There’s a myth brewing in high (and low) society everywhere and it’s that a tea party has to be stiff. And pink. And you have to wear a pants suit.

I’m here to tell you that it does not have to be. Gathering the girls for hot tea, finger sandwiches, and cake-y pastries is fun.

Once, a girlfriend and I hosted a tea party just for us (and her wandering white cat) in her Santa Fe apartment. It was around 4 p.m, against British standards, and we had just finished flipping through rolling racks at a local clothing thrift shop where, I should add, I picked up an Anne Klein blouse for $6. We reheated raspberry chocolate danishes from a trip to the bakery earlier that day and, along with store-bought cookies and quartered bagels, filled a three-tier platter. We scavenged her cupboards and came up with several varieties of Celestial Seasonings bagged teas.

There's no need to spend hours slaving over silly tasks like cutting bread into triangles and removing all of its crusts, or pouring pre-refrigerated fillings into stellar tart crusts. Make do with what you have and jazz it up with mismatched tea-and-saucer sets.