over the weekend, we celebrated a friend’s birthday with a proper italian dinner- think lady and the tramp, under the tuscan sun, the godfather… courtney told me to leave the candelabra at home. we ordered pasta, pizza and sfincione from felix and baked a cake for our performance of “happy birthday”. it was the best way to celebrate… with food, company and my terrible italian accent. buon compleanno dana!
ollie, checking on the pappardelle.
it all started after i saw emma. autumn de wilde’s adaptation of emma had me swooning over pastels, manners and 19th century pin curls. after leaving the theater, i decided (while walking to the parking lot) that i was going to celebrate my birthday like a jane austen heroine… i was going to have an emma themed picnic in the park! there was to be tea, socializing and croquet! i was deep into planning this picnic (i bought the croquet set) when COVID-19 took over. as the precautions for this virus became essential, my birthday picnic would have to wait. so i put a pin in my pinterest board and began social distancing.
my vision…
this was going to be a birthday that i’d never forget. it would be the birthday i celebrated without my twin, the birthday where everyone had to stay 6 feet apart and the birthday where i couldn’t get toilet paper… so to make the most of my quarantined birthday, i asked some friends if they wanted to join me for a virtual tea party on my birthday. the plan was to get dressed up (to go nowhere), drink tea and socialize (virtually).
last sunday, i woke up to a picnic in my living room that my sister and brother-in-law had put together for my birthday. yes, i cried. they had stayed up all night baking and staging an emma themed picnic. the conroys had gifted me with a fortnum & mason picnic hamper filled with all the goodies to make for a proper picnic and tea party. my heart nearly exploded. i can’t begin to explain how grateful i am to everyone who made this birthday one that i would never forget, despite everything.
“it is such a happiness when good people get together- and they always do.”
Miss Bates
Emma, Volume 2, Chapter 3
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