winter tea

At the end of January, my mom and I put on a tea.

We used to do this in my family pretty frequently. The ladies -- my mom, grandmother, my two younger sisters, and I -- would all get together at a decorated table with plenty of little goodies and tea. I don't drink tea (or coffee) and have a limited diet, so I've always just kind of in it for the company and the pretty table.

This time we used this hot chocolate set I got at Anthropologie in 2009. I can't believe it took eight years to use it. It's really adorable! It's sort of a mild cream color with minty-blue and brown animals and flowers on it. There's crowns and pennants and arrows, so it makes me think of Narnia, though it has nothing really to do with Narnia.

I wanted the decor and tablescape in general to be on the rustic/natural side, and to evoke winter rather than another season.

The most fun was making these little place tags with paper flowers, which we tied to each person's cup with some jute. I lettered with a white gel pen and drew the little circles along the trim to give them a lacy sort of appearance.

There were lots of treats, mostly not pictured because I'm kinda queasy about food right now.

Considering myself on hiatus from hobby stuff has served me well the past few weeks, and I am going to be scarce through the end of February, at least. But I have been thinking a lot about videos lately. While not Blythe-related, someone asked me if I'd make a video about other things I collect, and I think that would be fun.