The Perfect Solution for Sore Throats and Achiness

In a time span of 1 hour I drank more than six cups of tea! A sore throat can make a person do that, and that’s exactly why I did it. Tea has been the best solution to sore throats that I’ve found yet. I’ve tried icies in the summer, that horrible cold medicine, hot chocolate, tylenol, you name it! But when you face the warm and comforting truth, hot tea is the best. Don’t you hate it when you drink water in the morning and you’re parched, but it hurts to swallow and you can hardly force yourself to drink? If you’ve never had tea, or tried it for helping with colds you need to try it! As I’m writing this, I am happily sipping on another cup of Irish Breakfast. Let me enlighten you on my favorite teas, and things you should never eat/drink when you have a cold.

What you shouldn’t do when you have a cold:

1. Drink milk and eat any kind of dairy products. (It may taste good, but it only increases the mucus in your throat and nose, making life even more miserable.) make hot cocoa with water instead of milk, or better yet, try some tea!

2. Do not eat fatty or deep fried foods. This only hinders the immune system.

3. Do not drink Caffeinated and sugary beverages. No energy drinks, pop, coffee, or black tea. It only makes your illness worse.

How to de-caffeinate black tea!
Step one- boil your water
Step two- pour over tea bag
Step three- dump out the tea you just made
Step four- make another cup of tea with the same tea bag, except this time, drink it. 🙂

Tea For Settling Stomachs
1. Chammomile (steep for 5 minutes).
2. Ginger or Peppermint (steep 1-3 minutes)

Chocolate m&m Birthday Shake!

Homemade chocolate ice cream made in a blender, mini chocolate chips, whipped cream with chocolate drizzled on top. What more could you ask for?
I made these delicious concoctions for my little sister’s birthday just last week. Five years old and just as cute as ever!
Here are the simple directions so that you, too can surprise a loved one!

1. Blend cocolate ice cream with milk in a blender and hand mix in chocolate chips. Get it to the consistency that you like by adding more or less milk.
2. Spoon/pour into fancy sundae glasses-this is a must.:)
3. Pile on the whipped cream, drizzle on the chocolate, poke a fancy straw in, and enjoy!

Neat Pictures of Cupcake Pans and Butter

Fully Recommended Blog and Website

Fully Recommended Blog and Website

 

 

In short, this fantabulous website includes info on an adorable children’s book called Teatime Tillie! Make sure to check this out for grandchildren,  a daughter, or even a friend who likes tea. Also, if you have the least bit of interest in baking, tea, kids, or just want to get tips and ideas, check out this wonderful lady’s blog too!

Classic Teen Tea

 

Me and My mom did our second annual Teen Tea this afternoon and it was a blast! 9-14 year-olds came to eat tea party food that was specially prepared by my mom and do a super fun craft. Also to bond over a delicious cup – or two – of warm tea. My mom gave a speech about the history of tea and how it came to be. Not only did we learn but we relaxed and had a great time!

This tea party was hosted at our local library and was based on three classical books- The Secret Garden, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables. The place settings turned out beautifully!

 Flipping our fans that we made was fun and entertaining, all we needed were bustles and british accents!

 Now how to make these fine fans, you ask? It was a simple fold, a snip and tie here and there. Okay. it wasn’t that easy, but pretty close!

Fine Fan Directions: All you need is an 11 x 5 inch  sheet of scrapbook paper, 14 inch piece of shiny ribbon, a hole punch and a stapler.

1. Take the paper and flip it over to it’s white side. Fold it accordion style the short ways.
2. Bunch it back up then cut the top at a diagonal.
3. Keeping it bunched up,  take half of the layers and punch a hole about an inch from the bottom. Bunch it back up and trace the hole you just punched so that you know exactly where to punch the other half of the papers. Once you have finished that stupendous step thread the ribbon through the punched holes then spread the fan out and tie nots on each end. Make the knots loose so that they don’t slip through your beautiful holes that you made. Curl the end of the ribbons to give it a fancy  flare and staple the bottom together. Whola! You have a Fine, Fine, fan!

Is that Raspberry Cordial you see! Of course! Anne Shirley WOULD be proud! (It’s raspberry lemonade, but you’re never too old  to use your imagination right?) Macaroons sit royally beside this pitcher of Cordial ready to be delicately eaten.

Thanks for reading this post about our Teen Tea! I hope this inspired you to have your own, public or with just a couple friends. Enjoy the rest of the week!

God Bless!

StatelySweets

Pirate Party

Oh, the joy of making kids happy! Me and my mom put together this awesome party for my six-year-old little brother. With ARRGH Matey’s!! and Ships AHOY! We had a party worthy of Captain Red Beard himself!

Now let’s get to the fun part. 🙂 The hardest part were the aged map invitations that aren’t even pictured. Don’t worry, we’ll save those for the next post.

For the Sunken Treasure Cupcakes:

Vanilla base cupcakes with blue/green vanilla buttercream (the recipe is in a couple of my past posts). We had green rock candy that I bashed with a rolling pin. It worked better than I thought and relatively big chunks came off.

The Coins

 

• The coins on the other part is a different matter. It’s fondant rolled out and cut into about four inch circles with a cookie cutter and stamped with a C (do the letter of the birthday boy’s/girl’s first initial!) with normal stamps, washed with soap and water of course! To make it golden I mixed a tiny bit of almond flavor(because it’s more clear than vanilla). With Wilton brand Golden Pixie Dust. I brushed it on with a new paint brush. I used about half a bottle/container for twelve coins. The containers are also tiny. Let them dry between coats, it may take half the afternoon or more, depends how thick you apply it and how often.

I actually made homemade fondant for the first time for these coins and it was absolutely no more different than the pre-made stuff you get from Wilton-more on that later.

 

For center pieces and scattered decorations you can use anything from Little People to Playmobil or even stuffed animals!

Can’t wait to share my Aged Map Invitations with you!

Sunflower Kid Treat

This crunchy, smooth simple and quick snack for kids is yummy and cute!
And this is all it takes…
Vanilla pudding
Nilla Wafers
Chocolate chips

Pour pudding into a bowl, sprinkle chocolate chips on top then arrange Nilla wafers around the outside. Pretty easy and delicious! Stay tuned for more posts!

Amazima, or Truth in Luganda

The Apple Blossom of Spring!

You KNOW it’s spring when you start seeing buds, and flowers, and green leaves all about you! Don’t you love it when it’s all of a sudden upon you, within only a couple of days? Kind of like fall, when the leaves suddenly turn a beautiful red, yellow, or brown. But hold on a second! We’re not here to talk about fall and the upcoming school year! We’re here to talk about summer. Summer. No school. Green leaves, luscious grass, animals scampering and birds chirping – and occasionally flying into windows. A reason not to keep them that clean. (:

These are true signs of spring! We have 500 apple trees now, Zestar, Snowsweet, SweeTango, Honeycrisp, and Honeygold. MMM. MM. I’ll share some apple recipes in the fall!

Busy Break?

Well, I guess I’ve taken a break from blogging lately, but I didn’t mean too! I’ve been swamped with finishing up school for the year (yahoo!), softball everyday, and taking care of my puppy, Dublin. I’ve saved up quite a few things to blog about since my last post though, and I’ll be getting back in the game! Watch for more posts!!