A Royal Wedding Tea

I must confess to being an Anglophile. I love English history and since I'm rather obsessed with their royal history in particular I just had to stay up all night and wait for the wedding to start!! I taped it on my VCR and watched in awe as the guests arrived and finally Will and then Kate. I fell asleep shortly after they said their vows and I'll have to wait until tonight to watch the whole thing with my family, but while I wait...I decided to have a proper cup of tea and toast to the happy couple:

To Will and Kate - may you have happiness and love all the years of you life!!

My silver was still polished from Easter. My sugar bowl and creamer and silver tray I've shown before. My little brown pot is just enough for one person to enjoy a fine cup of tea...
The gorgeous cup is a gift from My Fairy Vintage Godmother. However does she find those treasures I'll never know. Thank you, Auntie!!

And just in case you are wondering what tea it is I'm drinking...
Stewarts Gourmet tea is my absolute favorite. This one is Peach Mango, but I also love their Raspberry!

I was only 2 or 3 when Will's parents married, but I remember watching videos of their wedding on TV and later when we were on a family trip to either Oklahoma or Florida, I forget which, my mother bought me a set of Princess Di paper dolls to keep me entertained and I loved them to bits!

I was just starting college when she died. One of my first college classes was the day after and I was so sad despite my excitement to begin my first days at the University. I will always remember how kind and special Will's mother was and she touched SO many lives. I cried again today at the thought that she was not here to see her beautiful son marry and look so dashing in his uniform. But enough sadness, it is a day of joy and I hope the poor couple don't faint from exhaustion before it is all over. ;)

Congratulations, Will and Kate!! And if any of you bloggers out there are having any special party or post for the day please do point me to your post - I'd love to join in on the festivities!! Or drop a comment on your own views on the day.

Happy Friday.

Easter Preparations and Tornado Damage!

I've been super busy cooking, cleaning and baking to get ready for an Easter lunch tomorrow. Two of my cousins from out of town were coming in for the holiday, but wouldn't you know it - a tornado ripped through our airport yesterday!! Yes, really.

One cousin got diverted to Kansas City and had to take a bus here at midnight - ugh! The other one was flying in today, but now she can't as the airport is shut down still. Oh well, I'm just glad neither was hurt!

I made some kourambiedes for Easter since this is both American and Greek Easter together this year (often they are at different times due to differing calendars). Kourambiedes (or as I often call them, white cookies) are a buttery cookie with crushed walnuts and a hint of brandy in them. They are covered in powdered sugar and rather messy, but oh-so-delicious! We make them around Christmas and Easter or Weddings - they are a special occasion kind of cookie.

Here they are just after baking...

You then sift powdered sugar all over and then serve them in little baking cups for easy eating...
If anyone is interested in the recipe please comment on this post and I will post the recipe. They are VERY good, delicate cookies.

For lunch we will have ham, pineapple-orange-mustard sauce, scalloped potatoes, spinakopita (a cheese/spinach dish with filo), a green bean-tomato-potato dish my Yiayia makes, and my mother's delicious carrot cake (with pineapple, raisins and walnuts in it - mmm!) and maybe even a key lime pie. Yummy! We dyed our eggs the American way with multi colors, but my Yiayia always makes traditional Greek red-only eggs.

I'll try to remember to take pictures. Hope everyone else is safe and sound and enjoying their weekend. The tornados have hit us hard in Missouri, but so far my family has been okay. I hope that doesn't change as there is plenty of rain and bad weather in the forecast. There have been reports of up to softball sized hail!! Cross your fingers for us as we've had many close calls and had to cower in our basement quite a few times this week. We've been lucky so far, but how long can that hold out?

Happy Easter!

Dogwood, Fairies and Birds - Spring Treats

The view from my bedroom window looking down... My pretty dogwood is blooming wonderfully this year! Huzzah! I have had to be very patient with it - the past five years its been there there were very few flowers to be seen, but now it looks quite healthy to me.

A few new items in the shop.

Titania - Queen of the Faeries in Midsummer's Night Dream:

Fair Titania! I love fairies, don't you?

And whilst cleaning out my studio I decided to clear out some scraps - I made these birds awhile back thinking to make a little spring garland from them, but never got around to it so I put them up on my shop.

SOLD - Thank you!

Two of the birds are cut from vintage sheet music and so is the heart, but from older music paper and German - there are a few words on it.

It's been a rather quiet weekend. I watched Upstairs/Downstairs on PBS and now I'm enjoying Downton Abbey again. English costume drama - my favorite way to spend a quiet Sunday evening.

Shop Update - Exciting New Items!

I'm very excited to announce I've added some very interesting and beautiful jewelry to the shop.

First up - an Austen inspired silhouette necklace. I've been craving a piece of silhouette jewelry for some time now, so I've made a nice glass tile piece - a young lady on French text back ground:

I've strung it on black ribbon for a romantic look, but I'm also selling it with a pretty silverplated chain - really you could string it on just about anything. So pretty!

And then there's the new Typewriter Key jewelry. I've made bracelets before and sold a few on Ebay, but they always lacked a bit of romance and a feminine touch.

Here, at last, is a solution - a pretty round filigree necklace with an initial...

And I could resist placing it on my pretty red typewriter...

I have some more designs, so far three different settings - here's the diamond shaped filigree one...So pretty. But the best one so far is this Art Deco pendant - I love this necklace! I have one with an 'N' on it and my mother immediately demanded an 'M' for herself. ;)

These really catch the eye and I love the idea of taking something old and unwanted like a dusty old typewriter and crafting a new, beautiful item from it. So these are some of the new items I've been adding so far and I have more to come. Please do take a few moments to check out my shop - there are more pictures of these necklaces as well as other items I've added in the past week. I've been working hard!

If you like my new jewelry please leave a comment - I'm dying for some feedback!

Have a great day!

Macaron, Anyone?

Est-ce que vous voudriez une macaron?

I've been dying to try these little French cookies ever since I first saw them out in blogland. Finally, this week I tracked down a local French bakery, La Bonne Bouchee and bought a little bag of mixed flavors/colors.

Aren't they sweet looking? I had to take a few pictures before trying my first one...

They are certainly a unique taste. Very light and airy with just a hint of flavor other than almond.

Since they didn't tell me what the flavors are I'm guessing with a few. The green is usually pistachio, right? It was my favorite so far. I didn't care for the chocolate (actually, my family all agreed it tastes like the Devil's Food Snackwell cookies), but the vanilla was nice and the yellow was definitely lemon. I'm eating them just a little at a time to savor the special early Easter treat.

Such delicate, pretty colors - they made me break out my French napkins with little lions and Fleur de Lis.

Hope you all had a happy weekend!