Thursday, May 5, 2011

Tablescape: The Deer Ate My Garden Tea Party

Yep! I left the gate open to my garden and the local deer feasted on about 25 roses, two blackberries, 12 day lillies, some pepper plants and a few other odds and ends!  I had ten of these little knockouts that I had planted a month or so ago and now they are sticks! Eeeeeek!


This Dortmond antique rose was doing good too.

I won't include the after pictures! Needless to say the deer discovery was a downer! Sooooo, the girls and I decided to have a tea party instead of playing in the garden today! Oh, and the cold front that blew in could also be a factor!

Welcome to our little tea party!

Forgive the color scheme (kind of fallish) but when you are "decorating" and pulling out china with a three year old and a 9 month old ... um.. let's just say that you grab the closest dishes. In this case, these dishes are what I usually use in the fall. They are by Vernon Kilns and made in California from 1944-1954. I love that this set has several neat pieces that western dishes don't usually have. One example is the tea set.

I love the westward the wagons scene on this coffee pot!
Also the little tea pot is cute and has boats on a river.
Here is the bread plate that is going to hold our cookies!
The Francis the First sterling salt cellars with matching salt spoons are perfect for little helpings of ice cream (Yes, you mothers know why we like small helpings of ice cream for our little ones!)
Here is a three tiered server.

Fun for our shortbread cookies. We used the new Sarabeth's Bakery Cookbook and the recipe for shortbread cookies was excellent. It was perfect for little kids. No eggs of course and it was very easy for my three year old to handle. We added a little apricot jam for fun.

Kiley also thoought a ice cream sandwich sounded good.
Here is all the roses that I had left in the garden. There was a little New Dawn rose hidden in the courtyard that the deer missed. So we added some Zinnias because Kiley wanted yellow.

Here is Kiley in my great grandmother's gardening hat.
Klacey guarding her cookie.
Curley Sue joined us as well!
And our final guest was pinkie the pony.
We hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy your roses and don't forget to shut the gate! Hee hee.

 P.S. The linens are Ralph Lauren from a couple of years back in ivory. The dinner plates are Patrician pattern by Wedgewood. They are my great-grandmother Louise's. They look lovely with the Vernon Kilns 1860 pattern. The sterling is Francis the First by Reed and Barton. The tumblers for the lemonade are ruby cut glass. Have a great day!

We are linking to Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape party.
Check out how the experts tablescape!

8 comments:

  1. I love this china! How lucky your little girls are to have a mommy that takes time for them in what I know is a busy day. They are adorable in their hats and pearls. Memories being made here!

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  2. Hi there, thanks so much for visiting me today. I must say you have 2 of the cutest little girlies! I love their big hats. You have done a wonderful job of landscaping your property - such a big job - and it looks so green now. I love the cowboy dishes in your tablescape. Haven't seen them before but they are really unique and fun. I hope you have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to you! Blessing, Pamela

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  3. Oh Kelsey I am so sorry to hear that about your beautiful roses and garden! How heartbreaking. Some good news is that those knockouts are like weeds and should grow back in no time and so will the rest of your roses. I'm sure you will have blooms again by summer. I hope the rest of your beautiful garden recovers too! Thankfully we have plenty of deer here but enough woods and such around were I am anyway to where they aren't a problem. Man maybe you should look into one of those sensors for deer that turn sprinklers on when they trip it? Or keep a pack of dogs outside! lol

    Your tea party was beautiful and looks like you all had a wonderful time! I love tea partes! :)

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  4. Hi Kelsey,

    I'm your newest follower. I just love your pottery with the western theme; it has a look of Johnson Bros. or Spode about it. I enjoy your blog because it's fun to see the western, cowboy theme that you incorporate into your tablescapes. I can sympathize about the deer! We live in North Carolina, and they eat so many people's gardens -- flowers and vegetables alike. My mother-in-law makes an egg wash spray that she sprays her garden with, but it's a lot of work. The deer don't like the smell, so they leave things alone. But every time it rains, she has to spray again.

    Please stop by my blog if you have a chance. I've done a Mother's Day tablescape this week. Have a great weekend and Mother's Day!

    Denise at Forest Manor

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  5. The children are so precious. I love the china! What a beautiful tea party :-)

    Jocelyn @
    http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

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  6. Bummer about the deer eating your roses! I had a similar incident last summer where the deer ate nearly all my peppers and tomatoes! But I'm glad to see you made the best of the situation and had a tea party with your girls! They are precious and beautiful :) And we get to see another set of lovely Western china! What a wonderful tea party you all had :)

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  7. Kelsey, your charming blog is a delight!
    We raised 2 girls to become grownups that we actually really like; a family willing to accommodate a stay-at-home mom is well rewarded. Looks like you're headed there, too. You have a 'so much happiness before you,' (as Henry Tilney said to Catherine in Northanger Abby) :)
    Sandra

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  8. A lovely tablescape and what lucky young girls to have a tea party so grand. My mom used to use the good china and set a lovely tea table for the grandkids, too.

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