A alternative 75th VE day celebration, Mindful Moments 7

Hello again I am back with my 7th Mindful Moments post.

If you did not see my first post and wonder what these are do check it out here. Thank you to everyone who has been reading them. I can see from my stats that these are getting at least twice the usual traffic of my other posts, which has really inspired me to keep trying to get them written weekly if I can. I really hope you are finding them a moment to make you smile and stay mindful during these very turbulent times.

This is a long post so grab a large cuppa or even a mug!
Today is the 75th anniversary of VE day and time for us to remember victory in Europe in 1945. I love seeing the old BBC footage of everyone celebrating back then. My dear parents and their parents were a part of that historical day. I think it is also helpful to keep in mind that we will be able to look back at this pandemic one day as another piece of history.  There will not be 1 single day we can celebrate this but a time will come when we can acknowledge that this invisible enemy has been beaten.

I have been thrilled to see how many people have thought of alternative ways of celebrating today and I decided to get into the swing too. People in our road are going to sit in their front gardens for afternoon tea later so I got cake baking and printed out some posters of my Union Jack cards I recently made and put them into my downstairs windows.
How apt are my STAMPlorations stamps I used here!

Today also made me think of one person who would have really celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE day big time. That person is Rebecca, the owner of Dotty's Teahouse in Carshalton and Tea Garden in Coulsdon in Surrey. Her vintage cafes celebrate all things 1940s and I know the bunting would be out there today if she could.
I made and sent her this card to let her know how much I miss her and the Dotty family but that one day we will be back sharing a cup of tea with friends.

Who would have known in 1945 that 75 years later we would be fighting a different and very invisible enemy ie Covid 19. So many businesses have shut that it is hard to stay positive for the future but we must be. I thought that today I would also share a "virtual" celebration for Dotty's Teahouse's 4th birthday which is next week. If you are not aware this is a family run tea house which opened in Carshalton High Street, Surrey in May 2016. I replied to an advert in the March to sell my handmade cards there and met Rebecca the owner. She loved what I made and I loved what Dotty's was to become. Well, the rest is history and during these 4 years I have sold over 1,000 cards from my shelves there.

Throughout this lock down obviously both Dotty's Teahouse and her brand new Tea Garden, which opened last September, have been shut.  I really do miss Rebecca and her lovely team. I usually walk down to the Teahouse with my latest cards to put up for sale on my shelves on a Monday and Friday.

 She is managing some home deliveries though and

this is the great sign on the door at the moment.

Rebecca,  loves all things vintage and would have had a huge VE celebration today if she was open. Instead she is delivering a VE Celebration tea...what a fab idea. 

 I thought I would have a little reminisce of the last 4 years and how things have grown at Dotty's.

She opened with a grand opening in May 2016 with the Mayor cutting the ribbon.

We celebrated her 1st and 2nd birthdays in style with 40s music and dress. 

We had fun hosting a little Christmas market 2 years ago and last year I enjoyed hosting my first Meet the Maker event in the shop. 

Here I am with Rebecca.

 We celebrated last Christmas with a staff party at the new Tea Garden in Coulsdon

This is one of her displays from her new tea garden, always such fun!

Her afternoon teas are legendary and delicious. I so hope her doors are able to open very soon. 

So inspired by all this  I decided to get baking myself. I decided that in 1945 I am sure the cake of choice would have been fairy cakes if rations allowed (and perhaps dried egg too) and found that I had just enough ingredients to bake some. The cake cases are from years ago and I thought looked very retro!

I also spotted something else vintage right in front of me as I made my cakes, my scales.

These were once used at the labs where my Dad worked many moons ago in Bermondsey, South London. The firm he worked for closed down in the 1980s and was demolished and he brought them home and gave them to me. I use them for all my weighing and they are in pounds and ounces, just as I like it.  I looked up the firm, Hunt and Co. They were founded in 1861and have long ceased trading but these scales would certainly have been around in 1945. So many things would have been weighed in these, a real piece of history.

While I was looking at the scales I had a little light bulb thought that it would be really fun to serve my fairy cakes on one of my Nan's plates which were handed down to me. I mostly use at Christmas or for family celebrations. My Nan was born in 1904 and probably was bought this as part of a dinner service as a wedding present when she married in 1928.

I love the pretty pattern on it.
Here  are my cakes, just out of the oven.

I wanted to make a retro glace icing topping with hundreds and thousands on.  Luckily I had just enough icing sugar left and found these hundreds and thousands in my cupboard.

So here are my cakes all ready for my Hb and I to enjoy at our afternoon tea in our front garden at 4pm.

If my Nan was still alive she would have been so thrilled to see this and the wonderful memories evoked as I made my fairy cakes

There is surely only one quote I could share today as we remember all those who gave their lives for our freedom, it has to be these immortal words

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” » Winston Churchill

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you have taken the time to leave me, they are so appreciated.

Please keep safe, keep mindful, keep washing those hands.

For those of you in the UK enjoy all the VE day celebrations. Us Brits have a habit of making do and keeping up our spirits whatever is going on around us. We may well be hearing of some gentle easing of Lockdown on Sunday..fingers crossed we may be over the worst.  I hope so.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

With love, Jane x