Come to Tea: An Elegant Garden Gathering
Perhaps nothing says "garden party" like having afternoon tea outdoors. It's a charming reminder of bygone days and childhood make-believe. Outdoor spaces of all kinds, including balconies, can be successfully adapted to a tea party. Tea parties span generations and will be enjoyed by your most sophisticated women friends or all the giggling little girls of your acquaintance. What makes an elegant tea party? Look at these factors.
FlowersPlan to hold your tea party when your garden is in its fullest bloom -- perhaps it's lilac time, June roses, or peony season. Be sure to cut some of the blooms for the tea table vases. If you don't have a garden, buy an armful of flowers at a farmers' market or stop by a country ditch and pick bunches of wild daisies and Queen Anne's lace. InvitationsSend handwritten notes by snail mail. Your guests will recognize your party as an elegant affair and dress accordingly! Typically, tea is held around 4 p.m.
-- perfect for day-blooming flowers. Include an invitation for the little ones to bring along a doll or teddy friend. Table SettingThe more elegant, the better. Stash the paper table covering and the plastic glasses just for today. Instead, use a crisp linen tablecloth, pressed cloth napkins and your best bone china cups and saucers.
If it's a little girls' party, you might want to invest in two or three miniature tea sets. Try to have adequate seating for everyone. Consider setting your straight-back indoor dining chairs outdoors. They can add an elegant touch, whether left unadorned or covered with flowered chintz. HatsEncourage all of your guests to wear hats -- big-brimmed, floppy and flowered.
If the party is for little girls, collect old hats, scarves and silk flowers at a thrift shop, yard sale or discount store. Make decorating the hats a fun activity at the party. You can also include a box of flowery cast-offs for dressing up. Include "grown-up" shoes and old jewellery -- anything that will make the little ones feel elegant. Tea time is a fun way to introduce young ones to "elegant party" manners.
FoodOther than teaspoons, no cutlery should be required at tea. All sandwiches and sweets should be dainty finger-food. Try sandwiches of watercress, cucumber, or egg with the crusts removed and cut in quarters. Sugar cookies and petit fours are traditional sweets. You can substitute mini-cupcakes or tiny tarts.
TeaOne of the first things that I learned in seventh grade home economics class was how to brew a proper pot of hot tea, but that was many years ago. I suspect that tea-making is becoming a lost art. Tea is actually the common name of one plant: Camillia sinesis. The three basic types of tea -- black, green and oolong -- are distinguished by the amount of oxidization that the tea leaves have undergone. The more than 3,000 varieties of tea in the world are all derived from those three basic types.
Herbal teas -- more properly, tisane or infusion -- are made from a wide variety of flowers, herbs, barks, berries, fruits and spices. At a minimum, offer your guests a traditional tea and a caffeine-free herbal choice. Have milk (not cream!), sugar and fresh lemon wedges available. So, dust off your teacups and your manners and sit down with your girlfriends for a proper tea party. It's a lovely summer interlude!.
Debbie Rodgers, the haven maven, owns and operates Paradise Porch, and is dedicated to helping people create outdoor living spaces that nurture and enrich them. Her latest how-to guide ?Attracting Butterflies to Your Home and Garden? is now available on her web site. Visit her at www.paradiseporch.com and get a free report on ?Eight easy ways to create privacy in your outdoor space?. Mail to debbie@paradiseporch.com.The Great Adventure
(Liz, dressed for hiking, enters with a walking stick in hand and
wearing a backpack.) Hi! My name is Elizabeth Andra Shaw and I'm on a great adventure ? a journey called Life, a journey to answer the question, "Who am I?" The first 44 years of my life, I lived in a place called Hatville. It was an exciting place. Everyone was very busy because they were wearing many different hats. In Hatville, hats are very popular. People collect hats, and some hats are so rare that they confer great status on their owners.
There is competition and envy surrounding high status hats. I picked up a few hats myself while I lived in Hatville, including the Daughter Hat, the Sister Hat, the Physical Therapist Hat, the Medical Editor Hat, and the Wife Hat. In fact (Liz shrugs off her backpack and extracts a hat) here is my favorite, the Phoenix Mercury Fan Hat! (Liz excitedly models the hat for the audience.) (Liz turns suddenly serious and leans on her walking stick with both hands.) There...
The Great Adventure
Hats > The Great Adventure
The Hat Guys Honored as "Hat Retailer of the Year"
(ContentDesk) April 24, 2006 -- The Hat Guys, an Oakland, Calif. fixture since 1988 featuring the largest inventory on the West Coast, was honored in March with the prestigious Headwear Association of Americas Hat Retailer of the Year award at the 98th annual gathering of the organization at Tavern on the Green in New York City.The companys partners, Corrie Oranje and Rusty Watson, took special pride in receiving recognition for their long-time industry contributions, which date back to 1985 when Oranje began work with Stetson Hat Company. The partners gained national and international fame for not only creating a brisk retail headwear business from the ground up with more than 20,000 hats and caps for men, women and children equaling $1,000,000 in inventory but also their custom-designed hats worn in theater, ballet and opera performances, and in such popular movies as Titanic, Absolute Power and Mulholland Falls. The Headwear Association seeks out a top hat retailer every year,...
The Hat Guys Honored as "Hat Retailer of the Year"
Hats > The Hat Guys Honored as "Hat Retailer of the Year"