It's been a while since I took you all along on a tea date. And high time I scheduled another one! Here are some recent photos of a holiday high tea at my favorite tea shop (and San Diego's favorite one, too), Tea-upon-Chatsworth.
The three-level server that Joy or Carol brings to the table is a delight to the eye and the taste buds. The bottom tier typically contains warm savories and tea sandwiches of the most delectable sort; the middle tier has scones and fruit; the top tier has more sumptuous sweets.
The pots of tea just flow! My current favorite is Apricot, complete with pieces of fruit mixed in with the flavored black tea, and a close second is Paris, with a hint of vanilla.
"Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage."
♥ Catherine Douzel
It was a gloomy, misty day in San Diego yesterday, and I enjoyed a spot of tea in my "Cup of Knowledge" tea cup. The milk is served in a modern reproduction Russel Wright creamer found at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and my handmade tea cozy keeps my Paris tea toasty warm in my favorite everyday tea pot.
Taking a tea break like this daily is helping me meet my writing goals in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I'm running low on my favorite Apricot tea and will have to retrieve some from Tea-upon-Chatsworth when they open again on Wednesday. Cheers, fellow NaNoWriMo folks!
The other day we went to tea to celebrate a friend's birthday and to wish her Bon Voyage! She's moving away to New Hampshire from California--our tea was bittersweet--but we know she'll be coming back to visit soon.
Her dear friend's daughter brought along her favorite cloth doll, Kaley, and her miniature handpainted pink tea set. What a delightful addition to our table! The whole day was magical. We cried and laughed, exchanged gifts and cards, and vowed to meet again in a few months.
To Life and Our Next Tea Party! Cheers!
My vintage Effanbee doll (which I introduced in my April 19th blog entry) has been duly newly clad in a calico dress. She doesn't look nearly as forlorn as she did a few short weeks ago. Clothes make the doll!
I raided my stash of quilting calicoes to find the appropriate complement to my circa World War I era doll. I believe she is a prototype of the "Baby Dainty" Doll produced by Effanbee at that time. I found a reproduction Simplicity doll pattern for the bodice piece and gathered a rather long skirt to it, accented with a deep tuck. It's been donkey's years (oh, I miss Princess Diana!) since I have made any doll clothes.
My first major foray into sewing as a grade-schooler was cranking out Barbie doll clothes on my mother's vintage Singer treadle sewing machine. Barbie doll clothes are on such a tiny scale, they are quite tedious to sew, I think. Baby Dainty is about 14 inches tall and her chest is 10 inches in circumference, so sewing her dress was a breeze by comparison. She was all dressed up and I had promised to take her to a tea party, so off we went to meet up with my girlfriends and sister at Tea-Upon-Chatsworth for a delightful high tea and furrawn (per Anais Nin: soulful conversation that is deeply intimate).
My girlfriends each brought along a doll and a picture from their childhood. I shared one of me with my Ginny doll from the mid-1950's (shown below). Ah, sweet bird of youth!
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