Woo – our Traveling Teacup is off again – this time for some fabulous tea and scones! She’s the guest of lovely Melody, who I met at the state fair table setting competition last month. We hit it off immediately, and even though she and her table-mate won the coveted People’s Choice award, we’re still friends! 🤣 Melody invited Tessa Rose to visit her in Harrisburg, OR, not too far from Portland, where I live.
Melody runs a business called Two Mums Takeaway Tea Boxes – monthly curated homemade takeaway boxes with cream tea and scones. Doesn’t that sound fabulous? And TR arrived just at baking time – I’m so jealous!
It’s been quite a while, so before we jump in, let’s catch up with the Traveling Teacup’s previous journey.
Back to the beginning
If you’re just joining us and don’t know what all this Traveling Teacup business is about, here’s the place to start: the photo challenge of May 2020.
Our teacup was named Tessa Rose (or Rosie, TR, etc.) by her hosts, and traveled pretty non-stop for over a year! Here’s the last post of year one, complete with map, if you want to see all the exciting places she went that first year.
After that, the map was getting pretty full, so we started another for year two, and she continued her journey with these places:
- A gorgeous farm in Estacada OR, the home of brilliant blogger, table stylist, and entrepreneur Renae Frey.
- An exciting train ride to Santa Fe NM with the always fun and creative Albuquerque blogger, Jeanne Washburn.
- Amherst OH and the home of talented tea loving Renaissance Woman and Mantel and Table reader, Valerie.
- A Stop in Ooltewah, TN over the Memorial Day Weekend to visit Lilly, a nursing professor and fellow tea lover.
- A lovely tour of Paducah KY with fabulous cook, writer, and food & lifestyle blogger Leslie Watkins.
- Montz LA for a visit with Tracie, who shared her beautiful home, even in extra rainy weather.
- Largo FL to share a great new Halloween tradition with Corrine and her new husband.
- Historical St Mary’s City, MD as a guest of Tammy, lovely author of the White Lilac Farmhouse blog.
After that she took a long break, until the fabulous tea and scones visit with Melody that we’re going to read about now.
Stop #9 ~ Tea and Scones with a beautiful baker
As I mentioned, Melody doesn’t live too far from me – about 95 miles almost straight south from Portland. But it’s all the way across the country from her last stop!
Melody wrote a wonderful story of her visit for her Instagram and Facebook readers, which I’ll just give you straight out – it’s thoroughly entertaining. And delicious!! Take it away, Mel!
The people you meet at the fair!
Some of you may have heard (or read) that a friend and I entered the table decorating competition at the State Fair this year. While we were setting up our table we started chatting a little with one of our neighbors, Barbara, who had also entered the competition. Through the course of our conversation we learned that Barbara has a lovely blog called Mantel & Table all about entertaining and table decor. It’s quite lovely. You should definitely check it out. I certainly did when I returned home from setting up our table that day and as I was clicking through her posts I came across the story of her Traveling Teacup, Tessa Rose. What a delightful idea!
This little beauty of a teacup and saucer had been gifted to her during the quarantine by a friend. She had the wonderful idea to have some of her fellow bloggers and readers host the little teacup for a visit and record some fun adventures they had while Tessa was with them.
Oh my gosh! I HAD to get in on this so I immediately emailed Barbara and asked to be added to the hosting list. If you’ve seen my wall o’ teaware then you know this was right up my alley!
Tea and scones delayed
Well, Tessa Rose arrived Sept 10th carefully packed in her box.
Unfortunately, I had just contracted a head cold so she had to remain in quarantine herself for the first week she was here to avoid my germs. Thankfully, the cold didn’t last any longer than that. I was back to health again and just in time too as it was SCONE WEEK!
Here at TwoMums, tea and scones order fulfillment week is quite a busy one with shopping and baking galore, but Tessa occupied herself making friends with all the other lovelies on my shelf.
She developed quite a special affinity for my Haviland Limoges cup, Monsieur Moustache. I don’t blame her at all. He cuts quite a nice figure, doesn’t he?
She made several new friends including the lovely Shelley in all her purple finery, Gracie and several of her friends, the delicate Limoges triplets, and a bonnie English Sadler displaying Brigadoon (love that accent!) Also, a pair of beautiful depression glass cups, a gorgeous Sadler cube teapot in a lovely shade of aqua blue, the perfect garden party teapot with its matching sugar and creamer. Here’s Tessa with an adorable tiny Johnson Bros. teapot called Goldendawn. Don’t they make quite the dashing pair?
Tessa even tried her hand at posing on the cup shelf right between the lovely Miss Clare and Royal Prince Albert. I think she fits in quite nicely
The baking and tea drinking commence
Meanwhile, I’ve baked a ridiculous amount of delectable Apple Cinnamon Scones for all my tea and scones customers and it’s now time to pack their boxes and get everything ready for pick up day.
Things move so quickly on box prep day that Tessa stayed over on the tea counter trying to narrow down which tea to sample (there are soooo many to choose from.) But she settled on giving Lord Kensington a try, since he was featured in this month’s tea and scones box. He sounded quite debonnaire and delicious. Monsieur Moustache went for the Fortnum and Mason, as he often does. To each their own.
My hands are always quite full and I’m on a bit of a tight deadline when we’re packing boxes so there aren’t many photos, but Tessa jumped in to help with the last couple. There’s a lot of attention to detail in this business.
Choosing the tea and scones short list for next month
Tessa was fascinated with the process! And as a reward for all our hard work, we enjoyed some of the delicious tea and scones with cream together as we discussed ideas for next month’s flavor of the month. She had several good suggestions, and I think we might have narrowed the choices down for recipe testing week. But I’ll keep those a secret until then.
(Spoiler: the pumpkin snickerdoodles didn’t make it to recipe testing week… maybe another day)
For now, it’s time for bed. Tomorrow is tea and scones pick up day and we need to be up early and ready for everyone to stop by for their tea boxes!
Recipe Testing Week
Recipe testing week is here! There’s always quite a buzz about the different recipes in the line up. The family all eagerly await their turns to cast their vote for the best tasting options. This week we’re deciding between a cinnamon bun scone and a maple-glazed pumpkin scone.
Tessa decides on sampling Harney and Sons’ Paris tea while waiting for the water to be ready. It’s delicious.
We have taken all the votes into consideration and, after sampling each one, have decided the featured scone for October will be the maple-glazed pumpkin scone!
AND I’ll also be offering those delightful MAPLE snickerdoodles as an add-on option. Yumm!
A lovely visit!
Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Tessa Rose. She is an absolute delight. I’m so glad to have met Barbara and that she was kind enough to let me host the famous Traveling Teacup.
Here’s to new friends and taking tea together. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
What a totally fabulous visit! THANK YOU Melody for being such a wonderful host, and treating Tessa and us to your fabulous baking! I wish I lived close enough to get my own takeaway tea and scones boxes!
You can visit Two Mums on Facebook at Two Mums Tea, and on Instagram at Two Mums Tea.
Teacup Shopping
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Pin the Tea & Scones post for later!
Have a lovely Teacup Tuesday!
Barbara, what a delightful visit for Tessa Rose! Those maple scones sound delicious~it’s time for me to make some soon! I always love your traveling teacup and nice to see there is a round 2 map! Thanks for sharing. So civilized.
Ha – it IS civilized, isn’t it? That’s a great term! Yes – You teacup hosts really do a great job – and I’d love to try some of Melody’s scones. I think TR had donuts with you, didn’t she? She gets all the yummy treats! 😊
What a fun and varied journey for little Miss TR!!! Geez…she’s been to more places than I have!😂😂😂 This is a great way to meet new people – even if it’s just virtually – and to get a sense of how different people employ the same piece in their creativity.
Ha! I know – I’d love to follow along after her and see all those cool places and actually meet her hosts in person! It’s been so much fun! Thanks so much for stopping by Alycia! 😊
I was so happy to see that Tessa Rose is back travelling again – I really missed that teacup’s adventures. I hope TR will be going on more adventures now!
I was born in England and raised on tea so tea and scones brings back great memories of me with my Grandmother. She would have scones, tea cakes, biscuits (cookies), and crumpets. When I came to America she let me pick something to remind me of all that – I chose a gorgeous honey pot not knowing it was a treasured gift from her husband who died young. She never let on.
Hi Pam – so nice to see you! I missed TR’s adventures too. I’m so glad Melody had time to host her! How fun that you were born in England! I bet you know all about scones and tea! And what a wonderful gift your grandmother gave you. I’m sure she knew that you’d treasure it as she did, and even more now that you know the story. 💛 Thanks so much for stopping by – take care till next time!
Yay!! TR is out and about again and I’m so happy to see this. I love her travelling adventures and what a lovely stop she had with Mel. The shop looks so cool and what a fabulous collection of tea cups she has. I absolutely adore Monsignor Moustache and that has to be the coolest tea cup I’ve ever seen (next to TR of course). Happy fall to you and happy travels to TR!!
Isn’t that great?! I was so excited when Mel asked if she could host. I’m right there with you about Monsignor Moustache – I’ve never seen anything like that before! He’s definitely as cool as TR! 🤣 Take care till next time!
I love the idea of a traveling tea cup and saucer! What fun! I enjoyed seeing Tessa Rose’s visit to Melody and learning about her business and seeing her wonderful tea cup collection display.
So glad you liked it, Pat – it’s been so much fun! Thanks so much for joining us. I’m going to pop over to your blog for a visit very soon. Hope you’re having a lovely fall in the meantime!
Tessa Rose had a lovely visit not so far from home with no jet lag involved. This is a beautiful post and I enjoyed getting to know Melody and her wonderful business. The scones look delicious and I know TR was delighted to be in the company of all things tea. Wishing you a fabulous autumn, Barbara!
Hi Pam! Yes, this was a particularly delicious-sounding visit! 🙂 Isn’t that the coolest idea for a business? I keep saying I wish I lived closer so I could get on the tea box pickup list. Hope you’re having a lovely fall too – take care till next time! 💛🍁
Oh yes, another awesome adventure with our beautiful Tessa Rose. And Melody is a delight too – and what a NEAT business she has!
I always appreciate these fun stories, again, thank you Barbara!!!
Hi Michele – wasn’t this a good one? You hosts are so much fun! 😊 I so wish I lived close enough to pop over to Melody’s and get some of her scones and tea boxes. Maybe I’ll have to make the drive someday. Thanks so much for being here – I sure appreciate you! 💛
What a delightful story, no pun intended, i always enjoy reading the adventures of Tessa; sounds like the title of a novel (LOL). Thank you once more Barbara for sharing with us,
Ha – that would be a GREAT novel – I could imagine all the chapters! 🙂 So glad you stopped by Edmee! Hope you’re doing well out there and enjoying the fall so far! 💛
So glad Tessa Rose is travelling again! The first time I heard of her adventures I thought that was the most brilliant idea ever!
Isn’t it great that she made another trip? I just love seeing what fun her hosts get up to, and Melody’s visit looked and sounded so delicious, didn’t it? 🙂 Thanks so much for joining us on the journey, Marieza! Happy Fall!
Sounds like a wonderful visit. I wish that I could have joined Tessa Rose.
Me too! 🙂 I love that you previous hosts continue to follow along! 💛 Hope you’re having a great week out there on your beautiful farm!
I am so happy to see our lovely Tessa Rose (yes, I feel I know her well enough to claim to be a friend) out and about again. What an amazing visit to Melody and her delightful business. I really enjoyed seeing the various tea cups as well, especially Monsignor Moustache – which is the most amazing tea cup I have ever seen! Too bad we can’t smell or taste her lovely scones through the computer, as they looked yummy. Another successful and interesting visit for our traveling tea cup!
Valerie! You definitely ARE a friend! She had a great time at your house! 😊 In fact, I was reading that post recently, and marveling again at how many fun things you and your husband do. I’d love to come see your backyard wildlife habitat someday. Isn’t Monsignor Moustache gorgeous!? I love all Melody’s names for her teacups – just like storybook characters. So sweet of you to stay in touch, and if you ever figure out that Scones-through-the-Screen thing like Willie Wonka, be sure to let me know!
Such a fun adventure for Tessa Rose! I loved reading about Melody’s creative business and seeing her beautiful tea things! How nice to include your new friend in your tea cup traveling group! I hope you and Melody will be able to get together occasionally since she doesn’t live to far away. I am part of the bloggers Tales of the Traveling Tote group, and we have so much fun visiting each other virtually and sharing our tales, and made invaluable friendships just like your tea cup group~
Hi Jenna! I know – getting to know everyone is my favorite part of The Traveling Teacup! You must have so much fun with your Traveling Tote too – it’s such a fun thing to be part of. Thanks so much for popping by! Hope you’re having a lovely week.