April 21st, 1775 is the day that Felicity turns ten years old, and it is a memorable day indeed. Felicity feels as if she has broken the trust of her Grandfather and her parents, and she wonders if they will forgive her.
But when she walks into the parlor and sees the table set for a celebration, she knows that they love her no matter what. Grandfather reminds her of this. “You were born on this day ten years ago,” he says to her, as he presents her with a vase full of flowers. “And with your birth began a joy unlike any other we’d ever known. We want to celebrate the joy you bring us, Felicity.”
I too wanted to celebrate the joy my Felicity brings me, and so I recreated her birthday celebration as best as I could with what I had. I based all of it on her retired party treats and dishes.
On the left is her chocolate set (the Merrimans drank hot chocolate instead of tea) which included a shiny metal chocolate pot. On the right is her party treats set which included the quintal (five-fingered) vase, glass platter with a cake and tarts and candied fruits, and a little shepherdess figurine.
First is the quintal vase, carried by Grandfather and presented to Felicity. He has filled it with beautiful garden flowers, a sign of the renewal of springtime.
In the center is the stubborn weed from Felicity’s garden. No matter how many times she pulled it, the weed always came back. “I decided something that is so determined to grow must be respected,” he tells her. “And I think someone as brave as you must be forgiven a mistake.”
My version of the quintal vase is made from baking soda clay and coated with several layers of super glossy Mod Podge to give it the look of porcelain. I used plastic straws to support the vase’s fingers, and built the clay around them so that the opening wouldn’t collapse. I used a needle to create crosshatch lines in the fingers. I bought some tiny white faux flowers and used fabric pens to color in a few of them with various springtime colors. The blossoming weed in the middle is a tiny faux rosebud.
Happy Birthday, Felicity! describes “the glass pyramid laden with a cake and tarts” set up on the dining table.
For the glass pyramid, I used a small glass plate from the dollar store for the bottom plate, and a plastic lid for the top plate. There are small clear plastic cups separating the layers. Her chocolate pot, to the right, is a thrift store find, which I think was probably a little coffee creamer pitcher.
The cake is made from applesauce-cinnamon clay. Those are the only two ingredients, and it dries very hard and durable and smells nice. I glazed it with Mod Podge and sprinkled it with salt, meant to look like sugar but without the risk of attracting ants.
The tarts, candied fruit, and marzipan strawberries are painted clay.
To mimic the little circular shaped look of blueberries and cherries, I poked the wet clay with the nozzle on a tube of tacky glue. For the strawberries, I mounted each berry on a toothpick and then poked them all over with another toothpick.
The plates are Mason jar lids I painted white, then glued on flower cutouts from some fancy scrapbook paper.
The mugs are made from clay and more flower cutouts. I shaped the clay around a prescription drug bottle, and twisted small snakes of clay for the handles. They’re coated in glossy Mod Podge. This was my first attempt at doll-sized mugs so they’re a little rough around the edges. Usually I would just use my tea set, but the story mentions that they’re Felicity’s favorite mugs, so I felt this scene deserved something a little more fancy.
The shepherdess figurine is made from painted clay, built around a very thin dowel to keep it from collapsing as it dried. I spent nearly a whole day working on this. First I found an auction listing of the original piece (there are a few versions of it, I think) and copied it as best as I could, using toothpicks and needles to carve out fine details. Then I painted it and applied a few coats of glossy Mod Podge to give it a ceramic look. It’s about three inches high. It’s not mentioned in the narrative, but appears in the illustration.
Felicity’s guitar is a dollar store find that I modified. I cut the pear shape of the guitar’s body from a piece of poster board, then cut the little flower motif from parchment paper. I fit it over the guitar face and reattached the strings.
And of course, Posie is Posie! She’s wearing a festive pink ribbon to match all the pink in Felicity’s outfit.
