So for those of you playing along at home, you will probably have noticed that the 24 months is up in 3 days (as are my 20's eeek!) and unfortunately I will not have hosted and completed all of the party's in the book. I will still be having the Hot House High Tea for my 30th however and I will be hosting this one in just over a weeks time, but more on that to follow later in the blog.
Over the 24 months I have managed to host 4 of the beautiful parties in the book: First was 'Cloud 9', followed by 'A Weekend in the Country' then 'Summer Storm' and most recently 'A Menu by Matt.' It has come down to why so many people's goals that set out to do aren't achieved - time and money. I am very disappointed that I haven't been able to achieve the goal I set out and have worked towards for so long now, especially since I am ear-marking a lot of life's accomplishments I wanted to have achieved by the big 3-0, but then I look at the picture of my recently acquired World Vision sponsorship child Mollika from Bangladesh and I tell my self to stop worrying about my 'first world problems' and focus on what I do have instead. When a goal is not achieved, don't give up, celebrate your accomplishments, re-evaluate and re-set the goal.
So enough with my self help mumbo jumbo and on to the 'current' party. One of the reasons I haven't been able to complete all the parties on time is I always underestimate the amount of time it will take me to organize each party. The other stumbling block is trying to find a suitable location or venue to host the party at. I am trying to stay as true to the book as I can, so for the Hot House High Tea I was desperate to find a suitable location. I began by asking around if anybody new anyone with a nursery, house with a greenhouse or otherwise to no success. Next I tried looking at hire of greenhouses but unless I had a spare grand and a flat 12x16 flat paved area to put it on that was no good either. Then, while over visiting my grandmother we began talking about houses she and her late husband had lived in. I remembered that one such house had a greenhouse that my step granddad Brian had built that was basically an exact match to the one in the book.
Sadly, as far as we know, that house has now long been demolished, and the greenhouse along with it, but it did lead me to wonder about my other grandparents house and the conservatory or 'sun room' as my grandparents called it that was part of their house. They sold the house 7 years ago and in an inner city area where many houses have now been demolished in order to make way for trendy townhouses and villas. I began thinking about how great it would be to have the party there, take a trip down memory lane and see what the place looks like now. I almost didn't drive past - I was too worried that the place where I had spent many summer running under sprinklers, picking gooseberries and fruit from my grandfathers orchard and making lino rubbing on my grandma's kitchen floor would have been demolished. Luckily for me though I bit the bullet, and drove past. The house was still there, a little different, a few new plants and driveway, but the house itslef looked exactly the same. Thank goodness.
The next step however seemed a little impossible. Knock on the door, "Hi, how are you, my grandparents used to own this house, may I have a party here?" Seemed a little rude, not to mention strange. I did knock on the door, and possibly with better outcome, no one answered so I left them a long and detailed note trying to explain what I wanted to do. Expecting no reply imagine my surprise the next day when I got a call from one of the owners giving me to host the party there. So excited.
Again for those of you playing along at home you will know that I have managed to collect 5 peacock chairs ready for the party. Job done. Tick. So now all I have to do in 10 days is paint all five chairs pastel colours, collect 3 cake domes, find a pallet and turn it into a table, find a wooden circular stool, make (or buy ;-) lace doilies, buy a vintage glass bowl, get some orchids, ferns, succulents, download the music, buy th macaroons, get a gold platter, more tea strainers, a candy bowl with lid, a china milk jug, cook citrus tea, prosecco with watermelon sorbet, lobster sandwiches, pate butterflies, quail egg and truffeled mushroom choux pastries, coconut ice, mille-feuille with chocolate mousse, lemon cake with earl grey icing, and rhubarb meringue cake. Better get to work.
