So, there was this charity auction earlier in the year that I forgot to contribute to due to writing deadlines. That led to me feeling I needed to support in some other way, so I bid on a listing which sounded wonderful: a tea party with one of my favorite people, Susan Carlisle.

Susan is a tea party enthusiast and I wanted to be, except I’d never attended one outside of the one she gave at her house a few years back. That one was lovely and I wanted to experience it again. I selected a maximum amount to bid then forgot about it until the auction was over. I figured I had a good chance, but was still surprised to receive notice that I was the high bidder. Yay!

Just one catch… Susan lives in Georgia, I’m in Arkansas. The tea was offered for the time frame surrounding the RWA National Conference in San Antonio. Susan and I were both attending, but our schedules were crazy. Plus, there was the whole hot tea/Texas in July issue. Not so appealing. We decided to wait until the fall, when I would attend Moonlight & Magnolias in Atlanta, like I usually do.

  I arrived several days early for the conference. Susan and I schlepped out to her mom’s lake cottage for some writing and workshop building. It’s a lovely, serene setting, but a bit isolated, so we didn’t look like tea party types during our stay. Not to worry. We clean up.Still, no pics of us at our retreat will grace this post. Instead, I’ll show you the feathered and furred friends who visited us.

Reluctantly, we left the serenity of this place and headed back toward the Atlanta area for an overnight stay, cleanup and to re-pack for the conference. Our tea would bridge the gap between backwoods bliss and metropolitan bustle.

Tomorrow I’m sharing pictures of our tea party, the hats we tried on, delicate china, the beautiful setting and more.