Laurie’s Cobalt World Blog

I really thought that I would sleep until noon today after the fun, but very exhausting weekend.  But no, I woke up the regular time.  I think a nap is in my future!

My husband says that I’m great at estimating how much time a task takes - and terrible at factoring in all of the things that will happen to prevent me from being on task.  This weekend was a prime example.

I decided to go to a church sale on Saturday morning.  I’d heard about it last year and mentally planned on it for this year, not thinking that I’d be hosting a tea party on Sunday afternoon. 

I called my mom to see if she wanted to go.  She asked my dad and then we decided to invite my sister, who turned out to be babysitting her two infant grandchildren. 

We planned to be there by 7:30 and got there at a quarter of 9:00 instead.  It seemed a waste to go to just one sale since we were by then all assembled, so we took in a few more.

Then we had a flat tire.  Then we visited a few more. 

After several more sales, we were starving, so of course we had to have lunch.

The long and the short of it is that we got home at 3:00 p.m. on the day I was supposed to be cooking up a storm!

So, I got home and got to work - in a bit of a frenzy.  Andrew put the turkey roast into the oven and tended to that so I didn’t have to think about it again.

I started to zest limes for the lime cooler cookies, but couldn’t find the zester.  My zester is one of my all-time favorite kitchen tools.  Where would something like that wander off to?  We looked and looked and then decided to go with an alternate plan.

I don’t have a grater with a zester side to it.  I’ve always used my zester that does such a wonderful job.  So, I finally used a potato peeler using a lot of outward pressure to leave the pith behind.  Then I diced and diced and diced.  It took longer, but the end product was successful.

Then I juiced 12 limes and made the dough and glaze.

We got two sheets of cookies finished and glazed before it was time to stop and get ready for a dance.  We couldn’t skip it because the club was a little low on help and we needed to be there to help break things down at the end.  (I wouldn’t want to skip it anyway.)

Not having had time to think about what kind of refreshment we could take to the dance, we decided to take the cookies displayed on the inverted thistle large pedsetal cake stand.  They were very popular.

The dance was great.  I sat out very few numbers and was exhausted at the end.  So when our friends asked if we had the time and energy to go out after the dance, which is our usual custom, we were level-headed and said that we had to go to bed and get some rest for the next day - NOT!  We went out and stayed at the restaurant until ten minutes before 1:00 a.m.  We had a great time.

However, in the morning, I had a hard time thinking, walking, and keeping my balance (no, we didn’t drink).  After a cup of coffee, which I rarely drink, I was finally able to get my act together and get on with the crazy, busy, fun day ahead.

So now, all of my great plans to make ahead, cook ahead, and have a restful Mother’s Day just attending to the last minute details turned into a cooking circus.

Thank goodness my children are older and capable - and that my husband cooks!

I started on the petits fours.  Never, ever, ever make petits fours on the day you are going to serve them.  They will devour time.  And, it ended up that they were one of the less popular items.  With a double layer of poured fondant, they are pretty but so sweet that you can enjoy just one.

My middle daughter was in charge of buttering bread.  We had a grainy, nutty bread for turkey sandwiches with cranberry mustard.  We used a marble rye/pumpernickel swirl for my favorite tea sandwiches, and we used a gourmet white bread for the cucumber sandwiches.

With the turkey, we sliced the boneless turkey roast moderately thin.  Then I mixed 1/4 cup cranberry sauce with 1/4 cup coarse ground prepared mustard.  A thin coat of the mustard on each side of the bread plus the turkey worked out nicely.

I’m a fanatic about keeping sandwiches moist, so everything was kept in bags or under plastic wrap except when it was actually being buttered or assembled.

The favorite tea sandwiches helped me find an error on my blog!  I had left out the bleu cheese from the recipe.  Luckily, I generally go to my own website and print out recipes when I cook and had done so for the tea sandwiches.  My apologies to anyone who tried them before and wondered why in the world I had suggested the recipe.  It is repaired now.  They were the favorite sandwiches at the tea, too, and not just my personal favorite.  Try them out next time you need a party sandwich.

The cucumber standwiches were a hit, too.  They were simple to make.  My daughter peeled the cucumbers, sliced them thinly and then placed a thin, but overlapping layer on the buttered bread.  Then she cut off the crusts and sliced them into dainty triangles.

We made more cookies, and began scrambling to get china and serving dishes assembled. I had used our sugar and creamer for the tea and was fretting that I didn’t have a creamer for the coffee.  My husband Andrew replied, “Yes, you do,” and pointed at the Laurie’s Cobalt World door in our home.  So I now have an Inverted Thistle pattern coffee creamer and sugar bowl.  I wonder if he had noticed that I also have a Nicole glass serving plate with handles.  I had to have something for the third plate of sandwiches, didn’t I?

So much for the rule against Laurie’s Cobalt World glass not ending up in my kitchen.  Hee hee hee.

As the hour drew near, the kitchen sounded and looked more like a kitchen in a greasy spoon during lunchtime.  We were wiping, moving, dancing around each other, and getting it all together, maybe just a few minutes late, but it seemed to work out okay.

The number one rule for a tea party is to have plenty of boiling water.  I set a large pot to boil and found it cold ten minutes later.  The kids said that sometimes you have to turn it off and on again, if the knob doesn’t click into the “hi” position right the first time.  So we tried again.  Again, it didn’t get hot.  I found that the cassette had wiggled slightly out of the socket, so it took the third time, I suppose as a charm, to get the water to boil.

Luckily, I had arranged my flowers for the centerpiece on Tuesday (I’ll be writing about how I did that pretty soon).  I had made the corsage of silk flowers on Thursday.  We beaded the napkin rings beginning on Saturday, but then I forgot that I had six not yet completed in my craft room - and remembered about 15 mintues before our guests were to arrive.  [Sign up for our newsletter to find out how to bead the napkin rings- they'll be in June's edition.]  Luckily, I had passed by the table where my husband had the napkins folded or I would not have noticed in time.

Twenty minutes before the guests arrived, I popped the apricot-cream cheese scones into the oven (seemed they could have used a touch more milk in them).  It turns out that if we had had only tea and scones, everyone would have still been most pleased.  They were by far the most popular item.  I had made the lemon curd on Saturday, woven in around making the lime cookies.  And I had purchased the double cream on Friday. 

I also served black raspberry jam and orange marmelade, but I think we could have easily skipped those.  The double cream and the lemon curd were much, much more popular.

Lemon Curd Recipe

1/2 cup butter (not margaine)
grated peel of 1 lemon
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg

In the top of a double boiler over medium high heat, melt butter.  Add the lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar.  Mix well.

Using a whisk, add the egg and egg yolks, continue to whisk and cook for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is thick and smooth.

Cool.  Place into covered containers.  Refrigerate.  Will last approximately a week in the refrigerator.

* * * * * * *

I had been disappointed that the market where I normally get clotted cream was out and I could only get double cream (clotted cream is 55% fat while double cream is 48% fat).  Clotted cream is supposed to taste better, but we all liked the double cream better. 

Before my next tea party, I want to get some small teaspoons to go with my china tea cups.  And I want to get more tea cups.  With coffee and hot chocolate drinkers, we had just enough tea cups.  But next time, we could easily run out. 

I will also skip the petits fours.  I love the currant jelly taste of them, but for the time they take and the “one’s my limit” reaction I got to them, I’m going to say they just weren’t worth it.

We also had chocolate mint lentils (they look like pastel M & M’s, just a bit classier), but they weren’t that popular.  I had meant to make brownies with pastel icing but let the weekend get away from me.  I think it was just as well.  Chocolate just didn’t seem to fit, for some reason.

I also left my carrot flowers and butterflies in the refrigerator that I had planned to use to garnish the sandwich platters.  I did remember to line the trays with lettuce (we used romaine).  That did help keep the sandwiches from drying out.  But I really would have loved to have had my flowers and butterflies, too.  (I will be posting a blog on making them later this week, so please check back.)

The tea party was a success I think.  The main thing was that my mother felt honored and seemed to really enjoy herself. 

I’m really glad that we hosted this tea party.  Next year, however, I’m taking the day off.

We’re less than two weeks until Mother’s Day and that means less than two weeks until our Mother’s Day tea.  This weekend, my number one goal was to make invitations and get them out. 

I first thought I’d look for ideas on the internet but I really didn’t find anything that I liked.  So I went to the drawing board and created my own design.  I am pleased with how they turned out.  According to my husband, the pictures don’t do them justice.  But I think you can get some ideas of what you can do with the patterns yourself.

And yes, I’m going to give you the free printable patterns for the tea party invitations.  And you don’t have to join anything to sign up to get them, either.

First, gather your supplies.  You will need the following:

- 1 sheet of decorative paper for each pair of teapot invitations, if you want to print two per page

- scraps of decorative paper to trim the teapots (may also use glitter, buttons, lace, etc.)

- 1 sheet of color-coordinating cardstock for each invitation

- color-coordinating solid paper to print the wording on  - 3 fit per page

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock for the envelope pattern

- 1 sheet of 12 x 12 colored cardstock paper for each envelope (may also be called cover stock)

- scissors

- glue sticks

- ruler

- pencil

Cut the colored cardstock into rectangles 7-3/4 inches long and 6 inches wide.  One for each invitation.

Use the teapot template and print out as many teapots as you will need for invitations.  I printed mine on the back of the paper so that I didn’t have to worry about partially showing black lines.  Also, I wanted them to have a more handmade look and feel rather than the look of something I just printed out. 

Test print the teapot.  Make sure the teapot is 5-1/8″ tall.  If not, adjust the image size before printing on your fancy paper.

Carefully cut out the teapots and use the glue sticks to attach one to each card.

Cut two small rectangles from coordinating paper (or use other trimmings).  The top band is 3-1/8 inches wide and 1/4 inch tall.  The bottom band is also 3-1/8 inches wide, but is 1/2 inch tall.  Use the glue stick to glue on the decorations.

Print the wording using this template.  It is in MS Word.  If you need a different format, email me.  The image should be around the wording and should be 2-1/2 inches tall and 4-1/2 inches wide.  If you need to adjust it, do so before you change the wording to your own.  Cut out the wording, removing all traces of the black guide.  Glue the wording onto the teapot.

You are not quite done.  You will need to make a coordinating envelope, too.

Start with the white 12 x 12 cardboard and make a template.  That will make the remaining envelopes very easy to make.

The directions may sound complicated, but if you take them one step at a time, it won’t be hard.

Near the bottom left hand corner, along the bottom, write “bottom” so that you can keep the template oriented the same way as you follow the directions.

We will start by drawing a parallelogram on the cardstock.

Starting in the bottom left-hand corner, measure 11-1/8 inches up the left side and place a dot.  Repeat on the right side, measuring up from the bottom right-hand corner.  Connect the dots with a line.  Cut on the line. 

Now measure from the bottom left-hand corner across the bottom of the paper 11-1/8 inches and place a dot.  You will repeat on the top line, but you will be starting on the top right-hand corner and measure measuring to the left 11-1/8 inches.   

Connect the bottom left-hand corner and the top left dot with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Connect the bottom right dot with the top right corner with a line.  Cut off the long, tall triangle that results.  Your cardstock will look like a square that has been pushed over just slightly.

Starting on the bottom left-hand corner, measure to the right 4-1/2 inches and also 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the bottom right-hand corner, measure up 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top right-hand corner, measure left 4-1/2 inches and 5-1/2 inches and place a dot at each location.  From the top left-hand corner, measure down 5-1/2 inches and 6-1/2 inches and place a dot in each location. 

Now here’s the hard part (not to do, for me to explain).  Imagine an unbalanced tic-tac-toe board with a huge center and small outside squares.  Connect the dots to make such a tic-tac-toe pattern, which will create a small triangle near the middle of each side.  Snip out those triangles.

(Alternatively, you can number the dots.  Starting from the bottom left and continuing to the right, 1 & 2. Then turn and go up the right-hand side and number them 3 & 4.  Turn left again and go across the top, and number them 5 & 6.  Turn left again and number the last two 7 & 8.  Connect 1 to 4, 2 to 7, 3 to 6,  and 5 to 8.)

From the top left-hand corner, measure down 1-1/4 inches and then to the right 1-1/4 inches.  Connect the dots, draw a line, and cut off the corner.  That corner is the bottom flap of the envelope.

Use the template to draw the pattern on the 12 x 12 cardstock paper (thinner than cardstock but heavier than typing paper), 1 per invitation.  To assemble, turn the bottom flap up first (the one with the tip cut off).  Fold in the right and left sides at the same times, making sure you match the tips.  Use the glue stick to glue just the outside of the bottom edges of the side flaps.  Dry completely.

If you want to line the envelope, you can line the entire back, but it makes it hard to fold unless you have some very thin paper.  I used the top flat template (down to where the little triangle cut-outs start on each side).  Then glued that triangle to the top flap, aligning the bottom of the triangle with the crease.

Fold the top over.  You may a glue stick or use a seal to close the envelope once the invitation is inside.

While I don’t think that you have to knock yourself out every time you entertain, every now and then it’s nice to pull out all of the stops and attend to every little detail.  For me, this tea party is going to be just that kind of event.

We’re still working on getting those new items ready for the website.  It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy working with the glassware. It’s so remarkable.  Some moments are more enjoyable than others. 

Occasionally we take pictures that make us laugh.  This glass was one of them. 

Do you see the tiger?  If not, look for the two white reflections about 2/3 from the bottom.  The “eye” on the right is more defined than the one on the left. 

It’s possible that you see a lion or some other animal.  But I definitely see a tiger.

In reality, this is a fancy drinking glass in the Inverted Thistle design.  A matching small juice pitcher is available.  (In fact, we will be offering many new pieces in this beautiful Inverted Thistle pattern.)  Together, they make serving your morning juice more enjoyable.  Maybe not as enjoyable as seeing the tiger in this picture, but quite enjoyable nonetheless.

NEW ITEMS

About ten days or so ago, we received 46 new styles of cobalt blue glass to add to our offerings.  All of it is American handmade glass and it is gorgeous.  I can’t wait for you to see it.  The creamer shown at the left is just one of the many pieces that will soon be available.

You may recall that in another post I said receiving shipments was like Christmas.  Let me amend that.  The first five cases or so of a shipment are like Christmas.  After that, it starts feeling a little more like work.

I personally inspect every piece of glass.  With handmade glass, small variations and small bubbles are to be expected.  Each piece is unique.  But occasionally we receive a piece with more than a little bubble or a scratch or something that’s more than a small variation, and I refuse to accept those pieces.  So basically, I’m making judgment calls on hundreds of pieces of cobalt glass.

Luckily, the craftsmen who made these items did an excellent job (it can take up to 11 different craftsmen to make one piece).  There were relatively few problems and most of the problem pieces were highly debatable.  But I had to look nonetheless.

(Well, okay, I admit I have to play with them a bit, too, holding them in the light, looking at the beautifully polished surfaces, checking out all of the detail.)

You may be wondering why you don’t see all of those new products on the website yet.  The answer is simple:  we take our own pictures of our products.  Actually, my husband Andrew does that.  And since I only get his photography services part-time, it is taking a while to work through them all.  And of course, there’s a lot of programming involved on the website.  I do that part.

I work on updating the site when he has new pictures ready and catch up on other things in between.  One of the other things we’ve been doing is testing recipes.  We make every recipe we post.  My family loves that.  Especially when we try cookies and then I say, “I want to try it again with a little salt in it.”  “Yeah!” is always the response (or some variation on that).

PHOTOGRAPHS

I received an email asking how we make the white backgrounds for our pictures.  The bright white backgrounds are actually pictures in which we digitally removed the background.  We don’t enhance the products, by the way.  They don’t need that.

The picture of the creamer at the top of the page is an example of a transparent background where we removed the background completely.

Often the deep cobalt color will cause a magenta or other colored shadow to form as the light passes through the glass objects.  In that case, it is sometimes just easiest to remove the background altogether rather than have a distracting color in the picture.

To get the almost-white backgrounds, we use a homemade lightbox.  I made it from a cardboard box, tissue paper, plastic lenses meant to cover a florescent light fixture, and shelf liner.  I made it in one long evening.

The picture of the candlestick is an example of a picture with the background left unaltered.  (It’s also one of the items that will be available soon.)

The lights on top of the light box are just small utility lights clamped onto the bottom of an old metal music stand!  The side lights are desk lamps.  Andrew uses a variety of small boxes to do some of the height adjustment on the camera. 

It’s a pretty low-tech solution.  But so far, we like the results.  I hope you do, too.

SALE ITEMS

You may be wondering about the sale items.  I moved a lot of items to the sale page and drastically cut their prices.  In some cases, the items are hard to find and we only have one left.  I cannot find a reliable source to continue carrying them.  In some cases, I’ve decided not to carry items of that type, that is, items that are not made from glass.  I had thought at one time that I might focus on the color cobalt, but I love the glass so much that I’m going to keep my focus on glass.

(Surprise! there will be a couple of red glass pieces and clear glass pieces in the new products.  I really like them.  It’s not the same level as my love of cobalt, but they are very, very nice.)

If you purchase more than $99 in sale items, I will actually be losing money since I cut the prices so much.  That’s fine with me.  Go for it.  I look forward to the opportunity to show you our outstanding commitment to customer service.  I don’t look at my business as a series of individual transactions but rather as building relationships with customers that will last for years to come.

One last thing - don’t forget that Mother’s Day is right around the corner.  We would be glad to gift wrap your purchase for you and send it directly to mom with a special note from you for no additional charge.  You know you’ve been drooling over the cobalt glassware.  Mom will, too!

Last Saturday evening, my husband Andrew and I attended a black tie gala sponsored by a local chapter of USA Dance.  The theme was “Black Tie On Broadway” and the event was attended by over 200 social dancers (and even a few competitors) from the North Carolina and surrounding area.  It was held in Greensboro, NC, at the Koury Convention Center.

We began the evening with a receiving line.  The women wore beautiful gowns, the men looked so dapper in their tuxedos.  Their friendly reception started the evening off right.

We were assigned to table 18, Spamalot.  As the usher escorted me under a decorated arch and to our table, he said that it had nothing to do with computers or spam.  I replied that I thought it was a broadway spoof of Camelot.  I think I would have rather had South Pacific or something like that, but luckily the playbill decorating my side of the table was for Wicked and not Spamalot.

The tables were decorated with clear glass bowls half filled with water in which several candles were floating.  A tall stand was placed in the middle of the bowl which rose high above the table with a playbill from a broadway show.  The colors for the even were a sophisticated black and silver.

Top hat party hats and silver stars decorated the stage where the band played.  Behind them was a huge collage of Broadway - probably 20 feet tall and 30 or more feet wide.  Broadway themed “street signs” marked the center and edge of the dance floor. 

There was a small amount of pre-dinner dancing, and then we enjoyed the live music throughout our meal.  We had the usual non-descript chicken.  I think I should have asked for the vegetarian meal.  It seems to always be better somehow.  The dessert was very attractively served in martini glasses - fruit, custard, and a whipped topping.

The main dancing for the evening was to recorded music.  Because it can be chosen to have stricter tempos, appropriate tempos for each type of dance, clear beats, no long introductions or strange endings, and can be selected from more styles than any one musical group can provide, it makes more satisfactory music to dance to most of the time.

Much of the music was chosen from among Broadway show tunes.  Hello Dolly, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, and many more caught my attention.

Andrew and I danced most of the dances, either with each other or with other partners, including my parents, our former instructions, and friends we have made through dancing.

We don’t dance the Viennese waltz (and probably never will - I can get motion sickness in an elevator).  We haven’t learned the quickstep yet, but would love to at some point.

Andrew doesn’t mambo, but I have a friend who will mambo with me.  I don’t generally like the merengue, but our first dance instructor always makes it fun.

In addition to the mambo and merengue, we danced waltzes, foxtrots, tangos, rhumbas, cha-chas, and East coast swings.  We tend to sit out boleros because our range is pretty limited there.

We were both very exhausted by the end of the dance.  I’m always starving afterward.  I don’t really like to eat much before dancing.  We made a quick trip to get a snack and then finally made it back home by 2:00 a.m.  It was quite an evening.  I can’t wait for next year.  There’s really nothing quite as magical as the annual black tie gala. 

Laurie