20th November 2018 Tea Lunch

Hi Dear Folk,

Seems appropriate to close out 2018 with a tea scene.  My friend Candyce came over for lunch.  I used part of a beautiful set I bought at the thrift while out together.  I could say that I am not buying anymore china. I think I maxed myself out. This set is Royal Ivory, Made in Czechoslovakia. It is delightful.  Probably from the 1930s.

I always love a pattern in the center of a bowl or cup, besides on the outside.  Loved these paper napkins/serviettes from IKEA they are most whimsical.

Paired up with an old teapot.

Well it's been a marathon.  I will try to live in real time next year.

Good night all fellow bloggers.

Goodbye 2018.

Christine

The Village Teahouse, West Point, PA

Hi Dear Folk,

I just ran across this tea house a few Saturdays ago and since Joni and I had a girlfriend date I said how about we try this tea house out.  We actually went for breakfast which seems almost sacrilegious in a setting that so suits afternoon tea so perfectly.  That gives us a good excuse to go again.  We had crepes for breakfast and a never ending pot of tea.

So if you want to check it out here it is The Village Teahouse

The photo above the mantel is how the house looked in the early 1900s.  With a typical American wrap around porch which I am a total fan of.

This is a themed room which I think gets changed out about four times per year.  It had been Jane Austin theme and I'm sorry that I missed that, as you can see it is Princess theme now and will be Steam Punk.

With Victorian houses I love the old fitted cupboards and woodwork.  We were made most welcome by the proprietress.

So after our lovely late breakfast we wondered over to Lansdale for an Art and Craft show, Festival of The Arts, where I bought a photo/glass barrette with an owl on, just very different, and a silver knife flower holder.  Where you cut the end off a knife, where all the filigree work is and stick a pin onto the back and make it into a broach flower holder, such a neat idea.  You could put fresh flowers in it, or I thought a lovely posy of felt flowers would look nice, you know I like felt posies.

And to the end of our day we went back to our single days to an ice cream shop we used to frequent, at a farm, Merrymead.  I had sea-salt caramel and coffee mocha in a sugar cone, the perfect ending.   Here it is Merrymead Farm.

Christy

Tea and Art

Hello Dear Folk,

It's sunny today and cheery around 60 f, so still cool.  I had thought of working on the front garden just by my front door, but by the time I went out and attended the special talk we had, got home, had some lunch, went on line to print up the Vehicle Registration renewal, because mine had run out, and by the time we got the darn printer to print the temporary form which we need to take the garage to complete the emissions testing, well then it was pretty late and had got quite a lot cooler in late afternoon, so decided to write this instead.

Mr. B. dropped my car off for inspection yesterday and it needed a whole list of things done, so not cheap, but neither could it be completed because forgot about renewing my registration, so Mr. B. has to go back today and get that done, hope it's not too late.

I was invited to a Tea and Art afternoon and wasn't sure what to expect,  this is the tea part and how lovely it all was A. had such a lovely tea for us as you can see.  With lots of spring flowers dotted around.  The dining room table arrangement of flowers was lovely and I forgot to take a picture of that, because I was so busy partaking of the lovely afternoon tea.
 

Several different teas to try.

This was my selection of teacup.  It was A's grandmother's.

So what was the art part?  Well since her boy was in Elementary school A has volunteered for "The Art Goes to School Program"  where you go around the school district giving a half hour presentation with visual aids to the children.  Each year the prints of famous paintings change, but must be representative of the world American, European, Asia, Africa, Black, White, Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, Men and Women artists.  So you can see that just that choice alone is daunting, plus it has to represent the eras of painting, Classical, Impressionists, Cubist, Surreal and Graphic.  Sometimes it doesn't cover all the spectrum but they try.

So we had an interactive art lecture using the prints and prompts, fun and interesting.

My friend S. is going to Estonia for an International Convention this July, like Barb and I did to Hawaii so I said I would think of some small items as gifts, to make, for our brothers and sisters in Estonia.  Crochet may come in more handy as it's colder there.  So what to make that's small and packable?

S. is also stopping off in Paris on this trip and is going on an evening dinner cruise on the Seine so is going to make herself a pink chiffon flouncy dress with flowers on, sounds lovely.

Hope you're weekend has been fun.

Christy

Summer Loving

Have you ever carried on merrily with a project, just rolling along when voila! it hits you that it isn't right, that's me with these Japanese crochet flowers.  The pattern that I was following said twelve spokes on each round, OK got that right, but where I went wrong was it did not say twelve petals, it just said chain five and slip stitch it every third stitch, and consequently my counting of third stitches must have been incorrect, so I landed up with too many petals.  It wasn't until I went to block them that it struck me that these were never going to lay flat, as pretty as they might look, see photo above, it could not be left like this. So now I had at least thirty which I had to undo and re crochet, see photo below.

I took the easier route and bought the multi coloured yarn for this project.  There are several more colours in this range of yarn, but I would have to buy them online, as my local store does not carry them, I am thinking of doing that.  It is going to be a rainbow of colours, I'm not going to be conservative.

My vision is an oblong shawl, connected with a plain green trellis with leaves and dangles of some sort, possibly leaves at each end.  I have what I think is the perfect colour plain green for this project.  I wanted a bright green, but not garish and I found a lovely Moss Green Bamboo and Silk yarn, so I hope this works.  As with all things it's just in my mind and reality may be quite different.

What do I love about summer, well especially the mornings, when it is warm enough to sit outside very early, the light is wonderful then and you have this feeling that the day stretches ahead of you with endless possibilities.

Tea and toast in my Italian set, it reminds me of my day at Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera, a UNESCO heritage site. of towns climbing the cliffs, such names as Manarola and Riomaggiori, just roll off the tongue.  A little zucchini and ginger jam on my toast.  All accompanied by a little crochet.

I love to use the words that I like best, for instance I like the American word for marrow which is zucchini, but I like the English word for eggplant which is aubergine, using the best of both cultures. 

Now to my garden, a new perennial has been introduced, David, a hardy garden phlox.

What about these planters already made up.  This is not the way I usually buy plants and flowers because they are just over priced.  So my tale is this, I went to Lowe's looking for more hosta, but the selection was limited. I thought I had seen the mouse ear hosta there, which is a tiny little curled leaf variety of hosta, but I must have seen that at a different nursery and will if I want it, which I do, have to pay the price.  Just love that name Mouse Ears.  But in the mean time I couldn't make the trip and come back empty handed so I bought a little container of  Leptinella, more on that later, just as I was checking out I asked if they had a clearance section, sure enough, hidden in a corner they did, and look what I came across.  There were probably five of them, but I resisted and left some for other people, originally $25.00 I would never have paid that price, reduced to, wait for it $3.00.  With a little trimming they look quite respectful.  The trailing petunias were mostly gone, so I may buy a few individual ones and plant those in there.  In any case I love to resurrect plants.

My second perennial buy this year, Indian Feather, Whirling Butterflies, one would buy it just for the name.

My herb garden area, coming along quite nicely.

Cleome, need I say more.  Cleome would take over the world, it is on a quest to do so, at least in my garden.  Once introduced, you never need seed or plant another one, but just need to be vigilant in digging them up and relocating to where you would like to see them.  I just let this area go wild, including some other plants which I know will grow up to have dark berries on and the birds love them, so have left them.

My blackberry bush with thorns which seems to produce far more fruit than my thorn less blackberry.

In Joanne's on clearance a little cup and saucer flower pot.  I had the choice of three colours, white a teal green and this colour, but there was no decision here because this colour seems so iconic to fifties and sixties pottery planters.

A few cats and kittens taken off my boot planters, plus a trailing succulent that just grows in my garden.  Now this is what I bought the Leptinella for or Black Brass Buttons, just to fill in.

Here is the Leptinella squalida, originally from NZ.  When I first saw it, it reminded me of fern, and something that you would see at the Philly Flower Show, on those miniature garden displays.  Isn't it exquisite?  I think so.  You use it as a ground cover and it must be a moist area.

So these are some of my summer loving things.

Christy

Tilly Mint's Tea Room, Souderton

A dear friend and I got together for Afternoon Tea on Saturday.  I mentioned Tilly Mint's Tea Room and that is where we headed off too.

You are made very welcome right from the beginning, their variety of tea to drink is spectacular, definitely a tea lovers delight with all the different varieties they have.  Served in Saddler Tea Pots of which she has a huge collection and was part of the fun to see what was on each teapot.

The theme of course was Blue in tribute to George, the new baby, third in line to be King.

Joni and I go back a long way to our single days, so have many wonderful shared memories, and what I have forgotten she remembers.  These times are special and must be archived in ones happy memories of friendship, and all that that means.

Christy

P.S.  Naughty Tuppy has twice been caught sitting on my dining room table, but not just sitting on my dining room table, sitting on top of my Florida hat which has been left on the table since coming back from our trip.  I even moved it and she went up to that end of the table sat on it and flattened it.  What is it with cats? I see I need to put it away as I should have done in the first place.

After The Storm

We just got our electric back at 6:15 PM this evening, just in time as the light was almost gone.

When we lost our electric at 9:15 PM last night we decided to call it a day and go to bed, with the wind howling, but to be honest not as much rain as we thought we would get right in our area.

Yesterday I spent the day making jewelery, that was fun, two bracelets in different styles to match my chalcedony ring and a pair of earings to match also.

It's been a quiet day, the gas stove has been on all day in the Simla room and we have been reading and I've been on my iPad as it holds at least an eight hour charge.

We raked out one of our camping stove's and Mr. B. made me a cup of tea which I had in bed.  We all slept in quite late, what a luxury.

Heating up the turkey soap.

This little cheap crank torch/flashlight, radio, alarm; which you crank really came in handy.

Brought out the coffee percolator.

This little camping stove is the best thing for camping since sliced bread.  I bought it at a Korean store, I know you can get them in other countries around the world.  They run on a little butane cylinder no bigger than a large hair spray bottle.

They are so easy to light and easy to tote on picnics.

Turkey Florentine soup with onion bread.

Tea and ginger snaps.

Peaceful time chatting with my boy about his plans and communing with the cats.

A little tea towel that I found a the NSH yard sale, made in the USA, so probably from the fifties, I love it.

My Beamish mug; which mum bought me on our last camping trip together with my parents.  So happy memories. 

Those leaves on that old oak tree never come off.  In fact I was amazed to see how many leaves were left on the trees after all that wind yesterday and yet there were.

We were very fortunate in this area right where I am, no damage I can see so far, but I know other areas were hit very badly, so a lot of aftermath for some folk.  Wish them all well.

Christy