i’m dreaming of a white christmas….
Hope your Holidays are Sugar coated!!
And may all your Christmases be white…. see you next year! Cobi.
collector’s christmas
I love the idea of incorporate collections into your Christmas decorating…
If you have Creamware…
Milk glass….
Mercury glass….
Green glass…
Jadeite….
Vintage Garden supplies …
Simple Ironstone…
Whatever your fancy, get it out, tie a bow on it and enjoy!
tartan and pearls
Posted by Cobi on Monday December 06, 2010 at 06:58 AM
cobi's house • christmas • entertaining • Comments (3)
cobi's house • christmas • entertaining • Comments (3)
This past weekend I hosted a simply smashing dinner party, dahling. I called it ‘Tartan & Pearls’ and it was a celebration of my husband, Bob (the birthday boy) and his hero, Winston Churchill (just because).
The UK theme worked beautifully for early Christmas…all the right colours but nothing overt…have a look.
I used blank note cards for the invitation. Tartan & Pearls set the theme for guests and gave them an idea of what to wear. One smart couple came with the woman in tartan and the man in pearls. Another friend came in full kilt and gag-tam with red hair sticking out. Add in a few tartan bow ties and top hats and there were lots of laughs all round.
For loot bags I gave out little bottles of cognac, black licorice cigars, ‘keep calm’ sniffs and Scottish shortbread.
I found plain white note cards at Walmart that worked well for simple tented place cards and inside each one I wrote a Churchill quote. Bob had fun choosing quotes from his many books and speeches and deciding who should say what. When we sat down, the guests were told to look at their quote and to stand at some point during the dinner and recite it while others would chime in “hear, hear!”. I thought some people might be a bit shy but that was definitely not a problem with this group - it sounded like the British House of Commons on a busy day!
Bob couldn’t help himself from putting together a Churchill trivia quiz. It was so easy and fun. The winner got a box of Walkers Shortbread of course!
English and Scotch mints filled dishes with wintry white…
And I got out a bit of Bob’s memorabilia and displayed it around for fun…
To get things started…Churchill’s favourite champagne: Pol Roger, seen here chilling in the porch in the afternoon.
We also had a selection of British beers which you can buy singly or in small packs. Who knew Tetley made beer?
For dinner, I couldn’t go as far as steak and kidney pies, but steak and vegetable did the trick. Served with peas of course! And a hearty salad.
After that we had a cheese course with English cheddar and Stilton and Carrs biscuits, then gingerbread cake, my homemade butterscotch sauce and cinnamon whip cream, yum!
Now the best part - the table - to get the theme going I bought a few yards of cotton tartan at the fabric store and cut it into two lengths so it ran from end to end. Then I pinking-sheared the remainder into napkins.
I have the perfect charger plates for this party, I bought them a number of years ago and they feature hunt scenes on each one. The white porcelain always looks great.
Down the middle of the table I stacked some of Bob’s Churchill book collection and used it for pedestals for votive candles and little crystal snowflakes my mom just gave me. It worked great and the red covers on many of the old books was perfect.
I regret I didn’t take a picture of the table just before we sat down when the candles were glowing - it was really pretty - but I was having too much fun!
There’s nothing better than the feeling you get the morning after a good party. It is most definitely our ‘finest hour’!
