Category Archives: Traditions

The Art of Chado ~ Japanese Tea Ceremony

This is a guest post from my daughter Katie about a class she’s taking this quarter. I’m including it in this weeks Tea Blog-a-thon, Dressed-to-A-Tea, as promised.

Chado – The “tea way”‏

This quarter I have been fortunate enough to get to take a class on the art of Chado, the Japanese tea ceremony. We meet once a week for lecture, and then once a week we go to the Japanese Garden at the Seattle Arboretum and practice in the tea room. This last week we got to bring home our “fukusa basami”, (pictured) little clutches containing our “fukusa” (ceremonial cloths), some papers for putting sweets on, and our fans. (pictured)

I also decided to buy a yukata and obi to wear for the class, though this is not a requirement. A yukata is an inexpensive, light, informal version of the kimono. Real kimono are pricey and require alot of care. An obi is the broad sash worn with kimono or yukata. My yukata has not yet arrived, but I received my obi early last week. My friend Mika tried several times to tie it for me, but complained that since I was smaller than her she couldn’t get the proportions right. When my instructor arrived she had me come in to the tea house and quickly and expertly tied my obi. I drove home wearing it so that my brother could take a picture. (pictured)

 

So far we have learned several bows, how to walk in the tea room, how to fold and unfold our fukusa properly, how to whisk tea, and how to take and serve sweets and tea. It’s alot of information to take in, but I’m loving it.

Thanks Katie! When you get your yukata I want another photo!

For more Tea Posts click over to Gracious Hospitality.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Dressed-To-A-Tea!

Generally when I go to a tea I dress up just a bit from my normal everyday style (jeans and a top) I’ll put on my black pants and try to wear something more interesting on top. I am not a hat person because a hat does not compliment me at all. My daughter Katie can wear any hat out there and look cute but not me!

 

We had tea at The Gilded Rose Manor Tea House for my mother’s 85th birthday on Saturday. I took a few photos of some pretty accessories they had around the tea room to share for “Dressed-To-A-Tea! This hat rack with the hats and boa’s was in the front entry.

 

This was something for a little girl to wear.

 

And some other pretty vintage children’s dresses.

More typically our Tea apparel is “to each his own” as you can see from the tea guests above. There are more pictures from my Mother’s birthday tea here.

This is my daughter Katie dressed for a Winter Tea with her vintage hat, gloves and pearls.

I’m hoping to be able to share a tea post with my daughter dressed for her Japanese Tea Ceremony class soon. She’s taking this class from the University of Washington and travels to a Japanese Tea-house in Seattle at the Arboretum each week for her instruction.

Visit LaTeaDah at Gracious Hospitality for more Dressed-To-A-Tea Posts.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Tea in the Afternoon

 

Kelly (SIL married to my brother Steve), Melissa my niece (Sister Kathy’s 2nd daughter) Jessica (soon to be my niece by marriage to my nephew Timothy, Kelly will be her MIL), Kathy my oldest sister, My Mother Nadia, My sister Vera, Debbee my niece (Sister Vera’s daughter), Michelle my niece (Sister Kathy’s first born daughter), and myself. (Wish my daughter Katie and DIL Laura, my sister Lana, my SIL Letty, my SIL Mandy, and my niece Kristin (Vera’s DIL) could have been with us, too!!)

In honor of my mother’s 85th birthday I spent a couple hours today with these lovely ladies having an afternoon tea. (More tea posts to follow) My mother the guest of honor shared with us some verses she wanted to gift us with. She read them in Russian from her Russian Bible. (This Psalm is 132 in the Russian Bible)

 

Psalm 133 ~ “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is lke precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

What a blessing it is to live with these ladies in unity. It is good and pleasant everytime we get together. Thanks mom for sharing this Psalm with us at your tea.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Happy Birthday Mom ~ Nadejda!

 

Today is my mom’s birthday. On her official papers (she doesn’t have a birth certificate) she’s 85 today. She was born a year earlier than her papers say so she is really 84 today. Little things like birth dates got mixed up when filling out paper work during immigration.

God has blessed us richly with a mom who loves her God, husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-thon ~ Stitches

 April 6th – 12th ~ Share ideas and pictures that involve stitching for the tea table. Any kind of stitches count: sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, tatting, quilting, etc. The work can be yours or of someone else, but should be homemade rather than done by factory machines. Ideas are
napkins, tea cozies, table linens, and other creations made with tea themes.

 

I have always called these dish towels tea towels so I’m including them in my stitch post. The Tea Cozy in the center was a gift that a friend in England knit for me after I was so excited seeing my very first tea cozy at her house in 1973. The doilie to the right of the tea cozy is great for setting a teapot on. I have a lot of tablecloths and napkins that I use for pretty tea tables that do not have a tea theme in particular. Most of these items are in my home in Washington and I don’t have access to them for this post. I’m looking forward to my visits to your sites to see what stichery you have…

I forgot about these fancy teaspoons we inherited from my MIL and decided to add them to this post

 

For more Hospital-i-Tea blogathon posts on stichery click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

One Misty Moisty Morning ~ Ладушки, Ладушки

On mornings like today this old Mother Goose nursery rhyme pops into my head and I say it again and say it again and say it again and again…

One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man,
Clothed all in leather.
He began to compliment
And I began to grin.
How do you do? And how do you do?
And how do you do again?

When I was a school teacher we had a training session on how important nursery rhymes were to a child’s language development and future reading skills. So take that baby on your knee and have fun with all the nursery rhymes out there. Sing them instead of just saying them. I remember bouncing my kids on my knee with this one, too.

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes

There’s also a rhyme we would repeat in Russian that goes something like this…

Ладушки, ладушки
Pat-a-cake
Clapping Song
(Russian)
Ладушки, ладушки
Где были?
У бабушки!
Что ели?
Кашку!
Что пили?
Бражку!
Кашка масленька
Бражка сладенька
Бабушка добренька!
~
The loose translation into English
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,
Where were you?
At granny’s!
What did you eat?
Porridge*!
What did you drink?
A little home-brewed beer**
The porridge is buttered,
The home-brewed beer is sweet,
Granny is kind!
~
The version we sang was a bit different at the end. I’ll need to talk to my mom today and update how we ended this rhyme.
~
*In Russia porridge is very famous, it can be made from wheat (millet), oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, fine-ground barley, etc.**This probably means kvas, a Russian home-brewed non-alcoholic drink, or it means that Granny gave the children some beer to try, she indulged her grandchildren. (and actually if it sits long enough Kvas turns into an alcohol drink)
~
I updated this post with photos from our trip to Banbury, England in July of 2014.
ht: Mama Lisa’s World for the Russian Rhyme.

Gracious Hospital-i-Tea Blog-a-Thon ~ Decor-a-Tea #3

For my next Decor-a-Tea post I’m sharing my random sugar and creamers that I have displayed here and there in my house.

 

Every time I see a complete sugar and creamer set at Goodwill or any thrift store I’m tempted to buy them.

I keep some of my tea and other entertaining goodies in this old cabinet from Dear’s parents.

An old pink depression glass sugar and creamer.

More Royal Albert Moss Rose accessories and a Homer Laughlin plate.

For more Decor-a-Tea posts head over to LaTeaDah’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Decor-a-Tea ~ More Pink…

This is a follow-up to my Pink Tea collage with some larger photos. I’ve posted these before in 2007 but wanted to re-post them for the Decor-a-Tea theme.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

My next Decor-a -Tea post will be Blue!

Oops! Sorry ladies I just read LaTeaDah’s weekly themes a little more carefully and see that my tea tables could have waited till May. I’ll share my Vintage Blue tea table then and my Tea for One in that week, too. Now to follow the directions and stop jumping the gun! 🙂

For more tea posts visit our Gracious Hostess LaTeDah.

Tea Blog-a-thon ~ Decor-a-Tea

This weeks theme is decorating with tea items, or tea collections etc. I’m getting ready for my posts and wanted to remind you that’s it’s not to late to join in. Head over to Gracious Hospitality for the themes each week. Then you can click on the link below my collage to see other posts for this weeks theme. Here’s my first contribution to Decor-a-Tea.

 

The tea set and dishes are Royal Albert Moss Rose. The napkins and napkin rings are Target clearance. The glasses and clear glass plates on top of the Moss Rose plates are from Goodwill. The tablecloth is a quilt I bought at T.J.Max. The runner is a piece of dotted swiss fabric with lace that I found at Goodwill, too. The salt and pepper shakers are a gift from a friend who purchased them in Victoria, B.C. I love to find things here and there to add to my different ideas for place settings. When I find bargains it’s easier to justify adding them to my collections. I’ve gotten a lot braver in throwing odd things together and most of the time it works out well. Enjoy…

I’m headed to the airport now to return to Southern California. I will add some more Decor-a-Tea posts from there. Have a wonderful week everyone.

To see more Decorating Tea posts click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.

Litera Tea ~ Anne of Green Gables

I just recently read Anne of Green Gables for the first time. I had seen and enjoyed the movies. This is a great quote from the book during a conversation with Anne and Marilla as Anne anticipates going to tea at the manse (a clergyman’s residence).

“But all things have an end, even nights before the day on which you are invited to take tea at the manse. The morning, in spite of Matthew’s predictions, was fine and Anne’s spirits soared to their highest.

“Oh, Marilla, there is something in me today that makes me just love everybody I see, ” she exclaimed as she washed the breakfast dishes. “You don’t know how good I feel! Wouldn’t it be nice if it could last? I believe I could be a model child if I were just invited out to tea everyday. But oh, Marilla, it’s a solemn occasion, too. I feel so anxious. What if I shouldn’t behave properly? You know I never had tea at a manse before, and I’m not sure that I know all the rules of etiquette, although I’ve been studying the rules given in the Etiquette Department of the Family Herald ever since I came here. I’m so afraid I’ll do something silly or forget to do something I should do. Would it be good manners to take a second helping of anything if you wanted to very much?”

“The trouble with you, Anne, is that you’re thinking too much about yourself. You should just think of Mrs. Allan and what would be nicest and most agreeable for her.” said Marilla, hitting for once in her life on a very sound and pithy piece of advice. Anne instantly realized this.

“You are right, Marilla. I’ll try not to think about myself at all.”

Enjoy a little tea in my library in celebration of Litera-tea!
My first Litera post about Russian Tea is here.

For more Litera-Tea click over to Gracious Hospitality.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.