Nothing to do with tea cosies....

Though I cannot stop watching this animation (and taking heed of the message being promoted), and just thought I'd share it here...



Happy winter to all the Southern Hemisphere residents!!

Baby is due in less than three weeks and so I'm trying not to overdo things...

more tea cosy images coming very soon....

Autumn is here...

And I've had baking urges which go very well with my newest tea acquisition from Madame Flavour, an Organic Mints Tisane – a pungent blend of organic Victorian Peppermint, Egyptian Spearmint, Australian Native Rivermint from Gippsland; and a touch of purple cornflower, which is amazingly refreshing and Rainier loves it too!!

To locate your nearest shop which stocks Madame Flavour teas, please click on this Store Finder, or check out her online boutique to order teas through.


Image of mint tea glasses we had in Paris in La Mosquee in 2008...drained of their delicious contents!
So, if you happen have quinces at your disposal at the moment then this is a great cake recipe that goes really well with the tea:


PEAR (or QUINCE) CAKE

Ingredients:

1 ripe large pear (or quince), peeled, quartered and sliced
250 grams (8 ounces) plain flour
220 grams (7 ounces) sugar (I used raw sugar which makes the cake get a yummy crust)
2 level teaspoons of baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
250ml (8 fluid ounces) milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F)

In a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder & salt.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and milk until well blended. Gradually add to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin (I made mine in a square cake tin). Add the pear (or quince) to the batter, pushing some of the pieces in with a toothpick.

Bake in the oven for about an hour or until the cake is light brown on top (and a skewer test of the cake comes out clean).

Remove from the oven and let the cake stand in the tin for 15 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

Serve with plenty of whipped cream (or ice cream as a dessert!)

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, March, Stage 4

After finishing all my work for Tiger & Peacock in North Fitzroy (Melbourne) a week and a half ago, I'm finally back onto this tea cosy commission and luckily the lovely client is very understanding and patient!

Today I finished the birds on this side of the cosy, ironed and photographed it to post here. Now I'm chain stitching the Mercedes car on the other side of the cosy and hope to get it all finished by Monday evening.



One very voluptuous embroidered peony...


Its very exciting getting close to finishing this cosy, I cannot wait to see how it looks once its all together!

Special call for help!

Taking a break each afternoon from work sees me downstairs in my kitchen making pots of tea....this was yesterday with a pot of Madame Flavour Earl Grey tea with Australian Lemon Myrtle....and some Green & Blacks organic milk chocolate and locally-made shortbread that I buy from the small grocers down the street...supporting local businesses!

I also received an email 'call to tea-drinking arms' so I'm posting this on behalf of Corinne Noyes, the fabulous woman behind Australia's Madame Flavour Teas, a personal favourite of mine, in an effort to spread the word to support local/Australian (fair trade) business, please pass this message on to anyone you think is interested too, and help a great tea merchant stay alive and grow, and all before the 19th of April, eeeek!!!

Many thanks in advance...and this is what Corinne says:

"This morning I make my way to Fujian province to spend a week with our green and white tea growers discovering firsthand the tradition and wonderful variety of Chinese tea.

I am troubled though and writing to ask for your support.

You may have heard that the Woolworths/Safeway tea buyer recently left. Their entire range will now be reviewed with a view to deleting teas not selling enough according to their corporate requirements.

We have grown over 100%, but as a small business, Madame is vulnerable.

On the 19th of April, I have a meeting with the new buyers to present our wonderful teas and the difference they make.

Between now and then, I ask that you show your love of Madame Flavour by; no other way to put it: buying and spreading the word as you never have before.

To thank you for your continued support, I am excited to invite 10 Kindred Spirits to High Tea at The Hotel Windsor in Melbourne. To join me, I ask that you mail me your Madame Flavour buying and spreading the word story of 25 words or less. I will chose the winners May 30th and publish them and the High Tea date in my next newsletter.

This could make all the difference in the wonderful story we have to tell when we look back 20 years from now at these early days.

Thank-you for your passion and generosity in our shared adventure. I will let you know how I go.

Kindest Regards
Corinne - owner and founder"
FACEBOOK PAGE, CLICK HERE!

So I raced to my local Woolworths, the only place in Deloraine where I can get Madame Flavour teas, and stocked up...here are some of my favourites, and the white tea with rose I bought directly from Madame Flavour and its THE most DIVINE tea (perfectly perfect with a light sponge cake!!)

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, March, Stage 3

I've freehand machine embroidered the outline of the peony flower, slightly different from the one on the previous cosy because I really like the shapes of the petals.
Now I'm working on the hand embroidered 'colouring-in' bits before I embroider the three blue wrens and the client's initials so this side will be done and I can get onto the other side.



Close-up of the stitching...

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, March, Stage 2

Last evening as I was stitching away on the other side of the cosy I had the uneasy feeling that something wasn't quite right...



And then this morning when I checked the instructions and ideas from the client I found I'd put the wrong purple silk on the cosy, and also on the cushions, so this morning I've been unpicking the cushions and re-stitching the correct purple silk, and with the cosy I've added the darker purple silk over the top of the paler purple to get it right.



I love that with textiles, its possible to layer and hide areas and thus create rich layers of built-up texture and weight...

So now I'm about to start freehand machine embroidering the Peony flower, to then be hand embroidered to 'colour' it in, and I'll add the three blue wren silhouettes which are to represent the client's three children, which I think is such a lovely metaphor!

The next images will be of this embroidery and I'll start the Mercedes car on the Union Jack side tomorrow morning....I still have to confirm with the client what sort of imagery will be above the car, as this piece is for the client's wedding anniversary and the Union Jack side reflects aspects of her English husband's personality and passions.

Anatomy of a Tea Cosy commission, March 2010

I currently have a tea cosy and cushion commission for a client in Sydney and thought I would document the process, for a change!

So to start with, the cosy is based on one I've already made for friends, and this current cosy will have personalised changes to suit the client- a different car, birds instead of Coco the Wonderdog, etc...

So we begin, by pinning one side (and then giving it to my talented, able and obliging mother, Claire, to stitch down while I progress with a million other jobs and get to the involved embroidery stage, thanks so much mum!!)