Books for your Christmas List? I have a few ideas... and if you love TEA, you'll love this...

 Hello and Welcome to Kirsty's amazing Book Review!

(*like i am on the Telly, wearing glasses that make me look clever*)

This is a gorgeous book newly published by "hardie grant"

 and just in-time for Christmas Lists and Christmas Gifts.

So here is my indepth Tea Discussion...

Do you know what breaks my heart? A Department Store restaurant where i sit, with a nasty white chipped tea pot and stained, thick rimmed tea cup. In the Tea Pot is a stale tasting tea bag on a string, the tea barely strong enough to colour the water...

Is this the end of Tea... TEA as we know it? And all the beauty that goes with it? Has the Costa Coffee generation contributed to the demise of the Tea Shoppe?

 Now Blog Friends - i know you well enough I think...

and if i tell you this book is called TEA & CAKE we need not review it any further as i have the feeling it is SOLD! on the title alone :)

It is though, a lovely book and nobody has paid me to say this to you.

 Seriously, nobody needs a book about Tea and more Recipes for Cake: we know this.

But "Tea& Cake" is really pretty and will totally inspire and indulge anyone who loves their cups of tea, their girly coffee mornings, or the odd Tea Party.

 This has to be my favourite page....

an awesome illustrative explanation to the types of tea we like!

And the illustrations are beautifully and thoughtfully done by Emma Block.

Emma Block likes "Charity Shops, Tea and very sharp pencils" so surely she is a friend of ours?

 I said to Emma: "My Blog readers and I LOVE vintage tea cups, teapots, colourful mugs... do they inspire you too?

And where did you find all the cups involved in your illustrations?"

Emma said to us: "Almost all of the tea cups in the book are mine or my granny’s. I have quite a large vintage teacup collection and I find it really helps to draw from life. I did find a few on etsy though. My grandpa is an antique silver dealer and he is very pleased that my drawings of his silver sugar tongs and caddy spoons are in the book"

 Emma, Has the British ‘Tea’ really turned into “Let’s have a milky brew, made with a bag in a mug, stood at the kitchen work surface”?

Aaah, replies Emma, "I think real tea is coming back. We’ve gotten used to expecting a bit more than a Tetley’s tea bag floating in a mug when we go to a cafe. More often we see ‘posh tea bags’ (Tea Pigs are a good example) and occasionally a loose leaf tea, which all seems to justify the ever increasing price tag of the humble cup of tea"

 I was superbly surprised to find the section on coctails in the book!!

You know i have my bookmark pinned in the page called THE NAUGHTY EARL

so this isn't all about pretty illustrations of Victoria Sponge... there are lots of tea based ideas to keep us fans inspired.

 You will really like this book i think, otherwise i wouldn't be telling you all about it.

I am keeping my copy because i am selfish but i might be buying one for my friend for Christmas (don't tell her) and then you will be itching to put out your thrifted table cloths and best mis-matched china and get the girls over for tea.... invite me won't you?

 And very soon i shall be reviewing the *new* Pip Lincolne Book

AND.....

I have a copy to giveaway to a lucky Blog Friend so keep your eyes on the Blog my cosy wee Tea & Craft Fans

xxx

*slurp*

After School Tea Party...

 Last Week's Post School TEA PARTY

no need for an excuse - it's a 'just because' party

and we invited Grandma and Grandad too....

 I don't reeecccaaallll inviting the dog.

But he seems to have found himself a comfortable seat at the table.

 mmmm, tea and cake.

Sweeties and pretty china.

Fresh tealeaves and candles for fun

 And a *new* Sweetie Wreath in the GingerBread World Christams Collection.

 And i sold some more GIANT Lime Wreaths!

Sooo cool.

I have just made a new version of this Cath Kidston Christmas Butnting with Fresh Aqua Stripes to replace the traditional green spot.

Peoples: the sun is apparantly gonna shine this week...

Go Make Hay!!!! xxx

A Pretty English Country Wedding....

I thought you ladies might like to see a few of these?

I happend to be passing through the preparations for an 'English Country Wedding' in my local village. My mum was there hanging the bunting so i popped in.

What an overwhelming array of amazing tea cups - i so wish i had found the time to photograph each one. They were all begged, borrowed and stolen from local villagers - many sets having been wedding gifts to those ladies some 50 years previously.

I could have taken quite a few of these pretty little sets home in my basket, had it not been for the fact that i do know the bride and the ladies who donated the tea cups, so i could have lost a few good neighbour points. But it was a moment of bliss.

I feel the need for a Jumble Sale and a Car Boot rummage coming on.... despite the fact i have a few boxes of tea sets sat wrapped in my garage.

There are so many amazing chintzy designs to discover *sigh*

And this was the official - wedding Breakfast! You're right to hate me for not getting any shots of the tea pots that arrived and triple tiered vintage cake stands... the sugar bowls and milk jugs.

Yes, this IS the sort of village where a man walks his Shire Horse every morning and people talk about breeding bullocks over the shop counter, collecting their morning paper.

(we don't just buy "local eggs" round here, we can practically name every hen they came from!)

So, moving house has been a somewhat hellish experience in many ways - but how could i ever complain? This is the sort of village i have arrived in, and it rather suits me, don't you think?

Notice me, sat, with the teacup in hand whilst my poor 'ole Mam is struggling up a ladder in the background. teehee xxx

Sometimes people let you down...

My LittleFish and I were disappointed that someone we were expecting for dinner - didn't bother to come.

That level of disappointment can be hard to stomach. The joy, anticipation, preparation, looking forward to... 'gone' in that briefest moment when you realise 'it's just us'.

But HEY! it isn't 'just us'. it IS US!! so what do the Fishes do in this situation? why we get Mamma's favourite tea cups out and make tea.  

I'm not that great with words, but it sorted of lifted us straight out of that melancholic tinge. All of a sudden the slow mouthed dinner was transformed into something teetering between ceremony and party! In that teacup moment, i swear, our downturned faces slipped into smiles and everything seemed just that touch brighter.

Resourceful Mamma found 2 halves of a Milky Way, tucked away in the back of a "party paraphenalia" box and Joy! they were still in their UseBy date...

We had forgotten to open the parcel left outside the back door (in our haste to make dinner for the special guest that never came) so we sat with our tea and sickly sweet confectionary and opened the parcel....

The spontaneity of enjoyment and sugar was enough to make us feel like a Circus had fallen out of the packet. It was little vintage tins but it felt like clowns juggling on a tightrope, pulling gargoyle faces...

The special guest didn't seem so special any more. LittleFish was happy and replete. MammaFish felt suitably sustained, like the sky wasn't 'always cloudy' and all those grey day feelings would eventually give way to some sunshine.

It was just tea cups. It was just tea in pretty cups, sat on matching saucers. It could have been the world on a plate, for that's how we felt in our moment.

Ahhh Birthday-ness!

I want to say THANKYOU for all my birthday merriments and salutations. I am never usually one to 'make a fuss' but it all turned out so pretty!
I had a pile of lovely gifts - don't worry, i won't show you them all.... but very Colourful and Cookery and Cath and Cute...

Mmmmm - Gift Tokens!

Aaaahhh - shopping! Me and the YoungFish under my NEW owl teatowels x PAPERCHASE (on my list of 3 High Street weakness')

Wearing the Tea-towels.... !

Tea and cake at Station Yard Antiques Barn in Chipping Norton. Look at all that lovely crockery!! I was in heaven but ManFish struggled to get his heavy hands around the tea-cup handle (i love him for trying though)

MMMMmm bargain pearl necklace we bought from Past Times for £5

I had my hair cut which is always a nice birthday feeling. My hairdresser doesn't think it looks too red though............. ?! i beg to differ (been trying to cut all that red out)

Blue Wrap Dress has birthday significance as I am wearing it today but it was a thrift find on my birthday travels.

AND - look.... a present to ME from LauraFallulah too! She is a total sweetheart and i adore it!

See you in August my lovely x

Birthday Blogging x

Thrift BLISS!

Colour me happy :)....
I had the most perfectly thrifty morning! Oh, Colour love...
Oh thrift love...
Oh Cotton love...
Oh crockery love...

3o plus reels of cotton for £2 from a local 'Table Top Sale' (i also thrifted some books and a lemon squeezer but they didn't seem so worthy of photographic attentions)

Then onto my local Recycling Centre and i bought a BIG cardboard box full of lovely mix and match tea cups (there is a party being planned - in the vein of 'Alice', not that i need an excuse to buy pretty tea items)

I just fell in love with this little sugar bowl and cream / milk jug...

"What do you need all these for?" asks the man...

"What has 'need' got to do with shopping for crockery?" replies that Crafty Fish...

He did at least concede, that the sewing threads were a bargain - a thrifty treasure! and also very pretty all jumbled up together.

P.S the cutest little 'Tie one on' apron "made in Wales" it says, only 10p! and SmallFish tried it on as soon as we got home.

I had to share all this with you immediately, firstly because i know you would appreciate these finds too... secondly because i have new posts to share soon (involving thrifted furniture and colourful gloss paint) x

back soon..... x