First. . .

. . . Dear Friends, your tea is waiting for you in the samovar.


I didn't forget which one is your favorite. . .

More treats soon to follow. . .

Finally . . .

You have all been incredibly patient. . .

Finally. . .

Your first look inside the tearoom. . .

Please make yourself comfortable on the black velvet chaise. . .

Tea is nearly ready. . .

5 Degrees of Inspiration House Party

Welcome Friends and Friends-I-Do-Not-Yet-Know,
Happy Blog Party to you! As a member of the Inspiration Avenue Team, I welcome you!

What inspires me? Anyone who knows me or reads my blog probably has a pretty good idea of a lot of the topics that inspire me, as my artwork or blog give life to most of them. Here are some images of inspiration for me. I hope they do the same for you.

Welcome to the House of My Imagination. All the rooms are decorated with extra glitter and sparkly bits in anticipation of your visit . . .

. . . and so we begin in Room One,
the Dining Hall,
so that you might sample food that inspires me. . .

. . .by taste. . .
(These pastries from Ladurée make me dream! Your first experience with the scentflavors of rose and lily-of-the-valley are something you will never forget!)

. . . by sight . . .
(Madame Joconde Eclairs from Fauchon)
Read my previous post about them here.
What is this lovely-looking item? You might think it was a dessert, but you would not be correct! It is Saint-Honoré Printanier de Légumes from Dalloyau, a tart made of tiny spring vegetables, fresh cheese and fresh flower petals!

. . .by anticipation . . .
I will definitely want to try this Wasabi Macaron the next time I visit the House of Pierre Hermé!

. . . by scent . . .
With which tea may I tempt you? Kusmi's Bourbon Vanilla, redolent of the exotic and beautiful vanilla pod, Caramel, warm and sweet, Spicy Chocolate with warm spicy notes or beautifully floral Violet?


. . . now, on to Room Two,
the Gallery,
so that you might see images that inspire me . . .

(An Ad for the coffee company Lavazza, a large sign with this ad on it was one of the first things I saw when we arrived in Paris at 7 am after not having slept all night!)

(An Ad from Fauchon)

(An Image from the Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli)

(An Image from the collection of Les Museés de Strasbourg)


. . . next,
on to Room Three,
the Library,
so that I might share with you
words that inspire me . . .

The Fig Eater, by Jodi Shields
This is a beautiful, dark, hypnotic book, meant to be savored over and over again. To read this book is to live in turn-of-the-century Vienna.

Paris Out of Hand by Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Barbara Hodgson and Nick Bantock (author of the Griffin and Sabine series)
This gorgeous book is a tour guide of Paris, but not Paris as it actually exists. It is a surreal, dadaist tour of the Paris of the Mind. This lovely little jewel box of a book will make you dream of visiting The City of Lights.

. . before we leave the library, I hope you find inspiration in some quotes by my favorite poets and writers . . .

"Poetry is . . . the human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or a lime, drop by drop, into atomic words" - Langston Hughes

"Very much so. Hopelessly. I just love that time so much. It’s unfragmented and velvety. My mind is very free at night.” - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, when asked if she was a night person.

"And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anais Nin

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage" - Anais Nin

(For further inspiration, please consider reading anything by Colette or Edward Gorey)


. . .and in Room Four,
The Listening Room . . .
. . . I hope you find yourself inspired by the music that currently inspires me . . .

a strange, joyful mix of the following:

almost anything from Joy Division (always "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
Consider this a shout-out. He knows who he is.)

"Sketch for Summer" by Durrutti Column

"Sunshine and Love" by The Happy Mondays

"Six Bells Chime" by Crime and the City Solution

"Fistfull of Tears" by Maxwell

"Song to the Siren" by This Mortal Coil (this came to me as inspiration from V by way of something posted by J.
You inspire me always. I love you so much.)


. . .Finally. . .
in Room Five. . .
the Observatory. . .
Please gaze with me at the Number One Place that has inspired me:
. . .being watched over by our Dear Friend,
Mademoiselle Moon!

Goodbye Dear Friends and New Friends!
Please have fun visiting the other parties being hosted by the other participants of The Inspiration Avenue Blog Party!
May you be inspired!

Betty

Mona Lisa Watches You

Dear Friends,
I had meant to save this wonderful image for my list of what inspires me for the Blog Party, but I cannot resist giving you this early peek, especially in light of the fact that I have discovered that Wallpaper magazine has given the Madame Joconde (Mona Lisa) Éclair the award for "Best Teatime Treat"! It comes to us from Fauchon, the Paris purveyor of luxury edibles. Fauchon was the first to export kiwi fruit and avocados into France and to bring out-of-season fruits like strawberries and cherries to market all year round. They are equally well-known in the world of gastronomy for their selection of sweet and savory éclairs! And this éclair is not just amazing to look at, it is filled with chocolate/almond cream and topped with chocolate and is on my list of "must-try treats" the next time we go to Paris!

Please read more about this lovely treat and the award it won here (and please be patient, as this site loads very slowly).

A Happy Announcement and a Thank You

Dear Friends,
I am so happy today to announce something very special! I have been accepted to the Inspiration Avenue Etsy Team! Everyone there has been so nice and supportive and I am very happy to be part of the team! Sharon, of Mana Moon Studios, has written the nicest "Meet and Greet" for me, which she has posted on the "Inspiration Avenue" blog today! I am very honored to have been accepted!

(And please don't forget to participate in the Inspiration Avenue Blog Event on August 1st! The information and instructions can be found here. I am having so much fun planning my post for that day!)

I would also like to thank the person who suggested that I apply for membership and that is my dear friend LuLu from Coastal Sisters! LuLu and I met when she bought something from my Etsy site and we just started communicating and actually got to talk on the phone for the first time a few days ago! It was so much fun and she summed it all up by saying that she felt like we had just known each other all our lives! She is a very talented artist who does many things including making beautiful jewelry, very cool blog banners and very glittery faux cupcakes and teacakes! As you can imagine these of special interest at The Gossamer Tearoom! She has even made a very beautiful lavender-colored, glittery teacake for me! Please check out her website, blog and Etsy site so you can see all the gorgeous things she makes!



Thank you to my new Inspiration Avenue friends and thank you to my dear friend LuLu!

How Will You Ever Decide?

I bring to you tonight, dear friends, a most appropriate distraction for a warm summer night! I find that when I order ice cream, I generally want several of the flavors they have to offer and even after I have taken my first bite, I am often second-guessing myself as to my selection! Do I really like what I have better than anything else there?? Well, if you share my indecision in relation to ice cream, what I bring you tonight will not help you! Dessert Magazine, that lovely online all-dessert publication has just released their new issue and it is devoted to ice cream (over 200 pages long)! If the pictures alone don't have you swooning, the recipes will! If you didn't sign up when I posted about it last time, please do so now! How can you resist having such fun coming straight to your inbox?

Word Salad

Dear Friends,
Tonight I bring to you my submission to The Three Muses for their weekly challenge. Each week, they provide fantastic art prompts. I have wanted to participate in their challenges for sometime now, but just somehow never found the time. I made the time this week. I couldn't pass this one by. Some years ago, I wrote a short, rather abstract poem called Salad Poem the Second. When I saw that the prompt this week was Word Salad, I couldn't resist dropping everything to create this collage to illustrate my poem.


salad poem the second

the essence of a thousand sacred summer swallows
haunted by images of love & yesterday
soaring & shining
azure scarlet purple
they light for a moment in a tiny garden
&
whisper the language of perfume
to a bed of edible floral petals & wild spring greens
imagining a salad

I had so much fun creating this collage and will definitely be participating in as many challenges from The Three Muses as I can in the future!

One of My Favorite Uses of Paper. . .

(All photos in this post used with very most kind permission of the publisher, The Little Bookroom)

When I say that I love paper, I do mean paper in many forms! One of very favorite uses of paper is in books! I have been a bibliophile (or book-lover) for all my life! I can blame my Mommy for that! She claims to have read to me from the time she brought me home from the hospital and she placed books in my hands as soon as I could hold them! My first job when I was 17 was in a Mom-and-Pop sort of bookstore (sadly, now long gone) called Lange's Book Store in Casper, Wyoming. My mother had taken me there shopping very often as a child and I grew up telling everyone that I was going to work there when I was old enough!

So, it seems only appropriate that I should share with you some of what I am reading!

I have just finished this little treasure:

"Paris Made By Hand" by Pia Jane Bijkerk is a guidebook loaded with beautiful pictures of shops in Paris where things are made by hand. The shops are listed by the areas of Paris where they are located and the sections are called "wanders" because this is not just a listing of shops, but small tours of parts of the city. The author has also given some very helpful notes in many chapters as to where you might eat or other places you might visit while there. I was very taken by some of the small details about the shops the author mentions. This book would be a great choice to read before a trip to Paris or to take with you in your travel bag for reference while travelling the city. Of course, I love the idea of people making things by hand because it just feeds my fantasy of having a tiny, ancient atelier tucked in some dark, secret passage of Paris where I could make things for The Gossamer Tearoom all day long!

But while we are on the topic of Paris again (and when are we not?), this is another book by the same publisher that I love!:

"Patisseries of Paris" by Jamie Cahill is also a guidebook (and a very extensive one at that) of many of the best patisseries in Paris. Being another great book by The Little Bookroom it is full of beautiful photographs, scrumptious descriptions as well as helpful information such as addresses, closest Metro stops and hours of operation. I loved this book so much, I could barely read it quicky enough! Reading it made me fall in love all over again with my favorite places in Paris, but also started my mental list going of which places will be on our "Don't Miss" list for our next visit. It is an irony that I say I couldn't read it fast enough, because that is hardly the most efficient way of savoring every word. I had already owned a copy for several months when a very dear friend bought me another copy and I read it all over again! Both copies sit on my bookshelf now!

As I have mentioned above, both of these little treasures are published by an excellent publisher called "The Little Bookroom". They are located in New York City and specialize in guidebooks that are very small format, but just packed with wonderful pictures and ideas of amazing places to visit from all over the world. When I wrote to ask permission to use the cover images, Linda Hollick was so very gracious and prompt with her permission (and kind words about The Gossamer Tearoom too!), that it makes writing this post even more of a pleasure!

While you are there, please also look at these books. I also own them and can tell you they are very fun to read while sitting in a lovely park on a summer day while sipping your favorite iced tea!:
-Boutique and Chic Hotels in Paris by Lionel Palliés
-The Impressionists’ Paris and Picasso's Paris, both by Ellen Williams
-Quiet Corners of Paris by Jean-Christophe Napias

One more thing for your reading pleasure...
The very nice Merisi from Merisi's Vienna for Beginners has written this lovely post about cherries! Make yourself happy, dear friends and click here to read it!

Another Fun Blog Party!

YAY! If there is one thing I really love, it's a blog party!! And what makes this one extra fun is that I received the information about it from my very dear friend LuLu from Coastal Sisters! It is being hosted by a very cool Etsy group she belongs to called "Inspiration Avenue"! I am very excited about this! Here are the details:

♥Theme: "5 Degrees of Inspiration"

♥Date: August 1st, 2009

♥What to Do:
*Sign up for the blog party by leaving a comment on this posting - your blog and link will be added to our growing list on the sidebar of our blog. (be sure to include a link and the name of your blog in your comment)
*Grab our party images and details, then write about it on your own blog. Be sure to post the smaller badge on your sidebar linking back to this posting. (sidebar badge and link are posted below...)
*Join us on the date of the party by writing your own blog posting about the 5 things that inspire you the most. Feel free to post photos too - we love eye candy!
*Visit the other participating blogs from the list on our sidebar and enjoy! It'll be such fun discovering what inspires each of us!

. . .And there will be wonderful prizes too! For more information, please visit the Inspiration Avenue website!

Monsieur Hermé Asks Us To Dance

Today, Dear Friends, I present for your consideration another challenge for your palate. . .

How many of you love sweet and salty flavors together? I love them! There are so many perfect examples of this divine combination, ranging from treats we might have eaten as children to more sophisticated combinations: chocolate-covered pretzels, kettle corn, salted butter caramel, chocolate-covered bacon and crostini covered in brie and fig jam. Heaven!

In his newest challenge to us, Monsieur Hermé asks us to be willing to try this combination again in a new way. The newest dessert to come from The House of Hermé is called "Tango", incorporates a sesame seed crust, a cream made with Reggiano Parmesan raspberry compote and red peppers, fresh raspberries and shards of salty/sweet tuile. He describes it iike this:

"Parmesan seasoned cream balances the tart raspberry and slightly bitter edge of the red pepper. The sesame pastry base brings an extra crispy start. In contrast, the salty-sweet tuile finishes the whole. The sensual rhythm of the Tango perfectly evokes this composition of ever-changing flavors that offer an equal sampling of tastes both fragile and contrasting."

And please check back later today or tomorrow for more News from The Gossamer Tearoom . . .

A Mad Tea Party By Moonlight

Please don your heart-shaped sunglasses and very most daringly Victorian bathing costume and join us at the Moonlight Mad Tea Party!


Do any of you dear friends remember when Mr. Mad Hatter sang this at the Original Mad Tea Party?

“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat
How I wonder what you’re at
Up above the world you fly
Like a teatray in the sky...”

Our special Guest of Honor is Mr. Clafouti, the wonderously rare and adorable Teddy Bear Bat. Everyone runs to greet him and pet his furry tummy! Oh! So much petting all at once is very tickle-y!

You will find Alice is taking a lovely swim in the teacup pool with The Mouse but this time isn’t talking about any (ahem) dogs and cats. Please take a dip! You will find that Iced Darjeeling is refreshing to drink and even more refreshing to swim in! Also, please notice that the Firefly Cotillion is being attended by many happy fireflies over the pool!

Moonbathing is de rigeur. Please indulge yourself! Our friend Mademoiselle Moon is full and her light is particularly luscious and lavenderly tonight!

And what could possibly be on that teatray in the sky for us to munch on while lounging in the moonlight? It’s a decadent and delicious black and white tea party menu:

*Three Kinds of Crescent Moon Shaped Crostini (black olive tapenade; baked brie and truffle oil; creme fraiche and caviar)
*Scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam
*Slices of fresh white peach tart
*Bittersweet chocolate and vanilla bean checkerboard cookies
*Madagascar vanilla and black pepper ice cream
*Glasses of Iced Fig de Blanc tea (white tea scented with black figs)

The table is set with black pansies and white lilacs (with just a few sprigs of purple thrown in, of course! After all, it is a tea at The Gossamer Tearoom, isn’t it?)

And as for music, we will be listening to something dark and fun: the newly released compilation, Factory Records-Communications 1978-92. Dance throughout the night to the gloom and endless beats of Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, Durutti Column and more.

(P.S. - The face of the teddy bear bat is actually that of my oldest and dearest friend Teddy, who has known me since I was born! The picture of his face and the picture of his tummy fur, which is actually his ear, is from a photo taken by my super sweet husband Victor! I had to take the picture of his ear instead of his tummy because I loved most of his fur off years ago! I mean Teddy's, not Victor's!)

Thank you so much to Miss Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist for hosting this extra fun event!!

Happy Tea Party to You All!

Betty

Don't Forget . . .

Check back here this Saturday, June 27th for my contribution to the Mad Tea Party, hosted by the magical Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist!

And check back later today for even more for news from The Gossamer Tearoom!

Wings of Desire

I watched "Wings of Desire" for the first time last night. I loved the whole movie, but the scenes in the club in Berlin made me want to go back in time to when music used to give me the chills the first time I heard it. This performance by Crime and the City Solution gave me that experience. If you haven't seen this movie, see it. If you have seen this movie, see it again.

Something for Everyone . . .

The delectable Miss Gla'Gla Montebello (pistachio ice cream swirled with strawberries on pistachio macaron biscuits)


This is a special post for my friend LuLu. If you will look at yesterday's post, you will see that I had posted about an intrieging new dessert from Pierre Hermé that contains tomatoes. LuLu commented that she would have to have something else as tomatoes give her hives (Yikes!). So, hopefully there will be something to appeal to you from this list, Miss LuLu!

In my Montebello Mystery post, I mentioned something that I wanted to talk about a bit more, and so tonight I bring you another wonderful treat that can be found at the endless world of endless treats at Pierre Hermé: his version of an ice cream sandwich (with, of course, ever-so-much more class!). He calls them Miss Gla’Gla and they are made with sorbets and ice creams in his fetish flavors and most have a macaron shell instead of a cookie.

I’m afraid the next time we are in Paris, if it is in the warm weather months, we will have a hard time deciding which of these to try!


PLÉNITUDE - (chocolate ice cream with bits of salted chocolate, swirled with caramel ice cream with bits of salted caramel, two macaron biscuits) An intensely-flavored ice cream trapped between two macaroon cookies... A creation where the crunchy and salty are revealed in the smoothness of a bittersweet chocolate ice cream and caramel.


INFINIMENT CARAMEL - (salted butter caramel ice cream and bits of crunchy caramel, two crunchy, sugary biscuits) All the power of caramel is underscored by its delicious saltiness. The whole is an agreement where the crunchy pieces of caramel and crisp sugar biscuit contrast with the ice cream.


CELESTE - (passionfruit ice cream, strawberry sorbet, rhubarb compote with strawberries, two macaron biscuits) A subtle blend this gourmet ice cream returns to sour notes in an original fruity combination of the Céleste flavors: Passionfruit, Strawberry and Rhubarb. An arrangement of fruit in all its sandwiched simplicity between two macaron biscuits.


SATINE - (cream-cheese sorbet, orange sauce, passionfruit sorbet, two passionfruit macaron biscuits) An ice in the Satine flavor, which plays on the association between the soft macaroon, the creaminess of the cheese sorbet and sherbet acidity of the passion fruit and orange sauce.


ISPAHAN - (Litchi sorbet with rose, raspberry sorbet, two rose-scented macaron biscuits) Miss Gla'Gla in Ispahan flavor returns in the flagship House of Pierre Hermé combination of flavors A subtle blend of litchi sorbet flavored with rose and raspberry sorbet, all between two rose-scented macaron biscuits.

A ha! The solution! Why choose when we can just plan to return again and again until we have tried them all?

And also tonight. . .

A new item in The Gossamer Tearoom Gift Shop, the second set of Women in the Moon notecards. This is an all new set, with completely different images from the first set. But like the first set, a very nice quality silver pen is included in your order, for writing on your cards and envelopes in suitable, ethereal fashion.

Tomato = Dessert ?

If you are like me, you really miss some of the fresh flavors of summer when the snow is flying past your window in the dead of winter. And when you think of the flavors of summer, one that you might miss is fresh strawberries. But another might be that quintessential flavor of summer: fresh tomato. I love tomatoes! I even love the smell of the plants themselves, all green and fresh, but somehow astringent in the nicest way. From the innovative minds of the House of Pierre Hermé comes something to challenge all of us. One of his newest summer offerings is his Tarte Intuition, made of a baked lemon cream custard, candied cherry tomatoes, tartare of fresh strawberries and tomatoes (I have to assume it is described that way because it is a spiced and chopped combination of the strawberries and tomatoes, like beef tartare is chopped and spiced beef, served raw) and a crunchy, sugary tart crust. And yes, you did read that right...tomato. Sound unusual? On warm summer evenings, my mother would take one of our freshly-picked tomatoes from the little garden in our backyard, slice it and we would eat it with sugar!! She told me that her father had done this, but she says she doesn't know where he would have gotten the idea, except that he hated anything tart or sour!
So, to my mind, this is not such a far-fetched combination of flavors. I have seen recipes listing vanilla as an enhancement for tomato and remember, a tomato is a fruit!

Here is how he describes his new creation:
“Jammy and sweet, slightly peppery to enhance the fruity flavor, the tomato is thus emerging in concentrated flavors with subtle acidity...revealed through the support of the baked lemon cream,a consistency which recalls the texture of a crème brûlée. The whole is complemented by a strawberry tartare and fresh tomatoes that enhance the taste of a fresh note of spring. An explosion of Mediterranean flavors.”

Is this for everyone? Probably not. Would I be trying it if we were in Paris this summer? Absolutely!!

Again, Thank You

I cannot tell you how happy and honored I am to have won the drawing this week on French Blue. I have won three months of advertising on The Paris Apartment blog!!! Thank you again to Miss Claudia of The Paris Apartment and Miss Janet of French Blue for giving me the opportunity to let more people see my artwork! Words can't express my gratitude for your generosity.

(Image from The Paris Apartment. Claudia: We loved the Hôtel Soubise. too!!)

(Image from French Blue. Janet: How can anyone resist going to Giverny?

Betty

Oyamel

This post has absolutely nothing to do with tea or desserts, but I still have to tell you about it! Today was Victor's and my second anniversary! We had brunch at Oyamel, in Penn Quarter, here in Washington and we loved every minute and every bite!

First of all, the name of the restaurant refers to a fir tree in Mexico where monarch butterflies stop during their migration south each year. The trees become full of the butterflies and according to the website:

...Draped in gold, its branches bent with the weight of thousands of butterflies, the otherworldly shhh created by the flapping of the monarchs’ wings, the oyamel forests in the winter are a place like no other.

The restaurant is decorated in bright shades of orange from chrome to tangerine and accented with cobalt blue. And there are not only metal butterflies suspended from the ceiling, but also many fun Day of the Dead figures. It's a very happy and beautiful place to enjoy a meal (and spend an anniversary!).

But the most important reason I'm posting about Oyamel is the food. This restaurant is one of several run by the brilliant chef Jose Andres and his creative touch makes this place very special. The menu is comprised mainly of Antojitos (described as "the little dishes of the streets"). Our waiter, Kenneth, was very helpful in explaining approximately how many dishes to order. There are so many tempting dishes on the menu, but we managed to narrow our selections to these (for this visit, anyway!):

We each started with a special drink. Since I don't drink a lot of alcohol, I tried one of the Aquas Frescas, which is a Mexican drink of fruit juices, water, sugar and ice. There are several flavors each day (today's were Mango, Pineapple and Tamarind). I ordered the Tamarind and loved it. It was sweet, tangy and very refreshing. Victor had a Santa Muerte, which was an amazing blend of tequila, fresh grapefruit and passionfruit juices, piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar), vanilla and anise. It was decorated with a small blossom of marigold, the symbolism of which was lost on me until I got home today and did some research and found that marigolds are the traditional flowers of the Day of the Dead. We had great freshly made chips and the yummiest salsa with our drinks.

Because the plates are small, we each ordered several items. Victor ordered Cayo de hacha con pipián de chile pasilla
(Seared scallops with a pasilla chile and pumpkin seed sauce, orange segments, pumpkin seed oil and toasted pumpkin seeds) and two tacos, Tinga poblana (Stew of shredded chicken with potatoes, chorizo, and chipotle, topped with white onion) and Cochinita pibil con cebolla en escabeche (Yucatan-style pit barbecued pork with pickled red onion and Mexican sour orange). I had Huevos revueltos "Migas" (Scrambled eggs flecked with crumbled tortilla chips, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and serrano chile served with black bean and tomatillo sauces) and the fresh fruit salad, which was accompanied by a half a lime, dipped in cayenne pepper. When you squeezed the lime juice over the fruit, there was a small bite of heat added to each piece by the pepper.

For dessert, we had the Mexican coffee, which was black coffee which seems to have been simmered with cinnamon sticks, cloves and a fairly large portion of the piloncillo sugar. It was delicious, warm, spicy and sweet. We ended the meal with two of the desserts both of which were amazing. Victor had Cajeta tradicional y moderna (traditional sweet caramel made from goat’s milk,with crumbled Mexican shortbread, sprinkled with caramelized cinnamon, fresh mango and fresh lime zest. Served with a scoop of passion fruit sorbet and a scoop of coconut sorbet) and I had Pastel de tres leches con piña (traditional cake soaked in Myers rum and three kinds of milk, with a rum and milk foam, fresh pineapple gelatin, a pineapple salsa and served with a scoop of dark caramel ice cream).

Everything was delicious and the food, the atmosphere and the service all made for a fun and special anniversary brunch!

Very Nice Ladies!

Dear Friends,
Even though The Gossamer Tearoom Blog has only existed since New Year's Day of this year, I have met so many very nice ladies in the blogsphere already! There is the very imaginative Lisa from Faerie Enchantment, whom I met when I bought one of her fabulous CDs of images on Etsy. Also, I have participated in two of her blog events and had so much fun! Then, there is my dear blog friend LuLu, who has her very sweet Coastal Sisters blog. We met when she bought some of my Tea Party Buttons from my Etsy site. She is so sweet and funny and a few days ago, surprised me with one of her beautiful Eiffel Tower charms from her online gallery (Thank you so very much again, Miss LuLu!)! Then, there is the very nice Janet from French Blue. I'll tell you a little secret...There are some blogs that are just so cute and cool that I feel a bit bashful about commenting on them (that's a bit silly, isn't it? Please tell me I'm not the only one who has felt that way!). That was what I thought about French Blue. So, I was completely amazed when Janet started commenting on my blog (!!) and became a follower (!!!). Imagine how excited I was to see that yesterday, she had used one of my Femme de la Lune cards to illustrate her post about another of my blog heroines, Claudia of Paris Apartments!!

And in that same post, here was just one more bit of sugar in your tea from these two ladies:

Claudia just commented....She wants to Reward all you little darlings...So she is offering a giveaway drawing to one of YOU with an online shop!! FREE advertising on her site for 3 months!! If you'd like to share this opportunity with your blogger friends mention this post and let them know about this contest so they can enter the drawing too!! Please leave me a second comment to enter twice, if you posted this Giveaway on your blog. I will draw a name from all comments left on this post on Monday June 1st. Y E A!! Thank You Claudia!!! xoxo's

So, if you have an online shop, go to this post on French Blue and leave a comment to enter to win free advertising for 3 months!

I'd just like to take a moment to thank all of these very nice ladies for their very warm welcome to me to the world of blogging!

Wishing you all a very happy weekend (you might not see much of me because it's my husband's and my second anniversary!)

Betty

The Mad Tea Party

It is time for another festive tea party, dear friends! Miss Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist is hosting a Mad Tea Party on her blog on June 27th! I can't wait!!