An Invitation to Tea with Scrapologie's "Darling Darjeeling" January Kit

Scrapologie's Darling Darjeeling January Kit and Supplements (to be sold separately). Please visit the scrapologie kits forum on our message board at www.scrapologie.com for information on the sale of this kit and supplement

Darling Darjeeling, scrapologie's January Kit: (The tea!)

January Kit Supplements (the accoutrements of tea!)

An Invitation to Tea

It's almost January. And for many of us, including me, that means atleast two more months of cold weather with plenty of sunless days ahead. So we thought it would be wonderful to bring you something to comfort and uplift your spirit - an invitation to tea. This month, scrapologie brings you two beautiful kits - "Darling Darjeeling" featuring the lovely new papers from the Chloe's Closet Afternoon Tea line, as well as a gorgeous vintage valentine kit, which we'll tell you more about a bit later.

One thing that we will be doing in months to come is to offer you a fun newsletter - we will try to offer you some inspiration from the design team gallery, as well as some gleanings, bits and pieces that we want to share with you. Each month we will select and recommend books that are in line with our theme for the month, as well as two fonts that we would recommend as good choices for use with the kits.

Today, we'd like to invite you to learn a bit about tea, the inspiration for the first of our two featured kits for January. Darling Darjeeling is a beautiful, romantic kit. Chris Wasielewski, the talented designer of Chloe's Closet at Imagination Project has taken the notion of tea and modernized it into a beautiful line of paper that is at once, elegant and rich, without being stuffy or old-fashioned. We've coupled those papers with gorgeous embellishments, like velvet alphas in chocolate from Making Memories, chipboard coasters from the Afternoon Tea line, a darling golden spoon charm from Seven Gypsies, a lovely paisley metal frame from Making Memories' Vintage Hip collection, cotton art tape, and sumptuous sheer plum pink ribbon with velvety chocolate polka dots, just to name a few of the goodies in the kit!

We also have a special small gift for you this month --- each kit contains a bag of gourmet tea courtesy of www.ineeka.com. Ineeka tea is a specialty, organic Himalayan whole leaf tea that can be found in Whole Foods Market and will also be sold through other venues in the future.

Our recommended fonts for use with the Darling Darjeeling kit are:

Tagettes by Pia Frauss (found at www.dafont.com)

http://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=tagettes

and

Thyssen J by Julius B. Thyssen, also at daFont:

http://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=thyssen_j

A lot of people think that the notion of having tea is an old-fashioned one. For many, it brings to mind grannies in antiquated gloves and hats sipping tea decorously in a very proper setting. Afternoon Tea from Chloe's Closet is brilliant;  it combines modern patterns and designs with romantic and elegant colors, bringing the art of taking tea into the 21st century.

The ritual of taking tea is actually a very beautiful and ancient one.  Legend has it that tea was discovered when the leaves from a tea plant fell into the cup of a Chinese emperor who was about to take a sip of boiled water. As the water turned brown, the emperor decided to taste it and that was the beginning of tea as we know it today!

Tea has a long and interesting history. Tea is drunk in many cultures - the Japanese savor the tea ritual, as do many other cultures. Warriors were known to drink tea for its bracening effect prior to entering battle. By the 1800s, tea rivaled beer in popularity in England. It was quite expensive and most of it was imported from China. The afternoon tea ritual was actually created by Anna, Duchess of Bedford around 1840 in England. Lunch in those days was served early and dinner was eaten around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. So the Duchess decided to partake of sandwiches and cakes with tea in the afternoon and the idea soon caught on.

There are many varieties of teas and a number of books out there if you are interested in learning more about tea. Scrapologie recommends:

Tea Time at the Inn, A Country Inn Cookbook by Gail Greco

Alexandra Stoddard's Tea Celebrations, A Way to Serenity, by Alexandra Stoddard

If you prefer fiction and mysteries, try any of the Tea Shop Mysteries Series by Laura Childs, my favorite is The Jasmine Moon Murder.

If you like to travel, there are many destinations that have fine establishments serving tea, including some wonderful bed and breakfasts featured in Tea Time at the Inn.  Even family oriented vacation destinations, such as Disney World in Orlando, Florida offer an afternoon tea. The afternoon tea at Disney can be experienced at the Grand Floridian hotel where they serve tea with finger sandwiches and pastries. They even offer character teas with Alice In Wonderland for the little ones.

We hope that you will find scrapologie's Darling Darjeeling kit to be captivating and charming, and we hope that if you haven't tried it, that you will partake in a cup of relaxing tea before you sit down to scrap with it. Make a ritual of it, brew up a pot of your favorite tea, (I always add milk and sugar and a cardamom seed for heavenly aroma) and enjoy it with some leftover holiday cookies or biscotti on your best china with a linen napkin. It's a small ritual but a relaxing and meaningful one, yet another way to nourish your soul.

Here's a mouthwatering shortbread cookie recipe to try with your tea this month. Scrapologie recommends this delicious cookie recipe from www.greatpartyrecipes.com for a delicious accompaniment to tea:

It's described as follows: This is an easy but special shortbread cookie recipe that is rolled in nuts and adorned with a maraschino cherry on top. A jewel among tea party recipes or whatever occasion calls for a special cherry cookie recipe.

Cherry Nuggets

1 cup butter or shortening
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup finely chopped nuts
24 maraschino cherries, halved

Cream the butter or shortening and cream cheese together. Add the sugar, egg and almond extract.

Sift the dry ingredients together and stir into the creamed mixture. Chill the dough thoroughly.

Form the chilled dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the chopped nuts and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press a cherry half into the center of each cookie. Bake at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes 48 cookies.

Comments

[sara]

This is amazing! Ranjini -- you do such a fabulous job putting these together.

[gabby]

such a beautiful entry, ranjini!!!

[Ruth aka alrenwald]

Ranjini, the mention of how you like to prepare and drink your tea brings back many pleasant memories for me. I lived in New York for about nine years, and while a student at NYU, I had the gift of going to school and hanging out with friends like Sateesh, Shobha, Nandini, and Asha. They taught me to put milk, a bit of sugar, and cardamon....ahhh, cardamon seeds (!) into a steaming cup of Darjeeling tea....Such memories remain so powerful as to move me on each and every remembrance of them.

[Erika Follansbee]

Ranjini, I am so behind the times. I just found out that you own this awesome kit club!! I have been a fan of yours on 2 Peas for so long, and always knew you were an incredible talent, so I am SO glad to hear that you have started a business in scrapbooking!! I've been researching kit clubs and I think I like yours as much as any of the others, so you may see me as a new customer very soon! :)

[Lisa Sanford]

Ranjini,

The history you provided about tea, is right up my alley in what I convey with Ethnic Scrapbooking. As soon as I get my paypal account straight, I'll be a new customer. I love supporting those with whom I have a kindred spirit.

Linked you to my blog too, hope it brings you much traffic.

Lisa