Father's Day is looming large on June 20th and is the perfect time to honor our dads or father figures. We often forget in our busy lives to tell the important people in our lives how much they mean to us. Shouldn't take a special day, but any excuse is a good excuse!
    We have put a number of items on sale for Father's Day including antique pocket watch fobs and cufflinks, an 18kt Swiss wristwatch and other masculine items which are reduced 15% until June 18th.
They can be seen at this clickable link to our Father's Day sale category:
http://www.antiquesandteacups.com/Fathers-Day-Sale_c_89.html

****************************************************
2.  FUN FOCUS--THE LAKE DISTRICT WEBSITE
   There is an area of Northern England and Cumbria called the Lake District, because (wait for it!) there are a lot of lakes there. A favorite inspiration for English poets, the Lakes or Lakelands arebeautiful almost any time of year, but I always prefer spring because daffodills are one of my favorite flowers. Wordsworth was especially appreciative of the spring and daffodils and lived at Dove Cottage, now a wonderful museum.
    I found a fabulous interactive website for the area recently while researching for my next annual month's buying trip. It has wonderful photos, lodging, attraction and activity links, and where else can you download a game where you can pretend to be a sheepdog and pen sheep!
Give it a visit and herd sheep at the section of the site on the right called Interactive Guide. Wallpapers, ringtones & games…including sheepherding! Visit this clickable URL:
http://www.golakes.co.uk/

************************************************
3.  FEATURED--SUGAR TONGS

    No tea table should be without these elegant little utensils. It's worth searching the shops for Demerara sugar cubes just to use them, even if you don't put sugar in your tea!
   Until Elizabethan times, all sugar came from the Indies and arrived in large and very expensive, sugar loaves or cones. By the 1700s, taking tea became more popular and sugar bowls were added to take lumps that had been broken from the large loaf or crushed into usable pieces.
   The first designs were smaller versions of the fireplace tongs used to pick up coals and embers. Scissor-type tongs appeared around 1740. By the late 1700s to early 1800s the U shaped familiar shape emerged and were called spring type because they gripped and then sprung back into shape. Designs went from fancy in the victorian to streamlined in the art deco period, but no tea table could be without some form of sugar tongs whether sterling silver, silver plate or chrome. They are a wonderfully affordable collectible as well as an elegant utensil for any tea table!
   See our selection at Time Was Antiques:

http://www.antiquesandteacups.com/Sugar-Tongs_c_17.html

**************************************************
4.  TEA RECIPE OF THE MONTH--BUTTERMERE BISCUITS
  This is a tea recipe from the Lake District I found. Lovely!

BUTTERMERE BISCUITS

1 cup flour
4 oz, 1/2 cup or 1 stick of of butter
1/2 cup sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2 level tsp of baking powder
1 large egg, beaten
pinch of salt
pinch of ground cinnamon
2 oz currants, washed and dried

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour and salt into a medium bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs with a pastry blender of 2 forks. Add the sugar, currants, lemon rind, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix in the egg with a fork. Knead the mixture with your hands lightly. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a fluted round biscuit cutter. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until pale brown. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 30. Wonderful with butter, jam and cream!
**************************************************
Remember, our previous customers are always eligible for our Returning
Customer 10% Discount. Just write RETURN in the comments area.

questions, suggestions and or comments. Email us at sales@antiquesandteacups.com