Entertaining Made Easy Part 9

On the luncheon table homespun runners were used, crossed in the center where a brown wicker basket filled with the gray green of bayberry branches, brightened by the orange of bittersweet, stood on a mat of fragrant pine.

Green bayberry dips in the simplest of low tin candlesticks lighted the table and at each cover the place-card was a little outline map of Cape Cod with the situation of the summer camp conspicuously marked.

The menu consisted of clam c.o.c.ktails, codfish cakes and tiny pots of baked beans, hot steamed brown bread cut in small round slices, blueberry tarts, and coffee.

The favors were wee bayberry "waxes" for the sewing basket, each with a bit of a bayberry twig peeping from its top.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SHOWERS

"How shall I announce my engagement?" The engaged girl we have always with us, and the next step after the engagement is the announcement of it. Most girls like to have some kind of little social function to break the news to their special circle of friends. Usually a mother or a sister or a chum does the entertaining, though a girl herself may perfectly well plan and carry out such a party.

There are several sorts of affairs which may serve as a setting for an announcement. A favorite kind is a luncheon for a group of girl friends. Even less work is an afternoon tea and to that a girl's men friends may be asked also, though it's really easier to have girls only. Another kind of announcement party is the evening affair to which both men and girl friends are invited and at which the announcement should be "sprung" as a total surprise as in all other announcement affairs.

After the engagement is known, immediately the friends of the bride-to-be begin to think of showers for her. One friend or a group of friends or her club may be hostesses and give such an affair.

There are different ways of planning them. For instance, they may be appropriate to the month, like a Christmas Tree Shower in December or an Indian Summer Shower in November or a Rainy Day Shower in April. Or they may take as keynotes the engaged girl's special likes, as in the case of an apple shower, a kitty shower or an old rose shower. And then again, they may be just plain, ordinary, handkerchief showers, or linen showers, or kitchen showers, with an original touch somewhere.

"A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME" LUNCHEON

At a recent engagement luncheon the announcement was made in a unique way.

A large wooden embroidery hoop was hung from the ceiling over the table and in the ring perched a gaily painted wooden parrot, the kind that rocks back and forth when touched.

From the parrot streamers of colored baby ribbon led to the different places, and tied to the ends of the ribbons were tiny notes in envelopes. These on being opened showed the names of the engaged couple and a short rhyme reading thus:

_A little bird told me A very nice thing, That Randolph gave Sally A diamond ring_.

The refreshments followed somewhat the parrot color scheme, with halves of grapefruit garnished with cherries, chicken a la King, pimento, walnut and cream cheese salad, orange ice, and little cakes with colored frosting.

Small celluloid parrots perched on the rims of the gla.s.ses were appropriate souvenirs.

A HAPPINESS TEA

_Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full o' rye, Four and twenty bluebirds Baked in a pie;

When the pie was opened The birds began to sing, About a certain couple here Who have some news to spring_.

Thus did one girl announce her engagement in the month of May. She had asked twenty-four of her best friends to come to a bluebird tea one Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and n.o.body suspected her secret, although they did remember that the bluebird stands for happiness.

The party was held out on the hostess's big porch, which was decorated with jars of pink and white apple blossoms. Everybody had a very good time dancing to the music of the phonograph until it was time for the tea to be served. The waitresses were Betty's two little sisters, who wore as insignia big blue bows on their hair and cunning little ap.r.o.ns made of bluebird cretonne.

The tea was iced and served with lemon and mint in tall gla.s.ses. The sandwiches were tiny and round and filled with pink strawberry jam which made them seem like delectable apple-blossom petals. Betty happened to have bluebird plates and she used paper napkins with a bluebird motif.

After the sandwiches came little pink and green and white frosted cakes and last of all the surprise. It appeared to be a great pie with bluebird heads peeking through the crust. In reality the crust was just brown paper touched up with a bit of water color paint and pasted across the top of a big open pan. The bluebirds soon showed what they were when the guests in turn pulled them out of the pie by means of the narrow white ribbon attached to each one. They were really flat pasteboard bluebirds and served as the excuse for the rhyme announcing Betty's engagement.

As a souvenir each guest had a tiny bluebird May basket filled with pink and white Jordan almonds. Small square boxes formed the foundations of the May baskets, the sides were then covered with bluebird crepe paper and the corners tied with wee blue bows. Little cut-out bluebirds hung from the slender handles and bore the names of the individual guests.

When they said good-by, the guests all declared that they had had a bluebirdy time, which in other words meant that Betty had planned very happily.

A h.e.l.lO PARTY

The invitations to this party read as follows:

_h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo!

A party's on the wire; And you must surely go Or else arouse my ire!

Friday evening Eight o'clock_

The affair was planned by one girl to announce the engagement of a chum, and of course the object of the party was not revealed in the invitations.

All kinds of jolly games were played to pa.s.s the evening, and one pleasant feature was "A Telephonic Conversation" by Mark Twain rendered by a good reader.

The telephone was the keynote of the evening and played a prominent part in the table decorations. A big blue paper bell such as one sees in front of telephone booths hung over the center of the table.

Beneath it was a low bowl of forget-me-nots of which the guests did not see the significance till later.

The candles were white with blue bell-shaped shades, and at each person's plate as a favor stood one of the tiny gla.s.s telephones seen in candy stores, full of candies.

The place-cards each bore a mock telephone number, such as Sing 1236, Circle 6320, Joke 5156, s.h.i.+ver 9315, Groan 231.

The menu was mostly white and served on blue dishes. It consisted of chicken patties, hot rolls, cream cheese and white grape salad, and vanilla ice-cream in blue frilled paper cases.

Toward the end of the ice-cream course the hostess asked the guests to announce their telephone numbers, in turn. Whereupon, each person was requested to rise from the table and act out his number. This was comparatively simple and made everyone quite hilarious.

When it came the turn of the hostess, she said that her number was Springit 42. The two (2), she said, were Elizabeth and John, and this was the time she had chosen to spring the announcement of their engagement.

Another way in which the announcement could be made is to prepare telephone messages of the news and tie them to the ends of blue ribbons hanging from the tongue of the bell. The hostess may announce that the "bell tolled" when the guests are allowed to open and read their messages.

AN APPLE SHOWER