We were honored to host an Appreciation Tea for the Dedication of the Hospice House for Integris on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Banana Nut Bread
My mom's Banana Nut Recipe3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nut meats
4 large bananas (mashed)
Cream oil and sugar. Add eggs and beat. To this mixture add mashed bananas and flour to which baking soda and salt have been added. Stir just enough to mix. Add nuts which have been floured with 2 tbsp. flour from the 2 cups.
Divide batter 1 cup each in small loaf pans. (Makes 6 small)
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
Eric's Birthday
Eric's parents Ed and Helene Seibert flew in from Buffalo, New York to celebrate Eric's birthday with us.
Its always a treat for the family when they visit and extra special for Eric. Thank you Aunt Cindy for arranging the flights for their trip.
Eric's mom made his favorite Graham Cracker cake and Brock lit up the candles.
Brock singing "Happy Birthday" to dad.
Sweet Brock giving his dad a kiss on the cheek.Thursday, October 14, 2010
Amanda Morgan/Christopher Hughes 10-8-10
Lighted gazebo in the garden at night at Walnut Creek Chapel.
Amanda Morgan with her father
Cascade of fruit with ice bowl of shrimp.
Beautiful cake with cascading flowers.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Hotel St. Germain
Hotel St. Germain is a romantic Parisian getaway hidden like a French jewel in Dallas, Texas.
In their champagne bar tended by white-gloved butlers you can share a romantic rendezvous.
Breakfast in Bed - a guest favorite with fireplaces lit and rose petals strewn on the bed.
Originally built as a private home in 1906 Hotel St. Germain is united with its owner, Claire Heymann who was born into a family with old world French and new world Creole ties. The decor reflects the elegance of late 19th-century Paris and New Orleans.
Claire's flair for the romantic is evident in details large and small. Each of the hotel's private suites features a working fireplace, feather beds canopied with luxurious fabrics, a Jacuzzi or soaking tub and European toiletries. But the amenities do not end there. To Claire, true pampering calls for edible delights from morning to night. Breakfast, served in the New Orleans-style courtyard or delivered by room service, includes cafe au lait, fresh fruit compote and a sumptuous assortment of specialty breads and French pastries, baked fresh daily.
Its been a while since I visited this romantic hotel but it is truly unforgettable and my favorite weekend getaway.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The Abyss
One of my favorite things:
While watching a movie or reading a good book - a surprise ending.
When you can't predict how it will end - the mystery keeps you guessing and sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation. The unpredicatable twist and turns of fate. Don't you love surprises? When out of the blue - the character steps off of ordinary and dives into the abyss of the unknown - into a body of water so deep it makes her head dizzy and so intense it makes your heart beat faster as you watch.
We wonder - what will happen next?
"Now like many of my friends (in their forties), I'm discovering that Act II is much more interesting than Act I. Act I just sets the scene - who our heroine is, where she comes from, the forces that shaped her. Its in Act II that the creative tension really begins to build as her story unfolds. Act II is teeming with twists and turns as the pivitol moment of choice comes into view. Act II reveals the dramatic center of her authentic plot. What will happen next? (we ask again) How will our heroine respond? How will she change? We simply can't move into Act II until we have several decades under our belt. Hopefully, we're wiser, more-experienced, self-confident, courageous and canny. More depth and breadth to the scripts of our own destiny."
- Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how....The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
- Agnes De Mille
If given the opportunity will our heroine walk into the unknown and not be afraid to dive head first into the Abyss? I pray that we never choose safety over a leap of faith. Thats what living is all about.
While watching a movie or reading a good book - a surprise ending.
When you can't predict how it will end - the mystery keeps you guessing and sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation. The unpredicatable twist and turns of fate. Don't you love surprises? When out of the blue - the character steps off of ordinary and dives into the abyss of the unknown - into a body of water so deep it makes her head dizzy and so intense it makes your heart beat faster as you watch.
We wonder - what will happen next?
"Now like many of my friends (in their forties), I'm discovering that Act II is much more interesting than Act I. Act I just sets the scene - who our heroine is, where she comes from, the forces that shaped her. Its in Act II that the creative tension really begins to build as her story unfolds. Act II is teeming with twists and turns as the pivitol moment of choice comes into view. Act II reveals the dramatic center of her authentic plot. What will happen next? (we ask again) How will our heroine respond? How will she change? We simply can't move into Act II until we have several decades under our belt. Hopefully, we're wiser, more-experienced, self-confident, courageous and canny. More depth and breadth to the scripts of our own destiny."
- Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how....The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
- Agnes De Mille
If given the opportunity will our heroine walk into the unknown and not be afraid to dive head first into the Abyss? I pray that we never choose safety over a leap of faith. Thats what living is all about.
Listen closely...destiny is calling your name.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Fall Seasonal Tea - Indian Summer
This tea just came in today and I am already having a cup...it is delicious! Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Hot Off The Press
We are excited to announce that we are in the October issue of NW Syle Magazine.
A Spot For Tea's story is on pages 94-97
( You can click on the pictures to enlarge and use the zoom in button to read the story.)
Hitting The Spot was written by M.J. VanDeventer
Pictures by K.O. Rinearson
Children's tea parties are located in the Rose Cottage upstairs at the tearoom.
Featured section: An impeccably presented retreat for sophisticated ceremony; a wonderland for costumed play; a peaceful venue for a delectably distinctive lunch...all apt desciptors for the charming getaway A Spot For Tea, which for owner-operators Tammy and Eric Seibert is also a dream come true.
We couldn't agree more!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
My 47th Birthday
On Wednesday, September 29th, my 47th birthday...I went on a spiritual retreat. Because I think so many women need this I want to share my 2 day experience.
Red Plains Spiritual Center is run by a group of Benedictine Nuns. It is located close by in Piedmont, Oklahoma on 21 acres.
Their mission statement...to provide a safe environment where the inner journey of each person in honored.
They have a chapel and at 7:30, noon and 6:00pm they have a Benedictine tradition of lectio: reading and listening to the word. It is done by quieting body and mind, then selecting a short text and reading it slowly listening to it with "the ears of your heart" as oblate. When I participated with the Sisters we read Psalm 18.
I was given my own private bedroom and bathroom and use of the kitchen that was stocked with all good things to feed the body while you are feeding your soul. And good teas to choose from...ahhh!
There was a labryinth (a path for releasing, receiving and integrating). Unlike a maze the labryinth has no dead ends. There is only one path, and while it does have twists and turns, you can't get lost. The same path takes you into the labryinth and out again. With a labryinth you don't have to think or analyze or solve a problem. With a labryinth you just trust that the path will lead you to where you need to be.
You can sit on a bench in the middle...in the shape of a triangle which represents the Trinity.
You can just be.
I wrote a poem while I was there:
I met and had Spiritual Direction twice with Sister Melissa. On retreat we step out of ordinary time, off the gerbil wheel of endless responsibilities, away from the shoulds and have-tos I burden myself with and into what T.S. Elliott called the moment in and out of time.
May Sarton wrote in her Journal of A Solitude - I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered into pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over any encounter, and to extract its juices, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.
There is one bright star over the tree line...can you see it? I found myself looking for the river in my own life and am trying to surrender to its current. Contemplation is the prayer of quiet in which we are at home with God. We do not need words! We are simply being with God and enjoying God's presence.
Red Plains Spiritual Center is run by a group of Benedictine Nuns. It is located close by in Piedmont, Oklahoma on 21 acres.
Their mission statement...to provide a safe environment where the inner journey of each person in honored.
They have a chapel and at 7:30, noon and 6:00pm they have a Benedictine tradition of lectio: reading and listening to the word. It is done by quieting body and mind, then selecting a short text and reading it slowly listening to it with "the ears of your heart" as oblate. When I participated with the Sisters we read Psalm 18. 
I was given my own private bedroom and bathroom and use of the kitchen that was stocked with all good things to feed the body while you are feeding your soul. And good teas to choose from...ahhh!
There was a labryinth (a path for releasing, receiving and integrating). Unlike a maze the labryinth has no dead ends. There is only one path, and while it does have twists and turns, you can't get lost. The same path takes you into the labryinth and out again. With a labryinth you don't have to think or analyze or solve a problem. With a labryinth you just trust that the path will lead you to where you need to be.
You can sit on a bench in the middle...in the shape of a triangle which represents the Trinity.You can just be.
I wrote a poem while I was there:
On My Birthday (9-29-10)
On the day my mother gave birth to me
On that day forty-seven years ago
I have journeyed round the sun
forty-seven times and was unaware.
I have stopped to pause and reconnect
with the part of myself that needs silence
the soul seeing the procession of days gone by
and the leaves of autumn scattered in the wind.
September holds me in her hand
ushering in a time of new beginnings
and endings of what was familiar
once more I am whirled towards the stars
...into the unknown.
I met and had Spiritual Direction twice with Sister Melissa. On retreat we step out of ordinary time, off the gerbil wheel of endless responsibilities, away from the shoulds and have-tos I burden myself with and into what T.S. Elliott called the moment in and out of time.
May Sarton wrote in her Journal of A Solitude - I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered into pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over any encounter, and to extract its juices, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.
There is one bright star over the tree line...can you see it? I found myself looking for the river in my own life and am trying to surrender to its current. Contemplation is the prayer of quiet in which we are at home with God. We do not need words! We are simply being with God and enjoying God's presence.
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