Tea Cups for our Tea Party

At the beginning of the meeting, we had the pleasure of having our priest come talk to us about the virtue of the month, docility and how he had been docile to God's call.  It was great for the girls to hear about his experience.

While we try to follow the schedule that we put out at the beginning of the year, we have to be flexible.  Our tea party had been schedule to take place over the weekend, but I wound up having surgery a month ago. I knew I wouldn't be up to organizing everything.   So instead of the clean up we were supposed to be doing this evening at our meeting, we needed something to fill the slot.  Jessica came up with the wonderful idea of having the girls paint tea cups for our tea party.

 We first thought about going to one of those do it yourself pottery places, but decided that was just a little more (ok, a lot more)  than we wanted to spend.  Instead we got mugs from the dollar store and used Folk Art Multi-Surface paint.  It was a much cheaper option.  For 14 mugs, 10 bottles of paint, paint brushes, styrofoam plates, and a couple of table clothes, the total was $43.  We actually only used half of the paint.

While the paint is non-toxic, the mugs are not supposed to go in the microwave and we taped off the lip of the mugs so that when the girls use them, their mouths do not come in contact with the paint.  After the paint dries which takes about an hour, it goes in the oven to "cure".  From the Plaid website,
 Place project in a cool oven.  Set oven temperature to 350ºF.  Once temperature has reached 350ºF, start timing for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the oven off.  Glass must heat gradually with the oven to avoid breakage. Do not place glass in a hot oven. Let glass cool completely in oven. Do not use for 72 hours.  I copied the instructions for everyone to take home.  It worked great.

The girls seemed to all enjoy making their creations.  We also had a little excitement in the middle of the painting.  We got the alert that there was a tornado warning.  We put the painting on hold and headed down to the basement.  Luckily it was Nina's birthday and she had brought cookies to share with the group.  We kept things lighthearted and enjoyed the little break.  After a while, the storm passed and we headed back upstairs.  Luckily the paint brushes didn't get dried up.   I am sure they will like getting to use them at the tea party in June.