New ParTea Blog Header

What do you think of the header makeover?

Figured it was time to make some changes 'round here.

They are images from the photo shoot for the TeaTime Magazine article. I can't believe it was almost a year ago when we did the staging for it!

Did I ever mention some of the behind-the-scene drama that took place while preparing for the photo shoot? I'll try to remember some of it:

*I knew for a while that TeaTime wanted me to do a feature. So I waited. But when they were ready to rock 'n roll with it, I had five days notice to put it all together. I was informed a couple of days after Thanksgiving.

*While I was collecting all the items I wanted to use for the shoot, I had to move mountains of totes of china I have. I finally found the teacups in my favorite pattern, Homer Lauglin's Marilyn floral pattern. I don't have that many and they are hard to come by on eBay. So when I found them, because I was at an awkward position (you know - mountain of totes), one of the saucers slipped from my hand, bounced off the chair and broke on the floor. Mind you, I was also PMS'ing at this time. When I saw the saucer fall in slow motion and then break, I got off the chair and screamed at the top of my lungs. For like two minutes. Then started bawling. Hubby thought I was losin' it.


*I was going to go with my signature pink & green color theme design, since this was going to be in their Spring issue. But the DAY BEFORE the photo shoot, I received Mari's gorgeous custom hand-painted banner. She had stayed up until the wee hours to get it finished for me in time. When I saw how she painted the darling songbird in an aqua blue hue, I knew I had to add the aqua accent color to the table decor. My linen rental company would not have time to deliver any runners or overlays in time, so I needed to make my own. So the night before - when I should be loading up everything into the van - I'm heading over to JoAnn's to get aqua fabric and ribbon. I was also bending the forks late at night, and putting the glitter on the place card flowers at around 2:00am.

*I had brewed hot tea and had put in a vacuum pump carafe. It fell out of the van when my assistant opened the door and shattered the internal glass. So we had to ask the cafe near the photo shoot venue to make us some tea. It was so brewed too long and was so dark it looked like coffee.

*My caterer that I use for most of my tea parties and events is a great guy. But a little on the busy side, so he misses a lot of details. I ordered petits fours in pink. My other assistant picked up all the food since it was on her way. So she didn't know what I had ordered. When I opened up the bakery box of the petits fours they were decorated in red & green CHRISTMAS motifs! Augh! I was livid and said a select few cuss words (forgive me Lord)......remember I am still PMS'ing.....

*The handle on my silver bride's basket broke, so I tried to use clear duct tape to hold it down.

*I did not have any jewelry, forgot to pack anything with all the hoop-a-lah going on. So one of my friends, Kathy (in the tea party scene) had some pearls in her purse and put them on me. She IS a true Southern lady, being from Georgia and all.

*We were losing the sun and FAST. So we had to run around - click, click, click - get the photos done before the sun went down. And what was also strange was that we were doing everything all spring looking, but there was Christmas music playing from the The Cliff Restaurant above us! Just seemed odd...

But all in all, it was a great experience! It wouldn't be memorable if there wasn't any drama, eh?