I sooo needed that

You ever have a day so awesome you just feel totally refreshed?  Well that's how I felt after having a great afternoon tea with my friend, Annie.

I have always loved the ritual of afternoon tea.  A time to take a break, appreciate the little things and get back to it.  I've gone to some wonderful places for afternoon tea like Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco and The Gryphon Tea Room in Savannah, Georgia.  The spreads at both places were nothing short of amazing and I was inspired to get some fun stuff to be able to throw my own afternoon teas.  So when Annie wanted to meet for lunch, I seized the opportunity to do my first one of the year.

I was so excited to be able break out my vintage teacups I bought a few months ago.  Since the first one I did was at Christmas, these floral cups wouldn't have been appropriate at the time but when paired up with some nice hydrangeas, they look ready to welcome spring!  Since I was able to do most of my prep the day before, I was pretty relaxed before she got here.  I was thankful the Mr helped get my playlist all together so it could help set the ambiance.  The first album was the soundtrack to The Longest Week (affiliate link)  which is jazzy with great French undertones and Love Letters: The Beegie Adair Romance Collection (affiliate link) who is a great pianist that I could listen to forever.  Both are great choices so you can have something playing in the background that is soothing and unobtrusive.  (Also great choices for a Valentines dinner at home!)

Since it was mid-week, I made a healthy menu with veggies, light tea sandwiches and desserts of dark chocolate drizzled strawberries and almond stuffed dates.  It was lots of girl talk, life talk, relationship talk and everything in between.  It's also nice because she truly appreciates the effort I put into the meals I make when she comes over.  Her boyfriend said if I was making breakfast, he was calling off work because it was so good when they came over last time.  She's about 10 years younger than me but she's going into her 30's and she relies on me to give my life experiences and I rely on her to give me fresh perspective.  It was kind of funny though listening to her talk about how she and her boyfriend have a nephew who came over while they were watching a childhood VHS and he was calling it a dinosaur and had no clue what it was.  We laughed and said "welcome to the club, it only gets worse from here."  (She stayed for 6 hours so the Mr was there when she told that story.)  I always feel so much better after a visit with her.  She's one of those people that is so positive and so eager to try things.  She once saw a woman in a fitness competition, thought it looked cool and totally trained hard, did a competition and went back to life.  I love her so much, she's truly the little sister I never had.

When she left, we went down and did our workout...cardio and upper body strength.  Dinner was mahi mango tacos and green beans.  We caught up on the DVR a bit.

Have you attended an afternoon tea?  Have you thrown one yourself?

This post contains affiliate links to awesome music.

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