<p>My daughter is moving to London with her company, this time is for real instead of the 6 months last year. As she is coming home for 10 days to bring home all her belongings, I have decided to host a dinner for her with all of our family; that is 30 adults and 7 little kids! We are just going to grill hamburgers and hot dogs for ease and hope for nice weather so we can put a couple of tables on the deck.</p>
<p>I am trying to locate little trinkets to either put on the cake or to decorate the tables with; all I have found is stickers or posters and large cut outs. My hope was to find plastic buses, telephone booths, British Bobbies, Union Jack, Big Ben, Underground, pounds, and other London things. I have searched online and the only places I have found with inexpensive trinkets is in the UK. Any leads would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I could use teapots on the table and maybe put flowers in them, but somehow teapots and hotdogs don’t seem to go together I am not a creative person, so I am racking my brain trying to come up with something appropriate. My daughter would be the one to decorate if she were giving the dinner, but since she is the honoree, I am on my own!</p>
<p>The other thing I am going to do is put a London photograph on the cake as my daughter loves our local grocery stores birthday cakes. She hasn’t had one in 3 years since she left home, so will be excited to have it. I am been scouring the internet for London photos and have found plenty that are not copyrighted; not to decide which scene to use. I like the London Eye or London Bridge as there are a few shots with fireworks or lite up. There are also some with the phone booth and Big Ben that look nice. What would you consider the top view for a local? I don’t want a night scene picture as the adults may revolt if there is too much black icing; the kids on the other hand won’t mind black teeth :)</p>
<p>jmy626, I have no idea how I missed those! My daughter use to dance around the corner from the one in Norcross and I bought most of her dancewear on the Square! I will be calling both this morning to see if they have little trinkets, thanks.</p>
<p>I have gone through all the Amazon items, but was hoping to find little items to put on the table, or a larger item to go in the center. As I will have several tables and this is just suppose to be a family dinner, I hate to spend too much. When we all get together we don’t decorate, but I just thought it would be more festive to do so.</p>
<p>Menu is staying with burgers and hot dogs and the crowd will be happier with that!</p>
<p>Post back if that corner shop is still there. Cant picture where it might be. There is the Australian bakery there. Maybe they have a few items you can use.</p>
<p>Fish and chips served in a newspaper–you could have a few fish flllets/fries from the oven–just for the ‘atmosphere’. Maybe you could find a London newspaper? “Mind the Gap” is a fun phrase you could use…I’ve seen t-shirts with that phrase all over London…</p>
<p>jym626, The one on the Square is indeed opened; it is over next to the theatre and Pendletons. They have a toy bus that might work for the table, and the other shop might have something; I just have to go and look. Thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>If I do a picture cake, I have a great picture of London Bridge at night with fireworks, a telephone booth in the snow, a telephone booth with Big Ben in the Background, and the London Eye shot down a holiday lite street; these are my leading candidates at the moment although I have plenty more! We actually have an overview shot that my daughter took, but it is kinda gray looking and would like some color.</p>
<p>Sounds really fun.
Check etsy for cute items to fit your theme. Lasy year I found some adorable cotton gift bags with tea cups printed on them for a tea party I hosted.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Sally, I called the Corner Shop, that is the on jym suggested. The cake is indeed coming from Publix, a staple at each of our birthdays They had no Going Away designs, which is why I thought about doing a picture cake. We did one for my son’s medical school graduation with a picture of him in scrubs as a toddlers; it was a huge hit!</p>
<p>I don’t want to go overkill as my daughter will think it’s creepy. She has lived in London for work for 6 months, but since this is a real move, I want to do something special. Flags I can get easily, but I really wanted to use plastic buses, telephone booths, cabs and such for the tables. Of course if I do that, I need to plan on the little ones taking them off the table to play with I have 5 under the age of 4, 3 of which are very active boys, so I need to assume they will be removing whatever goes on the table.</p>
<p>Publix cakes are great, but so are Costco (love my Costco membership), and also (though I cancelled my membership) Sams cakes. Sams have filling in their sheetcake and also will do photos on the cake. We got our son’s eagle scout ceremony cake from there.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that shop on the square is still open, snowball. Saves a trip across town to the other store. There used to be a British/Welsh ship in the Shoppes of Vinings, but I think its gone.</p>
<p>My daughter would go ballistic if it wasn’t a Publix cake!! She has not had one since she moved to DC and we always have a half chocolate, half vanilla with butter cream icing. Our birthdays are 3 days apart, but my husband would still order a cake for my birthday even though we still had plenty of my daughter’s cake left. Eventually my daughter and I talked him into one cake. Plus, March is Girl Scout cookie month, so you can imagine how much sweets we ate! </p>
<p>My mother is an excellent baker, so I am sure we will have more desserts than dinner She will insist on making my daughter’s favorite as no family event is complete without her chocolate chip cookies :)</p>
<p>We only bought four box of girls scout cookies last month & two we sent to our kids. One is still in the freezer however.
I don’t like cake but next month is H’s birthday & both Ds. Younger D also shares her BD with her BF. ;)</p>
I am not a creative person, so I am racking my brain trying to come up with something appropriate. My daughter would be the one to decorate if she were giving the dinner, but since she is the honoree, I am on my own!</p>
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They had no Going Away designs, which is why I thought about doing a picture cake. We did one for my son’s medical school graduation with a picture of him in scrubs as a toddlers; it was a huge hit!</p>
I have 5 under the age of 4, 3 of which are very active boys, so I need to assume they will be removing whatever goes on the table.</p>