"Perhaps that is the true gift of a teatime celebration: It fills our cups with joy and warmth and friendship. May the echo of the teacups' message be heard not only at Christmas, not only on special occasions, but anytime friends come together."~Emilie Barnes, "A Cozy Christmas Tea"
On Saturday we hosted an Afternoon Tea for friends. The art of special occasions such as these seems to have disappeared with the invention of Starbuck's where you run to grab your coffee and eat a pastry that has been sitting in the cabinet for a day.
A tea is a good time to act like the lady of all ladies! Bust out that cute dress, apply the make up, put on a set of pearls and toss on a hat.
My mom hosts a tea party every fall and she passed along some dainty tea cups along with good ideas on how to host a tea. A while back my mom and aunt gave me special serving dishes that I could use for an occasion such as this. We used jams out of a fancy schmancy jam dish, ate chocolate mousse out of antique clear glass dishes and served up scones an old fashioned cake plate. We combined those things with .25 cent spoons from a local dollar store, hand-me down glasses and a fake lace tablecloth from a local grocery store.....but it all worked!
Preparing for the party, setting the table and making tea sandwiches is just as fun as
having the party itself.
Who can eat scones without clotted cream and raspberry jam? I was dreaming about
this stuff when I went to bed that night--not really but THAT is how good it was.
Since it's about 1 million and 10 degrees here (really only 120F) we thought
welcoming our guests with a glass of iced peach tea was a good idea. It was.
They liked it and so did we.
Our friend Beth has a LARGE collection of books at her home.
She brought a book along about the Titanic. She read about tea time on
the Titanic and the typical menu for First, Second and Third Class on the ship.
It was the perfect addition to our tea time.
And here are your hostesses. Beth also has a LARGE collection of hats.
She was an opera singer so she had all sorts of parties and such to attend.
Boy we had fun going through them and trying on all different styles!
Nothing like a large brimmed hat to wear to a tea. We were having a
hard time getting the picture because we kept knocking hats and THAT
is a big NO NO in hat etiquette, apparently.
We'd love to have you for tea. Just let us know when you're coming.
We'll prepare the clotted cream and jam.
2 comments:
really fun! did you make the clotted cream yourself? If so, impressive! We're hoping to come in Nov/Dec/Jan (read: sometime in the future!) and so I'll hope for some fancy tea :)
ps: I love your dress -- you look great!
Post a Comment