Lisa & Jill's Big Day In The City Part II (finally!!)

Hello Beautiful!

Ok, I've been wanting to share this since the day Jill and I got back from the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, but it seems like one thing or another has been preventing me from sharing all the yummy, tea fueled goodness that Jill and I got to share. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let them do the talkin' and only interrupt when I can't help myself.

Have you heard of The Crown & Crumpet? It was featured in the July/August 2010 issue of Tea Time Magazine, but I've known about it for a long, long time and have been dying to go! The C&C  is located in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square, which was incidentally was just a few blocks from Ft. Mason where Renegade was held. We got in with just a few minutes reservation, which was lucky!

This was the view from our table...

What lucky little ladies to celebrate a birthday at the Crown & Crumpet! These tiny beauties were all dressed in fancy tea dresses, adorable!

This is deceiving... they give you a lot of food... you'll see...

Real silverware. I love the old soft glow of real silver. I do believe I'll have a new collection starting soon, it's so beautiful.

For our tea selection, Jill and I decided on The Marie Antoinette and After Seven Fifty-Nine

Both were delicious.

A cute tea shop makes for a very, very happy Lisa.

We had the Tea For Two...

The tea sandwiches were tea-riffic! Roast beef, chicken pesto, egg salad, cucumber, ham & cheese, and marinated red pepper. Can you say scarf?

The Crumpets! Oh Lordy, the crumpets! And the scones, good heavens, the scones! Can you believe I'd never had a crumpet before? It's true. I'm afraid these will be my downfall some day...

Desert!! No explanation needed. Every. Crumb. Gone.

After stuffing ourselves, we had a nice look around and got quite snap happy!

This is why you need a reservation. This tea shoppe stays packed most all of the time, they can rarely accommodate walk-ins.

The C&C also has a small gift shop packed to the gills with cuteness.

Hey look, it's Marie herself!

Of course I got a couple of small goodies for myself...

This is the same tea we had at the shop. It's quite good. A little pricey though... $16 for 2oz. The tea mug is very like one that I saw on Happy Zombie a while back and have been absolutely in love with ever since. I have too many mugs. It's sort of sick. But I couldn't help it, this one is so pretty and delicate, and it's china. It's my new favorite.

After our visit to the Crown & Crumpet, Jill and I strolled around Ghiradhelli and did some window shoppin. Then we took a walk down to the beach and watched the sun set, all the while chatting it up like we've known each other forever. Isn't it awesome when you meet someone like that? Kindred spirits... love it.

We headed home after a long day, and I slept like a log. It was a wonderful day filled with some of my most favorite things and people! The day couldn't have been more perfect.

Thanks for being so patient in waiting for this post, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. They truly don't do justice to the place. If you're ever in San Francisco, the Crown & Crumpet is high on my list of recommendations. In fact, it's shot its self straight to the top of my list of favorite tea rooms. Really.

Hope you're all well! I'm off now to catch up on some of your blogs!

oxo,

Lisa

The reason for my flakery... or a quick catch up.

Hello~hello! So sorry to have kept you lovely people waiting, I'm afraid the past couple of days have been packed beyond blogging capability. Let's play catch up real quick!

So! I moved my niece Ana down to Santa Barbara this weekend. I've never been to Santa Barbara before, it's a beautiful city! I think Ana is really going to have a good time there. Hopefully not *too* much of a good time, she is there to attend college after all... We drove down Saturday, met up with some friends for dinner and a walk up and down the pier, the beach, then State Street which was alive with revelers. We happened into town during the final night of the Old Spanish Days Festival, perfect timing! A lively fiesta was in full swing when we arrived, there was confetti, music, food and laughter everywhere! I told Ana the festival was being thrown in her honor, seeing as how she moved to town that day :o) She rolled her eyes at me if I remember correctly. Puh, kids...

This guy is ready to party!

Next morning we moved her in to her little apartment. She's sharing a 2 bedroom / 1 bath flat with three other girls. All college freshman. Oh, the fun they'll have!! But 4 girls vs. 1 tiny bathroom? We'll see... It was strange leaving her there. I knew I needed to hit the road, I had another 6 hour drive home, but when it came time for me to go, it felt weird not to have her with me. I'm gonna miss that kid. But look how happy she is!

My happy girl!

My drive home was long, boring and uneventful... nothing exciting to share. I made good time, six hours right on the nose. When I got home, I kept telling myself, blog! blog! blog! You promised you'd be back with Lisa & Jill's Big Day In The City Part II! But... girls, I just couldn't... I was beat. Driving does that, ya know?

Monday was fun! A quick morning passed at work, then a co-worker and I took off to the city for a San Francisco Giants game, it was Jerry Garcia Tribute Night!

As you may or may not already know, I am a Deadhead. Love those boys. I have a lot of great memories of music, laughter and friendship associated with that band. Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, two of the original members of the Grateful Dead were there last night to sing the National Anthem, as well as Jerry's daughter Annabelle to throw out the first pitch. Good times! In the 7th inning stretch, Phil and Bill Kreutzmann, another original member lead the crowd in a resounding rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on kazoo! They were trying to break a World Record for largest kazoo ensemble. I don't know if they did, but it was fun anyway.

Got me some new GD swag too, yes I did! Some of it looks like this...

It was a long but exciting game with two extra innings due to a 3/3 tie. But in the end the Giants win!!

 

This superfan was sitting right behind me. I liked her sign. I think everyone in attendance had a great time last night, except the Chicago Cubs fans... boo.

Two extra innings resulted in a late, late night. I didn't get home until after 1:00am. Oi!

Today... not as much fun. I'm sick again. More summer sinus headaches, coupled with a runny nose, sore throat and ear aches. I've been told that I burn the candle at both ends...I think that it's caught up with me. But it sure is fun along the way!

Feeling (not so) groovy, but always yours truly,

Lisa

Lisa & Jill's Big Day In The City, Part I

I had a dandy Saturday! Jill and I went to The Renegade Craft Fair in my favorite city by the bayeeeay (sorry... big Journey fan, can't help myself), San Francisco!

But before we get to all that I got a little show & tell for you... If you're going to a big ol' craft fair, you need a big ol' market bag. I didn't have one, so I made one! Proud to say that this was the very thing I've made from a pattern (McCalls 5898) ALL BY MYSELF. No advise, no help. Just me, myself and I. Cutting patterns is time consuming, delicate work. Me no likee. I'm sure I could have done a better job, there are a couple of areas of the bag that I would like to cut open and do over, but I was in a hurry so that'll have to wait. This bag is fully lined too and I made it in one night! You don't want to know what time I went to bed that night. This lavender monster is HUGE and has six very large outside pockets. It quite comfortably held all the treasures I accumulated on Saturday, and also probably could have easily held the entire population of a small island community. No joke. It's big.

(Don't try to hard to read those buttons, especially the light blue one... heeheehee)

Ok, San Francisco! Ah, I love that city, don't you? Teeming with life! I've always wanted to live there, not forever, just for a while. Alas... S.F. isn't kind on the wallet. But I digress...

The venue for the fair was Ft. Mason, at the Festival Pavilion.

Who, whooo's a happy geek? Me!

Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of happy shoppers supporting handmade, hand crafted items, awesome!

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of the individual booths. I didn't want to make any of the vendors feel weird. Sometimes they're not cool with that, and I understand why. I think that establishing your craft, especially in an area like San Francisco, which is loaded with talented artists must be a challenging, competitive place to make, and keep your own, unique mark. Having people snapping macro quality, detailed photos of your hard work might inspire a wee bit of paranoia in anyone, even if it's completely innocent. Somewhat like plagiarism... except crafty.. is there a word for craft-plagiarism? Hm... I don't know, but I get why they wouldn't like that, so I didn't even try. Having said that, every single vendor I spoke with seemed genuinely happy to discus their wares in detail. These people are proud of the work they are creating, many of them at home on the kitchen table, long into the nights after working a full-time day jobs, and caring for their families. How can you not respect that? I have a lot of admiration for these folks. They bust arse.

Also sorry I didn't take a picture of our killer lunch Knish! It was yummy!

Etsy was there! They had an entire make & take craft section upstairs at the end of the hall. Jill and I got our craft on! We made mini bunting! I love bunting, and it was very popular at this fair, it seems like a lot of the vendors had booths surrounded in bunting.

Making mini fabric bunting with Elmer's Glue was not optimal, but we had fun.

Sticky & clumsy, like being a kid again!

I got some goodies at Renegade, yes I did! I can't share them all because a few are gifts.

But here are a couple...

This terrible picture does not do any justice to this gorgeous wool blend felt from OhMa Felt. I've already used a bit of it, and it feels so incredibly nice to the touch, compared to the craft store felt that I'm used to.

This is the most deliciously scented whipped body cream ever. This is from I Melt With You.

I want to put it on scones and eat it.

No seriously.

This awesome hand printed scooter art came from Riley Noehren Originals. I talked to Riley for a few minutes about scooters, we bonded. Scooter love is strong love.

Another small scooter indulgence...

This terrible picture also does no justice to this great pendant... and sadly neither do I. For the life of me, I can not remember who I bought this from. But it rocks. I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow.

We saw so many amazing things... I collected dozens of cards and fliers and swag. It'll take me a month to visit all these artists on their websites, blogs, and Etsy shops.

This was just the first part to a great day! Jill and I had the chance to do something special after Renegade too, so stay tuned! I'm going to try and post again tomorrow for the second half of our day.

Tea lovers, be prepared. My next post will be a feast for the eyes!

Keep it crafty!

Lisa

1 Giveaway! 8 Years! 25, actually 26 Posts!

Dear Blog~

I know I've been neglecting you these last few weeks, I've just been so busy you see. The living breathing world takes so much time and energy that sometimes at the end of the day the tank is empty and there's no power left in my little filanges to punch out a blog... even a pipsqueak blog. But, with great relief it's my pleasure to confirm that, at least for me, absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder. I've missed you blog. I'll do better. I promise. I love you blog.

Hi Bloggie Peeps!

I've missed YOU most! I've met through the blogesphere, "e" and "snail" mail some of the most lovely people since I've begun this blogging adventure. Tea lovers, crafters, artists and and down right, good ol fashion great folks. You've been ever so kind and encouraging, and I just want to thank you for all your comments. As I looked back through what I've written I was a little startled to realize that I've written 25 blogs already! Wow. I always knew I was a bit of a chatterbox, I confess I do have a tendency to ramble, but I didn't know I had that much to say, and to be honest I feel like I'm just getting started. Heehee, what fun! So in honor of my 26th blog (a scouche late, just like me) I have a little giveaway that I'd like to present to you all. 

This here is a tin of one of my favorite Rooibos Teas from Let's Do Tea. It's called Blueberry Bang! It's tea-rrific and oh-so refreshing. Delicious both hot AND iced, and caffine free, so it's great little treat during your late night blogging sessions. Oh, is that just me?

I'm also including a cute little bookmark and a few other little goodies that are sure to make any tea lover smile! You'll love this tea, everyone does. All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment on this post (which is a doosie, I admit, and apologize in advance). If you post a link on your own blog, I'll throw your name in the hat twice! Easy peasy! I'll end the drawing at Midnight (Pacific Time) Friday, November 13th 2009. Post, post away!

Now for some catching up! Whew, can you all believe that it's already the end of the first week of November?? Holy moley! Where have the last 2 months gone, seriously, it's a blur. Since my last post of Oct. 18th a lot has happened. I served tea at another craft fair, my husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary, our neice turned 5 years old, we snuck away on a mini vacation where as always, we squished a lot into a small amount of time, my sweet, sweet baby brother turned 33 years old, and my beautiful sister-in-love has a birthday just this next week, shoe! I'm beat, but dang, these are great things to be so busy with! Get some tea and a comfy chair folks, this is gonna be a long post!

Where to begin? Hmmm, let's go by date, shall we? On October 20th my wonderful husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. I love him more every year, but gosh it doesn't seem like that long. It seems like just last weekend I was teaching my best friends how to fold napkins for the tables at our reception... very fond memories. I think this is the most singular reason for my love of autumn. The colors, the weather, the birds making their way south in the skies over the harvested wine vineyards that surround my town... it all reminds me of that day. We were married in a beautiful backyard out in the country that was surrounded on all sides by grapes. Wait, I'm getting mushy... hoooonk. S'cuse me, I hadda blow my nose. Thank you Lord for sending him to me :o)

This is Sean and I on our big day, and a picture of the prettiest wedding cake ever, in my lil ole opinion.

So, this might be a little weird... you tell me. I've kept the top layer of our wedding cake all these years. I know, I know... you're only supposed to keep it one year but back then I thought, well, two is better than one, so what the heck. I just wrapped it up and stuck it back in the freezer... and left it there... for 8 years. We've moved three times. I just keep packing to the next house. I think we took it out if the freezy on our 1st and 5th anniversaries and now our 8th. I think our baker did a great job, when we unwrapped the cake it had a tiny bit of frost, naturally, but once that was removed, the cake smelled great! It was soft and spongy and looked like it was made yesterday, swear! Even the frosting didn't look that bad. See...

Ok, well maybe it did look a little smooshed... but it smelled nice. I was being all firm and practical-like, and said this was the year it was going to go. Eight years is long enough, it's going in the trash! Then I chickened out and wrapped it up and put it back in the freezer... It's happy there. I'm happy it's there too, weird or not.

The next event was our nieces 5th birthday, she's a cupcake. Thinks she's a princess...seriously.

Here she is in her Belle Birthday Ballgown.

Ooh, a new tea set! I wonder who that's from??

A new princess outfit. Mulan this time. I think this completes her collection. She has every princess outfit Disney makes, no joke. But isn't she a doll?

Next up was a craft fair I did in Stockton on Oct. 24th... here's a few snapshot of my booth. This was a fun event, but I think I'm going to focus more on home parties. More fun, more time to chit chat, and as I've said before, I am not a sales person, and I almost felt like I was hawking something instead of just sharing tea...

Next up was a trip that my darling husband planned all on his own, whata guy! On Oct. 30th we left for the bay area, he had arranged a room in our favorite hotel, the De Anza in San Jose, and bought tickets to a San Jose Sharks game, go Sharks! This is what was awating us when we arrived in our room... Chocolate truffles and champagne!! Weeee!

Look, he even bought me a new jersey to wear, #20 Nabokov!!

What he didn't tell me until the night before we left was that he'd also booked a second night at the hotel and some time for me in a spa!! His anniversary gift to me. Awww! So on Halloween afternoon, we were driven to the Plum Spa where I was pampered  with a hydrotherapy session, an hour massage and where Sean and I both got pedicures!! Heehee! He's never done that before, it was his first time. I think he liked it A LOT. Later that night back at the hotel we was remarking on how shiny his toenails were.

 Here are a few shots from the Plum Spa website.

 So, as if this wasn't fun enough (and you're thinking, seriously, there's more? --Yes, there is.) Sean took me to tea!! Yipee! I've wanted to have tea at Lisa's Tea Treasures since the first time I visited and I could only browse because we were so pinched for time. It was all I could hope for and more. The food was fantastic and the service was excellent! There were even two young ladies having tea that afternoon dressed as Alice and The Queen of Hearts. It was Halloween after all, and let me tell you. San Jose-ians really get into the spirit! People were dressed up all over town, it was great!

Here I am experiencing tea bliss...

 

See those bikers behind me? Yes, bikers- real ones... in a fancy tea shop... with doilies.

Variety is the spice of life!

Mmmm... The scones were AMAZING! (yes, I was shouting just then)

Sean is such a good sport... he didn't take tea, but he was very patient and spent some time reading the latest letter from our niece, Alex who's at Army Basic Training in Missouri.

His patience was rewarded with a new Mazarati.

Not!

This car was on display in Santana Row, where the tea house is located. Neato!

So after tea and a couple of leisurely hours perusing the shops in Santana Row, we popped into Rosie McCannes for some live music, a quick beer and some deceptivley strong garlic fries (which were the only thing that haunted us on Halloween, oofa!) before our last stop for the evening...

A Halloween Flashlight Tour of the Winchester Mystery House!

So fun! Gosh that place is huge, and easy to get turned around in... you think you know approx where you are during certain points of the tour, then you step out onto a balcony and look out over the vast roof lines and realize that not only were you not where you thought you were, but you also have no idea where you are currently. It's weird. Not scary though - bummer. I wanted to be scared, but I wasn't. Oh well... it was a really neat experience being there at night. They had the garden open for self guided tours as well, so we roamed around and checked out the grounds at our own pace. They had people giving out Trick or Treats randomly through out the garden, it was great. They only do night tours a few nights a year, Halloween and every Friday the 13th. If you ever have the oppurtunity to do it, I recommend it.

We had ambitions of hitting the town for some Halloween fun after our tour of the mystery house, but we were throughly pooped. They say on the house tour alone, you walk over a mile inside the house. I believe it too. So instead, we ajourned to our room and retired for the evening. This was the first time in my adult life that I wasn't at home on Halloween handing out candy. This was decidedly better. Plus, I didn't wake up on November 1st to find my pumpkin smashed all over the street infront of my house like I have the last two years, bonus!

So, this my friends is why I've been away from my blog so long... I've been a busy girl. There's been crafting going on in every spare moment too, but I can't share that stuff yet... it's super secret Christmas (gasp! it's almost here!) stuff.

I will share my A-Tea-C swap cards soon though... As soon as my partner, Miss Donna gets her package! Those were a kick! Tomorrow I'm off again to the mountains to visit my bother and his family for some belated (his) and early (his wife's) birthday celebrations! The fun never ends around here!

Ok, folks... sorry this was so very long. I had good intentions of keeping this post as short as I could... but you know what they say about good intentions.

Love to all,

oxo

~Lisa

**Don't forget, post a comment to win some fantastic tea from me!**