purplemoon, thank you, well, since this treatment is going to last at least until Aug, I have to deal with good days (few) and not so good days, but I try to not have the bad days totally run my life...they just slow it down LOL Paintingfool, you just gave me a good belly laugh (Godiva) ha, only in my dreams, especially lately LOL I am glad that the tablesetting bug has gone to your family, there is nothing more pleasing than people actually using their "treasures" rather than making a shrine to them. To be lovinging touched and sharing a food event whether simple or elaborate is what makes the dishes special, because they were used with love. And each time the dishes are used they acquire a new patina of love every time they are used, now that is "priceless". And wow, 6 sisters, that means 6 opporutunites of beautiful tables and fun! dining delight, thank you too for your sweet words. I do hope what thoughts that come streaming out of this head (especially lately) are of some help to everyone, I defineatly do not have a claim to "engaging prose", I do the best I can, but of course if anyone has any questions I am always glad to take a poke at it. I do not consider myself an expert in any way. As I had said in the main forum under another thread, I do follow certain rules, but I do put up alot of others for grabs LOL, at this stage of my life I try to please me and others, the whole idea is to have fun, bring in color, excitement to what is a normal routine in most of our lives. My ears are burning in a good way, thankyou :) luvs, the Party Planner seems to be way behind on posting the photos, but if you go to her most recent comment about being busy...I think, you will see people that participated with comments, click on there blog sign and their blog will come up and you will see their teaparties.

Betty, I LOVE the pink tablecloth in your tea setting. If you hadn't told us, I wouldn't have known it was plastic. It is such a pretty colour and goes so well with your beautiful dishes. What I find particularly appealing (besides sweet Hanna and the yummy food!) are the candlestick holders you used...I love candles of all sorts and those are great. Are they crystal? Thanks for keeping this post going, it's a good one! DD

When my mother turned 70, we gave her a surprise party and wrote and performed a little musical of her life. She definitely loved that! But our family is into stuff like that. Yours may be more into art, writing, etc. For my 50th birthday, my husband contacted everyone he could think of and asked them to contribute a little anecdote for an album. He put photos in the back. I adore it. I recently did a "this is your life" slide show for a party honoring someone. Her family gave me photos. But in addition to the real photos from her life, we put in lots of downloaded photos with her face photoshopped in (always the same photo of her face, and always just a little too large). For example, when the narration was about her meeting and marrying her husband, there were a few of the two of them together, and then her with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Homer Simpson, King Kong ... etc. It was really funny to think of things; she is a VERY refined and elegant lady, and we had her getting a tattoo, pole dancing, in a motorcycle gang, on a Tabloid cover, in the Sopranos -- like that. What made it funny was that we kept the narration perfectly straight and played very formal music behind it. It was very well received, and the guest of honor loved it. Do you think your mom might like something like one of these ideas? I, too, think I would prefer something like that to making the guests play games. I think it is so nice of you to make a party for your mother. You don't need to "program" every minute with games, though -- your mom's friends will enjoy socializing with each other.

As many of you predicted last year, the two Love Songs I planted in containers at the beginning of the year soon outgrew them. They are going in the ground this week. Photo taken 11/2. Yup — not container plants here. The two I planted in the ground really took off - I just took this photo now. They are of course more lavender and less pink than the picture shows. I just cut these this morning — with Dream Come True at top and Darcey Bussell (the ever-blooming) on the right. Pardon the clutter!