The Girl Is a Tea Party Fiend
At least once a week Bella's digging through the linens and the china (hmm . . . which of the seven sets shall I pull out today?) and the cake cookbook and coming up with something good.
This Sunday she went with a blackberry sponge cake and her own personal set of vintage Homer Laughlin. 
She has such lucky friends!
29 comments:
How lucky to have her own china and access to such beautiful linens.I think its a win win situation all around.
I need a friend like Bella on my side of the world ~ one willing to cook from scratch and surround herself and her friends with beautiful vintage china and linen.
Ahhh, the simple things.
How sweet - quite the hostess she is!
When is Bella going to start a Domestic Goddess in Training blog? :)
Bella is a treasure indeed! A beautiful tablescape ...
Way to go Bella! Keep up the amazing work:)
~Jenna
There's a giveaway at my blog!
www.femininefarmgirl.blogspot.com
What a pretty table! The cloth with the tatted edging looks like something my grandmother embroidered. Great work, Bella.
Very inspirational! And a belated (I think your birthday's around this time) Happy Birthday to you, Anna.
Oh how I miss sweet tea parties with females!
Can you write "tea party" and "fiend" in the same sentence? :)
What is the china pattern again? I love it!
Ooooh...I could do with a "personal set of vintage Homer Laughlin"!!!! :)
Your daughters are blessed to be learning the ways of hospitality at a young age.
Invite me! Invite me!! These tea parties look too good to pass up! Good work, Bella!
Oh how sweet ... Bella will be such a wonderful homemaker one day.
I love to see you display your children's handiwork! I love it that you let her be hostess...
I like the well-loved fork with it's sloping tines - I have one similar...
Can Bella come live with me??!? LOL!!
Seriously though, can we have the blackberry sponge cake recipe? I have some blackberries that I need to use ASAP and that sounds yummy!!
How can I secure an invite to one of these parties? What a sweet girl.
Why not give a few of your sets to people in need? Who needs that many sets? I live in a country of much need and it saddens me to see such wealth and excess in comparison to the majority of the world. Be an example to all who read your blog and GIVE till it hurts...
Anon,
This blog is a great inspiration to me as my husband and I are raising our own family. This family most likely does give till it hurts. In many ways. Like our family, I can see they must give a great deal to those around them and probably those hurting in other countries too (I don't know, nor do I want to know). This is one of the least materialistic places I can imagine visiting on the web. The emphasis here is on love, relationships and re-using items.
I love reading this blog to see an example of living a simple, beautiful life and that, in itself, is also a great gift.
Anon
To both the anons,
I really enjoy reading this blog and appreciate Anna's frugality and desire to reuse rejected items. She does seem to be a caring person and I don't question her generosity. However, I can identify with the reader from another country. I also work in an Asian country where this type of lifestyle is far out of reach. This blog and Anna's way of life don't offend me, but sometimes it feels frustrating that a blog like this receives so much encouragement and readership while raising awareness for exploited and impoverished people is such an uphill battle.
In one area I do think Anna is a great example. Her lifestyle doesn't involve lots of mass-produced items manufactured in Asia. I really appreciate that.
Interesting comments from the three anons...
I think it would be a good idea from time to time for someone whose blog receives so many readers to try to raise funds through a bloggers craft sale or such like to encourage us to think of others outside our comfort zones. We all live with more than we need. The fact that we have time to blog on a computer and can read and write makes us one of the more fortunate people in this world.
I agree with Anna's endeavor to love and put family first and to reuse and recycle. But having also worked abroad for years in a poor country I think we can all easily get swept up a self absorbed bubble and forget those in great need and great peril. I'm sure Anna must help many people as a lawyer. However, maybe we can all use these comments as a 'jog' on our perspectives of how to spend our time and possessions wisely to not only care for our immediate circle but also for those who are forgotten and unloved.
No one is perfect, not even Anna, and I'm sure she will appreciate constructive remarks as well as the praise that is daily heaped upon her and her family.
Dear Anons~
I believe that each of Anna's five children was given their very own set of china by a generous grandmother, to take with them into adulthood.
I think it is a lovely idea, both practical and beautiful, and I hope to be able to do the same, someday, for each of my five daughters.
Anna, I am wondering, do your girls have hope chests? I can just imagine what sorts of wonderful items they must contain...but a blog post and a pic or two would be nice, too. ;)
Bravo, Bella!
What a blessing you must be to all your friends and relations.
Interesting turn of discussion! It's true that there are five sets of china in the house that are not mine to give away--they belong to my children.
Ann, please feel free to e-mail me with links to sites or projects you would like to share regarding the issues you mentioned. While not everything is within the scope of this blog, I would be very interested in checking them out.
Thank you for the kind offer, Anna.
I will e-mail you.
Long ago in my youth and formative homemaking years I spent much time feeling guilty for any use of time aimed only at embellishing or beautifying. Edith Schaeffer and Elisabeth Elliott, among others, walked me through this era. How stark God's creation would be if we all decided beauty was optional, that grace could not include loveliness. Each one of us must find the sort of beauty God calls us to.
God's creation encompasses many kinds of beauty, and we cannot each one aim to exhibit all of the kinds of beauty God created. Consider butterflies and the impracticality of their variety. Why not just make a butterfly and enjoy? But God tenderly kept on going until He was happy with butterflies. If our Father loves variety, we can know that it's OK for us to be different from one another. All good, none the best, only complete when we all shine.
Amen, Amen, Amen to the thoughts in Anonymous 4:12 p.m. 5/1/09.
The preceding comments in this group raise some questions, which I will leave for Anna to field. The comments I want to make are two:
First, we humans n.e.e.d to compartmentalize. Do you expect to go to a worship service while you get your haircut? Do you expect your children to have their immunizations while riding their bikes? Of course not. Different blogs have different purposes, and whether Anna decides to branch the blog out or not, this blog serves purposes which are very positive.
Second comment......Let me just say that although I am probably a whole generation older than most of you, I have found such refreshment and encouragement at this blog. Thank you Anna.
Blessings on us all.
Anna I will be sending some links
also - but probably won't get them to you until Monday or so.
Buttercup, of Yore - again
I have enjoyed reading these recent discussions and am glad for the original comment that sparked this off and Anna's and others' responses. Whilst nurturing our children's creativity and skills in the simple things of life (I agree- spend time to look at beautiful butterflies!) I do agree too that it is important to raise our children to be aware of social,political and humanitarian issues going in the world. This week my husband and my three children are off to a refugee camp on a certain border in Asia near where we live to serve the children there. My kids sleep on the broken wooden floors with the rats, eat the food that really isn't that great, wash from a pump and go to the toilet in a hole in the floor surrounded by a crude tin shack and smile and laugh and take part in our regular ministry there. The kids we serve have very little hope, no rights and an uncertain future. I'm glad my children are exposed to this in such a stark way as I see God's love and care and perspective growing in them. Even if you do not live near refugee centres there are the homeless, forgotten elderly people in homes and children with severe special needs who I'm sure would be thrilled to be loved and remembered. It is a privilege to worship the Lord as a family by serving those in need. Matthew 25
I returned today for my usual dose of uplifting encouragement from Anna and was surprised to see the turn of events.The internet give us the ability to be who we want without grading or judgement.I am quite pleased with all that Anna provides for me.That quiet guidance that marks her style.For this I say Thank you.
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