Tea Party Traditions...❤

Despite my wonderfully good intentions to take ever so many pictures of the time we spent with our sweet friends, I sadly did not...however, I did manage to snap a few photographs at our traditional tea party!  Ah...how special it was to be together again!  {{smiles}}

What fun it was to be together...sipping tea, eating chocolate cake which was oh so delicious, chatting away and laughing at our failed attempts to behave like Victorian ladies...{{smiles}}

 

Miss M and I baked a scrumptious chocolate cake (recipe can be found at Blessed Femina) in the morning, then we all decorated our party table...of course we had to add freshly cut flowers, and pretty tea cups!  What tea party is complete without these lovely feminine touches...?

 

 Homegrown flowers...cosmos, cornflower, yarrow, feverfew, and lemon verbena...artfully arranged in milk jugs...

Two of the loveliest little ladies I am so blessed to have as sisters...Gabrielle who is eight, and Beth who is eleven...

Ladies in white...Gabrielle and I...

Little girl with the most beautiful, giving of hearts...Rebekah who is six...
 

All us ladies...Miss M and Miss J are two of the sweetest ladies that I am privileged to know!

...And so our lovely morning and tea party came to an end, but oh!  We shall treasure those delightful moments forever!

Blessings to you, dear friends!
May each of you have a wonderful week further!

A Sweet Sixteenth High Tea Celebration

 For many months we have been dreaming of Nancy's sixteenth birthday tea...if there is one thing we love in this family, it is celebrating any occasion with a beautiful, feminine tea party, and the more lace, ribbon, flowers and tea, the merrier!

It feels like just the other day I celebrated my sixteenth...and that was almost three years ago...

Nancy found some wonderful new recipes to try, and also asked for our favourite baked cheesecake...oh, such a delicious treat!

 Although the weather looked somewhat suspect and there were a few raindrops that morning, the Lord blessed us with a beautiful day...overcast, yet just warm enough for setting up out of doors...  

We put up our little pavillion and set the tea table underneath....just in case it did rain a little...

The little girls enjoyed a mini tea party with Mom inside...{{smiles}}

Pretty handmade invitations...

Invitations were sent out a few weeks before, and we were so excited to have some sweet young ladies to celebrate Nancy's special day with us...friends are a true blessing!

 

  

The sweet birthday girl...all beautifully dressed up for tea time!

The treats...

 

Salted Caramel Shortbread Squares 

Shortbread ~

225g {415ml} cake flour

25ml cornflour

65g {125ml}icing sugar

180g {195ml} butter

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Rub in the cold butter and press together to form a dough.  Press into a 23 x23cm baking tin and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Bake in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is almost cooked and starting to turn golden.

Caramel ~

1 tin condensed milk

125g {135ml} butter

150g {175ml} brown sugar

100ml milk

pinch Himalayan salt crystals

Put the ingredients into a saucepan.  Warm over a low heat until melted.  Increase the heat slightly and simmer while stirring constantly until the caramel thickens and pulls away from the sides of the pot.  When it is ready, it should form a firm ball when you drop a little of the mixture into a bowl of cold water.  Pour the caramel over the biscuit base.  Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.  Leave to cool.

Topping ~

200g white chocolate

60ml melted butter

Himalayan salt crystals

Melt the chocolate with the butter and pour over the cold caramel topping.  Spread evenly.  Once it has almost set, sprinkle with a few Himalayan salt crystals.  Refrigerate until completely set.  Cut into squares with a hot knife.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Overberg Baked Cheesecake with a Strawberry Coulis...recipe coming soon!

Cottage Cheese and Tuna Canapes with Rocket and Cherry Tomatoes

  

Oh, we had such a delightful time hanging little glass jars and tea cups up with lace, ribbons and Baker's twine...

We filled each jar with flowers from the garden including California poppies, wild carnations and dianthus...

Nancy and I...

We haven't always been the best of friends, but I find that as we have gotten older, we have drawn closer to one another...we have completely opposite personalities which makes life pretty interesting, and oh my!  Nancy has the most creative and lovely ideas...I feel very blessed to have the love of my sister, and I pray we will continue to be close sisters and dear friends... 

Beth pleaded with us to include her in the tea party...even though she isn't quite a 'big girl', she proved to us that she could do all her tasks with a happy heart, so we thought it would be lovely to reward her by having her join us...{{smiles}}  I think she enjoyed it!

Nancy and Beth...  

 

Pretty tea cards to thank our lovely guests for joining us...

~

...And so ended a beautiful tea party...certainly one to be treasured forever!

{To a beautiful sister, both inside and out...you are very special to me and to everyone in your family!  Thank you for your kind, giving heart and love for the Lord...I couldn't imagine life without you!

Here is to many more wonderful tea parties and fun times, dear sister!}

~

Thank you very much for visiting today, sweet friends!

Oh, your cheerful comments always bring a smile to my face! 

Wishing you a happy week!

  ~

  This post may be shared with...

~ The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Roses of Inspiration, Wise Woman Link-Up, Raising Homemakers Link-Up, Cooking and Crafting with J and J and Modest Monday

Lace Loveliness & Joy in Doing What You Love…

The other day I was given a bag of lovely crafty goodies that belonged to an older lady who passed away a couple of years ago…  Her husband recently had cleared out her creative corner, and passed his late wife’s supplies on to another lady who then thought of me…

It was quite sad to look at each item and think of the sweet lady who treasured them and loved adding new lace, fabric, books and wool to her collection of crafty goodies…

Such  gorgeous lace…

  This broad lace looks as if it belongs on an elegant bridal gown...

 

My favourite...delicate pink lace...

I love this borad cream coloured lace...such a beautiful design... 

This white is so pretty with the light pink edging!

Soft blue lace... 
 

One doesn’t see lace such as this all that often…at least not where I live…

~

It is such a joy to have a hobby…to have collections of goodies you can turn into beautiful creations and bless others with…

These are just a few of the cards I made yesterday afternoon with my beautiful new lace…

 

Vintage butterflies...

 

Red and cream...

I am blessed in that my hobby turned into a business last July, and I am able to use beautiful fabrics, pretty buttons and lovely lace almost everyday…

But sometimes it is delightful to spend a little time creating something for yourself…trying a wonderful new pattern or sorting buttons, lace and fabric scraps.

I believe we should all do something we love to do…perhaps it is calligraphy…music…painting…cooking…  Maybe like me it is a few things such as quilting, knitting or gardening…

It is lovely dreaming something up, and then creating it with your hands and your heart, pouring love into every detail…there is something uniquely satisfying in this process…

What are a few of your hobbies…?

~ Saturday blessings, dearest readers ~ 
 

 ~ And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.  Psalm 90:27 ~

Special Friendships & Tea Time...

I have been excitedly awaiting this moment to share a special post with you...

I know you will enjoy meeting two of my dearest friends and taking a peek into the special few days we spent together whilst I was visiting in the Cape a few weeks ago...

Apart from catching up with the latest news in our two families, going for a lovely walk in the crisp winter sunshine, sipping far too much tea, admiring gorgeous vintage items and going fabric shopping, we enjoyed a very blessed time of fellowship which I will remember always... ❤

 ...But now let me share my absolute favourite part of our visit with you ~ our delightful high tea!

 

Here are the three of us all dressed up in pretty dresses and ready for our tea party...  

On the left is Miss M who is my very dear penfriend, and her lovely sister, Miss J...  

Both are precious sisters in the Lord and whenever we get together there is much giggling and chatter! 

 Miss J and I posing...it reminds me of the cover picture of Sense & Sensibility...?

~

We have a fun tradition that whenever we get together, we have a special tea party, as we all love pretty tea cups, tea and all things vintage, elegant and lovely... ❤

 We spent Tuesday morning baking a few sweet treats, making little cucumber sandwiches and setting the table for our high tea later that day...of course we used the most elegant tea set and the daintiest of touches to decorate our tea table!  Smiles...

We then went upstairs to change into pretty party dresses and do our hair and make~up...

Miss J is gifted with an elegant hand...her unique style of calligraphy inspires me!  

 

Miss M creatively arranged different flavours of tea in gorgeous Royal Albert tea cups, and Miss J made the labels so that we would know what tea we were drinking...there were many amazing and delicious flavours to choose from!

"Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage."

~ Catharine Douzel

 This stunning Royal Albert tea pot was a purely delightful addition to our tea table!

I love the elegant shape, and don't you think the gold edging gives the tea pot a very regal look...?

 

"A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which is one you forget about afterwards."

~ A.A. Milne

Cucumber sandwiches creatively arranged on a bed of spinach leaves...

Honey Scones that were oh, so scrumptious!

Sweet little flowers adorned the table...

 We spent a leisurely afternoon sipping tea, munching the delicious eats we had made and attempting to engage in 'old fashioned conversation'...smiles...we slipped back into our 'normal' ways soon enough, though!

...And so ended the most beautiful of tea times, although each of us admitted that it just wasn't quite the same without my sister, Nancy, who has always been a special addition to our gatherings in the past and was greatly missed...

We are praying that before long we will meet again, and we excitedly await that wonderful day and you can be certain there will be another fabulous high tea to celebrate! ❤

~

Wishing you all the most beautiful of Wednesdays, sweet friends!

    ~

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Delightful Tea Cups, Lace and Posies…

I am not entirely sure where my love for beautiful tea cups first began...

...I think that perhaps it all started when I was a little girl and my mother would serve tea in the sweetest mini pink tea cups at our poetry tea parties.

Since then my fascination for the intricate designs, shapes and details of different tea cups has motivated me to collect them, and now I simply squeal with delight when I spot a beautiful one!

My tea cup collection is still fairly modest, but I take great pleasure in adding a new tea cup whenever I discover one I simply cannot resist, and hopefully with time my collection will grow...

These two beautiful tea cups are so dainty and elegant, and to sip tea from them is pure bliss!

I love the light colours and the pretty little flower sprigs on the inner rim of each cup and plate...

The gold edging finishes each cup off splendidly, and I particularly love the shape of both the tea cup and the plate...

"Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary."  ~ Chinese Proverb

Sometime ago I was inspired by a lovely young lady to give each of my tea cups very elegant names...

Thus, the above tea cup is called 'Miss Catharine'...

...And this one is lovely 'Miss Emily'...

While a very dear friend of mine was in the city of...Paris a few weeks ago, she discovered a stand at a market selling the most exquisite teas...  

Knowing I love tasting different teas, she purchased a bag of rose tea for me...  

For her mother, she decided on Forest Berry Tea - what could be more exciting than drinking pink tea, my friends...?

I have yet to try it, but apparently it is quite delicious!  

And if you are in need of a little tea cup inspiration today, do visit my Pinterest page devoted to the loveliness of tea time, tea cups and beautiful tea tables!

{Tea Time}

~

I thought I would show you some gorgeous lace I recently added to my little store of crafty treasures...

I don't use lace too often in my various crafty pursuits, but these beauties caught my eye the minute I saw them and, oh dear!  I simply had to get them!  

And I have a few special blog friends who have recently inspired me to love the endless delights of lace!

 ...Pink anglaise is so beautiful and very versatile!  I also bought a length of blue anglaise and used it on a dress for a Miss Lettice Rabbit the other day...

~

Today I am working on a fun and simple craft project.  I am making fabric covered tins for pretty stationary storage.  I have also decided to let my sisters join in and decorate their own tins, so I look forward to seeing the end results!

 Do stay posted for a craft tutorial coming later this week!

I conclude this post with a picture of the gorgeous posy of snapdragons which are now gracing my sewing room window...look at that striking mixture of colours!

"The heavens declare the glory of God..."  ~ Psalm 19:1

May each of my sweet readers have a very blessed week!

~ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.  Job 8:21 ~

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