Thankful Thursday

I missed this last week, and it's nearly the end of Thanksgiving, so I figure I better get my post up now. Here's what I'm thankful for today:

1. Family. Sometimes you crazies stress me out, but I'm lucky to have you. Thanks for being mine! This means you, too, taller half.

2. A good job. Work, too, can be a stressor, but I am so thankful to be compensated decently for doing something I enjoy.

3. Hobbies. They make the non-family and non-work part of my life even more wonderful.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I will post my advent calendar project soon.

Thankful Thursday

I have so many things to be thankful for right now, so the following three are only a sampling:

1. Supportive friends. One of my nearest and dearest recently had her heart broken. I admit that I'm not always the best friend. I'm the one of my group least likely to show up to a gathering or to call everyone else. However, we all dropped what we were doing to rally around my incredibly amazing gal pal. I hope she knows we're always there, and I know she would be for me, too.

As another example of good friends, the members of my book club brought all vegetarian treats to our meeting this week. In fact, the charming hostess made vegan chili with me in mind. I was overwhelmed. This is not a group of ladies I know very well yet, and that they were willing to plan around my dietary needs was so thoughtful. You can read more gushing about this here.

2. Successful cooking experiments. I threw caution to the wind and made a baked rice dish with Brussels sprouts and beets, two things I'm still learning to like. The end result was love -- beet love:

The recipe is posted on my food blog here.

3. A wonderful not-really-my-family-yet. I got a friendly, out-of-the-blue letter from my taller half's sister yesterday. She just wanted to be friendly and send me some tea she had recently tried. Her thoughtfulness overwhelmed me. I'm lucky to be surrounded by non-relatives who treat me like family. I hope they know I love them, too.

Weekly Literary Meme

My friend and former editor Emily of Red Fork State of Mind has started a weekly literature meme for us crazy bloggers. I couldn’t resist participating. I'm a little late because I gave this a lot of thought. Here is the inaugural topic:

All things being single, if you could date any five literary characters, who would they be, and why?

Go here to check out her answers. Mine are below, in ascending order:

5. Algernon Moncrieff, The Importance of Being Earnest: I just like him. I find him whimsical and silly and foppish. I would like to take ether frolics with him in the bucolic English countryside before tea and croquet time.

4. George Emerson, A Room with a View: Socially awkward, yes, but he’s a good guy, and he loves Lucy the way she is. He doesn’t bully or bore her, and he’s open and honest about his thoughts and feelings. I like that in a man.

3. Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby: In some ways, Nick’s kind of lame. He talks little of himself and was strangely fascinated by Gatsby. However, I like to think of him as somewhat humble rather than wimpy, and his affair with Jordan Baker clearly indicates he likes his women a little unruly. Plus, his handling of their relationship – hints rather than details – shows how respectful he is. My appreciation for his character may also derive from my wildly inappropriate childhood crush on Sam Waterston, who played him in the Mia Farrow/Robert Redford film.

2. Robbie Turner, Atonement: I just read the book this year, but I fell in love with this character. He is so honest and real, and I appreciate his ambitious nature and comfort in his own skin. He is also fearless, strong, and a friend to his crazy mother and the silly Tallis family. Even when things go really, really wrong, he handles himself with dignity and composure. And love, of course. The romantic in me is a sucker for enduring passion.

1. Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, Little Women: Laurie’s my ultimate dream literary character. He is smart, sensitive, loyal, artistic, and loving. He likes his women independent and strong, which was not exactly typical of the 19th century. He has a heart of gold, and he came out of his moody, pouty period full of strength and humility. Plus, his dark hair and eyes sound super sexy.

As much as I love Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, I would rather be celibate than date either of the male leads. I just wanted to throw that out there before someone mentioned that I forgot Mr. Darcy. Colin Firth is a hottie, but the character is so not my type.

I plan to post my responses to her second topic this week. I hope you'll play along!

Indie Emporium 2010 recap

I've been remiss in posting a recap of Indie Emporium so far. My apologies! I've been busy, plus I was waiting for fashion show pictures to share. I have some, so excuses are gone.

Here's a photo of my booth on Day 1:

I tried out some new display stuff this time. Instead of my boring cream tablecloth, I threw down a thrifted sheet that I think was fun. On the far right is a small set of shutters that helped me display my new Murano glass pieces. The white busts in front did the same thing. Next to it is my favorite chest with rings displayed plus a new smaller chest I used for my earrings. The trays and busts are old, and you've probably seen the standing display before, but never with my scarves. I'm so happy with how they turned out! I sold two of the six I brought (only five are featured here because one wasn't quite ready for primetime until the following day).

Also, I'm a nutter, so I dressed up as Super Brigid: Crafty Crimefighter that night:

These are my angry eyes:

It's really the silver mesh cape that keeps evil-doers at bay:

The boots were thrifted for a few bucks, the pants are actually workout pants I won from Self Magazine, the top is my ballet leotard, and the cape is a scrap I have from when I was selling scrub gift sets. Fun!

The next day, I rearranged slightly to show off the scarves better:

I also dressed up again, this time as a red-hot member of the Red Hat Society:

That's commitment. Here I am behind my booth that day:

Then the evening rolled around, and the fashion show hit the runway. I modeled for three designers. Up first was OK Tees. I can't share this photo because it's protected, but check out me strutting my stuff here.

Next, I modeled an apron from Tuggin Apron Strings. Click here to see me (second from left) with all four of the lovely pieces. I am dying for the lemon one on the designer (in the middle)!

And finally I got all sultry in a gorgeous piece from UPC Fashion. You may recall me in a long white dress from her last year. This year I mixed it up with a short white dress:

Ham:

And one more from the back:

All in all, Indie was a fun show again. I have lots of goodies leftover, though, so expect an Etsy update as soon as I get my marbles together.

Beating the winter blues

I’ve made my winter blues no secret on this blog. (In fact, I have an entire tag for the subject -- yikes!) Last year, I had a particularly bad case of them, and all of you came to the rescue with encouragement and suggestions for how to turn my frown upside-down.

This year, I’ve decided to stop them in their tracks.

I am decidedly a warm-weather girl, but instead of whining about the cold and – eventually – the snow and ice, I’m going to embrace it in 2010. Cold means sweaters, and I like my sweaters. It also means cuddle time, soup, roasted vegetables, and knitting. I like those things, right?

Right.

Anyway, I am now kicking off three big projects to get me through the beginning of November. I’m hopeful that they will keep the blues away.

1. Learn to bake yeast breads. I will make my first one this Friday.
2. Weed through boxes in the apartment. This will probably carry me well into December, too, and possibly the New Year. I have so much unnecessary stuff left over from childhood, college, and my pre-cohabitating days. It’s time to give or throw a lot of it away.
3. Make an advent calendar. I was raised in an irreligious household, so I’ve never had one before. I’m currently looking at patterns and ideas, and I hope to start the project next week.

What is your favorite way to welcome the cold weather?

A peak at batik

I am excited to debut a few of my batik scarves at Indie Emporium this year. I don’t want to ruin the surprise completely, so instead of glamour shots of the finished product, here are a few behind-the-scenes looks at the process.

I like to think of batik as Easter egg-dying for grown-ups:

There are different application techniques, but they all involve natural fabrics, dye (which I mix myself), and wax. Sometimes you apply the wax and then soak the item in the dye; sometimes you paint the dye on post-waxing. The cups are small, but they can hold more than one scarf.

One important thing to remember is always wear gloves. Yes, the dye can burn your skin, but most importantly, it can make you look like a giant 5-year-old:
I spared you the shot of green on my leg.

Once the dyes have been applied, you have to let them dry. (Whoa, rhyming.) I opted for the laundry room:That’s wax you see flaking off on the towel. The details are obscured, but you can see a little of what the process does. I’ll have completed scarves available for purchase and perusal at Indie Emporium this weekend! I’ll also add a few to the Etsy shop sometime soon, after the show.

Indie Emporium promotion

Hey friends!

Check out who is promoting Indie Emporium today...Funky Finds! Funky Finds is such a cool site, and I get really happy when I see something with which I'm involved promoted. Check it out.

Also, I will be on Good Day Tulsa this Friday around 9 a.m., I believe, promoting the show. You know you won't want to miss that. Good Day Tulsa is on KTUL, Channel 8.

Let's talk glass

I’m struggling to decide how to talk about my recent trip to Italy. How much detail do you lovely readers want? A brief recap? A detailed description of each city? Please leave me comments so I know how to proceed!

In the meantime, I have some pretties to show you. One of my necessary destinations was the island of Murano for some one-of-a-kind beads. For those of you who don’t know, Murano is one of the most famous producers of beautiful, artisanal glass in the world. You can read a little about the history and such here.

I returned from my trip with some gorgeous Murano glass just begging to become beautiful earrings and necklaces. Just so you know, I made sure every piece I bought was authentic. I’ll have a nice little variety, all available at Indie Emporium, but here’s a sneak peak. The pictures aren't all that great, but I was in a hurry to show you the goods!

Memory-wire necklace with a Murano glass pendant.

Another necklace with Murano glass pendant.

This necklace is amazing in person! The center bead is huge and – yes – is authentic Murano glass. The little aventurine beads are elegant, and everything hangs delicately on sterling silver. I love it!

Two pairs of earrings.

Liz, the winner of my last giveaway, is the first owner of some of my Murano earrings (plus a coffee scrub).

I still have a few more pieces in the works, so make sure to come by Indie Emporium on Friday and Saturday to make something yours!

And here’s a little proof that I did, indeed, visit Murano:

Happy Monday, all!

Vegetarians: Don't Fly American!

This is cross-posted from my Vegging out in T-Town blog, but it's something I wanted to share both places.

I am now going to do my first vacation update. No, really. Part of me doesn't want to start on a sour note, but part of me would like to get this post out of the way. So, I apologize in advance for the crankiness of this post.

Let's talk airplane food. I have no delusions of walking on a plane and receiving the best meal of my life. I know that airplane food will be slightly above edible. As a result, I always bring snacks. I did, however, expect the airline to fulfill my special meal request, especially since their website says:

Special meals are available on Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack and Breakfast Snack flights when ordered in advance.

Order at least 24 hours prior to the flight:

• In First and Business Classes on transcontinental flights in the U.S.


• In all classes to or from Europe and Asia


• In all classes to or from Belo Horizonte, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or Sao Paulo, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile or Montevideo, Uruguay.

And even after all the hoops I jumped through, yeah, not so much.

American doesn't allow you to complain by phone -- seriously. It's either fax, email, or snail mail. The email I sent to them to complain about the fiasco explains exactly what happened:

On October 1, my traveling companion and I flew on AA flight 36 from Dallas to Madrid. We requested vegetarian meals. I called two days in advance, as recommended, to confirm, and the automatic voice said that they were ordered. When we arrived at the airport in Dallas, we verified again with the employee at the gate, and he told us that our meals were ordered. I then also told the flight attendant upon boarding that we had vegetarian meals. When meal service began, we were informed that, though the meals had been ordered, they were not on board the plane. Two very helpful and friendly flight attendants helped to piece together something, but I was very disappointed by the situation. I went through a lot of trouble to ensure our requests were met to no avail.

On October 13, we took flight 235 from Rome to New York. To avoid the meal problem, we spoke with the woman at the gate who informed us that no request had ever been made. She later said the request was in the system but that it was made "improperly." They were unwilling to do anything. Then a supervisor arrived who told me, after being informed that I needed the meal for health reasons, that she would not let me fly. She changed her mind and then called catering to try to do something. Then she said the problem was solved. On board, the flight attendant said nothing had arrived, and again they cobbled a make-shift meal together.

I am very disappointed by this experience. How will AA try to rectify this situation?

So even after ordering my meal four months in advance, calling ahead, and speaking to two people in person, I was still stranded on board a 9+ hour flight with no meal. I mentioned that the outbound flight attendants were awesome and scrambled to give me something to eat. Here's the dinner we ended up with:



Two iceberg salads, surprisingly tasty dressing, a roll, "butter," crackers with Gruyere, a cheese-sundried tomato salad from the first-class meal, and a chocolate caramel brownie. I had decided in advance not to worry about eating vegan on this vacation. To make it easy on the airline (ha!), I chose the lacto-ovo meal. It's a good thing, too, because this was pretty artery-clogging. BUT it was food that I could eat, and I appreciated the flight attendants' hard work. For breakfast, we had:



Croissant, strawberry-banana yogurt (gelatin-free), more "butter" (which I never touch -- don't worry), and orange juice. This was acceptable. I can't complain about it at all.

The flight back is a different story, as you can see above in my letter. In fact, I was so livid after fighting -- in Italian, mind you -- with the airport folks that I didn't photograph anything. We ended up with mushroom lasagna, salad, dressing that contained anchovies (didn't eat it), bread, and some kind of cookie. The small meal at the end was pizza Margherita. The cheese had rennet in it, possibly animal, but I was so starving I ate it anyway. I wish I hadn't, but I could only eat so many granola bars without having a blood-sugar spike and crash.

American did respond relatively quickly. Their email has some kind of disclaimer about privacy, so I won't repost it word-for-word, but the gist is that they are oh-so-sorry to have disappointed me with meal service. Won't I please accept their apology with a $50 voucher? I decided that they deserved to know my answer:

This is in regards to your response to my previous complaint, #XXXXXXXXX.

I know that the attached flight voucher was intended to make amends for the major inconvenience caused by your company as well as the extreme rudeness by your Rome-based employees. However, a $50 voucher is nowhere near enough recompense to cause me to fly American again. My traveling experience made it clear that American Airlines has no interest in serving those with special dietary needs. It was only through the hard work of the flight attendants that I had anything to eat at all on two 9-plus-hour flights. It's a good thing that I do not also have a dairy intolerance, because the only things available were filled with cheese and milk. If your airline does not wish to accommodate vegetarians or those with religious restrictions, then you should not offer the option. As it is, I have no confidence that I would ever receive a meal that meets my dietary needs on your flight. As a result, I will take my business elsewhere and encourage my vegetarian friends to do the same.

In addition, I hope you will tell your Rome-based employees that blaming the customer for your company's mistake is not appropriate, and threatening not to let a vegetarian fly because you failed to provide the appropriate meal ordered four months in advance is terrible business practice.

No, American, I will not use your $50 flight voucher to let you screw me out of the meal I ordered again. I paid over $900 for my ticket; $50 probably doesn't even cover the meals I wasn't served.

Vegetarians: I urge you NOT to fly American Airlines, especially not on international flights. If you do, bring a lot more food than I did. I had six granola bars, an apple, and a sample packet of Justin's Nut Butter. It wasn't enough. I'll know better next time, in that I will pack entire meals, and I will NEVER fly American again.

I promise my next post will be happy and full of beautiful photos and delicious food!

Oh where, oh where can she be?

I have some splainin' to do. I've been even quieter lately than usual. But there's a good reason, I promise. What is it? Well, on October 1, I flew here:

And then we spent some time here:

And then two days here:

And then four days here:

And yes, we had a blast.

I've been back in the State since October 13 and haven't known how to update. So consider this a pre-update. I'll give you the full vacation deets soon and promise a post of substance even sooner.

Grey Eye Designs at Pamper Me!

Now through the holidays, you can find some of my items at Pamper Me, a fun boutique offering locally made bath and body products. Right now, my whimsy rings featuring Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz characters are available for $10 each.

I'll be adding to the inventory soon, though, so look for more updates. Please go out and support local crafters and a local business! While you're there, pick up some of the amazing lip gloss. I'm in love with mine. See?

Pamper Me is on Brookside at 3711 S. Peoria Ave. in Tulsa. Swing on by!

Thankful Thursday

Here's what I'm thankful for today.

1. Nice coworkers. It makes the long work days so much more palatable.

2. Chain restaurants with at least a few veggie options. Cheesecake Factory ain't exactly a culinary heaven, but I was able to get a vegan lunch there with no trouble. It may have cost $16, but at least I could eat it.

3. My new camera. I still love it! It's so tiny and takes great photos. I feel like a permanent tourist.

What are you thankful for today?

Thankful Thursday

I had an easy time thinking of things for which I'm thankful today. :)

1. Tom Petty! Oh, my dear friend, thank you for canceling your Dallas show and coming to Tulsa. I hope you make it last all night.

2. A supportive network of crafters. I think you know who you are. Knowing you is a privilege. Thanks for everything!

3. The library. Since overcoming my outlaw status, I've become a constant user. I love how they forgive and forget, and how they keep me knee-deep in great stuff to read.

Now I'm off to get ready to see my friend Tom rock it out. Love you all!

WOW! Giveaway and logo winners

Last week, I asked you to vote for my logo in this post, casually joking that I’d be open to someone making me a real logo.

Along came Matersum, one of my Twitter friends, and, apparently, an incredibly sweet and talented lady. She took my little problem and turned it into a logo. For free. From the kindness of her heart. Check out the banner-style:

And the little square logo that is exactly what I needed for Indie Emporium:
Can you believe it? Thank you, thank you so much! You are such an incredible person to do this for me. I would be more than happy to send you a gift package if you are interested. Just let me know.

Now, in the interest of the original post, the winner was photo #1.

Thank you everyone for voting! And I promised a giveaway, and darn it, I meant it! Random.org picked comment #6 as the winner and that is . . .
Yay! Liz, I will put something together and have my taller half bring it to you on Monday.

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback and especially to the thoughtful person who went out of her way to make something so wonderful for me.

Happy Tuesday, all!

Indie Emporium 2010

It's official: I will be a vendor once again at this year's Indie Emporium!

I can't wait! Indie Emporium is one of my favorite shows ever, and if you attend, it'll be one of yours, too. Make sure to "like" it on Facebook. Here's my recap of last year.

In the meantime, I need your help! I have to submit a photo to represent my business by September 30, and I still don't have a logo. Someday, I keep saying. Until then, please vote for your favorite of the bottom four photos. To sweeten the deal, I will choose one commenter and send them a small surprise package. Just leave your vote by midnight on Monday, September 20.

1. Dappled in Sunlight Earring

2. Gilded Pachyderm Necklace

3. Lucky Turtle Bracelet (I used this one last year, too.)

4. Alice Ring

What do you think? Leave your vote in the comments section by midnight on Monday. And if someone is just dying to make me a real logo, I wouldn't turn them down. ;)

Thankful Friday

I'm a big (well, little) stinky liar. I promised the return of Thankful Thursdays, and then poof, it was gone again. My intentions were good, but my memory was not, so I present a make-up Thankful Friday.

1. A sense of humor. Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes things don't go your way. I try (try being the operative word) to take it all with a grain of salt and a much larger grain of humor. I need to buy more of this:

2. Vacations! Have I mentioned my upcoming trip to Italy? I can't wait! Here's a shot of me in Rome in 2005 wearing something completely ridiculous:

3. A nice dose of sugar first thing in the morning. I know how to start my day off right. (You can read about my homemade peanut butter cups here.)

Gettin' cozy

I think I will officially have my cool crafter card taken away for admitting this, but I'm dying to make a tea cozy, irony-free. My search has begun for a knit or crochet pattern that is attractive, within my skill set, and fits my needs. There are a lot of choices out there, but most are, well, not quite me. Check out this crazy one:

My taller half suggested I make it a Cheshire Cat one to go over my Alice in Wonderland teapot. Cute idea, but I just can't see myself crocheting anything feline. Also, the spout comes out its, well, you know.

I am loving the look of this one:

But, again, I don't want an opening for the spout. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? The heat can still escape from there.

If I could felt, I would die to make this one:

Given my pickiness and skill set, I may be better off just topping my teapot with a hat, eh?

Tea party birthday extravaganza!

(I apologize in advance if you see this post on Vegging out in T-Town, too, but I wanted to share it both places.)

Wow. My tea party birthday was such a huge, amazing pile of fun that I'm not even sure where to start. I guess I'll go chronologically. Beware: this is a long, photo-heavy post. And there's a lot of sugar and caffeine to go around, too.

I started drinking tea a lot more often in the past few months. I was interested in learning to dry my own mint leaves and such to make tisanes, and my research led me to look for a particular book on tea that my local library didn't have. Instead, they had Victoria magazine's The Essential Tea Companion, which is full of information on steeping tea, using fancy dishes, and throwing tea parties. My brain went, "click." This was May or June, I believe, and I quickly started searching my mind for a good reason to throw a tea party. I decided my birthday was a good choice. It was far enough away to plan, and I knew people would indulge me in honor of my ability not to die before I could ring in another year.

I spent a couple of months hitting up estate sales and thrift stores here and there in search of a hodgepodge of tea cups, cloth napkins, and other accoutrements. I had some early successes, but my search lagged towards the end. Luckily, the day before I had a great score at CMCA Thrift Shop (I would link you, but their website may be compromise at the moment -- the store is on Utica, right by Hillcrest). I ended up with 18 beautiful tea cups all within the basic color palette I had chosen (pink, blue, purple, and gold).

Taking a much-needed, pre-party bath.

That's enough background. On with the party!

My taller half and my mother helped me set up an hour before guests were due to arrive. We held the party at Chandler Park's gorgeous new community center. The room was perfect!

My major task the day before and the morning of was cooking and assembling food. Here's the result:

The rundown (from left to right): paper plates (more on those below); plastic cutlery, a stack of vintage cloth napkins; tea sandwiches: white bean (with chives, basil, garlic and onion) on top, herbed cream cheese (with chives, garlic, onion, paprika, and chili powder) below, and peanut butter and banana on gluten-free bread on the silver platter; two veggie trays, one with hummus in the middle and the other with ranch dip; berries; two boxes of cookies brought by my cousin; sugar cookies; pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes; tea cups; lemonade; assorted tea bags; honey; creamer; and the electric kettle (well, and the boom box).

Here's a close-up of the dessert/tea area:

I want to take a moment here to talk about the lemonade -- yes, the brown stuff in the pitcher is lemonade. Why is it brown?, you may wonder. Did you serve your guests rotten juice? Yes, we did! No, wait, no, we didn't. Here's how you take freshly squeezed lemonade (or any other lightly colored, homemade juice) and make it look like tea: when creating the sugar syrup, use raw turbinado sugar instead of the processed white stuff. Isn't that ingenious? No matter what everyone was sipping at the party, we all looked like we were enjoying tea. I dislike lemonade, but I heard tons of "yum!"s from the crowd, so I will let you know that the recipe came from The Joy of Cooking. The raw sugar was entirely our idea, however. The lemonade was lovingly squeezed by my gorgeous taller half.

Both of the desserts I baked were entirely vegan. The sugar cookie recipe is from the Joy of Vegan Baking, and the cupcakes are my favorite still from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Beside the desserts, I placed the tea cups so guests could choose their own. Then they could either enjoy the brown lemonade or one of the varieties of tea:

The electric kettle on the far right, barely visible, supplied the hot water. I also placed (coconut milk) creamer and honey for flavoring, but I apparently forgot to photo them. Here are the adorable containers:

In front of all the food, I placed little signs denoting what was available. I also placed an informational piece on how to make tea. Here is that and one of my favorite food labels:

My love set out three eight-top tables, at which we seated five each, and cushy chairs, all of which were included in our incredible reasonable facility rental. I didn't have appropriately sized tablecloths, but we made do. My mother did three gorgeous, springy flower arrangements. I know it's nearly fall, but tea party just doesn't scream deep oranges and reds to me.

When guests arrived, I asked everyone to wear a name tag since I had a variety of people there who didn't know each other: my family, my love's sister, high-school friends, and Tulsa Craft Mafia gals. After about 30 minutes of mingling, I unleashed everyone on the food. We ate and sipped our tea for about an hour.

This is Kayla, my friend since 9th grade. She is beautiful. She has a 17-month-old daughter who will one day be named the most drop-dead gorgeous creature that has ever lived on this planet. Kayla also knows how to pretty up some tea. Also, don't let that "Miss" on her name tag fool you. She's a married lady, so hands off.

This is my love with his sister. Check out her amazing hat. Can you believe my dark Greek man shares so much DNA with this fair redhead? Totally. Just look at their matching smiles and gorgeous faces.

Another reason I asked everyone to wear name tags is because I held a best-dressed contest. Everyone voted for their favorite outfitted party attendee or attendees, and I added up the votes. The winners were:

Holly, the crafty hottie behind Hollyrocks, in second place, and my little cousin Diana in first place. How amazing do they both look? For their efforts, Diana went home with a rubber ducky tea infuser, and Holly got a gift certificate to Tulsa's Dragonmoon Tea Company (which I'll have to review someday).

Let's check out Diana's full ensemble once more:

No wonder she won with 50% of the votes.

After I announced those winners, we briefly did some birthday things. My taller half kicked it off with a game called, Do You Know Brigid? Ten trivia questions separated the knows from the know nots. My mother won. I meant to exclude her, but my love didn't want to. She took home a prize she brought to give out to a winner. Speaking of Mom, here I am with her and her mother, too:

We don't look alike or anything. Afterward, everyone sang to me and I opened a few gifts, which included:

An amazing Alice in Wonderland teapot from my friend Nichole and these way-too-awesome cupcake baking molds from my cousin Charity. Yes, I put them to good use this morning and enjoyed a leftover cupcake and Earl Grey Lavender tea in one of my tea cups for breakfast. My love's sister also gave me a subscription to the awesome Ready Made magazine. My dad's girlfriend gave me a gift basket of homemade apple butter, peach melba jam, and a gluten-free, vegan pancake mix. So thoughtful. Holly gifted me one of her terrariums for my desk at work, which I've been dying to have. Uber-crafty Tara gave me Loop-d-Loop Crochet. Speaking of my Mafia gals, check us out:

Yes, it is hard work being this hot AND crafty.

And after two hours of eating, sipping, chatting, and playing, it was all over. Mom and my love helped me clean and pack up. We ended up with some leftovers, which is fine by me. We ran out of plastic containers after I threw a bunch away, so Mom took the rest of the baby carrots and broccoli home in a vase:

Clever and weird.

It runs in the family.

I want to thank all of my 14 guests, including my two super-duper helpers, for making this party a reality. I couldn't have had more fun dressing up and just hanging out with some of my favorite people ever.

Now, for a little honesty: I had planned to include a few things that I had to scrap after running out of time and money. First, I intended to use real plates instead of Chinet. However, not all of the tea cups came with saucers, and eventually I had to give up on finding enough that matched my color scheme and vision. I hate to be wasteful, but it saved my sanity. At least I bought plates made from recycled materials. I also intended to make flavored honeys and put out sugar cubes. These things didn't happen, and it was OK. I ended up with a nearly vegan tea party that fit my fancy fantasies without breaking the bank.

Speaking of nearly vegan, of the things I made, only the cream cheese sandwiches were not dairy-free. The cookies my cousin brought and the ranch dressing that came with the veggie trays weren't either, but I ate vegan during the party (with the exception of the honey, but I don't exclude that from my diet). I'm pretty proud!

And though this concludes the food portion of my food blog, I will now parade a few more vanity shots:

Me with Kayla and Nichole, two of my oldest friends and favorite gals. (I was wearing really tall shoes. In real life, I'm only about 1.5" taller than both of them.)

Cousins! That's us in age and height order. Notice that Charity is not wearing heels and towers over us anyway.

Me with my stepsister Kaity, my little sister Sarah (who is an 11-year-old giant), and Dad's girlfriend Jo.

And me and my love, AKA the best tea party co-host in the world.

I wish you a Sunday filled with peace, love, and half the amount of sugar and caffeine on which I ran yesterday.