Photo credit: Pinterest

At a recent book club, my friend who was hosting decided to have a surprise birthday party for another member who was celebrating “one of those milestone birthdays”.  Among the group of us, I think this gal hosts the most extravagant lunches.  She also happens to be a fabulous cook and baker.

Her dining room is close to the front door – so just after walking in, we immediately got a glimpse of her gorgeous tablescape

She incorporated a pink & brown color theme

Balloons tied to the “Birthday Girl’s” chair…

How beautiful is this table and all the special details it has!

Collecting china is a passion and she actually loves to put her china to use. When she has the time, she loves to scour places like Home Goods or the home section of other stores for any china/dishes that are great buys or are on clearance.  For this occasion, she brought out her pretty pink dishes and glasses.

She placed a wrapped present at each place setting.

A funny quote about chocolate and the aging process was affixed to the front of the box.  A clue maybe about what was in them??

She tied the pink napkins with a cute coordinating ribbon, and then glued pink buttons to the ribbon for an extra touch…

The acorn place card holders held funny aging quotes instead of our names…

Each place setting had a different one…

We got a kick out of going around the table and reading each of them aloud…

She served the following divine menu for lunch:

Salad – Spinach and mixed greens with silvered almonds, sliced apples, & dried cranberries  ~  Served with vinaigrette dressing

Rolls with butter

Herbed chicken in a puff pastry

Wild rice

Special sign for a special birthday gal…

The mouth-watering dessert/birthday cake  –  Pumpkin praline cake

Just putting together a beautiful tablescape and lunch isn’t enough for this gal.  No way!  She also coordinates the items displayed in her hutch to her tablescape…

Lovely …

Some of her silver pieces …

We read The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  Our birthday party festivities ultimately took first priority at this book club.  So we didn’t end up spending much time  discussing the book, but we did give it a “thumbs up”!

We also didn’t have time to open our presents at lunch, so we took them home with us.      A close up of the top of her decorated box…

Chocolate turtles!  What a great treat to nibble on with a good book!