Tea with Mum finally has a teapot!

I was feeling quite sheepish: I was writing a blog about taking tea with Mum and I didn’t even own a teapot. Well, we finally remedied that. Yes, Tea with Mum finally has a teapot!

I had been looking around and had narrowed it down to a shortlist of candidates that I quite liked. Strangely, they were all very similar, but quite different in price.

Unbeknownst to me, my wonderful husband found my shortlist and purchased one for me when he was purchasing the dinosaur in the room for Miss M. Secretly, he purchased it for me for Easter.

Then the anniversary of my Mum’s death happened and I was a real mess. To cheer me up and to recognise how this blog is helping, he gave me the teapot early. It must have been a spur of the moment idea: when I rinsed it I found the price tag still stuck to the bottom.

Today was the first day that I used it.

I set up my tea set with most of the trimmings and even made some cinnamon snails to have with my tea.

The star of the show: my teapot. It was actually one of the cheapest on my list, but also one that I like most because it has such simple, elegant lines.

It is a little larger than I was planning, but that just means that I have more tea to share.

My husband also got the matching teacup and saucer for me. It is nicely weighted and, again, I love the simple but elegant form.

What have I styled it with?

I have styled my new teapot with a mixture of new and old that I had on hand.

The tray is from H&M home. I love the colour – it is definitely one of my signature colours. The size and weight are also great.

The blue polka dot sugar bowl I found a few years ago at a little boutique. It is from Greengate. They don’t seem to have it any more, but they still have a few cute ones.

The serviette is from IKEA. I am not sure when I got it: obviously it is no longer available. There are some cute ones this season that would work though, like these or these or these. I might have to go and get some – I’m sure Miss M will accompany me happily. I like this cute frog serviette holder too. Perhaps he could even be a bit of whimsy on my tea tray.

The funny-looking round thing with a stick is a tea strainer spoon. I think this is one that my Mum found for me at one of her favourite antique shops. Over time, I have amassed a little collection of antique tea-related paraphernalia that I found with my Mum or she found and gifted to me – it was something we enjoyed doing together.

I wanted to ensure that my new teapot had simple, elegant lines and would go with some of this special collection. Et Voilà! I think it does!

The little glass bowl was a serendipitous find. After my Mum died, my Dad wanted to clean out a number of cupboards. One was storing a lot of things that had come from my Grandparent’s house (Mum’s parents) when my Grandma had to move into a care home. There were also a number of boxes in this cupboard that no one had opened for years. They contained things that came from my Paternal Grandparents.

As we were sorting through all the things and cleaning things so that various family members could take their pick, we discovered two, identical, little glass bowls. They must have been the thing to have at the time because both of my Grandmas owned one.

Both of them are now part of my collection.

Cinnamon snails recipe

Of course, I needed to bake something to inaugurate the teapot.

These were so easy, Miss M did most of the work. She painted on the butter, sprinkled the sugar, rolled the snails and put them on the baking tray. All I had to do was take charge of the cinnamon (to avoid big lumps) and cutting the snails.

One thing I have noticed in my travels is that puff pastry comes in various sized sheets and comes frozen and fresh. I used frozen puff pastry and defrosted it beforehand. In Germany, puff pastry normally comes in boxes of six small (approx. 10×20 cm) frozen sheets, so I used the whole box. You might just want to use a couple of sheets or buy it fresh.

Enjoy with your tea!

New look for Tea with Mum!

Tea with Mum finally has a teapot and now we will have a new look as well!

It took a little time and a bit of trial and error, but our new look for Tea with Mum is nearly ready. We will be rolling it out soon.

Bye, bye stock photos and hello personalised Tea with Mum images featuring our own teapot and teacup. Yay!

I am still trying to decide whether to go with a new theme as well: I guess you will know soon.

There may still be a few bugs, so if you notice that something seems odd, please let me know. I very much appreciate your help!

I hope you like the new look!