Christmas at Le Musée Trouvé...

Welcome to All Dear Friends of The Tearoom!

I am happy to say, it's time to visit the miniature museum, 

Le Musée Trouvé once again!  

This time, we are visiting just in time to celebrate Christmas there!

Welcome to Christmas at Le Musée!

Instead of decorating our own little Christmas tree, 

our ornaments are on loan this year to Le Musée Trouvé.  

You can read more about these ornaments here

in my blog post from two Christmases ago.

The only new things I have made this year are these luminaries.

I made them from the same Antique Gold cardstock that 

we made our wedding invitations from, 

so they coordinate with the gold papers 

I'd used to make the ornaments over the years.  

The luminaries are inspired by some light fixtures I saw 

inside the Lincoln Memorial, when we lived in Washington.

As you can see, Eadwig, Lion and Giraffe are taking a peek at all of

the twinkly Christmas things!

Mr. Bear and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle have come by to take a look...

....and to have a twinkly Christmas Night Cookie or two!!

Mr. Bear is a cookie connoisseur.

He has determined that these are, indeed, 

twinkly

and

delicious-looking! 

They are the same blueberry shortbreads, 

which we had at the Sunday Luncheon on the Porch this summer

(which you can look at again here),

but these are extra-festive with icing and twinkly decorations.

At night, the museum becomes just a bit more magical...

We would like to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas!

Thank you so much for visiting with us again today!

Halloween Teeny Tea - The Bat's Meow Two

Greetings and Happy Halloween to you, My Dear Friends of The Tearoom!

Welcome!  It is my pleasure to see you here again and it makes me especially happy to see you here to celebrate Halloween at this, our second Halloween Teeny Tea, The Bat's Meow Two!

(As always, you may click on the images in order to see them larger.)

This year, we travel to a mysterious forest for our tea...

In this strange and slightly spooky forest, the bare black branches reach up, clawing at the mist and the night sky, bright with stars on this chilly autumn night.  Warm food and tea await us to keep the chill away.

Hung in the black branches of this dark forest are pictures of an unusual family and other images...

\

A shy deer watches from nearby...

Also decorating the trees, you will find a garland I made from some images from my Etsy shop Velvet Revived, the Victorienne's Halloween Party Digital Collage Sheet and the Spooky Doll Masquerade Digital Collage Sheets.  All of my collage sheets can be printed, cut out and used to make cute and creative garlands for any occasion!  You can find them here.

Joining us today are some members of the family you have seen before, a new family member and one you have not seen in a while!

Here we have our own little paperdoll daughter Victorienne, joining the family at a Teeny Tea for the first time!  She is dressed as a bat princess for Halloween! For those who aren't familiar with her, here is one of her adventures.  

We are also happy to see that our new friend Eadwig is here as well!  His maker Sophie (of the lovely Etsy shop FilASophie) made him extra twinkly, so he thought it might not be necessary to wear a costume.  And our dear Brownie McNutt is just having tea with us and not playing the piano this time, but he's helped to pick the fun music we will be playing today!

Several of the family members have chosen to wear mysterious black organza masks (and masks like these show up a few more times during the party too!). Thursday has decided to wear the Doe Princess costume I made for her almost two years ago.

The two pictures above and below were taken by my lovely husband, Victor.  I can't begin to thank him enough for all he does to help me with getting these teas set up!  He helps take pictures, makes suggestions about the lighting, helps to carry the Doll and Animal Family up and down the stairs and most importantly, he helps out by tasting all of the dishes I make (that's a very important job!)  Thank you, my sweetheart!

All of the music playing at our tea today is just fun and so we start with this...

The table is all set and everyone is ready to have

some tea treats!

Here is our menu for today...

Our next fun and spooky musical choice...

As usual, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is happy to do the serving

(with some help from me!)

This is Crispina's first tea here with us!  Teddy is telling her about some of the nice things he's enjoyed at some of the other teas.  Teddy is somewhat the veteran statesman of our family, as he has always been with me.  He was the first toy my mother got for me before I was born!

Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle starts with the first of our savory treats, Alice B. Toklas Mushroom Tea Sandwiches.  I found the recipe in one of my favorite books, "The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea".  Mushrooms are chopped finely, cooked in butter, and parmesan and egg are added to make a yummy and savory warm filling, served on small pieces of toast.  A warm and tasty beginning to our tea today.

The next treat that Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle serves today is Welsh Rarebit Soufflés.  I've made them from a recipe I adapted from Jennifer Patterson and Clarissa Dickson-Wright, known from their fun cooking show "The Two Fat Ladies".  Fluffy, warm and delicious!

Roquefort and Black Walnut Shortbreads are the last savory treat that we are having today.  Still warm from the oven, they smell so nice and are so tasty!

Mr. Bear has been looking forward to this tea all month!

I'm happy to help Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle serve the tea!  Today, we are enjoying cups of hot Black Forest Cupcake Tea, with notes of chocolate, cherry and marshmallow.  We enjoy it most with a splash of milk and a bit extra sugar.

More fun and spooky music...

After we enjoy our savory treats, we are looking forward to some yummy sweet treats as well!

The first cookie that Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle serves for dessert is the yummy chocolate and vanilla Marble Cookie!  They are one of our favorites from our very first Teeny Tea!  We are so happy to be having them again today!

The next cookie being served for dessert are Cappuccino Spiderwebs!

The last delicious cookie served tonight are something I called 

Spooky Ghosties!  Ooooh!  So spooky!!!

Here's a cookie for Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle!

And now everyone has their spooky cookie plate!!

And something sweet from The Cocteau Twins...

The fun garland on the front of the tea table today is made from a free PDF from the artist Mizna Wada's DIY Blog.

The cool spiderweb I used in the garland was from the digitized artwork of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  It's a great artists resource and you can find it here.

One last fun and spooky song...

After Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and I cleared the table of the dishes and tea things, it was time for some appropriate after-tea amusement!  This is a book by the wonderful writer and illustrator Edward Gorey.  He wrote it not in the form of a book, but a series of 20 cards, which can be arranged in any number of ways to make a different story!

The Doll and Animal Family is having great fun arranging the cards and reading the story aloud!

We all wish you a very most happy and spooky Halloween and thank you most graciously for joining us today!