Fresno Meet- First Real Meetup/Ita Alert

2014 Update: I've recognised for some time how ita this outfit was (even the day I wore it, I even felt quite off about it), but have decided finally to leave this post up to mark how far I've come since the beginning. :)

Overall, I had an amazing time at the meet up! Vanessa and I had a safe trip down to the Victorian Tea Cottage down in Clovis, where we were greeted by our lovely hostess Alisa. The salad, scones, and tea were all absolutely wonderful, and the server was fairly attentive given the number of people that she had to wait on. The tea house was filled with customers, mostly for birthday parties and other celebratory events.

I enjoyed Fresno's zoo much more than the zoo in Oakland- it was large in size, but the employees were very personable and the animals all seemed to be... Well... Much less depressed than the ones in Oakland. Shortly after we got to the zoo, Katherine, Kris, and Ami split off into another group and we meandered about separately. I missed the chance to learn more about them, but hopefully we'll meet again soon.

I was overjoyed to see that they had stingrays and anteaters (two of my favorite animals) though I wasn't able to get any good pictures of them. I would love  prints or accessories featuring either stingrays or anteaters! Though I don't usually do sweet ( I attempt sweet hime once in a while, as you can see in this post) I could certainly handle a border print of something I loved as much as I love stingrays and anteaters.

Moreover, I got so excited over the animals that I forgot to keep taking pictures of my companions. -____-'

The pixelated pictures are the result of using zoom on my camera phone.

From Left to right: me, Vanessa, Alisa, Kris, and Ami
This is the only picture where I still had my tiara on, but it was being a pain so I took it off. Dx

Apricot Tea... In this teapot I wanted to take home with me >.<
(It might have fit under my bustle, but sitting would have been too uncomfortable)

3 Delicious scones

Our whole group outside of the zoo

Alisa, Ami, and Joann

I liked the cast of the door

The first black swan I've ever seen

My derp face, censored for your protection.

Petting the stingrays! One of my favorite animals <3
Thank goodness I was wearing bloomers ._.'

Creepy

I love everyone's poses in this picture- so cute!

I thought that my wig looked so much better in person, but... This has finalized my decision to sell it. ''''>_> 

The only snap I got of Katherine

Alisa took several pictures (which were of a higher quality than mine) you can see them on her blog here.

Cookies and Camera Fail

I used a simple recipe for cranberry scones and made a few alterations. I wanted a lighter scone with less cranberries and no other fruit, so I compromised the volume of the fruit with more dough. I was dismayed to discover that all of the parchment paper had already been used and all I had was tinfoil, which does in fact make quite a bit of a difference. I also didn't have the ingredients for Devonshire cream, so I settled for a bit of butter.

When it comes to baking scones or anything with a "fluffy" texture created from butter, use cold butter and don't over mix it!!! The cold dough not only makes it easier to work with- it creates the air pockets in the scone which make it light and give it a wonderful texture. I have screwed this up many times >.>

If you over-mix something when baking, particularly something which depends upon air pockets for its' light texture, it will become thick and chewy or rubbery. No good!

Also use real non-salted butter and not margarine. This can vary depending upon what you're baking though- replacing some of the butter in a recipe with margarine can help prevent spreading and make what you're baking softer, but chilling can also prevent spreading and generally the flavor of butter is better, so I still just stick with butter. But if you are baking something like pie crust, scones, or croissants, it will make a huge difference.

The Thumbprint cookies came from another recipe I had from before. They are very easy to make, and are great for potlucks, and other events. You can avoid filling them and bring different types of preservative or filling so that people can choose what they want in theirs. Today the options were between raspberry and orange preserves and Nutella.

Served un-elegantly at work >,<

I came across this video series called "How to Throw a Tea Party : Planning an English-Style Tea Party" a few days ago while looking for some supplies for the April 9th Meet. I thought it was kind of cute, and especially useful for those who don't have any experience in preparing that sort of thing, like me.

And my attire for the day (horribly blurry picture, but anyways...):

BtSSB Blouse and High Waist Skirt, Secret Shop Socks

Plain hair because I had to go to work shortly afterwards.

Thanks for dropping by!~<3