Aloha Tea

Happy Fall everyone!  I can't believe it is fall already, so I thought the perfect way to say goodbye to summer on my blog is by sharing the wonderful tea party I went to this past weekend in Winchester, Virginia.  My aunt arranged this "Aloha tea" at her church, Opequon Presbyterian Church, to raise money for Relay for Life.  This is the second tea party I've attended at Opequon church, see here for last year's apple harvest tea.

 There were quite a few people there--maybe 50 to 60 or so would be my guess.

Each table had a sponsor who provided the dishes, linens, and decorations for that table. 



(see the pretty sea shells on a blue "ocean" below that gorgeous flower arrangement?)

Here is the table my mother and I sat at:

Below are a couple of others.  Unfortunately, we were a bit late, so people had already gotten up to get food and I didn't have a chance to take many pictures of the tables, although I did sneak in a couple:

Now on to the best part:  Food!

(I love the flip flop menu!) 

Food was set out buffet style, with tropical touches of course!

 (Starting to the right and going counterclockwise, Hawaiian Delights (pineapple, walnut, and cream cheese on raisin bread), Shrimp salad in phyllo cups (bonus savory not listed on the menu), and kau'kama rounds (cucumber)



(Pulled pork)

(Isn't that a cute flip flop pick for the pulled pork sandwich?  The last savory is the Maui picks, with pineapple and kielbasa). 

I always seem to skip over the tea though!  We were served three:  Ginger peach, Pineapple green tea, and Lady Earl Grey.

 Now on to dessert!

Fruit cups:

Peanut butter sandals (so cute!)

Finally, brownies.  A bit of icing forms an ocean, and lovely umbrellas!

One more picture because the display was so pretty, especially the pineapple flower arrangement.





Now, not only did we enjoy all that delicious food, one of the ladies brought vintage teacups and, if you had a sticker on the bottom of your place setting, you could choose one to take home!  I got the lovely handpainted Adderley teacup and saucer set.

 

 

Aloha'Oe!

  I'm joining these tea parties:

Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea 

Rose Chintz Cottage's Tea Time Tuesday

Forget-me-nots and lace

Hello everyone!  Sorry, I didn't realize that I didn't put up a message in my last post that I would be gone for a bit--I went on another vacation!  I've got lots of new pictures to go through before I can post about that trip, but I have a few other things to share first.  To start, I thought I would both post a teaser of my trip and get September's Flower of the Month post done with a couple of days before the end of the month to spare!

One of September's Flowers of the month is the forget-me-not.

 

This set is Royal Albert's Caroline.  If you've been following me for awhile, Caroline is my full name, and I have a collection of different china patterns with my name.

 

But now on to the trip teaser.

 





The lace underneath the set I bought during my trip on a little fishing island, Burano, in Italy. 

 

Burano is adorable with multi-colored houses and little "rivers" running through town, and is famous for lace.  The very first shop I walked in the owner was working on lace herself--she actually made the small piece I ended up buying.  Here was the little shop:

 



I had a wonderful visit to Italy, and I'm really looking forward to sharing more about the trip--even though it may be awhile.