Inspiration and Exploration: Grown Up Ladies [4-1-12]

Afternoon Tea
My copper kettle
whistles merrily
and signals that
it is time for tea.
The fine china cups
are filled with the brew.
There's lemon and sugar
and sweet cream, too.
But, best of all
there's friendship, between you and me.
As we lovingly share
our afternoon tea.
~Marianna Arolin

Winter, Grown Up Ladies and Tea. That sounds about right for a tea party. I have always loved tea parties in part because of my grandmother. Ever since Kate and I were little and we would stay with our grandparents we would play Dress Up Ladies (wearing our grandma's nighties and high heals, of course!) and have a tea party. Grandma would get out her tea pot and make a pot of tea as only she can. We would have any treats and sandwiches she had on hand and talk about grown up things: How our husbands were doing at their jobs (as doctors and travelers) and how our kids were doing (at private schools) and how our house was coming along and we would use our most impressive grown up voice and accents. How unabashedly fun. Mom or grandma, do you have any pictures you could scan and email us for that? I'd love to put at least one of them on here. :-) xoxo
Fast forward to the present and I still love tea parties and an excuse to entertain so why not put the two together for a fun day?
It has been winter in Korea for about 4 months now and it snowed on April 2nd. The tea party was on April 1st. That gives you an idea about how our winter has been. It's been great, but we are all ready for it to be over now.
About a month ago I had the idea to celebrate the beginning of spring and the end of winter so the idea of the tea party was born. Since we are in Korea some ideas had to be nixed: a tea tray and the tiered sandwich tray just won't work here. However, everything else would provided I didn't want to get too fancy. Upon further research--you know me and research--there are several types of tea: high tea and afternoon tea with several types of tea under each heading. For more information go here.
Our menu consisted of roasted chicken pasta, deviled eggs, tuna crackers, cucumber sandwiches, brownies, cheese cake, Welsh Cakes, sliced carrots and tomatoes, Feta cheese cubes and of course, tea. Each guest was asked to only bring themselves and any tea they wish to share. Out of the 16 or so who were invited we had 11 ladies at our tea all dressed up and ready to have our tea party! It was such a good time and we had a lot of laughs and grown-up-appropriate-tea conversation.
This is something I would like to continue as a yearly tradition as a celebration of not only Spring, but life and love as well. Being together with the girls for an afternoon of tea and conversation is just fun. I am looking forward to it each year with my family and friends.
Enjoy the pictures!
**Ladies from the party will be sending me more pictures that they have taken and I will post them here as soon as I get them so if you would like to see more pics check back. These are just from my camera and I didn't want to delay posting anymore waiting for the others. Since I was hosting I didn't take as many as they did.