Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry for my lack of posts lately.  Since DoTD, I have been busily preparing for a Tea and Scone Tasting this weekend.  Work, work, work......

But I did want to share some of the more disturbing vintage Valentine's Day cards that I have run across.  Enjoy!

Creepy Christmas with The Shadow Farm

As I am sure I have mentioned before, one of my favorite artists is Dave the Dead at The Shadow Farm.  Well, I had to involve all my remarkably eerie figures (more like friends) with all my 'Burton'-esqe Christmas decor.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures  of Monte, Dr. Mortenson and Andreas.  Oh, and my Plague Doctor, I cannot forget him!.

Monte in his holiday hat.

Dr. Mortenson

Andreas in his holiday scarf.

A troubled trio.  I just love them!

The Plague Doctor.

Everyone just hanging around the tea room looking festive!

Christmas Tea

I did have the privilege of being part of a Mort Christmas Tea over the Holiday Season.  

Some of the goodies.

Sneaking some tea in the kitchen.

Christmas Tea

Silly Morts!

Days of the Dead

Just a quick reminder that I will be playing personal assistant to Mr. Fleam this weekend at theAtlanta Days of the Dead Horror Convention.  He is keeping me pretty busy Friday evening but I hope to be out and about Saturday and Sunday.  I will be sure to share all my fun (work, whatever you wish to call it) after we return!

Pretty Presents

One thing that I pride myself on is my gift wrapping.  I love to wrap pretty gifts.  It is all about finding the right paper and the right ribbon.  Luckily, most morts do not have the same taste in wrapping paper as I do which makes after holiday shopping a breeze and I usually find some wonderful bargains.

Below are some examples.  It does take a fair amount of time but I believe it is completely worth it!

(Notice that I always use Krampus gift tags!)

You can never go wrong with a black and white striped ribbon!

Black, Silver and Red.  A perfect color combination.

 

Teal and Brown are a favorite of mine - Blog colors!

 Black 'wallpaper' and dark Green ribbon are also a perfect pair!

 

A nice green with a black pin stripe and a black tulle ribbon.

Holiday Catch Up

Oh, I promised myself I would get caught up with all my holiday posts by mid-January, and then by the 3rd week of January.  My new goal - 1st week of February.  There is just so much happening at once.

Besides the everyday chores of the tea room, I am:
Making a new Edwardian apron
Making some new tea cozies
Prepping Mr. Fleam for his appearance at Days of the Dead Atlanta
Planning a Tea & Scone tasting in mid-February

So many things keeping me away from my blog but I promised myself to set aside some every other day and do some catch up.

I'll start with my little Bat Rabbit's Tea Room Christmas Tree.  It wasn't much and part of the decorations were hand made but I was rather proud of it.

I was feeling rather crafty that day and decided to add some new skull and bat decor....

I used some of my favorite black and white paper to punch out some bats. 

Then I simply attached them to black pipe cleaners.

They made a wonderfully different tree topper!

I also used one of my skull punches (one can never have too many skull punches) to make a tree garland.

 I added some adhesive squares to the back and added a strip of fancy black ribbon.

And viola, tree garland!

I am hoping for a larger tree next year but space is a commodity in the tea room so I am not holding my breath.

Bat Rabbit's Menu Keepers

There are always a few staples on the menu.  Those things that you think patrons would get tired of but instead they just keep ordering them.  They are called keepers.

Here are two of Bat Rabbit's Keepers.

A favorite at Bat Rabbit’s is the Mini Lemon Tarts.  Since they are not made with the traditional lemon curd, they are a much lighter treat.

Mini Lemon Tart Recipe

I admit it.  I hate making any type of crust.  Luckily, in the super markets these days, you can usually find frozen tart shells of all sizes.  I’ll use them every chance given to me.   

Lemon Filling:
15 oz.  sweetened condensed milk
1   tube frozen lemonade
12 oz.  whipped cream

Place all filling ingredients into a bowl and with a wooden spoon stir, and stir, and stir, and stir.  Once most of the lumps have disappeared, stir a little more.  Place your prepared mini-tart shells on a cookie sheet.  Cram as many on there as you can.  Fill each shell with the lemon filling.  Place the cookie sheet with the lemon tarts in the refrigerator for the filling can thicken up.

Traditional English Trifle

One of the easiest and most versatile Tea treats is the traditional English trifle.

Begin with a large footed bowl.  Then alternate layers of sponge or pound cake, egg custard or pudding, sliced strawberries and whipped cream covered with slivered almonds. Repeat each layer until the bowl is filled.

Custard and pudding flavors may be changed to taste as well as seasonal berries.