Tips For Tea

The following tips are not only beautiful but they're quick and easy as well! Incorporate a few of them in to your next tea time and enjoy!

Take an ordinary vegetable peeler (hold it vertically) to a washed, unpeeled cucumber cutting it lengthwise. Make long straight slices 1/4" through the skin, following the shape of the cucumber, about every 3/8" leaving some unpeeled green skin in between. Slice very thin horizontally to create a lovely pinwheel effect for dainty finger sandwiches.

Add elegance to your iced tea by gently rubbing the rim of the glasses with lemon juice and then pressing the rim lightly into white sugar. Instant beauty!

Fresh grapes look lovely when spritzed with water and sprinkled with a fine misting of white sugar. (To create a fine mist I put sugar in a teaball and shake over fruits, cookies, cakes, whatever you'd like to dust with sugar.)

Invitations are a wonderful way to make even a casual tea into something to be remembered. Make your own by using white paper doilies, your best handwriting and a lovely floral envelope.

Include someone you'd like to get to know better to one of your casual teas. Chances are you'll both relax in the company of your friends and you won't have to worry about playing hostess all by yourself- or preparing a 7 course meal! This is a great stress reducer.

Weather permitting, take the party outside. On a beautiful day nothing compares to the fresh air. If you have flowers blooming and you've got a quiet place nestled under a tree you don't have to be concerned about cleaning your home to perfection. An added bonus!