Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tea for 4 for Irean and her friends, Yes - "THE" Ireane ;)

  In my last post, I shared a "True" story about myself and a lady named Irean.  
To read more about how I met Ireane and the story behind how this tea party I catered for her came about, please click here.

On 4/19, I took a half day off from work so I could enjoy catering this tea party!  I prepared the majority of the food in advance, loaded it into my car...and off I went.  It was a rainy day, but a "perfect" day to be shut in with these ladies, and Dick, Irean's husband that I got to meet too.

Without further adieu, please meet Irean & Dick in the first photo~
It was a bad hair day for me, so I grabbed the cute little red hat I'm wearing before leaving the house and it worked perfectly for the rainy day. 
The only thing I needed to finish preparing once I arrived was putting the tea sandwiches together & slice the stuffed cucumbers...  It all came together lovely~
I created Menu Cards using my Chandelier Photo Blank Note Cards - I typed up the Menu and secured it inside the card with a glue stick so the ladies could take along as a keepsake after the party.
Menu:
Turkey & Radish Tea Sandwiches with Chives
Stuffed Cucumbers with Dill and Pimento
Italian Sausage Quiche Squares
Sliced Yellow Peppers
Buttermilk Scones with Currants with home made Lemon Curd & Mock Devonshire Cream
Fresh Strawberries
French Iced Tea
Varied Hot Teas 
Desserts were scrumptious:
Natural Almonds
Dark Chocolate covered Ginger
Caramel Log Bites
Madeleine's - a lovely sponge type cookie in the shape of a shell

Typically when I give a tea like this I bring everything from the food to the silver and place settings.  But in this case, Ireane created her own tablescape and did a LOVELY job.  It was truly a labor of love.  She had a special teacup wrapped so sweetly and gave one to each of the three friends she shared her tea party with.  
 Her server became the perfect place to arrange everything for the tea.  As I finished getting everything placed in just the right location, Irean and her friends were gathered in her family room enjoying each other's company.  It was delightful to hear their laughter beginning already as I heard them chatting.  The table was now ready, so I invited them to come into the dining room so the tea could begin.

Please meet Irean and her friends!  Ireane is to the left, Gail is behind the yellow daisy centerpiece, Susan is to the right, and Louise has her back to us in this photo.  I wanted to get a photo of them enjoying one another in conversation ~ below is a photo where they posed for the camera.  ;) 
Here they are... Aren't they just the sweetest ladies?  
During the afternoon, I spoke about Irean's sweet gesture of loaning me her reading glasses at the nearby Spa & Winery...and explained that's how I came about offering to cater the special tea party for her.  As the ladies enjoyed the refreshments, I read a couple writings that talk about random acts of kindness like Ireane showed me in March at the Spa. 
It only seemed fitting that at the end of the Tea Party that I would present these Jimmy Crystal eyeglasses to Ireane.  This way, she'd always have them as a reminder of her gesture to me.  I'll never forget her, and I'll never forget her kindness to me either.
Please meet Irean's husband, Dick.  He is a retired military man...and he kept me company while I worked in the kitchen preparing the sandwiches.  They are a precious couple.
 This is a special photo that ended our afternoon together...
Irean & Dick's hands clasped together.  

I hope you enjoyed the update on Irean and the Tea Party I gave to her and her friends....
I dedicate this post to Ireane, she is ONE in a million! 

The next time you see someone straining to read a magazine, offer them your reading glasses and expect nothing in return.  

You never know, you might just be offered a Free Catered Tea Party as gratitude.  :)

Hugs ~CC Catherine

12 comments:

Kathleen Ellis said...

What a lovely afternoon...you did a wonderful job, Cath! I bet they were thrilled and enjoyed every last morsel!
Love you bunches! xoxo

Kathleen Ellis said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
~CC Catherine said...

Kathleen, your comment duplicated for some reason, so I deleted the duplicate...but for some reason it didn't delete who left the deleted comment. Haha! Thanks friend...xoxo

Modern Country Lady said...

Hi Catherine, thank you so much for your super sweet comment on my blog post " Things I am afraid to tell you".I have been thinking about the post and was really wondering if I should not delete it, as people don't always want to know what troubles you, but getting this lovely and positive feedback from you has made me rethink this.You are right, nobody is perfect, and who cares anyway :-))))

Liz@ HomeandGardeningWithLiz said...

What a great story and your follow up tea party! Everything looks great!

Chubby Chieque said...

A great Tea Party with great people around you makes the whole party unbeatable.

Happy TS,
/CC

Rebecca Nelson said...

Oh sweets...I absolutely love this! You did an AWESOME job my beautiful friend. LOVELY!

Now..just have to tell you, too, that I LOVE LOVE LOVE your haircut!

xoRebecca

Carolyn said...

That was such a lovely tea you prepared for them-I am sure they all enjoyed it very much. The menu sounds delicious.

Carolyn

Celestina Marie said...

Hi Catherine,
What a lovely tea party you created for such a sweet lady. The ladies look adorable and having a special time. You are such a dear and I know they will all remember that day always.
The menu sounds and looked fabulous.
Love the glasses too.
Great pics you share and the last one is very special.

So nice to see you my dear. I have missed you. Been extremely busy with some redos and on vacation now. A working vacation. LOL
Hugs and Blessings, Celestina Marie

Maria said...

They will remember this tea for sure! What a lovely gesture, and what a delightful tea! And those glasses had me smiling!

toko busana muslim said...

Very interesting... I really like it... Thank you so much...

wendy said...

CC...HOW DID I MISS this post. Sheeeesh.
You truly are the sweetest most lovely person!!!! I just love you.
You can cater my tea party any time....um, would that require that I pay your flight ticket (tee,hee)
I bet it was just lovely.
And nothing kinda makes us WANT to keep doing good........when people recognize it...NOT that THAT makes it WHY we do good.
We do it anyway...without praise or recognition.
It is just very rewarding to have people notice those kind acts.