A Mad Tea Party

There was a table set with tea things,
and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it.
Because Carol had popped through the Looking Glass and spent a good deal of time setting a table with finery, including some very large, Chintz, floral-patterned fabric samples which she had been given to her by her friend, Dyan. Out came the china dessert plates which she had given to her mother, having purchased them on a trip to visit her Aunt Peggy in Canada one summer many years ago. She had stayed at her Aunt's lake-side cabin reading old, water-logged copies of Reader's Digest, and had been forced to endure the shenanigan's of her boy cousins who took glee in dropping frogs in front of her face as she tried to relax on the wharf extending out in to the lake.

For the tea repast, which included no actual tea, but rather a liquid of a rather more intoxicating ilk, Carol made Coronation Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches from a recipe supplied by Tea and Sympathy, a tea salon in the West Village. The sandwich uses both British and Indian flavors and was created as a way to celebrate the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Chicken-Salad Queen

Carol's party clothes:

Cacharel blouse purchased

at their shop in the Bourse Building

in Philadelphia pre-1988.

Paper-flower necklace

by Begoña Rentero of Madrid.

 The recipe which includes mango chutney,

curry powder and dried apricots.

The bread from Orwashers Bakery on the Upper East Side.

 The Tea Table.

 A boatload of cherries,

The sandwiches 

The tea party was in honor of two lovely women, only one of whom Carol had already met. This was Judith Boyd, a perfectly charming woman from Denver who not only writes a blog titled, ironically, "The Style Crone," but who also has a collection of hats so enormous that she must dedicate an entire room in her quite sizable house as "The Hat Room." 

Judith in a Japanese robe

and a froth of green tulle.

The second tea-party honoree was Jean Barrett, who is from Atlanta, and who writes a blog called Dross into Gold. Jean is a former model, and it shows as she gracefully poses with Valerie on her left and Diana Gabriel on her right. She wears a skirt, scarf and hat of her own design.

Jean models her "infinity-style"

scarf which may be worn in many ways.

Three fashion bloggers.

Flanking Judith, Jean (left) and Valerie (right)

who are The Idiosyncratic Fashionistas.

 Elegant Joyce Carpati

 Judith with photographer Feda Eid.

 Marsha Carlin on left, wearing a robe

from Viet Nam with Judith and Nonnie Balcer.

 Elke Kuhn with a great red hat

and vintage "Apple Polisher" bag.

 A gift to Carol from Judith:

a Pucci blouse.

 Debra Rapoport and Stan Satlin

Debra and Carol wear scarves which

were gifts from Jean Barrett.

One may follow our bloggers at:

The Style Crone

Dross into Gold

The Idiosyncratic Fashionistas

And Feda Eid

"At any rate, I'll never go there again!" said Alice

as she picked her way through the wood.

"It's the stupidest tea party I ever was at

 in all my life!"

À Bientôt!