Tablescape Tuesday - Grandma's Dishes & more...

Thanks Susan for hosting another Tablescape Tuesday! Once you all have viewed my tablescape, please leave a comment before you access Susan's link below to visit more great tablescapes! Enjoy the tour! Bon Appetite!

Welcome to Tablescape Tuesday today! Before I take you to my second story Veranda for lunch, I wanted to share with you the pics and stories behind each of the items on our tablescape today. This is a lovely exclusively designed teapot for a company I used to work for. (no longer in business) It actually came with an infuser that you'll see on the table, I missed putting it in for the pic. I love many things about this teapot, especially the raised flowers, the colors, and the phrase on the tea infuser, it says: Friends are the Flowers of Life.

I am blessed to have quite a few British friends, and one of them shared with me her British made Tea Cozy so I could trace off the pattern to create my own. This is my finished product below made out of vintage fabric that I purchased at Goodwill numerous years ago for just 29cents. I adore using it and the color goes very nicely with the dishes I'm using for our lunch today. Don't forget to double click on any pic to enlarge to see the little details.

This is the small soup cup that coordinates very nicely with the set of dishes I'm using. I received four of these as a gift from my daughter many years ago. I love the color yellow, it always makes me feel like it brings smiles in to a room.

Pareek,by Johnson Bros is the company that made this lovely little soup cup. Also...the little flower motif really is very close to the motif you'll see on the set of dishware.

The pic below is the underneath of a little collectible that I found in "Goodwill" again, one of my favorite thrift shops! I purchased it for only $2.99; yes, you heard me correctly. This is only the bottom of it! 8-) Aynsley, I was told from one of my British friends, is a very good company that manufactures quality dishes.

And now, we have the top of it! March is my birthday, so I thought it would add a little touch of daffodils just where I needed them on my table...you'll see in just a bit!

Next we're going to see the company who was the manufacturer of the dishware I'm showcasing today.

And here is the lovely motif of the dishes close up. The entire set of dishes were just given to my Beloved and I in the fall of '08. They belonged to Beloved's Grandma, we were so honored we were blessed with them.

I thought I'd do something nifty and minty for the place cards. Since this is an outdoor lunch, I wanted to keep it more dressed down...so, I took some peppermint wrapped spoons (to use for tea or coffee with dessert) and just typed out all your names, cut the paper with pretty paper cutting scissors used for scrap booking and wrapped around the neck of the spoon. I've secured them two ways so you can determine which one you like best. The stapling was the easiest, but I like the finished product of the taped one best.

This is a vignette of the healthy dessert for after lunch. I'm going to be putting the tea cozy on the teapot after the boiling water is poured into the teapot. Recipe for making the best loose tea: Start with fresh cold water and bring to a rolling boil, (make sure the whistle blows nice and hard) swirl a small amount of hot boiling water around in your teapot prior to your putting all of the boiling water in. Once you're done swirling the hot water out of the teapot, add your tea infuser and pour the teapot as full as you can. Finally, you're going to put the tea cozy over the teapot and allow to steep for 4 minutes, depending on the strength you like your tea. When you prepare to serve your first cup of tea, pour it into a cup and then pour it back into the teapot. The purpose for this is because the tea has most likely layed in the spout of the teapot and didn't gain the strength that the tea in the teapot had. By pouring back into the teapot and pouring again, the guest will enjoy the same quality cup of tea at full strength flavor, just like everyone else.

Ahhhh...photos put aside, here we are...on the Veranda! I forgot to take pictures of the glasses and napkins...but, aren't they pretty? The glasses were another gift that belonged to Beloved's Grandma Frances. They are clear with a nice large gold rim around the top. They're very universal, the napkins are a gift from my friend Kathleen from a birthday past, very springy and perfect for this luncheon, don't you agree?

Here's a view from the top using the soup cup on the dinnerware. Oh, what soup are we having? Chilled Cherry Soup, you are going to love it!

Now that we've finished our soup, yummy yummy...on to the next course. But, look at how pretty the dishes look before lunch is served. What's for lunch? Shrimp Salad filled Croissants with julienne strips of fresh vegetables. I know, I can't wait either...

It's dessert time~ The lovely little dessert dishes are from Southern Living and are imports from Poland. I found these four in "GW", yep! No kidding! 59cents each, and I purchased all they had (4). I just saw these in an antique/consignment shop still in the box for $16 for the set of (4). I'm still mulling around whether I should go back and get them. Anyhoo, dessert does not have to be "loaded" with calories! Today I thought we'd keep it simple and have dried apricots, natural almonds, and sugar free Hershey's dark chocolate. Now, won't this be great with our pot of tea? Oh, the whistle is blowing, gotta run and get it!

Don't forget to go to Susan's blog http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ to enjoy all the other many tablescapes. Susan, thanks so much for hosting this every Tuesday, how fun!