High Tea - A Total Success

Wednesday the alarm went off early.  It was High Tea day.  I had a list.  In order.  Lots of things still to do.  And, amazingly I got all of them done and then sat down for about 35 minutes to relax before my friends came to High Tea. 

The table was set and decorated in festive Christmas style. 

I pulled out my grandmother's Spode and my silver flatware. We even used tea cups with saucers.  Normally we just use mugs at our teas.  

I don't use my grandmother's china very often and I can't recall ever using these square luncheon plates.  This was the perfect time.  I bought new red place mats to set them off.  I made the hurricane glass decoration with red and silver balls.  Heck I even pulled out one of my other grandmother's Belleek tea pots and some other pieces. (See the heart shape dish the nuts are in?) I never use those pieces.  

At dessert I changed to my snowman plates. 

These plates are so cute.  I only have 8 in 4 different designs.  And, guess what.  They were from JoAnns several years ago.  (yep, that means inexpensive or downright cheap.)

These are mini chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting sprinkled with peppermint candy canes.  

The Menu: 

Cucumber Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Black Forest Ham Pinwheels

Cream Cheese Loaf with Clotted Cream

Fresh Fruit Salad

Assorted Nuts

Assorted Finger Desserts Including:

Chocolate Mini Cup Cakes 

White Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies

Almond Tea Spritz Cookies 

We ate and talked for several hours.  We started at 2, a bit early for a tea with savories being served.  It was dark before we got up from the table.  I sent the gals home with husband plates of desserts.

This was so much fun to do.  But, I won't be doing another one anytime soon.  It is also a lot of work.  I hand wash all the Spode because I don't want the decorations to bleach out with the modern dishwashing detergent.  I'll be pulling it out again for Christmas.  

I was tickled with how well my tea cozy kept the tea pot warm.  I will definitely be making a few more of these to go with my other tea pots.  And, I am planning on using the Belleek tea pot more. (Belleek is Irish china that generally has little green shamrocks on it. I have some pieces with the shamrocks and some without such as the one above on the left.)  I have 3 tea pots that I use regularly depending on how much tea I want.  I'm adding the two Irish china pots to the rotation.  Why have pretties if you don't use them? 

Today is a scheduled shopping day. No not food, other miscellaneous stuff.  So, it's time for me to get going on that.  I hope to get a little sewing time in during the afternoon.  

Happy Quilting!