Down the Rabbit Hole...Ooh Yes Let's Have a Picnic

Hello my sweet readers and visitors!

I fear these past weeks have seen me slide down the rabbit hole and round the corner.

I wasn't entirely sure, at times, if I was ever going to make it back, but after thrashing back at the fleas in the carpet (how did that happen??!!) & shaking & hanging & drying & cleaning everything in sight due to persistent dampness & wet I think we just may be winning. 

In the midst of the marauding hosts I began to feel the pulsing surge of new life thrumming through my veins, calling me to knew enterprises & creative dreams: only to be met by one small obstacle & locked gate after another.

Weird.

I think we may be pushing through the dark & sodden ground at last!!

Oh my goodness here begins dear, welcome, Spring in all her random splendour!

Signs of new times & new energies can arrive by any means, as I expect you know.

Even as deep thoughts lay as dormant seeds awaiting the signal to unfurl into life in my heart, on the surface I was captivated by these gloriously colourful & fun pages of my most recently acquired summer English Country Living Magazine.

Poddling along beside two clever & talented friends, as they put together their freshly inspired vintage hire businesses, somehow opened a space for our own concepts to emerge during this particularly dreary winter.

 And out of all this, have come two thoughts.

The first: A Vintage Picnic...hire.

We've unearthed all of our vintage blankets (& found a few more), gathered together our fishing creels & other baskety things..

Delighted ourselves by remembering our various picnic china, ousted from the cosy comfort of a wicker picnic basket some long time since past...

acquired a tiffin tin & a thermos or two

& most importantly of all, filled old jam jars with fairy mushrooms. 

We have so many ideas & plans but I really will need your help.
I'll tell you a little more soon!
Meantime have a wee think about your favourite picnic food for me.

The second arm of this enterprise, took a good deal longer to take it's own shape...that of,
The Tiny Tea party...hire.
When we found this gorgeous old oak tray in the second hand shop in Taradale a few weeks ago we just knew this was the "other" bit.

Oh look at that...we did have some sun one day!

Please do stay for tea.

I have bought some Royal Albert, Old English Rose China.
It has an elegance & grace about it that is difficult to surpass & has the ability to evoke warm memories & sentimental attachments like no other china that I know.

I also have some sweet & simple lily of the valley in the china cupboard that might quite like to join us in service if asked nicely.

Mmm......you may be saying,
 but here is my plan..my heart.
What I would like to present is this.."A Tiny Tea Party" for

~Best of girlfriends to bless each other with grace & beauty,

~A special very personal gift for a treasured family member...aunty, Nanna...the legacy of sweet memories.

~But most of all, you know when you have a friend, who has a chronic illness & life has been hard, or they have lost a loved one & grief has become a dim & colourless place...right there, in just such a time a tiny tea party brought to them (or a sweet picnic for that matter) might make all the difference in the world.

I have a friend who has recently made contact again & is struggling with very difficult circumstances, she told me yesterday that she still has cards that I have written her from over 15 years ago & they still comfort her..
how deeply humbling.
Could a tea party create comfort & give the gift of simple tailored beauty in just such a way?
I really, really hope so..
What do you think?

I have recently read the ethos of the "Greengate" people. They are based in Denmark & sell lovely nostalgic goods along the lines of Cath Kidston.
It goes like this:
"Greengate from Denmark believe the simple, everyday moments in life can be the most memorable and worthwhile. They aim to ‘slow down time’, by enriching and giving meaning to these moments shared. Every Greengate product and design has been inspired by these beliefs and hope that they can bring warmth and life back to places, objects and moments long forgotten."
Yes!!!

As I set the fire the other night, crumpling up handed on newspapers, I came across a delightful article about tea.

 I love it...Stephen Twining says "A day with fewer than nine cups of tea is an unsatisfactory tea drinking day"
Look what I came across in the supermarket last week..our very own New Zealand Earl Grey.

 We won't be preparing food at home for our "A Vintage Picnic" enterprise (bylaws & commercial kitchen obligations & all that) but I'm sure that there are ways of still supplying the items, the ideas & some foodie things.

The picnic baskets or tea things would be picked up from here or dropped off if necessary & I would lend a hand if required. 

Now get your thinking caps on & give me a hand..oh please say you will! 

And I'll go back to battling all the IT nonsense that has very nearly done my head in!

Just before I go...dear Bev of Kainga Happenings has translated the crocheted jam jar cover for us & I have it right here & will pop it in to the very next post, so keep you're eyes peeled.

SO lovely to see you!

MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥