The Rosebery - Mobile Cocktail Bar

Continuing our theme on mobile party vehicles, we've spotted the ultimate method of transportation - a British Double Decker bus converted to a fabulous roaming cocktail bar - The Rosebery Routemaster.

This roaming party bus is a restored iconic London Routemaster, with a 1930's inspired cocktail bar downstairs, and a glamorous dining room upstairs.  The upstairs section even has a hydrolic roof that raises up and opens!  It's got some handsome banquettes detailed with racing green leather and oak - a handsome background to sip on an Aviation.

It's fortified with flat screen tvs, surround sound systems, game cupboards, and a canopy that opens to provide shade so your event spill out into the surrounding greens. 

We're absolutely smitten.  May we take it on a tour of the British Estates and gardens?  Don't mind if we do....

 
Want more?  We recommend this delightful video about The Rosebery's creation:

THE ROSEBERY from London Video Reviews on Vimeo.



via VF.

Fight Club Tea Party

That's the thing about tea parties. Well-dressed women, fancy hats, steaming hot liquid, polite chitchat... if that's not a surefire recipe for brawlin' I don't know what is.

Your ladies lunch just got crazy.

So make sure to bring these, your A game and some orange pekoe and get ready to rumble.

Available here.

A Royal Breakfast

Tomorrow is the Royal Wedding - just in case you haven't received the memo. 

We're excited for all the fanfare - and wishing that we had the day off in America as well to celebrate.  We would certainly spend the day drinking mimosas out of tea cups wearing festive hats.

The Queen and Soon-to-be Princess Kate - in Hats

Loyal to our English roots, we will be up at 5 am to watch the BBC and we will be making the Queen's Scones to set the mood.

 

Queen Elizabeth made these scones in 1959 for President Dwight Eisenhower at Balmoral Castle near Edinburgh.  A year after the barbecue in the Scottish highlands, she sent the recipe to the President.  This recipe is now included  in an upcoming exhibition at the National Archives.  For more information, visit their website.

Queen Elizabeth’s Drop Scones

Ingredients
4 teacups of flour
4 tbsp of  treacle (sugar syrup)
2 teacups of milk
2 whole eggs
2 tsps baking soda
3 tsps cream of tartar
2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
Beat eggs, sugar and about half the milk together. Add flour, and mix well. Add the remaining milk as required. Mix in bicarbonate and cream of tartar, fold in the melted butter.

Drop onto baking sheet by the teaspoon full. Bake at 400 degree for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Enough for 16 people.



We love the teacup as a measuring device!  How sophisticated!

We will measure using this amazing teacup by Undergrowth::

Blaue Blume Tea Cup - Undergrowth Design

 Until the procession at 5am!

Afternoon Swoon

Coffee may rev our engines, but tea stokes our coals.

Sure, we rely on a strong pull of Joe to retain consciousness every morning, but tea exists in a more rarefied faction - it is a splendid treat, a soul salve. Throw in a book and a plate of warm toast, and you have yourself a heavenly afternoon.

Leave it to the French to take a traditional English elegance and elevate it to sublime extravagance. We have long known that Mariage Frères teas live in a separate dimension of lovely - the first time we sipped a floral cuppa Marco Polo was a religious experience. But such euphoria does not come cheap, and while our hearts pine for that black and gold tin, our wallets have opted for Twinings.

While we've been making do with our daily Lady Grey, Mariage Frères devised a devastating aesthetic attack, courtesy of the most gorgeous repackaging design. And now we need to earmark a monthly tea budget. Witness:

Yellow Lacquer Thé de Pâques Cylinder

Easter brunch, anyone?

Glass Marco Polo Bell Jar

Our first MF love, dressed up in dapper new duds.

Glass Black Magic Canister

Orange Lacquer Very Magic Tin

We believe in Magic.

Empty Purple Lacquer Box

Not a tea fan? Blasphemy. But we'll still allow you to have this precious empty tea box to keep your loveliest things in.

We're ladies - we drink tea, and we know our manners.

Mariage Frères

Lladro Equus

Oh man do we have the wants.

This gorgeous tea set by Bodo Sperlein has us wanting, craving, lusting for excuses to have tea parties...or just to spend all day staring at this exquisite totem pole in celebration of everything equine. 

Why, hello there gorgeous.

You seem to have a leg up on things..

Mind giving me a hand, I mean hoof?

In the words of the designer:

The collection is inspired by the beauty and elegance of the horse’s physique. The streamlined forms of the horse in gallop convey power and beauty. Horses’ heads and legs used in the pieces are tactile and entice the viewer to explore.

The equestrian legs create handles that are very comfortable to hold. Animal forms have historically been a strong influence in art and design, the natural world inspires ideas and endless combinations. Horses have been central to human culture – they have been a recurring motif in art and design for centuries. The range includes tea sets, and accompanying dishes.

We also adore the other pieces of the Lladro Equus collection, which we think will improve our ability to concentrate on our reading material.

A set for the desk.

We can't seem to find our lust worthy totem on their webshop, but there are many other delicious pieces to crave.   

Hot Body Toddy

Now there's a girl who loves getting in hot water.

As Miss Emma Emerson recently showed us, tea parties aren't just for kids anymore. Host your own by getting your lips on the Naked Girls tea set by Netherlands-based illustrator Esther Horchner.

a classy alternative to these

Featuring delicate line drawings of girls in various stages of undress, Horchner's playful tea set would be great for your afternoon Earl Grey. But given the season, we think these girls would look even better taking a dip in some brandy too, don't you think?

Don't forget the sugar.

Available now, at The Future Perfect. For more examples of Miss Horchner's work, check out her delightful website.

Cheeky Tea Set

Perhaps it's about time to Bring Back Tea Time.  Crumpets, Butter, Cucumber Sandwiches, Petit Pastries, Milky Tea, and Delicious Gossip. 

And we know the perfect tea set for a proper modern lady:  this amazing tea pot with matching creamer and sugar bowls in the form of lips.

4:00 Tea Time Ladies - wear your finest lace gloves and largest hat.

For Your Walls

Efrek Elie, the Tel Aviv-based designer and photographer behind "Petek Design," has created a series of great foodie posters for hanging in your breakfast nook, above your coffee table and even your bedroom. She's offering a 10% discount for the holidays through her Etsy store. Happy shopping!

Breakfast Is Power, $29

Spooning, available in a few colors and sizes, $14.50-69

Two for Tea, available in a variety of sizes, from $29-59

Dishes I'd Rather Be Doing

Well isn't this just the greatest tea towel ever?



Let's take a closer look...

Exhibit A: George "I don't get older, I just get better" Clooney

There's also:

Jake Gyllenhaal, "So manly he's happy to play a gay dude!"

Owen Wilson, "aka The Butterscotch Stallion"

Johnny Depp, "His cheek bones are so high you can see them from space"

Brad Pitt, "Cuter than a fluffy kitten kissing a tiny duckling wearing a pink bow"

Seriously, we'll volunteer to do these dishes any night.

This fabulous tea towel and other really sweet treats like totes, posters, and snarky award ribbons by DearColleen on Etsy.

Punning Around

Our friends over at Eat Me Daily introduced us to Smiling Squid on Etsy. We're loving their punny illustrations.

Wonderland: "A cacophony of flavours entering your mouth"

At the UK press conference for Tim Burton’s highly anticipated Alice in Wonderland being released this Friday, March 5, Anne Hathaway indicated that Nigella most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world-Lawson, inspired her portrayal of the off-kilter White Queen. “Nigella's always talking about 'a cacophony of flavours entering your mouth'. I wanted to give [the White Queen] that sensuality in the kitchen." She has a full-blown kitchen scene, in which she cooks a magic potion using only her amputated fingers.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Burton said, "I quietly had her as my image for this character... She's really beautiful... but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe, I don't know."

We’ll see you at the IMAX for what will certainly be a trippy ride with an incredible cast of characters: Burton cast Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, and the relatively unknown Mia Wasikowska as Alice. Alan Rickman is the blue caterpillar, Michael Sheen (who we loved in Frost/Nixon) is the White Rabbit.

Strap in your boots, and hold onto your butts.

Without further ado, a clip from the tea party scene, followed by the full-blown trailer:

...

They're Eating a Cupcake, I Think

Ulah Crossing the Delaware

Your hostesses, Emma Emerson, Daphne Duquesne and Ariadne Ax, wish to welcome you to Gastronomista, a celebration of women, flesh and food. We'll be scouring our resources in the worlds of film, design, architecture, books, lithographs and art, to highlight unusual and wonderful sources of the experiences of eating that we love as women.

Our very first post is an homage to an extraordinary New York photographer Lynn Bianchi, whose photographs embody all we are aiming for here: real women, eating food.

Tea Party

Tea Party II

Servitude

Keep Your Fat Under the Table

Wave

In a word: A-maz-ing.

Thank you, Lynn Bianchi.