A Teddybears’ Picnic

Picnics are such a part of family life. Whether it be a full-blown riverside picnic with the entire extended family, a garden party with friends, romantic picnic for two underneath the stars or a make-believe tea party in the garden with the girls, picnics are always bundles of fun and give us moms a chance to really get creative. Here are a couple of outdoor ideas to get you on-track for a festive outdoor affair.

• Instead of a gazebo or tacky beach umbrella, set up your very own tee-pee tent. While they’re excellent for a kids’ picnic, they also come in stylish white netting which is ideal for a more mature affair.
• Brighten up the area with pretty scatter cushions and a comfy hammock.
• String bunting in the trees or hang a number of Chinese lantern from the branches. When night time falls, light these up or decorate the trees with fairy lights.
• Use interesting containers in which to pack the food, such as Chinese take-out boxes, Mason jars, old wooden crates and decorated brown paper bags.
• Keep the drinks cold in a big tupperware container, old enamel basin or half a wine barrel that’s filled with ice.
• Bring out the child in every one of your guests with big pails of marshmallows, toffee apples and other proper picnic treats.
• Write the “menu” on a little black board and prop it up against a tree trunk.
• Use interesting decorations such as buckets of freshly picked flowers, stacks of old and interesting books or jars of treats to anchor the corners of the blankets.
• Instead of sitting down-low on a picnic blanket, mount an old door on a couple of crates with cushions on either side to serve as a picnic table.
• Pack plenty of board games to play on the river bank or wherever you choose to lay your picnic blanket.
• Serve fresh ice teas, cocktails and lemonade in glass jars with quirky straws.
• Mount twirly pin wheels on sticks and plant them around the picnic area as decoration.