Toni's House And Christmas Misc.

So the Lows are a family that has been good friends with my family for a long time. When I am home to visit I end up hanging out there quite a bit because they are awesome. The mom, Toni, buys and sells antiques, junk, and vintage treasures and she has an amazing eye. She goes all out for almost every event imaginable. That woman is out of control (in the best possible way that makes me wish I could be out of control like her!)!

To demonstrate what I mean here are a few photos from their house this Christmas.

Am I right?! And that is just scratching the surface of all the decorations!

(note* at this point in the post I ran out of free photo storage on blogger and had to purchase extra storage! I guess I am a real blogger now that I pay to blog.)

Here are a couple other pictures from the Low's house this year.

The corgi is actually their neighbor's dog, but she wanders over to their house so I got to play with her. I think I have mentioned it before, but I LOVE corgis! I want one sooo bad. For anyone else who loves them here is a wonderful blog to read:  http://thedailycorgi.blogspot.com/

And some other miscelaneous photos from my trip!

If you liked Toni's house you will love the store where she works and sells her finds, so stay tuned!!

Christmas Tea And New Years Tea

When Mister B sees me taking pictures of my tea or tea things, he always says something about how I am always taking pictures of tea for my blog, and don't they all look the same, and don't people get tired of seeing that? To which I reply that I started this blog for me and although I love having other people that read it and comment (thank you blog friends out there!), I have, and always will, post things that make me happy. And if that means essentially the same picture of my tea over and over again, then I hope you will forgive me and skip over any posts that bore you! That said here are some pictures from tea around Christmas and then also today in the new year.

After years of watching V for Vendetta, and seeing V make eggy in a basket (I think that is what it is called) I finally decided to try it when I was home for Christmas break.

It was quite delicious and a perfect snack to have with my tea. I will definitely be making it more often.

And yes that is a pirate sugar dish you see, and no it is not mine (I wish it was since I love pirates), it is my mom's!

Oh and I got another tray to add to my collection! It says "please be sure to fill this tray....and pass it along again." Isn't that cute? Although to be honest I will most likely be keeping it and not passing it along.

This is tea today including my lovely new moustache cup (see previous post) and adorable orange tea pot which was a Christmas gift from the owner of the tea room that I work at! It was so nice of her, and I love it.

This might be a good time time to mention that I am of the mind that if you have tea cups you should use them. I have a collection of vintage and china tea cups, but I use them all (except the ones with cracks). What is the point of having pretty tea cups if you don't use them I say! However, I will probably use my moustache cup less than some of the others because it is extra special.

Oh and here are some of the awesome tea related items my parents gave me for Christmas. Tea Time magazine, an adorable kitty creamer, and scone mix and Devon Cream, yum!

Thank you parents!

Well there you have it, yet another post with pictures of my tea trays, thanks for sticking with me!

Christmas Tea & Jamie Oliver

Dear Cooking Channel,
Thank you so much for bringing Jamie Oliver back into my life!
Sincerely,
Alia

I used to watch Jamie's show Jamie At Home all the time when it was on. he is absolutely my favoritest chef! He is super funny and charming, and the setting that he cooks in on his shows is his own adorable English cottage. I was quite sad when they stopped airing his show, but now, thanks to the new Cooking Channel, he is back! He has a series on right now called Jamie's Family Christmas, and it has all the wonderfulness of his old show, with the added magic of the holidays. I am just so happy about it!

It is also the perfect thing to watch while drinking Christmas Tea.

During their holiday open house I bought two new teas from Island Tea Company: Christmas Tea and Midnight Celebration. The Christmas Tea is basically Christmas in your mouth, it has yummiest aroma and taste of cinnamon, cloves, and orange, basically all the smells that remind me of Christmas. The Midnight Celebration is delicious too, it smells exactly like eggnog, but tastes much milder, more like vanilla.

Since it was for their open house they also included free samples and gifties, yay!

And speaking of eggnog, I now work at Chantilly Tea Room, which is the cutest English style tea room here in Tucson, and I love it! Anyway they have eggnog scones for the holidays, and let me tell you they are soooooo good. I brought some home to have with my Christmas Tea today.

It was perfectly festive with red and green.

And did you notice a few twinkling lights in the background? I am getting in the spirit and putting up my holiday decorations! Including the cotton ball garland I made last year from the tutorial over at A Fanciful Twist, thanks Vanessa!

Oh also, did you see the sugar bowl on my tea tray? I recently got a matching set of sugar bowl and creamer at Goodwill for fifty cents each! I was so excited, I love the color.

Thrifting is the best.

So that was me getting in the holiday spirit today. How about you? Are you starting to feel the magic?