Garden Party Tablescape... Welcome to the 36th Tablescape Thursday, Foodie Friday and Pink Saturday!

Let's have a Garden Party! I'll bring dessert!



Come on over and have a seat...so glad you're here!




Garfield says, "Life is short, eat dessert first!" I like the way he thinks! We're having Oreo Dirt Cheesecake...complete with worms!



I lit the candles in our little green house. I know it's not dark out yet, but nightfall is coming...




The greenhouse is covered in flowers for our garden party...



Garden gloves worked well for napkin rings...the napkins are just tucked up under the little band on the outside of each glove. The gloves were only $1 a pair at Dollar Tree so that's 6 napkin rings for $3. Can't beat that deal!



Since the main colors in this tablescape are green and pink, I used both green and pink gloves.



Cabbage plates are Bordallo Pinheiro and are made in Portugal....found 5 of these in HomeGoods and one on e-Bay.

Chargers come from a very exclusive, high-end china shoppe called The Home Depot. ;)  They are 12 inch terra-cotta (clay) saucers...the type that go under large clay pots. The "fancy" dessert bowls came from the same place.




We'll be dining by candlelight tonight...oh, how I love these summer evenings on the porch.  While we await darkness and the shimmering moonlight that follows, let me show you how I made our dessert.



You'll need these. (Actually, I used one more of the Jell-o Cheesecake and one less bag of Oreo cookies than shown below.)



You'll need six, new, 3 or 4-inch terra-cotta (clay) glazed flower pots, thoroughly washed. (I used 4 inch pots.) Even with glazed pots, line the inside of the pot with aluminum foil, just to be safe. Another option would be to use plastic cups inside, cutting them down to the right height.

You also need 6 flowers, either real or faux.  Gerbera daisies work really well. I opted for faux flowers and bought a big bunch for $1 at Dollar Tree. (Important: If you use real flowers, make sure they are pesticide free.)



You'll need 3 boxes of the cheesecake mix, if you use 4 inch pots. I found the Jell-O brand at Publix. Of course, you could make your cheesecake from scratch...if you like. Prepare your cheesecake, per the directions on the box.



While your cheesecake mix is mixing away, place a cookie in the bottom of each clay pot to cover the little hole, if you didn't line the pots with aluminum foil or didn't use a cup inside. I do recommend using a cup inside or lining the the pots with aluminum foil.  That's probably safer and you won't need the cookie to plug the hole.  Most recipes suggest using vanilla wafers, to plug the hole, but I used little shortbread cookies since I like those better.



Spoon your cheesecake mixture into each pot, stopping 1/2 inch from the top.




Now, the recipes I found said to use a plastic straw for this next part, but I found these cute little cereal straws and thought they would be more fun...plus, they are edible!




One cereal straw, when cut in half, was the perfect height for the pot...so it only took 3 straws for all 6 pots. Just press the straw down into the center of the cheesecake mixture. If you find one is a tad tall, just take your kitchen scissors and snip off the top a bit.

Now, for the fun part!  I bought some gummy worms at Dollar Tree.  Just take a worm and position him on your cheesecake, like he's slithering right out of the pot.



You'll probably only need one bag of Oreos for this next part; that was all I used. I broke up the Oreos before putting them into my mini-Cuisinart.




I used my little Cuisinart to crush them, instead of my big one. It took 3 batches in the mini one; if you use a full size Cuisinart, you could probably do the whole bag at once.






Ahhhhh, good rich dirt! Yum!




Sprinkle your "dirt" over the top of your pots. Then chill them in the frig until you are ready to serve.

At serving time, just poke the little flower stem down into the cereal straw and your done!  Place a worm or two on the saucer of the pot for some added fun.




How about some magical night time pics. Darkness has fallen and the color of the sky is the most amazing deep, blue! If you only click on one pic to enlarge...make it this one!  (Pssst:  Later I realized I caught the "Blue Hour" in my photo.  Have you heard of the blue hour?  You can read all about it in THIS Blue Hour post.  It's truly amazing and you may wish to try and capture it in your pics, too.)




Ahhh...dining by candlelight...



(Click to see the little bees on the La Rochere Napoleon Bee glassware)



Surrounded by flowers...






Thanks for coming to the Garden Party!



Can't wait to see all the tablescapes posted for this Tablescape Thursday!






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