The Summer Tea Trolley

It looks like I've gone all summer without a tea trolley post! Time to catch up on some pictures!

At the beginning of the summer I found the antique enamel teapot at a thrift store and bought it thinking I might resell it. But, it went so well with my summer mantel that I couldn't give it up.

A friend took a trip to Vancouver and came back with some famous Victorian creams from Rogers Chocolates. Yum! Especially with Twinings Rose Tea!

I cut out a stack of tea cozies at the beginning of the summer and have only managed to sew a very few together at this point. I still am optimistic that I will finish them. :) This one went as a gift to someone, along with the tea and biscuits. :)

The trolley has been sitting lonely in the corner for too much of the summer. I miss using it and I really want to create a few more pretty things to grace it. She did come out for a get-together in June.

It was a lovely knitting, crochet, and book get-together!

The colors in this photo make me happy -- the grey-blueness of the background and the bright pink and lemon yellow. I need to take some more time to fix trays like this and relax a bit.

Another tray from earlier in the summer, showing off the Decaffeinated Earl Grey that came back with my friend from Canada. Also showing what lovely afternoon treats leftover pancakes can make!

I noticed that our local grocery store (Meijer) is now carrying a line of loose leaf tea!!! It looks and sounds quite good -- I just have too much of my own tea to justify buying more at this point. I think America is heading in the right direction where tea is concerned. Good tea is becoming more widely available and sought after.

Here is my coordinating pot to the one Michael has. I still need to tell you the story behind these pots but that is for a Scotland post (of which I still have many to write).

We had a foreign visitor near the Fourth of July and so this was a fun breakfast to make for him! Red white and blue muffins!

A friend home from college asked if I could teach her about tea. How could I resist that??!!! She was a very good student and listened carefully to me tell her all about tea and tea time ad infinitum.

I made her try all kinds of tea -- black, green, white, herbal, decaf.

One evening friends had me over for tea. The drinks matched the china!

And we used one of my most favorite china tea sets I have come across. My friend and I were walking past my favorite charity shop in Airdrie one day about 12 years ago when we saw it in the window -- 12 settings of hand-painted pink china. How could we not buy this and have her take it home for her mom? (Especially when the price, in today's standards was ridiculously cheap.) We did! The entire set made it safely home in a suitcase! These days none of us could touch a set like this in a charity shop in the UK.

Here are the night's goodies, including gf samoa bars, gf chocolate chip cookies, fruit salad and vanilla ice-cream.

And then there was the Fourth of July after dinner tea and coffee! So fun to be able to enjoy tea out back on the patio!

I was treated to tea in Zionsville when a friend came into town for a visit. The tearoom there, Serenity, serves the yummiest Cherry-Almond Rooibos tea.

One day this summer Andrew and a friend decided to make a cake and decorate it all by themselves. They were very creative and I loved the basil blooms sticking right out of the cake.

Morning tea with a friend at Hubbard and Craven's in Carmel. Delightful!

I saw this in an antique store when we were up in South Haven, MI. Very tempted to buy it for my outdoor tea adventures. It goes with several of my themes, especially plaid ones. :)

A Sunday afternoon dessert one week -- GF cake with fresh fruit and cream. Can't beat that!

I enjoyed the time I got to spend at the Goodwill Outlet store this summer while the kids were at VBS. These mustard yellow melamine plates were one of my finds. Perfect for holding afternoon tea snacks.

One of the highlights of the summer was a surprise birthday party that some friends threw for my mom. Sitting around a beautifully laid table with women who are not only beautiful on the outside but incredibly beautiful on the inside and listen to them share memories of times with my mom was so special.

Mom was very surprised!

We all thoroughly enjoyed the pavlova and meringues for dessert.

A neighborhood friend of mine found a set of beautiful Japanese china teacups at Goodwill last month! Of course we had to try them out!

And what would a vacation away from home be without tea? I had to take our backup kettle with me to church camp so that when I hibernated in our rooms in the afternoon I could do so with some good tea.

And finally here is my latest find at Goodwill. I saw these on the shelf Saturday and thought at first I would just buy the cups and saucers to boost my blue and white teacup collection but then thought about how lovely it would be to buy all the dishes and use them for our everyday set. There were enough and the price was completely affordable. I'm so glad I brought them home because they make me so very happy when I use them for mundane meals. They also "pop" on top of the tablecloth I found this summer at the outlet.

So that's it for now. School starts Monday and I have a very different schedule now that I have kids in three different forms of school. It will be a new season of life. Some things will get left behind and new things will be started. I'm excited about these next months. They will certainly be an adventure!