Tea Time Magazine and Beautiful Chintz

I just KNEW when I opened my mailbox and saw the July/August issue of TeaTime magazine that I'd love it. I love chintz and quickly flipped over to the article "A Summer Hat Tea Party" that the front page was taken from.  It is just lovely!  The chintz tea set is beautiful.  I enjoyed reading through the recipes as well--especially the summer hat peach pies (adorable) and the blueberry buckle.  I tried the blueberry buckle recipe this past week.  We enjoyed it for breakfast for two days (we liked it better cold).  It was not only easy but super yummy.  Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of it.  Just trust me....it was good.  Anyway, the magazine was a great issue.  I learned a lot about Darjeeling (very interesting), spoons (looking forward to the next feature on miniature and soup spoons), and found some ideas on tea party themes.  I made some scones for hubby's work from a previous issue of TeaTime (raspberry lemon scones).

They were a little involved to make and had rich ingredients but turned out really well and were very tasty.  I liked that the recipe used fresh raspberries and had a sugary lemon topping that was tart/sweet on the top and had pretty flicks of lemon zest.  I send them off with lemon curd.  Yum!  Check out their website http://www.teatimemagazine.com/ if you'd like to find out more information, get some free recipes, or perhaps order their bimonthly magazine (*credit* The picture at top is the front cover of TeaTime magazine and is their work and property.).

Teacup Trade from Me

Sharon at Faith, Hope, and Cherry Tea sponsored a teacup trade on her beautiful blog. I had wanted to share both what I gave and what I received on this post...but my dear partner has been delayed. So...I will just share what I sent her in this post. I sent a small parcel, actually, but thought that it has some very pretty things. The first thing, of course, is the teacup. This was a teacup from a friend...which has now been passed on to a new friend...that being Dolly from From my Cherry Heart, of course. She likes roses and pinks and burgundy colors...so I thought this would be just to her liking. Next, one must have pretty napkins in order to have a proper tea...and these are some of my favorites...pretty in every way.

Of course, you can't have tea without, well, without tea...and this box of yummy Raspberry Royale tea I thought would make for a wonderful cup (and I like the color of that box too!)

And finally, I sent along a little treat from my Etsy shop--a pretty vintage image pin featuring a tumbling basket of roses with lots of glitter.

It was fun to put all of this together and send it off. Thanks, Sharon, for such a wonderful idea!

Fancy Sugar "Cubes" for Tea Tutorial

A tea is really fancy when there are many little, pretty details. Yes, sugar cubes are fancy--but these sugar "cubes" will make your tea more so, and let's face it, can a tea ever be too fancy? It is actually quite simple to make these pretties, and I know you will be pleased with your efforts.
For each sugar color, I used the following ingredients: 1) 1/2 cup of white sugar, 2) one drop of food coloring [Don't use more than one little drop of food coloring, or your colors will be too deep. Pastel colors are always more delicate and pretty for a tea.], and 3) 1 teaspoon of water.
Mix the water and coloring with the sugar thoroughly. The sugar will be damp. Press the sugar firmly into pretty, small-sized candy molds. Clean any excess sugar off around the tops of the molds so that sugars have no "furry" edges after they harden.
Allow to harden at least 12 hours in the molds. Wiggle the shapes a bit then pop them out of the molds onto a plate. They will have shrunk in size some and should come out easily. Let harden several hours more decorative shape up.
Put on a pretty plate or into a clear sugar bowl for your tea!

"Tea Time Tidbits" Special Posting #12

This perky yellow teapot and silver cozy belonged to Grammy McKee--my mother's grandmother. Grammy was from Wales--came through Ellis Island-- and was a very special person in my mother's life until she passed away when my mother was quite young. Mom DOES remember having tea with Grammy McKee in this teapot though. Grammy enjoyed her tea parties and apparently this teapot. I'm thankful for this teapot being passed down to me. Who can rises a cheery yellow teapot (which happens to be my mother's favorite color) filled with what I grew up to know as the "Welsh cure-all"--tea, of course!