The Traveling Teacup Revealed Her Secret at a Terrific Tea Party

Who knew Tessa Rose even had a secret – but our Traveling Teacup revealed it on this trip! As is the case with a lot of revealed secrets, this one came about out of necessity. It’s one of those frustrating yet funny stories, however she did eventually get to share a terrific tea party with her lovely host Marsha and the ladies of the Wooster First Baptist Church!

I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but first let’s catch up with her earlier adventures.

How it All Started

It all started in May of 2020 as a photo challenge, The Exciting Beginnings of the Traveling Teacup. Our teacup set off to visit an original six hosts, which quickly increased to ten, then 15, and onward! In that first year she was named Rosie, Tessa, then Tessa Rose (TR for short,) by her hosts.

You can follow her first year’s travels at this post. Then she started off on her second round of travels.

May 2021 and Onward –

• 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 M&T reader Corrine and her new husband.
• Historical St Mary’s City, MD as a guest of Tammy, lovely author of the White Lilac Farmhouse blog.
• Harrisburg OR to bake some delicious scones with beautiful Melody at Two Mums Takeaway Tea Boxes.
• The amazing Montana ranch of entertainer extraordinaire, Alexis, a long-time M&T reader who’s become a great friend.
• Azle TX with wonderful reader Dolle and her beautiful teacup, Dainty Rose, for tea and friendship.
• Danville CA as the guest of wonderful blogger MaryJo at Master “Pieces” of my life.
• A holiday dessert party in Acton MA with the talented interior designer Janet Lorusso of JRL Interiors.
• An amazing Nativity Festival hosted by Kate Philabaum, Director of the HeART Gallery in Toledo OH.

Next Stop – Wooster Arkansas!

Then – onward! 810 miles southwest of Toledo to the town of Wooster AR. TR has crossed over Arkansas a couple times in the air, but this is her first stop here.

And also her second stop!

Which brings us to the secret that the Traveling Teacup revealed – she’s really twins!

The Traveling Teacup Revealed Her Secret

Let me tell you the story — you know part of it if you’ve read the original post, but I’ll start at the beginning.

Once upon a time in the deep dark past of 2018 or 19, one of my dear friends gave me two beautiful teacups. She told me that if I didn’t want to keep them, I could give them to friends. Send them traveling, as it were!

I definitely wanted to keep one, and I gave the other one to my sister-in-law (SIL) who is my spiritual china and crystal sibling! (Here’s TR’s twin on her first day with SIL.)

Just after that, I got the idea to actually send my teacup traveling. As I say, the schedule filled up quickly, and hosts were waiting for the teacup to arrive at two week intervals. There was no time to dilly dally.

She traveled on steadily for a couple months, and then – a stop!

Lost!

No word from host #9! I could tell TR had been delivered per the USPS website, but after that – email silence! I was afraid something bad had happened to our host, but had no other way to reach her.

Besides being worried about our missing host, I was worried about our future hosts, and about the post that readers were waiting for the next week.

SIL Saves the Day

So, at the last minute, my SIL stepped up and volunteered her teacup to be Tessa Rose 2! She heroically took some pictures, we wrote about the visit, and the post got out on time.

Then she sent TR 2 along to the next scheduled host, and the journey continued! All the hosts from that era knew what was going on, but we didn’t mention it in any of the posts.

The Traveling Teacup Revealed a Cozy Life in the Garage

And then many weeks later, I got an email from our original host #9! I was thrilled to hear from her, and to know that everything was ok. Life had just gotten crazy, as it does, and she told me what had happened.

It seems that life was starting to get crazy for host #9 just before TR 1 was scheduled to arrive. Our host was out in her yard when the mail carrier delivered the box, and she set it aside in the garage while she finished her gardening. And then life got totally crazy! You know how that goes – no time to read email, no time to do anything but the essentials.

The Traveling Teacup Becomes Twins

I had kept trying to reach her, and when her life calmed down enough to be able to get back to her computer, she saw all my emails. She remembered about that teacup box, ran out to the garage to rescue TR 1 – still in perfect shape – and got her back to me right away. A happy ending for that long story, and now I had two Tessa Roses!

There were only a couple times when they were both traveling at once. And since they were never in the same room together, nobody ever suspected they were twins!

The Trip to Arkansas

And now we come to Marsha and her excellent tea party! We had had this visit on the calendar for months. Marsha’s church was having a ladies’ tea near the end of January, and she asked if Tessa Rose could join them! It was a perfect arrangement.

I sent TR 1 out in plenty of time, but she didn’t get there. Marsha and I kept checking the USPS tracking, but she seemed to be stuck in Little Rock! The tea party was getting closer and closer and still no sign of delivery. The post office told me there was nothing they could do, but if it still hadn’t been delivered in 30 days, I could file a claim! While that was nice, it wasn’t going to get the job done.

So at the very last minute, I popped TR 2 into a FedEx box and overnighted her to Marsha. FedEx came through and she got there just in time to spend the night, and join the tea party the next day!

Arrving at Marsha’s

Marsha got this first-night photo of TR on her lovely table, given to her by her daughter.

The Ladies of Wooster Baptist

After all that, it was a joy to see her at the tea party! Marsha told the ladies about TR’s adventures so far, and they took this group photo of everyone at the Women’s Winter Tea Garden. Even that very young future tea lover in the back row, 2nd from the left!

Tessa Rose was the guest of honor!

Marsha says:

The teapot book was part of the church celebration. Tessa Rose was a special part of the program. I gave them the background about her and you and your website as well. They were very interested in all the history of the traveling teacup.

It looks like a lovely time was had by all!

The Twin of the Traveling Teacup Revealed, and a Visit with Family

And of course, you know that as soon as the tea party was over, TR 1 was finally delivered! The twins were in the house at the same time! A perfect opportunity for Marsha to share them both with her family. She was hoping they could all get together, but people are busy with exciting things! Marsha said:

I hope to be able to have my 4 granddaughters & 3 daughters visit me to take a picture with both tea cups before I send them back. One granddaughter is in college at the University of Arkansas and one will be going soon to Italy on a college internship as a Senior student at George Mason University, so it may be hard to get everyone together.

She was able to get a picture with one granddaughter, Avery.

And one daughter, Stephanie, & granddog Jake.

Isn’t that so fun?! I’m so glad Avery, Stephanie, and Jake got to share in the visit too, and that the Traveling Teacup revealed her secret so we could finally see the two teacups together!

Thank You Marsha and the Ladies of Wooster First Baptist!

Thanks to the ladies of Wooster Baptist for sharing their tea party with our Traveling Teacup!

And thank you SO much to Marsha for not only being a fantastic host, but for her boundless patience with all the delivery drama!

Tessa Rose still goes traveling whenever she gets an invitation, so if you’d like to have her visit, feel free to let me know in the comments below, via the contact page, or send me an email to barbara@mantelandtable.com. I’m sure the delivery will be much smoother next time!

Thanks so much to you for joining us!

Barbara’s Boutique Recommendations

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