Teacup Tales

The Pacific Northwest is one of my favorite travel destinations. I throughly enjoyed my trip to San Juan Island last week and fulfilled my dream of seeing orcas in the wild. Such an amazing sight! We stayed in Seattle for one night before returning home. I had the pleasure of visiting the Perennial Tea Room in Seattle. This tea shop is located on quaint Post Alley a block away from Pike Place Market. It is a quiet respite from the hustle and bustle of the market. This tea shop does not serve tea (even though past reviews do indicate that they do at one point pre COVID) but has an amazing selection of loose tea. The tea is displayed quite nicely in glass containers. Upon entering the shop there is an area with laminated tea menus divided by type of tea. The staff is extremely knowledgeable about each tea featured and were welcoming. I was interested in expanding my oolong and white tea stash. Across from the loose tea are shelves of quality boxed teas and accessories. This shelf made me...

  Today's featured teacup is "Serena" from Royal Albert. The Serena pattern was produced from 1945-1977. The earlier teacups featured flowers similar to Old Country Roses in a larger scale than the ones featured on my teacup. Inside the teacup there was a rim of gold designs similar to the circular design on the saucer (see below). The cup shape is Avon. I am a huge fan of teacups with interior designs.  The photos do not do this beautiful teacup justice. The colors are bright and stunning along with the intricate floral designs. It truly stands out in size and design! Back stamp Teatime is not complete without a good book and quality tea. Vacationland was an enjoyable read with a touch of mystery, strong characters and the desirable setting of the coast of Maine. I have been drinking "Breakfast in Paris" by STASH tea more and more in the morning. It is a crisp black tea with  bergamot oil and lavender which softens the bergamot in my opinion. I"m not a fan...

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope all of you had a weekend where you were able to celebrate something or someone you love! Enjoying tea time with my friends is something I really cherish. Yesterday I invited some close friends from college over for Afternoon Tea. For some reason this year, I was really excited to celebrate Valentine's Day. I finally finished the heart wreath I was making for the front door. Found the idea on pinterest. I sent a proper paper invitation as I'm really tired of evites and started planning the menu. Since all invited are very health conscious, I ended up tweaking the menu a bit so the food was a tad bit healthier. I was so excited to use some new tea ware and linens.   One of my favorite things is setting the table. (The morning light was beautiful in person but not in photos.) I wanted to create a soft feminine look with pinks and a bit of red. I chose a hydrangea for the centerpiece using a g...

Hello Tea Friends, Hope you are enjoying the magic of the season and not feeling the stresses that can be attributed to Christmas. This year I acknowledge that I'm pretty behind with shopping and cards, but I'm trying my best not to let this dampen my spirits. Last night I listened to some classical Christmas music and finally sat down to address my cards.  I set out a plate of peppermint bark, Danish butter cookies, along with a cup of fantastic white tea. Wednesday night I made a large cookie sheet of peppermint bark. I broke the pieces and wrapped them in cellophane bags. Makes a nice simple gift! This is all that is left...I definitely need to make some more. Last July I had the pleasure of experiencing afternoon tea at  Tea's Me Tearoom  in Hillsboro, Oregon. It remains the best food I've ever enjoyed in a tea room.  White Christmas Tea   I've been really eager to try more white teas recently. Even during a Ju...

Welcome to Teacup Tales! As the season of Autumn begins and the weather cools (hopefully here), I'm drawn to the hues of orange and brown and the scents of cinnamon and pumpkin spices. I've been leafing through my magazines and cookbooks looking for new recipes. Probably my go to fall favorite is pumpkin bread which I will feature later this month. In two weeks my town will hold an Antique Fair downtown with one hundred booths selling vintage items. Last year I bought a beautiful citrine sterling silver ring at the fair. Hopefully there will be much more tea ware this year. There are very few antique and thrift stores in my area so I look to ebay and etsy for my shopping needs/wants. Today's featured teacup is one I found on ebay. "Autumn stars shine through gaps in the walls...He ...brews midnight tea by the stove's ruddy light." ~From a Taoist song, quoted in The Chinese Art of Tea  by John Eaton Bloefeld This is the oldest Royal Albert...

Happy August Tea Friends, I hope you are enjoying the last "official" month of summer! Please accept my apologies for not posting last week. I flew to a work conference in San Diego and the wifi was really spotty in the hotel which made it quite difficult to complete a post. I'll finish up that post at another time. For now I would like to share about yesterday's fruit picking experience. My family has been eager for me to make a peach cobbler so we awoke early and headed to a u-pick farm area. The farm we chose had u-pick yellow peaches, white peaches, plums and heirloom tomatoes. We are not huge fans of white peaches so we were on the lookout for yellow ones. Unfortunately only two of the trees had yellow peaches-petite ones and they were rock hard . Hence no peach cobbler...I will share the my recipe later in another post. Peach Trees I'm most excited about the heirloom tomatoes we picked because our vegetable garden was very unsuccess...

Welcome back tea friends, Hope your summer continues to bring you warmth and enjoyment. One of my favorite summer time activities has always been traveling. I haven't traveled as much in recent years so this summer's three "short" trips have really ignited my passion for traveling. Even though my trips were not terribly far from home, I enjoyed relaxing and discovering some new tearooms which is always a delight. "Perhaps it is while drinking tea that I most enjoy the sense of leisure."                                                      ~George Gissing At the end of June, I found myself in Hillsboro, Oregon which is a suburb of Portland. My mom and I went to visit my brother who lives there. While on our trip, we had tea at the Tea's Me (clever name, huh?) tearoom for my birthday. Thank you  Steph  of Steph's Cup of Tea for the won...