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!

  ~

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~ 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

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!

    ~

  This Post May be Shared with...

~ The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Roses of Inspiration, Wise Woman Link-Up, Raising Homemakers Link-Up, Tuesday Cuppa Tea and Modest Monday ~

Introducing Super Special Sister Time…

Towards the end of last year, I began noticing that the time spent with my dear younger sisters was becoming increasingly limited…  Being older now, I have more responsibilities and commitments than I did before...

But as these things are essentially of little value compared to the precious relationship between sisters, I resolved to find a way to spend quality time with each of them in a practical yet enjoyable way. 

After much prayer, I felt the The Lord lay 'Super Special Sister Time' on my heart... Let me tell you more about it...

By devoting a few hours to my sisters' each week, I am hoping I will able to switch off from all other distractions and just focus on what we are doing... 
 Also I hope it will create a lovely opportunity for talking and draw us closer to each other, thus forming a close sisterly bond.  
  

Having our ‘Super Special Sister Time’ each week will encourage and inspire me to think of and plan special ways we can have fun together.

I am not saying that I will only be a good sister during these weekly meetings of ours, but that this will just allow us to do things together which we wouldn’t ordinarily do...  

  I am also praying it will serve as an encouragement to each of us to show more love to our sisters…

This year I feel the Lord is calling me to draw closer especially to the two middle girls in our family, Beth and Gabrielle. 

Beth is ten and Gabrielle is seven and I can see how they long for the friendship of their older sister…  

I realise that they look up to me and view me as their role model…what message am I sending them by constantly being too occupied with other activities?  These things are important, yes, but are they more important...?

I desire a good relationship with my sisters but how is that to be achieved when nothing is being invested?  This applies to all relationships - what you put in now is what you will get out…  
Jesus says that what we sow is what we will reap.  What seeds am I sowing in my sisterly relationships?

~ Be not deceived; God is not mocked:  for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.  And let us not be weary in well doing:  for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  Galatians 6:7-9, KJV ~

The two little girls, Sofia and Rebekah, age three and five, and I are great buddies – we love to do fun  things together and they are so easy to please…a cup of tea in the mornings when I make mine or a walk up the farm driveway makes them so happy!  We also love to cuddle!  I cherish these special moments with them as they too will soon be grown up...

I am determined to pour more of myself into the lives of my sisters.  They are so eager for time spent with me – I feel so incredibly humbled at this – and I think these weekly sister dates are going to be wonderful fun for all of us!

If you are also an older sister, may I encourage you to pray about a special way you can draw closer to your siblings...

I will be sharing ideas, encouragement and some of my own 'Super Special Sister Time' efforts over the next few weeks, so do visit again for updates:).
*Photographs of us girls taken during the last few years...

Oh, and before I forget, please hop over to this post to stand a chance to win one lovely handmade patchwork heart with a tiny cross stitch motif to grace your home!  I invite all my readers to participate:)  Enter here!

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Cold Snap

Brrrr...Friday morning our family woke up to an ice cold home! Looking out of the lounge window we could see snow sifted over the mountains nearby. What a beautiful sight...

It was incredible having snow so close to our farm, since we South Africans rarely experience such extreme cold.

My dad managed to snap a few photographs of the snow before the clouds covered the mountains.

The yellow-brown strip of land is part of our farm - as you can see, the snow wasn’t far off.

After these photographs were taken, the rain came again and the sky grew grey. We received bountiful showers of rain – thank you Jesus!

Although the rain is beautiful and the snow almost heavenly, I can’t say any of us enjoyed the cold – it was just about freezing outside and not much better inside. We kept the wood stove burning all day!

After lunch that day Mom, Nancy and I headed to town for some ‘retail therapy’. Nancy very sweetly treated me to a decadent waffle at our favourite ‘Fresh Bean Cafe’ and Mom had a coffee. After warming up in the heated cafe, we popped into the material shop and browsed through the gorgeous materials and fleeces. We also got a few things for Beth’s birthday from ‘Wool n’ Things’ – one of our favourite shops in Sedgefield!

Today we were so grateful for the sunshine:) What is the weather like where you live?

Kelly-Anne