Yesterday I picked up a copy of Southern Lady magazine (published in Birmingham, Alabama, by Hoffman Media), thinking it would be a good joke to mail it to a friend who is lucky enough not to be held hostage in the south. The cover advertises “table settings, easy recipes, flowers, and more!” I wasn’t holding too much hope for this publication.
A section of the magazine is about hosting a “Teddy Bear’s Picnic,” which always suggests a prairie picnic. I had such plans for one of those at the first New Perspectives conference (isn’t it about time for another one???), but we ended up doing something else. I’ve always wanted to host a full-blown prairie party or “Little House” site gathering or run a LH B&B, and it was interesting that this magazine actually had quite a few ideas that could be adapted to the prairie theme quite easily.
One that caught my eye was the “vase in a vase” technique of sandwiching something between a small container of flowers and a larger glass vessel. The photo in Southern Lady uses buttons! I’d thought of wheat kernels or corn or Christmas candy or big conversation hearts, but not buttons. Cute! One photo shows flowers in a tin pail. Why not use a tin lunch pail or a tin cup?
Another photo shows crocheted coasters. There are a couple of patterns in the RWL needlework book that would be suitable. Or use nine patch coasters.
A sugared violet is used to decorate a cupcake.
Then I noticed that at the bottom of an article about collecting cream pitchers (they don’t show a cow creamer, but Laura had one), there is this: “It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder
There hasn’t been a book yet published that did justice to the concept of a “Little House” prairie party. Maybe I should write one.
