Plans To Be Made, Teas To Be Planned. . .

Greetings to you, All Dear Friends of The Tearoom!

A New Year has begun and plans are beginning for more upcoming tea-related events!  On this cold but sunny February morning, we find Mr. Bear and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle hard at work, having a breakfast meeting to discuss the Teeny Teas for this summer.

(As always, please click on the images in order to see them larger.)

I've made a new dress to keep Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle warm on these cold winter mornings.  It's extra long to keep her feet warm and made of fabric printed with a map of Paris to remind us all that we are all Parisians in our hearts!

As you might expect, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is busy setting the table for breakfast.

The table is nearly set now.

Springtime often comes very slowly to the Land of The Tearoom and so we rely on the cheerful colors of vintage millinery pansies to keep our spirits up until we can once again spend our days in our porch garden.

Being so close to Valentine's Day, our diningroom is decorated this morning with a mini version of the Print-and-Cut Valentines from my Etsy shop Velvet Revived, made into a bunting.

We have included in our bunting a fun picture of little Victorienne, the beloved paperdoll sister of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Bear, and her friend Purple Kitty!  This picture was from the Mad Tea Party from two summers ago and so it reminds us of warmer days ahead.

Bright colors and mismatched vintage pieces will make our meeting just that much more lovely! And, we are enchanted by our newest vintage piece, this charming Kittykat pitcher!  She will add something extra fun to pouring our cream for our tea and strawberries!

There are lots of fun aspects to planning these Teeny Teas you know: sewing, crafting, cooking, photographing, blogging, even selecting the dishes to use.  

I love seeing these little vintage pieces, put together in a mismatched way. I love the way the rose pink of the cups, saucers, teapot and sugar bowl look with my favorite red and white transferware plates.  They are actually what are called "butter pats", a tiny plate that used to be commonly used to hold small pieces of butter.  I love finding these tiny vintage treasures from various Etsy sellers.

The sweet crocheted pansy doily that I placed under the purple transferware plate being used as a tray for the teapot, sugar bowl and cream pitcher is one that belonged to my great-aunt Edith (since I found the pattern to make them with her possessions when I inherited them, I think it's distinctly possible that she made this lovely doily.  I just love the pretty, soft colors it is made from!)

When looking for tiny bowls for this tea, I found myself frustrated that I could not seem to find vintage bowls to match my other teeny tea items.  Then it occurred to me to look for vintage salt cellars from Etsy sellers and so, I was able to find some just the right size to hold our strawberries and cream for breakfast this morning!

Getting a "Good Morning" hug from Mr. Bear is really the best.

His being a bear makes him a hugging professional, you know!

He's so warm and smells so nice!

Here he is, admiring our cheerful bunting!

He has a seat and gets ready for breakfast...

...when he spots that new Kittykat pitcher!

I start serving the yummy cheese scones,

hot from the oven!

Butter for your scone?

A serving bowl and spoon for our strawberries and cream.

Tiny vintage souvenir spoons like this one from Paris and these sweet little sugar tongs are used as serving utensils.

Serving the strawberries that we froze at the end of the summer, chopped with a bit of sugar. They are a welcome reminder of how happy we will be when summer returns!

Clever Kittykat pitcher, waiting to add cream to

our strawberries and tea!

Ahhh...a hot cup of tea on this cold morning is most welcome!  (Our favorite morning tea is Awake, a malty English Breakfast tea from Tazo.)

A swirl of cream in our tea makes it even nicer!

Of course a bit of raw sugar makes it even nicer still!

And finally, our scrambled tofu, with finely chopped cilantro, jalapeño and grated fresh ginger.  We make ours the way it was made at Teaism, the wonderful pan-Asian tearoom about a half a block from our apartment in Washington, DC.  With all of the fresh and spicy flavors, it makes a warming start to the day, made even nicer with the warm cheese scone with melting butter.

A warm and cozy breakfast on a cold winter morning.

While finishing our tea and scones, we begin our meeting.

Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Mr. Bear are quietly discussing their plans for the Teeny Teas we will be having this summer on the porch.  We can't quite make out what they are discussing, but we can see that as they are talking, they aren't so much taking notes as making drawings in their notebooks.

They are both being very secretive and don't want to reveal their plans yet, but they are willing to let us see their drawings...

A madeleine?

And...something else...a cake perhaps?

And is this a sandwich?  But what are the symbols underneath?

And something else...perhaps some sort of dessert?

Here, Mr. Bear was hard at work on his drawings.

He is not telling us any more about the tea plans than Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is, but he will tell us that he is quite serious about outwitting that wiley chipmunk Snackyface before he can manage to eat all of the blackberries this year!  His drawing of a blackberry is just to remind him that he will not be outwitted this year!

His other drawing is of his dear friend Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle!  Not exactly a drawing relating to their plans, but he knows how very important she is to the planning of our teas, not to mention what good friends they are!

For now, they will keep their plans to themselves, but please keep checking back.  You wouldn't want to miss even one detail when they are ready to reveal them!