Jane Austen 200 year anniversary party

I don't want to say good-bye to 2012 without celebrating Jane Austen's breakout year: 1812.  Sense and Sensibilty was published and Pride and Prejudice was sold to a publisher and would be printed the following year.  My sisters and I are Janeites.  We love all the Jane Austen novels.  And since the Pride and Prejudice miniseries on the  A & E network in 1996 there has been a resurgence in Jane Austen popularity.  There have been big- screen movie adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, and Emma.  PBS recently adapted all the novels into movies. Plus there have been updated stories based on her novels such as Clueless and an Indian version called Bride and Prejudice.  There's been a popular novel making Elizabeth Bennet a vampire killer that I read Keira Knightley has optioned to make into a movie.  Downton Abbey is a popular series on PBS (season 3 premieres January 6, 2013) and the Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith is surely a descendant of Lady Catherine from Pride and Prejudice.

When One King's Lane had some Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy dinner plates and Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley salad plates on sale, how could I resist? 

Fitzwilliam Darcy dinner plate

Miss Elizabeth Bennet dinner plate

Mr. Charles Bingley salad plate

Miss Jane Bennet salad plate

For this table setting, nothing but the finest would do.  So the chargers and napkin rings are silver plate and the silverware is sterling.  The crystal goblets are Waterford Sheila.

For the centerpiece, I used Jane Austen novels as small pedestals and then I used sterling sugar bowls and small milk pitchers as the vases for the flowers from the garden.

The tablecloth is one I gave to my mother from Switzerland.  I love the delicate embroidery.  I think Miss Jane Austen would approve.


written by Reba

Hope you had a happy 4th of July

A friend was having a few guests over for an Independence Day dinner and I lent her the three blue checked runners which she used across the width of the table.  I loaned her some red chargers, the fireworks salad plates and the blue and red star napkins.  She had red glasses and napkin rings and she bought some red and white flowers for her centerpiece.  Her dessert was a cake I make every 4th of July, pictured above.  Its is simple to make and everyone likes it when they see it.  I just use a yellow cake mix, whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries.  The cake bakes in a rectangular glass cake pan.  After it cools, I spread whipped cream.  The blueberries go in the upper left corner as the star field and the sliced strawberries form the stripes.  The first time I made this cake I was a newlywed.  We were invited to my in-laws for the 4th of July.  I had seen this cake in a cook book with sparklers.  I was so naive that I thought they were real sparklers instead of candles with sparkler effects.  I bought real sparklers which when lit spread ashes all over the cake and created black smoke in the kitchen and dining room.  Needless to say, the decorations on the cake were ruined.  The flying ashes from the sparklers burned a hole in the in-laws' countertop and the windows throughout the house had to be opened to get rid of the smoke.  My husband joked that the neighbors were going to call the fire department because of the smoke pouring out of the windows.  It wasn't far from the truth. If I had seen that amount of smoke, I would have at least called the neighbors to see if they were okay.  Moral of the story: Never light fireworks inside the house.

We hope you had a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday and we will be posting again soon.


Written by Reba