ANOTHER TEA LINEN SET FINISHED FOR THE GARDEN

So I continue my project of 

combining old and new table toppers with 

sewn chair covers I am making from

my grandmother's pillow cases to save

for a future garden

tea.

This table is about pink and purple!

My grandmother's pillow cases are working out well....cutting them up to make the back covers to drop over the folding chairs!

And using those old doilies to embellish

them with!

I love this bone china pattern:

The door is on the side

where people enter

the garden:

LITTLE FLOWER GARDEN IS COMING ALONG

I enjoy visiting Aiken House and Garden - a list of my favorite blogs are over at the right.

It is the most beautiful garden at Carolyn's on Prince Edward Island. If you enjoy gardening, you must visit it at

http://warrengrovegarden.blogspot.com/

My back yard is small - but big enough for me as I am a working lady and this garden layout, though small, has taken me a while to dig out.  I took a photo from the upstairs

looking down.

This summer I started a project and since I work a lot I just did a little each week.....I took out a section of the lawn on each side of my back yard and the first to happen was this left side with a giant Colorado Blue Spruce.

Then I did the opposite right side:

And this photo taken through the window screen shows how I was able to finally join the two in the middle. 

I think a garden team could easily get

this all done in a day or just hours but....

I do have a great deal to learn as I had a vegetable garden back in the 70's but want 

to learn to grown  some

flowers from seeds and

I am not sure Colorado

is the best place for

that without a 

greenhouse.

Our summer is shorter and

 it stays cool at night.

TEA WITH ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Eleanor Roosevelt was an outstanding woman who loved the occasion of tea. It is said that she had over 20,000 guests at the White House for tea. Back in 1998, Victoria Magazine did an article on Eleanor called "Your Invitation to Mrs. Roosevelt's Table". I was especially interested in the article because the vintage photo of her showed a watch I thought I recognized.

I was traveling across Kansas around 2002 with my husband and we stopped In Paxico - a small town known for great antiques. I purchased this watch which you see here pinned to a 1950's era necklace. The tag on the watch read that it had belonged to Eleanor Roosevelt and was donated to raise money for Harry Truman's reelection campaign. I REALLY DON'T KNOW FOR SURE if this story is true but just the same the watch sure charmed me!

If you are planning a tea party,  you might enjoy featuring Eleanor's favorite Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake as follows:

You will need: 1 cup/2 sticks soft unsalted butter, 2 cups sugar, 10 large eggs, separated, 2 Tb fresh lemon juice, 2 Tb grated lemon peel (I like to increase this), 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of poppy seeds

Also: 4 cups sifted cake flour, 4 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter (2) 9 x 5 x 3 pans and dust with flour, shaking out excess

In a bowl, using a mixer, cream the butter, add 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, a little at a time and beat the mix until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, the lemon juice, lemon peel, vanilla extract, and poppy seeds. In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt, Beat the mix adding butter. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites into soft peaks, add the sugar slowly till all are stiff - stir in 1/4 of this egg white mix into the batter- keep adding till all are used.

Divide the batter between the 2 pans and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes - cover the top with foil at the end if it gets brown. Use a toothpick to test at the end until it comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes.

TABLE LINENS FINISHED FOR TABLE #1

This is my first set of table linens that I have finished and hope you use for some "tea in the garden" posts.  My garden isn't very impressive but I plan to enjoy it just the same.  I also am hoping to give a benefit tea in my garden sometime in the future and use the sets.

These chair linens are of course, more

work than I had thought they would 

be.

It takes time for a garden to

develop.  I hope some wonderful

friendships develop through

Afternoon Tea here and that 

will take time too.