Before I share this week’s tip with you, I’d like to raise my teacup and say Thank You to all my recent visitors and comment-ers! My first ten days of blogging on WordPress has been wonderful thanks to all of you. I hope we continue to get to know each other over the virtual teapot as we meet tea party lovers all over the blog-o-sphere.
Tomorrow Pink-Dancer, my only daughter will turn six, and of course our celebration will include a tea party under the oaks in the backyard. There was a time when events such as these greatly stressed me out. One reason was perfectionism, but the other main reason was inexperience. The majority of the emotional effort of any tea or hospitali-tea event I supervised in the past went to making sure I had covered all the bases within budget. AND I did all this with little children in tow.
As I look back now, however, I realize this was just part of the learning curve. Just like everything else, learning to host a tea party or event takes resource, time, and experience AND gets easier as you go along.
Be prepared to gather items for tea parties a little at a time. If you see a teacup you like, especially in the thrift store-BUY IT. Before you know it, you’ll have enough and no, they don’t all have to match. If your grandmother or aunt wants to give you some fancy dinnerware~say YES unless you absolutely hate it. It’ll probably end up becoming just what you want later in life.
Tomorrow’s event will include real teacups for the boys and girls. They’ll fill them with milk, sugar, and tea and stir them with their little spoons. Maybe one will get broken. But it exposes them to the real-deal which is more important in the long run.
Over time, gather linens you love as well. We’ll use a real cloth tablecloth tomorrow, but paper napkins. This is because Pink Dancer still lights up at the paper goods display at the local grocery store, especially if there’s pink unicorns involved. But we compromise. I say yes to the paper napkins and heart-shaped paper plates, but no to the cheap, paper-crunchy table covering. The value of the beauty of a real table CLOTH far surpasses the little extra work involved.
I keep a plastic tote filled with everything I need for a quick tea party except the food and flowers. I kept a list of what I wanted in my wallet so I would remember and picked things up as I was able. Now it’s a breeze to easily host a tea event. Time and experience paid off.
So here’s my Simple Tea Tip in a nutshell: Start small, but start. Do not expect perfection. Go for it, even feel overwhelmed and tired afterwards but know this. It gets easier. Consider starting a tea tote. And the joy of taking tea with friends is worth the little extra work.