Thursday, May 24, 2012

Jane Austen Thirteen

My sweet Sunshine is thirteen today. 
 We are celebrating with a Jane Austen day. A fun, kind-of funky, thirteenish Jane Austen day.
 The silhouette you see is a silhouette believed to be Jane Austen's. I cut this one out of posterboard and decorated the table with it along with some black cardstock, a pink tablecloth and our wedding china. Whoops. Obviously I forgot the silverware in this shot. 
These tea cups are part of her collection of tea cups that her grandmother started for her when she was  born. The Old Britain Castles cup is my personal favorite. She will be having a tea party, but I decided to outsource it to a lovely little tearoom at one of our antique malls. The girls and two of their friends will be enjoying a tea fit for Lady Catherine de Bourgh while the boys help me entertain the Cupcake. 
 I made a birthday banner out of the pages of Sunshine's favorite Jane Austen story, Emma. 
 Oh yes I did! Ripped the pages right out and punched holes in them. 
Before you gasp and succumb to your poor nerves does it make you feel better to know that it was a used copy and the spine was broken?

Her cake!
 It's a 5 layer pink ombre cake. They are thin layers but it's still quite tall. This was the inspiration.  I made a cute little banner for the top. I've been seeing these everywhere and they look so sweet, I just had to try one.
 We have an activity planned for later today. Painting Jane's silhouette on a T-shirt. 
We've done T-shirt painting before and the kids really enjoy it.  I use clear contact paper to stick to the shirt. We paint over it, peel it up and should have a black silhouette with a colored oval around it. 


We have some treat bags to take to the tea party for our friends. 
And a game of Jane Austen Bingo to play. And, of course, a movie to watch!
Off to get this party started! It was so much fun just to put together!

{You can find a preparations post here and a wrap up post here.}


21 comments:

  1. Oh!!! It all looks like so much fun! What a perfect birthday party for your sweet thirteen year old! I so wish I could join the fun! :)

    You did an amazing job coming up with ideas, and I can't wait to see how that cake looks once you cut into it. Be sure to take a picture!

    Happy birthday Sunshine!!!

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  2. BEAUTIFUL, Charlotte! I hope you get a shot of the cake slice so that we can see the ombre-ness. :)

    I love all of the fun detail you put into it all. Everything from the t-shirt craft to the bingo and table settings. Just so lovely. I think I would swoon if I had a party like this. Happy birthday wishes to your very sweet Janeite. Such a lucky girl to have you for a mommy.

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  3. This is prehaps one of the best party themes I've seen in a long while. Sunshine must have been overjoyed.

    Birthday prayers to her 13 year old young lady!

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  4. What a singularly capital birthday idea! Can you come over and do my birthday for me in January?! Does it matter that I'll be 32? ;)- All joking aside, I'm going to write these ideas down for my girls' older birthdays...a while from now, but at least I'll be prepared!

    Happy birthday to your dear new teen.

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  5. Best party planner evah. You do an amazing job.

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  6. This is so awesome. What a fantastic idea for a 13th birthday party! I just love it (and I love all things Miss Austen). I'm logging this idea away for 12 years from now when my baby girl turns 13 :)

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  7. So pretty! What a fabulous mom you are. I want you to plan my birthday. ;)

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  8. Ok, this is the coolest thing ever! I want this theme for my birthday. Would that be weird? LOL I really LOVE it.

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  9. What a coincidence--that's the very same theme our little George requested!

    Ha.

    Actually, he asked for a "Toy Tay Three" cake.

    This party looks WONDERFUL, Charlotte--every bit as fun & lovely as your sweet 13-year-old. Happy Birthday, Sunshine!

    With love from your birthday buddy & his family. ♥

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  10. Beautiful job, Charlotte! I ditto what Amy Caroline said :) Happy birthday to your beautiful daughter, Sunshine!

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  11. How beautiful! You are quite amazing, Miss Charlotte! You come up with the best birthday parties!!

    Happy birthday to Sunshine! Enjoy!

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  12. Happy Birthday, Sunshine! Welcome to the terrific teenage years!
    Charlotte, your party looks super fabulous! A girl's dream party - so lovely.

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  13. Dear "Matilda", What a brilliant party! Your cleverness beautifully illustrates the great Austen's satirical comment, "A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can." Next time invite me to one of your inspired parties.

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  14. I wanted to comment yesterday that I love, love, love this theme. Everything looks so elegant and the color scheme is perfect! I realized after your post that Monica is turning 13 at the end of the summer. I'll be showing her this post. Don't know if she'll go for that....she's more of a sporty girl. In any case, she enjoys Austen and may just surprise me!:) Thanks for all the details and links.;)

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  15. I love it!Happy birthday Sunshine! And I really love the tea cups.
    primrose

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  16. Amazing ideas! You have quite a gift! I was wondering, at what age do your girls start reading Jane? I can't wait for the day I get to share with my dd!

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    1. Sunshine read Emma first. I think that's why it's her favorite. She read it when she was just turned twelve. She has also read Persuasion. I might let her read Northanger Abbey next but honestly, it's not one that I like much so I'm not going to push it. She has seen different movie versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility but we have skipped over some of the discussion of Willoughby's and Wickham's immorality. They know the basics of what those characters did but not details.

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