In Which: Jess Wins a Picnic Competition

The moment one of my friends sent me a text telling me about the picnic spread competition at DivasOutdoors' screening of Marie Antoinette, I knew I had to do it. An outdoor film, a picnic, historic home, AND a competition? I went to the website to sign up and then realized that it was the day before the Outlander Tea. Oh dear, preparing for something like this the day before an event...did I have it in me? Why yes, I decided, I did. I've been realizing over the last few months of working on Daydreams events that I still need to flex my creative muscles outside of the events that I design and plan in order to keep me fresh. I was looking forward to this challenge!Having just been at Versailles, I knew exactly what I wanted to design: a lovely afternoon picnic, something that I would have wanted to create had I been able to while we were in France.

Outside of food, I was able to pull everything together with what I already had in my house. I found some beautiful toile fabric that I had leftover from sewing an apron, some coupe glasses that I'd picked up at Goodwill a few months ago, my pink cloth napkins, and some small dessert plates from a tea set.Now the question was menu...I was going to have to be at work all day before the picnic, so it had to be something that could keep. I decided on a mini charcuterie plate, a crust-less quiche with spinach and cheese, and some sliced French baguette with hummus. For the piece de resistance I baked a mini three tie cake.

Now, let's be clear, I am not a baker. I have many lessons learned from making said cake, but considering that I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. The roses that I put on top of the cake did not last, but the judges seemed to think that it was a foreshadowing to how Marie Antoinette's life ended. I put my whole spread on top of an empty tupperware container to get us a little heightHere's the end result:

The best part is that I won first place! It was such a lovely evening, and an amazing job done by Hillwood House. I can't wait to see what other films they screen in the future.