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[Enufstuff]

@Desert Lily @Suzeecat   Beautiful patterns. I love the bee design best. It looks like the Napoleonic bee, so French.

  Your career as a buyer must have been very interesting and fun.

[Enufstuff]

@Puzzle Piece @Desert Lily@Marsha2003

   I also have seen the demise of elegance and

appreciation of nice things as seen with each generation, now.

 I loved doing nice dinners with linens, china, crystal and flowers on the table. I loved doing theme dinners and parties.

 When my two oldest grandchildren were little in the 90's, they stayed over night on Valentine's Day. I made a nice dinner for them, served on my best china and Waterford crystal. I don't know if they even remember it.

  For about ten years, in the early 2000's I had theme Valentine's Day tea parties for my daughters and grand daughters. One year was Victorian, then angels, then snowflakes, winter wonderland, kisses, chocolate, retro, Cosmopolitan and antique valentines.

  It was such fun to plan each year. I made the invitations, place cards and all the food. Tea sandwiches, scones and little pastries and cookies were for the Victorian. Tea sandwiches on a silver platter, cookies, cupcakes, individual heartshaped molded desserts, little pastries and candies were served at the others.

  There was always a centerpiece of flowers or something that I created to set the theme. For the Cosmo party, the centerpiece was a giant martini glass filled with pink colored water rimmed with pink sugar, with little red and pink heartshaped candles floating on top. Always linens,tablecloths and napkins along with china or Fiesta dinnerware  and silver or gold plated flatware for the table. Sugar cubes were in a little heart shaped silver dish, served with silver sugar tongs and food was served with silver tongs and serving pieces.

   Each guest received a gift with the theme of that year. For the Victorian, each girl received a Royal Albert bone china teacup and saucer with their birth month flower on it.

   The dining room was always decorated for each theme. I collected antique valentine's for the Victorian theme and made

paper snowflakes for the windows for the snowflake theme.

   It was a lot of work, but a fun yearly project for me. My girls loved it and appreciated all that I did. After ten years, I was just partied out.

    My last elegant theme party was in 2014. It was a Centennial Celebration garden party. My house was built in 1914. I researched the foods, music and clothing styles for that

year. I made all the food and the tables on the wrap around porches  and lawn were set with white linens and napkins.

   We used glass dinnerware and stainless steel flatware. Antique pitchers held lemonade, iced tea and water. We had

little glass bottles of soda flavors that were popular in 1914.

   We had lots of flowers in our gardens and small centerpieces on the tables. Everyone dressed in 1914 styles with straw boaters for the men and my son and husband wore round collared shirts from Saville Row in London.

    I made my dress and dressed my little great grand daughter in a white eyelet antique dress with a lavender satin sash and a

matching bow in her hair. All the ladies wore dresses and some wore hats.

    We had croquet on the lawn and antique stereoscopes with

picture cards for entertainment and a CD of 1914 music.

    Everyone went home with a little gift. I made glass paperweights with antique floral design

postage stamps inside. The children got little bags of penny candies that would have been sold in 1914 and each got a 1914 penny in a coin case.

    It was a perfect sunny day in June and  one of my best parties. We had about 25 people and they all seemed to have a good time. After a year of planning, all turned out well.

   My oldest daughter and I loved Downton Abbey and would have loved to  have lived in the Age of Elegance.

   Right now I am reading a novel by Edith Wharton. If you are fond of that era, you might enjoy one of her books.

   When you mentioned that you wonder where it will all end up, I envisioned people sitting on the ground eating with their hands.

[Puzzle Piece]

@Enufstuff Yes, I've read my share of Edith W
harton.  Your efforts hopefully will be passed on through your daughters. 

[Marsha2003]

@Enufstuff, I love the descriptions of your parties.  I know what you mean, though, about being partied out.  At some point, the whole process stops being fun and becomes a chore.  I still do two or three small brunches a year for friends as it's a good opportunity for us to get together now that we all live a distance apart.  However, I keep those pretty simple with a pretty table setting, fresh fruit, some sort of egg dish, a bread of some kind, coffee and champagne.  Keeping the brunch small and simple means I can still enjoy the process and not get exhausted.

[mare54]

I inherited my moms Reed and Barton's Francis the First. I have never used it. I have 4 daughters and I don't think any of them are interested. It would not have been my first choice but it was moms. So I love it. 

[Sooner]

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@Puzzle Piece wrote:

I congratulate you on something that is rapidly disappearing in our society. 

I had Repousse by Kirk Steiff and I donated it as things like that are considered horse and buggy now where I live.  We are retired and the formal ware of dinners with nice things are just the past now.  To have tablecloths is also 'not done ' either. 

Where it all will end up, who knows.    

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@Puzzle Piece I just don't let "not done" bother me. I keep my house and set my table for me.  So that means I'm keeping my silver and eat off of it every day.  There are a lot of "done" things that I don't care for or do, so guess what? 

I figure it all evens out in the long run!  LOL!!!