Sunday, April 10, 2011

Afternoon Tea

My birthday continues for one more weekend!  I'm so lucky!

Actually, during the week my bowling team, the Odd Balls,  threw me a mini party on our Wednesday bowling night.  They had a carrot cake, caramel hershey kisses, seven layer mexican dip, crackers and mini hot dog weiners.  It was great!  They got me a teacup planter with pink impatiens and a Fire King hobnail milkglass planter that the kisses were in.

Love it!!

Vintage glassware; I could do a whole post on Fire King! 

Then this weekend, there was High Tea served in my honor at the Royal Tea Room in Tampa.  Myself and seven of my girlfriends gathered and sipped tea served with scones, finger sandwiches, savory pastries, mini cupcakes and fruit-filled chocolate cups. 

Yummy in my tummy!

There is an order that you are supposed to eat this delicious food in and it is from the bottom up.  First the tea was poured, which the first type was an apricot tea and then we chose a strawberry-chocolate tea.  Normally they only serve one tea type a day, but we insisted on the strawberry-chocolate tea too.  We pushed politey. :-)

We first ate a blueberry scone with jam and clotted cream.  From the second tier we ate cucumber sandwiches and a black bean quesadilla pastry pocket.  Finally, the top and third tier, were vanilla cupcakes with frosting and chocolate cups filled with a bit of kiwi, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry, anchored in the cup with a bit of whipped cream.  It was delicious!

The Tea Tables

It was a lovely time and after all of that tea and scrumpets, my friend that set-up the tea party had a cake for me to blow out candles that were teacups and a teapot!

Finishing touch!

Yes, they even sang to me!  We were the loudest group in the tea room, as if we wouldn't be.  We acted like we were the only ones in that place.  Where were our manners?!

The look of just being sung to!

After tea we headed to this deli called Datz, that is also a restaurant/bar where they have 20 plus beers on tap and wine galore!  Instead of having a beer or wine after all of that caffeine, I chose to have gelato!

Strawberry Gelato!

I really did not need to eat this and this did put me over the edge, but it was soooo good.  We hung out just for a bit and then we all went our separate ways for the rest of the evening (by this time it was after 5pm).  But, we took one last pic before we left:

The Ladies of the Tea Party (at the bar) hehe

It did seem a bit incongruent to attend a tea party and then go and have a beer!  But, it was a great time; one that I would love to do again.

To end the evening festivities, one of gals and I went thrift store shopping.  Yes, even more incongruency going on, but I enjoy thrift store shopping for cool glassware and odds and ends.  My motto is you just never know what you are going to find!  That is what I enjoy the most, seeing something new each time I go.

I do believe that that was my last birthday party of the year.  I do still have lots more Cheesecake Factory carrotcake cheesecake in the freezer, so I can still celebrate anytime!  Thank you to everyone who helped me ring in my 35th year!  Let's do it again next April!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a delightful Saturday afternoon! It was fabulous! Great pictures of the festivities. -Crissta

Kjestine said...

Big sad face that I live so far away and didn't get to go to the tea party! But the cake with the teacup and teapot candles was the best! What a great idea!

Nancy said...

Yes, it was a nice time. Although it is equivalent to the sugar high I get from the cookie swaps...