A Literary Tea

Yesterday was a fun afternoon. Our Delta Kappa Gamma Society International's local chapter holds a scholarship fundraiser for college students majoring in education. Yesterday's event was our second annual Literary Tea. Each group of two or three members comes up with a book (usually a children's book) and uses that as their theme to decorate their table, complete with favors and one book for a giveaway. People are so creative in the books they choose, as well as their tablescapes. We bring china and crystal and have a buffet table of wonderful goodies. Each table is responsible for their tea. Here are pictures of the tables at yesterday's tea. You can click on the pictures to make them larger for more detail.

The picture above is our table. Our book was Gigi, God's Little Princess & the Royal Tea Party by Sheila Walsh. The book is about how Gigi tries to tell her best friend Frances that she is God's little princess, too.

This picture is of our place setting. You can see the pink boxes with silver crowns which held tiny melt-away mints. Our other favor was a bookmark with the verse from the beginning of the book: God chose you out of all the people on Earth as His cherished personal treasure. Deuteronomy 14:2. The bookmarks matched the place cards, which were also graced with a crown and had the guest's name and the description God's Princess.

This adorable spring-like table above was based on The Little Tree. We were lucky enough to have the Hungarian-born author present.

This table with all the gorgeous quilts is decorated around Alfreda's World. I had never heard of this book but can't wait to read it. It is the story of a Caucasian painter, Mary Whyte, who moved to a South Carolina barrier island. The book chronicles her friendship with a quilting group, whose members are descendants of African slaves.

This table was designed by a retired English teacher and another English teacher who is retiring this year. Many of their guests were either retired teachers or those who had been in the classroom many years. Their book was Mrs. McBloom, Clean Up Your Classroom! It was too cute!

This table was decorated around the book Miss Spider's Tea Party. Very appropriate, don't you think?

This adorable table decorated in snowflakes derived its theme from Snowflake Bentley. I thumbed through this book and will definitely be purchasing it next winter. It tells the story of real-life photographer Wilson Bentley, who was fascinated by snowflakes as a young boy and went on to study them and take photographs of them. The book tells an interesting story in itself and also includes interesting sidebar information about these beautiful crystalline structures. I didn't get the back of the table's chairs in the photographs, but they were decorated with scarves and snowflake ornaments.

This table was based on the David series of books by David Shannon. One of our members made the mischievous papier-mache David knocking over flower pots in the center of the table!

This table was decorated according to New Orleans chef Emeril Lagasse's book Every Day's a Party. Their table was certainly festive!

I'm so sorry I neglected to get a picture of the last table. Its book was P is for Palmetto, an alphabet book chock full of historical and cultural information on South Carolina. There are several different state editions of these alphabet books, and I would recommend all highly. Emily Anne has P is for Palmetto, and Will has V is for Volunteer to honor Joel's Tennessee roots. Their favors were bags of grits with a recipe for Shrimp 'n' Grits, and the two little girls at the table were given place cards naming them as Palmetto Princesses.

I hope that you enjoyed your tour around our tea room and the tablescapes and books. I only wish I could share some of the delicious tea and goodies with you!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the second edition of Tomes for Tots!