Saturday, April 9

Tuesday Tea No.1~Tuesday Tea, Kids in Seattle, Best Cookie Ever, Civil War Ball Gown, and God's Country



Tea and Dickens...the Perfect Combination!

Welcome to my first weekly 'tea chat'!  I'm so glad you dropped by today and hope you enjoy your visit through an entire week of adventures at our house. I'm having some English Breakfast tea in my very favorite coffee cup. It's the first piece of real 'china' that I ever owned and probably cemented my Anglophile tendencies!



I found this at Ross (an outlet store) when my kids were just babies and it's made in England! That's where I'd most love to travel someday ...It's a trip that I hope we will make after the kids are all on their own.




I love this cup because many of my favorite authors (English ones I might add) have the spines of their books on the cup. I made my tea or coffee in this delicate coffee mug, regularly, to have for my afternoon quiet time while enjoying another chapter or two of one of my favorite Dickens novels. He wrote so many! And they are all nice and long. :o) Have I ever told you that one of Dickens' favorite topics is the 'virtues of a wonderful homemaker'?

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I must say, Miss Amy  of a Tea Girl in a Coffee World was determined to out do herself..but I just about died when I saw her birthday tea party for her little girl. It was just darling!! And Rayanne from A Lovely Thought's blue photos..were amazing..plus she shared a yummy looking recipe for Sugar Cakes. I've got to print that out and try those! Everyone's tea posts were just amazing..as usual! Thanks so much for joining! Be sure to visit ladies..It's like a free 'beautiful homes tour'. :o)

Let's have Tea!

If you would like to join my tea party, just link up your post right here. I'd love to come visit and see your tea post too!




 
The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie 



My best friend, Laurie, is the cookie queen, and just last week, she shared her ‘The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie’ recipe. Rebekah, my daughter, made them last night and they are NOT exaggerating! I’ve never tasted such a good cookie! I was really skeptical that there even was such a thing. But they proved me wrong. This photo is not of the recipe I’m going to share. They are just cookies Rebekah made recently.

The cookies she made from this recipe are not pictured but they were crunchy and chewy at the same time and were melt in your mouth heaven. If there is such a thing as the perfect texture of a cookie, than this was it.

Read the story of how Laurie found the perfect cookie recipe...and get the recipe..right here...
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 Update on the Kids and Grandkids in Seattle
Kids in SeattleEbeth and Lena

Several of you have asked how my son, Andrew, and wife, Elisabeth, and grandkids, Lena and Augy are doing since they moved. Well, they are doing great! They found a lovely condo not far from the coast near Andrew’s job in Seattle.    They have been visiting parks almost every night according to Elisabeth. She said, “The air just smells so fresh!”     It’s still rainy and chilly up there, but it’s so beautiful too! That’s why dear hubby, who grew up there, has had such a hard time acclimating to Texas. It’s a real ‘step down’ for him. LoL! He wants us to retire there someday, and now I’m sure we will!
             
View Grandkids in their new home


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Texas ~ God’s Country…

Ok, so it’s not the only country that God made..but you have to admit..It’s GORGEOUS! Rebekah and I couldn't resist taking photos as our trees began to leaf out. What a scene!


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Rebekah’s Civil War Ball Gown and a Peek at Dicken’s on the Strand
Rebekah in ball dress back

It’s been a busy week here while we prepare for an upcoming graduation party. While cleaning the closets, what do you think we found, but the photo shoot of my daughter Rebekah, at age 14, in the Civil War Ball Gown that I sewed for her. It took me six months, had 17 yards of white satin, many yards of black lace, eight corsages (that we made ourselves) and tons of hand stitching!  This was such a huge sewing task. I think I counted 79 pieces in the dress. 

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The pattern I used was Simplicity 5724 and it’s a  Civil War / Victorian era Ball Gown/Dress Pattern for her to wear to Dicken’s on the Strand in Galveston. We pulled out the dress..washed it..pressed it, and Rebekah tried it on. Can you believe she actually fit in it?
View The FAmily in Dickens Costumes View Full Album

Here are photos of hand sewn eyelet holes, boning, hand sewn homemade bias tape, oversleeves, and french puff sleeves.



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For The All You 'tecky' Bloggers out there...a Bonus!

How to Make Multiple Summaries or Jump Breaks in the Same Post..

If you are at all impressed by the amazing format..just know that it was all due to the genius of Leoparddrengen who answered my 'blog' question though I didn't ask it, "How do you do multiple page breaks in the same post?" I knew I wanted to do that, but had no idea how to begin.  Well, this guy wrote up  a quick html template  to answer someone's question (identical) to mine. My programmer hubby analyzed it and taught me a 'quick' lesson in html programming and how it works.  And we designed our own post template based off of his. You can access it here if you can make use of it. 

But don't ask me to walk you through it. Honestly, it would take a  very very long post to explain how carefully you have to cut and paste your html to fit in the text spots without messing up the format.  But a 'tecky' gal could do it if she was really determined--like me Ha!--, so I'm making it available for the fearless bloggers out there. :o) 

I tried and tried..and failed several times  today (equaling about an hour and a half each) before I finally got this right. That's why I'm finally publishing at 1:00am! (Do you know how many cups of tea that equals?!) Yipes! This baby was written hours ago..parts of it LAST WEEK. But I kept copying and pasting the wrong code into my format!  But I've finally come up with a system that works. Now my newsletter style post looks nice and streamlined..and you don't have a super long post to read. Just expand the parts that you want. :o) 


The photo albums came from Windows Live Writer which Maria of Color Me Happy suggested. I'm so glad she did! There's so much you can do with that program..and it's free!  

PS. I know that some of my albums don't work. I'm still learning how to work that feature. Sadly, my big computer crashed and the darling photos of the grandkids are all on there. So Tim will have to get the photos off the hard way. It may be a couple of days before I get my photos back.  Thank goodness my computer is backed up though. Most of my stuff is safely burned on CDs. 

What a week!  Hope you are not having so many kinks with your computer as I am. 
Ah well..such is life. :o)

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Linking with
Cindy’s Friday Show and Tell at My Romantic Home
Melissa’s My Crafty Weekend
Raising Homemakers’ Wednesday Link Up
 Deb's Fantastic Friday

And for Tea...
Lady Katherine's Tea Time Tuesday
The Plumed Pen's  Tea for Two
Rose Chintz Tea Time Tuesday
A Delightsome Life: A Return to Loveliness

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