Birthday Parties and Tablescapes

We recently celebrated the birthday of my aunt, Maxine. I will say that it was a landmark birthday, but I will not say which one. She is adorable and does not look anywhere near her age.
We ate at the French restaurant at the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were beautiful but the restaurant would not receive any recommendation from me. We had fun anyway, though. This is me with Maxine:


There were several nice guests, such as Nathan and Amby...




Victoria, who is Maxine's daughter-in-law (with Maxine)...


My aunts Peggy and Margo...

And my grandmother, Lottie, with my Aunt Betty and Uncle Wayne:

And speaking of my grandmother, I recently had a birthday celebration for her and others in my family who were celebrating August birthdays. She is 94. I wanted to do very lady-like table because she is such a lady. I used an old, but beautiful cut work tablecloth that was my mom's. I bought a bouquet from Publix and cut it into short stems. I chose this pitcher to put the flowers in because it reminded me of depression glass. I liked the way it looked with the tablecloth.

I found these napkins at Target, which is a great place to find interesting linens. I love intricate napkin folding. This is not a fancy fold, just a modified fleur-de-lys, but the layering accentuated the pretty ruffles on the napkin. My grandmother actually would not use the napkin, but instead opted for the paper version because she said they were too pretty. Lottie is very cute.

Although I usually don't do this during the day, I added a couple of candles, just for atmosphere. I used two antique etched glasses which belonged to Gil's mother for the candles. I put the votives in separate glass holders so I wouldn't get wax on the glasses. With the exception of the flowers, I was able to use what I already had. It was simple and understated, and easy to put together.