Inclusion on Downton Abbey Cooks Tea Tuesday 

It is with great excitement & honour for me to post that The Downton Abbey Cook has included me in her Tea Tuesday post. She has commented about my Downton Abbey Tea party being inspiring. I am so excited about this as I planned for the Downton Tea Party to be inspiration to my readers but I now hope it will also be of inspiration to The Downton Abbey Cooks readers. 

Please check out her blog on the link below it is full of inspirational posts and has some amazing recipes for all those cooks out there. Enjoy. 

http://downtonabbeycooks.com/2013/04/09/tea-tuesday-at-downton-there-was-always-room-for-jiggly-jelly/#more-6316

Style Your Home Event

'Downton Abbey Tea Party'

If you have been keeping up with my blog and following me on twitter you will know that this weekend was my 'Girly Downton Abbey Weekend' and what a weekend it has been. 

We kicked the weekend off with some well needed retail therapy yesterday afternoon in the wonderful City of Cambridge. Love the quirky shops which are popping up around town including my two new favourite shops for gifts http://www.oliverbonas.com and the lovely Lilac Rose on Bridge Street. You must check this shop out if your local to Cambridge. 

After a few too many hours shopping we were so behind on time that instead of going out for dinner we bought our Thai Green Curry essentials and had a homemade Thai instead of eating out. The next few hours were a mix of getting ready, drinking Procecco and deciding on which outfit to pick from our new goodies.

So we finally made it out into town at 10 which is a late start for me so we went directly to La Raza, a great spot in town for dancing. So we spent the next four hours dancing, laughing and chatting. The tune of the night has to be 'Rudimental' Feel the LOVE, absolutely love this tune, a great one to dance to with your girls or your man.

So onto the main event of the weekend and the 'Downton Abbey Tea Party'. We have spent the past 6 hours eating a luscious Afternoon Tea, drinking pomegranate and elderflower fizz and playing Downton Abbey games whilst watching various episodes from the whole series of Downton. 

As you are aware I just love making each event special so I researched how to make this a memorable day for my friends; so I began my search for how to make this a day never to be forgotten. As you can see from my pictures below I found some fabulous decorations on line, including some amazing games which we have thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon.

I found the bunting on a beautiful blog called Little Vintage Trailer.

http://littlevintagetrailer.com/2011/09/free-cheery-pennant-banner-flag/

I used our pictures in the room to put up sayings from the show, I found these on the below link, they made us chuckle all day.  http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2013/01/fridays-freebie-downton-abbey.html  

To make this the perfect tea party I raided my Mum's house and borrowed some amazing goodies; this included the glass jug, cake forks and lace trimmed napkins which I used as a tablecloth. I was lucky enough to be given a china tea set years ago from a Great Aunt which turned out to be perfect for afternoon tea. I made a selection of sandwiches including cheese, traditional cucumber and egg mayo. Along with these we had cheese scones which @mclaurs made which tasted amazing. The savoury course also included hula hoops, cherry toms and picked onions. Obviously you can pick your favourite food for this course, maybe you would prefer ham sandwiches & a salad. 

Next was the most important course CAKES! I had a baking marathon on Friday and made us flapjacks, chocolate & coffee cup cakes &

the most important cake the impressive Rainbow Cake. 

I bought a recent issue of BBC Good Food & challenged myself to create this cake. Although I wouldn't say it has turned out perfect I feel it was a great first attempt and it certainly tasted amazing. I will post the recipe soon so you too can set yourself this challenge. 

Last of all we come to the games which I found on the web. These included cut out paper dolls of Lady Mary & Matthew, O'brein & Thomas & Dowager Countess. Check out the printouts on the link below. 

http://www.vulture.com/2012/02/print-out-vultures-downton-abbey-paper-dolls.html

I first found this idea on the 'Sisters Suitcase' blog, 

http://www.sisterssuitcaseblog.com/2013/01/downton-abbey-party-invitation-printable.html

It is a fantastic blog full of great ideas for every event. 

The best game was Downton Bingo which was fantastic, we ended our day watching a few episodes of Series 2 whilst playing this game. It was great fun and one we all recommend to do if you are a Downton fan. 

You can find the print outs on the link below. 

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/01/downton-abbey-bingo.html

This weekend has been the perfect time, shared with two close friends & full of laughter and fun. 

I hope that you are inspired to arrange your own Downton Abbey Tea party & I hope that you enjoy it as much as we have done. 

It would be great to hear your thoughts on my ideas and would love to hear if you do arrange your own event. 

Style Your Home Event!

If you have been keeping up with my blog you will know that next weekend is my 'Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea' weekend. We have decided to make it a girls weekend not to forget with shopping on the Saturday, Thai at a local restaurant followed by cocktails and dancing in town. Then Sunday will be dedicated to 'Downton Abbey' eating afternoon tea whilst watching our favourite episodes. I can not wait.

One of my closest friends @mclaurs has created this amazing invite below; I will be sending this out to the girl today.

Style Your Afternoon Tea

You can not beat Afternoon tea with your partner, friends or family. There is nothing quite like sitting down with your loved ones and enjoying an afternoon of eating a selection of delicious sandwiches, cakes and scones, whilst sipping on your favourite tea and bubbles if you fancy. This is most definitely a favourite way to spend an afternoon, unfortunately it is not one I do often enough but one I thoroughly enjoy when the opportunity arrises.

In January this year I had the pleasure of visiting a fantastic friend Steph in Perth Oz. She recently moved there  to follow the man she loves and I can understand why Perth has captured her heart, it is a City full of soul and one which I will most definitely visit again. I had the pleasure of being shown Perth from a local point of view checking out all the vintage shops, the best restaurants and the most amazing beaches.

As a belated birthday gift Steph treated me to the most amazing 'High Tea' that I have had to date. The venue was the amazing 'C Restaurant' http://www.crestaurant.com.au 
It was situated on the top floor of the highest building in Perth and revolved so you had the best view over Perth for the entire dining experience.

We started our 'High Tea' with a selection of three layered sandwiches, this included smoked salmon, egg and ham. Each sandwich had two fillings which were encased in amazingly tasting bread. To follow we had a selection of desserts including a lemon cheesecake and a chocolate tart sprinkled with gold leaf. Last of all was the scones which like any afternoon tea were absolutely delicious. 

For my drink choice I had peppermint tea which I love followed by bubbles. I just don't think you can beat a glass of bubbles, this would always be my chosen drink. Especially after spending 2 weeks with Steph who loves them more than me I would say, my taste of bubbles has grown even more especially after tasting the local bubbles. 

I am certainly inspired for my 'Afternoon Tea for my Downton weekend'. I will be using the sandwiches for inspiration for my own three layered sandwiches and will be baking my own cakes. 

I look forward to sharing how my homemade 'Afternoon tea' goes. 

Style Your Home Event

As an avid fan of 'Downton Abbey', my best friend @mclaurs and I thought it would be a fantastic idea to have a 'Downton' weekend! For those of you who have never watched the series I suggest you look it up & put a few hours by to catch up on this fantastic series, as I am sure you will love it as much as I do. I am gripped by every episode and it's one of those programmes which I look forward to seeing. There are not many TV series which have me as hooked. 

So to celebrate our love of 'Downton Abbey' we have decided to dedicate a girly afternoon to everything Downton. We are thinking a few hours of watching our favourite episodes whilst treating ourselves to afternoon tea, including my old time favourite cheese straws & cucumber sandwiches followed by an array of homemade cakes. A friend has just said she will bake a 'Coffee & walnut' Cake, yum yum! And obviously a girly afternoon wouldn't be a true girls event without some Procecco! 

I plan on decking out my lounge in some Downton themed decorations so I have the fun of researching and making some ideas. 

A post documenting my 'Downton Day' with the girls will be up and ready to read in the week after the 6th April. 

Love Downton, Love a girls weekend!