Beauty of tea settings can produce a peaceful party

When it’s this cold outside, and I want to sit a minute and clear my head, I don’t reach for the coffeepot. Coffee is the fuel for the busiest part of the day, to get me out of bed or as a pick-me-up when my energy starts to flag in the afternoon.

When I want something gentle and soothing, fragrant and warming, I pour a cup of tea.

Naturally, I want my tea in a pretty cup. Isn’t that part of the ceremony?

I have a weakness for delicate porcelain, and I’m not alone. Every time I walk into an antique mall or shop, I see fragile, hand painted teacups. And there is usually someone there looking at them.

They’re hard to resist.

When my children were younger, I collected vintage cups and saucers. We would have elaborate tea parties with little sandwiches and cakes. Once, because I’d read about it somewhere, I made tiny rose petal sandwiches. My children still remember that. They may roll their eyes and shake their heads when they talk about it, but they remember it.

One day, I stood at the sink washing the cups and saucers after one of our parties. I’d been trying to think of something new, something I could do for myself while I was at home with – at the time – three small children.

I looked down at the china in my hands and realized that was the answer. I packaged delicate china cups and saucers with a silver tray, a vintage linen napkin, tea and chocolate and wrapped it all in a white hat box. I put 50 trays together and took them to a one-day antique show. Within hours I’d sold them all.

I boxed up more trays and took them to the gift shop at the Decorator’s Showhouse, a fundraiser for the symphony in the city where I lived. They flew off the shelves.

For the next few years I sold the tea-parties-in-a-box at boutiques and antique shows around the area. The same children, who had sat around the table with me sipping tea from pretty cups, helped me deliver hat boxes around the city or ship them across the country.

We scoured shops and flea markets for cups, and I even had a team of women who bought them for me.

I’m out of the tea party business now, but I still have a couple of the cups and saucers I just couldn’t bear to let go. When I feel the need for a party – and who doesn’t now and then? – I take one out and fill it with hot tea.