Thursday, December 13, 2012

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!  

 

 


6 comments:

  1. Your table settings were beautiful...what a fun event...does it rotate to someone else next Christmas?

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  2. Such a beautiful table! I, too, have good china tea cups that are never used! It is a lot of work to use all the fancy stuff, but the pictures of your beautiful table make it worth it all, and I bet you had plenty of admiration from the group! Beautiful!!

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  3. So glad to hear that your tea was successful. Can you imagine doing that on a regular basis?

    I've used my china twice in 30 years - that's crazy!

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  4. It all sounds divine, Bonnie. And such great fun, though I'm sure it really was a lot of work. Very special indeed!

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  5. Hi Bonnie,
    If you ever do want to wash fine china in a dishwasher, use bicarb soda instead of dishwashing detergent and they will come up beautifully, clean and shiny and no damage.

    Way, way back, when gilt trim china was popular and I did not have a dishwasher I collected lots of gilt trimmed china and then when I got a dishwasher could not use it until a friend gave me this tip and it really works well.
    Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
    Cheers from Rieann in Western Australia

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  6. Your table setting looks beautiful! I love your tea pots too! It looks like you all had a wonderful time!

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