of my dad's nice button-down shirts with a suit jacket?... Because I don't think anyone wants to see me in a dress... >.> Tee hee.

I'm probably going to go overboard with the planning and decorations and my food selections, but the holidays are about excess, no? (: If we're having a tea party, it'll be a damn good tea party.

The first order of business is the decorating. I was told to make the color scheme compliment the tea set we're using--but since I have a feeling we'll just be using regular mugs and the bland white tea pot my dad has because the cute circus set we have has limited place settings, I just decided to go with soft pastel-y colors.

I was thinking, in ways of garland-y stuff, I'll have these things:

1. Quote Garland. (I'm not sure what I'll use for the words--inspirational/seasonal quotes? Nice poetry? Dialogue from Alice in Wonderland?)
2. Balloon Garland.

I came up with the second idea myself, so no linkage. I figure I could use REALLY SMALL balloons--in colors like really light bubblegum pink, or lavender purple, powdery blue--and tape them to twine in generous clumps so they look like... strings of fish eggs or something? xD

For cutesy table things, I think we might use a plain white tablecloth, and I could wield my mighty flower-shaped paper punch and make homemade confetti using pages out of an old, yellowed beauty book. Possibly mixed with regular circles from a hole-puncher. I've got cool, stripey paper to use (from Michael's), so YAY. :D
I can't think of anything else that could be cute and nice on the table. Maybe I could make tons of teeny, tiny origami hearts to have in a flower vase, and stick some cloth flowers in that? *shrug*

And by ways of food, I was thinking of...

1. Mini Gingerbread House Mug Toppers! (AREN'T THEY CUTE?! *flail* I'm thinking of letting my friends decorate their own, but... that could get REALLY messy.)
2. Sugar Cookies. (Iced to look like cute li'l peppermint wheels.)
3. Zebra Cake. (I promised my friend a mini-cake for Christmas, so I'm going to try this wacko-AWESOME looking cake technique. I'll just make the cocoa layer colored black, and the vanilla, red, since it's her favorite colors.)
4. Marshmallows? (I'm not sure about this, but I've kind of wanted to try my hand at making homemade marshmallows since I read about these wicked Root Beer Mallows. Maybe I could finally put the dried lavender I bought from PA to good use...!)
5. Hot Cocoa. (I want to see if I can make homemade cocoa, since this will be the main attraction.

And I need to make more gingerbread for my other friend as her present, 'cause she apparently really likes the stuff.

I need some more ideas for the decorating, so... If you have suggestions, let me know 'em! (: