tea for three

plus one.  what?  "tea for four" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

oh, how i love going to tea.  and i am amused at how many blog posts i have that revolve around visits to all sorts of different tearooms around here.  i don't think there's a tearoom in the l.a. area that we haven't tried yet, and if there is - well, we'll get to it.

but one of our favorites is chado in pasadena.  we met my mom here for a lovely visit a few weeks ago, and it was just as good as it always is.  pretty reliable for service and grub.

even the bean approves.  of course, this is right after she got to make a hefty dent in that plate of sweets at the bottom there.

and then we met up with our beloved cousin seven to celebrate her birthday.  since she works out in the burbank area, we decided to try a new place in montrose - the t room.

because it was the middle of the afternoon, the place was empty when we arrived.  the bean was enchanted with the decor.

and she was pretty excited to hear that there was a section in the menu just for her.

MIL introduced her to "peanut butter & chocolate" sandwiches ages ago, and it's one of her favorite treats.  because she is her mother's daughter, she refuses all things fruit - even PB&Js.  sad, i know.  even i love a good jelly-filled sandwich.  so she was super stoked when this arrived.

she's also a pretty big fan of hot tea.  well, hers isn't really "hot" - she always requests an ice cube or two to cool it down enough for her to drink.  and she was really delighted to drink it out of this delicate teacup...with some assistance.

the teen, cousin seven, and i shared this three-tiered tower of tasty treats.

i'm sure she's going to love me for that shot.

lovely shower for a lovely bride

i'm taking a quick break from the nyc recaps, so that i can talk about the bridal shower i went to on saturday.

my cousin mel is three years younger than me, and is the daughter of my uncle jimmy, who was my inspiration for starting this blog to begin with (yeah, you have him to thank, heh). she's one of the sweetest girls i know, and in fact, she was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding to the kid's dad. i'm sad that we rarely get to see each other anymore, but it's great fun every time we do get together.

she's been through her share of shitty boyfriends, and i'm sure she'd gotten pretty damn tired of people constantly asking her if she'd found mr. right yet. and then last fall, she could finally say "yes"! she tells me that she swears her dad sent him - she finds so many similarities between the two of them. and it was quite a whirlwind courtship, as they were engaged a mere four months after they first met! as she puts it, "when it's right, you just know."

her bridal shower was at chado tea room in pasadena, which is one of my favorite places. i sure do love me some afternoon tea!

they handed out cute little measuring spoon favors, with a tag that outlined a "recipe for marriage" and tied with a pink and brown polka-dotted ribbon. so cute!

after perusing the novel-sized tea menu, we placed our orders for pots of tea (i went with butterscotch - my ADD kicked in and i totally lost interest due to the sheer quantity of teas to choose from) and were served glasses of iced tea. the server said it was a hawaiian blend, but it just tasted like weak tea to me. not to mention, it seemed pretty redundant considering we were each getting an entire pot of tea to suck down. oh, well, it was pretty.


and i must admit, i was quite disappointed in chado for using these ugly ass cups and saucers. what the hell kind of tea room uses cafeteria-style coffee mugs to serve afternoon tea, for the love of poo? sheesh.

not long after our teapots were set down, the trays of food arrived. there were tea sandwiches (although there were no cucumber sandwiches, and again i was bummed), scones with cream and preserves, and a lovely dessert tray. it cracks me up when folks go through the tea sandwiches, take a bite of scone, and then sit back and proclaim themselves as "soooo full! that's just so much food!" because usually, i'm still chowing down, thinking "seriously? i'm still hungry. you gonna eat that?"
(sorry, auntie cora, for the shot of your bodacious ta-tas as i documented the delicious scones and cream)


as the food disappeared (whether it was eaten or packed into take-home boxes - of course, i had no leftovers to take), we played a couple of games. i, of course, managed to win the purse scavenger hunt game - which was hilarious to me because i'd switched purses and thought i only had the bare necessities in there. ha!

mom won a prize during this game, too, and now you see where i get my constant need to pose in a really silly way for pictures.

and one of my aunts won a prize, too, and demanded to have her picture taken. haha! i have no idea what her prize was, but she was pretty proud of it.

poor mel was subjected to opening box after box of sexy ling-er-ee, which the older relatives just found screamingly hilarious. i think she died a little every time she pushed tissue aside to find more see-through shit with matching thongs.

the card i made to go with the "here comes the bride" philosophy set i gave her:

and here she is with her ribbon bouquet, which she'll use at the rehearsal. yeah, we're just corny like that.

and then when it was all over, i took advantage of my bean-less afternoon and went up the street to dashing diva for a pedicure. whee!

the wedding's on may 10th, and i can't wait. i'm so looking forward to seeing mel join the old married hags club at last, and with her family's history of fabulous, lavish bashes, it's sure to be a good one. and you KNOW i'll take tons of pictures to share. you know this.