Muted Floral Tea Party

 

I'm back with another tea party from last summer! You'll remember that late last Spring, I posted on Facebook that I was going to be hosting several tea parties over the summer, and that the invitation was wide open! I had several ladies reach out and say that they would love to come to tea. Each party was a mix of ladies from my church, community, family, and friends at large. We all had a wonderful time getting to know each other better over delicious food and a steaming cup of tea.

 

For this tablescape, I began with a tea set that I found years ago while thrifting. I have the teacups and saucers, small bread-sized plates, as well as the sugar bowl and creamer. The pattern is "Belinda" by Paragon. I used my everyday white dishes ("White Satin" by Nikko) as a base. I love layers, and while the small bread and butter plates are just perfect for a scone, they looked a little lost on the large rose gold charger. The white dinner plate brought it all together.

I have developed a renewed love for gold. I'm wearing gold jewelry again, using it (and brass, and rose gold, etc.) in decorating my home, and as a result, it has found its way to my tablescapes, as well!

I always serve iced water with hot tea. I used my vintage Fostoria "Jamestown" stems in amber. These are one of my go-to glass patterns in fall, but it looked so pretty with the soft muted Spring colors in this tablescape.

I have invested in quite a few small sets of flatware to use at tea time. I love how delicate they look on my smaller plates and let's be honest, isn't it more fun to eat with a mini fork, knife, or spoon?!

White napkins are a staple for tea time. I have quite a supply of vintage napkins. I pick up white linen or cotton napkins whenever I see them.

I love displaying tea tins. It's a pretty addition to my table, plus it makes it easy if someone asks about the flavor profile about a tea I'm serving.

I love to keep brown sugar cubes. They are pretty, and they have so much flavor! Molasses are added to give them their color and taste. It adds a little more interest to whatever I'm drinking.

I grabbed a $5 bouquet from Walmart and divided it into several small clear vases. I filled them out with some greenery from my yard.

I like a full table - whether it is due to decorations or color and texture. This one showcased the muted watercolor-esque flowers in the sheer fabric I used over a white tablecloth.

The glow of candles - even during the day - adds a touch of warmth to a table. I think it encourages people to linger!

Here's a closeup of the pretty china pattern. Lovely flowers in pretty Spring colors are a pleasure to behold as you sip your tea!

I must admit it has been a year since I hosted this tea party, and well, quite a bit has happened since then. I hope to fill you in soon. Unfortunately, I can't remember what kind of scones I served!

This was a full afternoon tea menu with scones as the first course, finger sandwiches and chicken salad cups, and then a lemon tartlet and orange fluff for dessert.

It was a rainy day, but we had a wonderful time! The food was wonderful, but the company was even better! I hope to do this again next summer. I have a lot of projects going on in my home right now, so entertaining a lot is on hold. But I sure am glad I issued an open invitation to tea. Have you ever tried it? 

Family Tea Party

Over the summer, I set out to host a number of tea parties. Some were planned for special groups, such as this one, but for several, I just put out an invitation on Facebook for anyone who was available on a certain date and wanted to come. It was lots of fun! Kind of like a "Guess who's coming to dinner?" party. It was great to make some new friends and re-connect with old ones.

This particular tea party was planned for the women in my family who lived nearby. We happen to live in the small town where my father was born and raised. Two of my aunts are local. I invited them along with one of my cousins and her daughter. With my mother and Jewell present, we had two sets of three generations that day!

The date was May 23rd. It was early summer. Actually, it was late spring, but as you know, by the time we get to May in the South, summer is in full swing! I pulled out my formal flatware. The pattern is "Ribbon Edge Frost" by Gorham. If you look closely, you'll see that I placed a pink tablecloth down as my first layer, and then used a vintage eyelet cloth which allowed just enough of the pink to show through.

I began my tablescape by pulling out this tea set I found while thrifting last summer. I wish I knew the maker. It's actually very delicate. The cherry blossoms are hand-painted. I have six cups and saucers, six salad plates, a teapot, and a sugar bowl and creamer set. I got the set for $15!

"Paris" by Harney & Sons has become my favorite go-to blend. I served it at just about every tea party I hosted this summer! I served ice water in these vintage-style Pioneer Woman tumblers.

I read somewhere that the Brits serve plain milk with their tea. I love my half and half with my coffee, but I've started using milk with tea and have found there's less of a chance of it curdling.

My daisy gardenias were in full bloom. Their scent is absolutely intoxicating! I used the cherry blossom teapot as a vase and placed a few pieces of tape across the mouth in a cross hatch pattern to support the gardenia blooms. I placed a few extra blooms in tiny vases and scattered them. I used silver chargers from The Dollar Tree and added my "White Satin" dinner plates by Nikko as the second layer. We didn't use them, but they bridged the gap in size between the chargers and the smaller plates.

I try to always have a decaf option when I have a tea party. This "Mother's Day" blend (also by Harney & Sons) was a little fruity and a little floral. It went very well with our scones. I started with a cup of "Paris" and ended with this one. 

I like including the tea tins on the table. It's pretty, and it allows my guests to read what's in each blend. We also can have a little sniff! I also like to look at the tea leaves. You can learn a lot about the blend by seeing what's inside. I have a couple of white teapots that I use most of the time. I purchased a couple of white tea warmers that do an excellent job of keeping our tea warm!

Of course I scattered some tea lights down the table. I love candles no matter what the time of day! Napkins with a little Battenburg lace detail added another feminine touch. 

The scones for the day were "Orange Cream". I'll share the recipe soon. My husband loved these!

I served them with lemon curd, as well as some of the leftover glaze. No clotted cream that day. Trust me - we didn't miss it! I served them both in sherbet dishes that once belonged to my maternal grandmother. Her daughter (one of my aunts who doesn't live locally) gave them to me, and I cherish them! I thought it was so appropriate to use them to honor my grandmother.

I used a mini floral cutter on these. They were small, so there was no guilt in eating several!

The pink and white table was very feminine and perfect for this afternoon spent catching up with family!

 

Teatime Tuesday 1

I wanted to share with you something I'm trying this summer. In a way, it's not all that different from what I usually blog about...a beautiful table, delicious food, and lot of great friends. However, there is a slight twist. Instead of inviting people into my home, I'm asking them to invite themselves! What do I mean? Well, I am planning at least six tea parties this summer, and I have no idea who's coming. At least not yet!

I have been listening to Sally Clarkson's podcast, "Teatime Tuesday", for about a year. In fact, I've been following Sally for several years. She has written a number of books that I love about everything from entertaining, to homeschooling, to raising children, to deepening your faith. Although I've never met her, she is definitely a kindred spirit. She just launched a new book called "Teatime Discipleship: Sharing Faith One Cup at a Time". One of the things she encourages the reader to do is carve out time at least once a week to sit down with someone and share a cup of tea. If you're around me much, you know my phone timer goes off each day at 2:00 pm. If I'm home, that's my signal to stop whatever I'm doing and make a cup of tea. I take about 15 minutes to sip and enjoy my tea (and some kind of little sweet to go along with it!) and a little quiet time. If the kids are home, they join me.

I decided I wanted to combine my love of entertaining and taking tea and invite people into my home this summer for some time to sit down and get to know them. Instead of inviting the ladies I always have over (don't worry girls! you'll still be invited regularly!), I have posted the dates and time on my Facebook page and asked who would like to attend. I've gotten a lot of great feedback, and I hosted my first Teatime Tuesday last week!

Let me tell you about how I planned my tablescape. I had hosted a baby shower the weekend before, and this lovely impressionist floral tablecloth was the basis for that party. As I was washing and putting it away, I thought I would go ahead and use it three days later for the tea and see how I could change it up. Both were very feminine tables. I'll blog the baby shower soon, and you'll be able to compare the tables.

Pink, gold, and cream was my color story. I used a white tablecloth as the base. My table is a dark wood, and without the white underneath, the floral topper would have been too muted. The floral topper is actually a piece of chiffon I purchased at Joann's. It was already finished very nicely on the edges and was longer than my table, so there was no extra work in using it as a topper! The creamy linen table runner is new. I was killing time in Big Lots a couple of weeks ago and found it. I had been wanting something neutral that I could use under my decorative trays on my kitchen table. I like that it breaks up all the floral.   

I didn't have anything blooming in my yard, so I picked up a mixed mum bouquet from Walmart and put them in small pretty vases. I didn't want anything too formal, or anything that was too tall in the middle of my table. I added some Nandina from my yard to give some movement and interest to the little arrangements. Of course I added candles! The votives are an opaque white with gold trim. They came from Dollar Tree several years ago.

I served two tea blends, both by Harney & Sons. First was my favorite, Paris. I always take one brown sugar cube and a tiny splash of milk in mine. I like to display the tea tins on the table. The ladies can see what the flavor notes are on the side of the tin, and they can even take a little sniff of the tea itself as they decide which they want to start with! 

Peaches and Ginger was the second blend. It's a black tea, so I put milk and sugar in mine, but I also offered lemon and honey from my daddy's bee hives. Either would work since it was a fruit blend in black tea.

I found this tea set several years ago at a thrift store. It's so pretty! The flowers are beautiful pinks, yellows, and blues, and it's so cheerful! I have eight sets - tea plates (perfect for scones), cups and saucers, and a creamer and sugar bowl. The pattern is "Belinda" by Paragon. I just use two white teapots since I don't have a matching one.

I'm getting bolder when it comes to mixing metals. I have gold chargers, but I thought the rose gold ones picked up the pink in the table topper. I did choose to go with gold (amber) stemware. These are vintage "Jamestown" by Fostoria.

Here's a long view...

If you look closely, you can see that there is a texture to the china tea cups. Sort of a pleated look. They also have a gold trim. That worked nicely with the stemware, as well as the flatware, which was "Abigail" by Hampton Silversmiths.

I try to choose seasonal recipes whenever possible. It's peach season, and we are about an hour away from Clanton which, in my opinion, grows some of the most succulent and delicious peaches you'll ever eat! I happened to be there a day or two before, so I picked some up. We had Peaches and Cream scones with lemon curd and clotted cream.

I'm sure you all know about Temu by now. I found some beautiful small gold knives and spoons that are the perfect size for spreading jelly on scones! They're not necessary, but they sure are pretty. And fun!

We also had pimento cheese sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad cups, orange fluff, and a mini blueberry cheesecake bite. It was all so delicious, if I do say so myself! I'll share recipes soon. Since I don't have dinner plates with this set, I just used my everyday white. This pattern is "White Satin" by Nikko.

These three ladies responded almost immediately to my Facebook message asking who would enjoy coming to tea. It was nice to reconnect with one mother and daughter, and it was a chance for me to get to know another that I attend church with but had never really had the chance to sit down with. Exactly what this tea time was intended to do! Of course, Jewell was my co-hostess. I am enjoying having here home for the summer. We had a wonderful time! It was a dark, humid, and rainy day, but we were cool, dry, comfortable, and spent the afternoon getting to know each other better! I hope you find some time this week to enjoy a cup of tea and the company of a friend!

 

Chocolate Raspberry Scones with Chocolate Clotted Cream

Nothing says "Valentine's Day" more than chocolate! Jewell was home for the weekend the Saturday before Valentine's Day. My Bestie was also free, so she came over and joined us for a very delicious (and beautiful) cream tea service. I took a recipe from Tea Time magazine for chocolate scones and adapted it a little. The result was absolutely divine!