Cottage and Tea

Cottage and Tea

Clementine Hopkins is a 32-year-old Human Resources Director who is somewhat introverted. Although Clementine lives in the present, she is captivated by The Victorian Era.  She loves the clothing, vocabulary, furniture, old books, right down to the mannerisms.  Her love for Victorian style, vintage, and antique things are unquestionable. Clementine is particularly interested in The Victorian Era, the period that matches the reign of England’s Queen Victoria from 1837-1901.

 Now that Clementine has started to seek out American Victorian Style Homes dating back to around 1840-1900 for purchase, she is on a mission. She knows that homes like this will be somewhat expensive to buy, but this is her goal and her dream; although she would be just as happy with an Old English Style Cottage somewhere in the country or somewhere with a country-like feel.  Clementine has become so obsessed that she has to have everything just right with all of the little trimmings. On Saturdays most of her time is spent at Antique Stores, Antique Shows, State Sells, Resale Stores, and Vintage Shops; she’s in love.

Over the past 2 years now, Clementine has purchased so many things she has rented a storage space; her apartment is too small to accommodate all that she has accumulated for her dream home. Clementine has planned to sell all of her current modern furniture when she’s ready to move. She has exquisite taste in the modern era as well as the Victorian Era. One of her favorite things she’s purchased is her English Royal Albert Bone China Tea Set which dates back to about 1930. Clementine is so proud of it, it has 4 teacups and 4 matching saucers, a sugar bowl, a creamer dish with a lid, a teapot with sprout and lid, and a carrying tray. Clementine is planning to eventually have a Formal Tea at her house warming. 

Its spring and May flowers are blooming Clementine’s on her usual spring vacation this time every year for 2 weeks. Up bright and early, the first day of vacation, she’s so excited because now she can put all of her focus on her mission. Of course, she had to look the part, you would think Clementine stepped straight out of Buckingham Palace. She wore a white hat with matching white gloves, a thin sheer turquoise neck scarf with a small Victorian pendant, a white clutch style purse underneath her arm, a beautiful white and turquoise flowered dress with tiny flowers in the pattern, and white high- heeled shoes. Clementine had 3 houses lined-up for today and 2 for tomorrow to look at, these are fixer-uppers and are considerably cheaper to purchase. Clementine had been looking at listings for old historical homes and English Cottages for a while now.

 All 3 of the homes today ranged from eight-nine thousand to one-hundred forty-two thousand this was very good Clementine thought. The next day off she went to look at the 2 country cottages one, in particular, she was very impressed with; this one was well within her budget and didn’t seem to need too much work. The asking price for this one was one hundred fifty thousand, very good location, big garden, and it seemed easy enough to manage. So, she let the real estate agent know that she is interested in the property. The cottage has 3 bedrooms, 1 and a half baths, a large kitchen, a large living room with a fireplace, a screened-in back porch overlooking the garden area, it was breathtaking, really quite beautiful.

Now that the process was on its way with her waiting to see if she would be approved to buy the cottage, she had already started looking into seeing how much it would cost for minor repairs; the cottage was in very good condition. Considering she had been saving for a while, she was willing to put down twenty-five thousand dollars on the cottage of she still had to take into consideration the cost of repairs. Now this cottage is in North Carolina in the country, in a small town called Victoria, what a coincidence; she knew this had to be a sign, this was meant to be. Now, this would mean she had a long commute back and forth to work, like about 45 minutes each way; but it was worth it to her. 

Magic

Clementine could feel something magical in the air, she was up singing and dancing in every morning on this vacation time. Now its show time, Clementine agreed to meet with a home improvement guy, to look at the cottage and see what repairs might need to be done; this deal was as is with the real estate agent, that’s why the cost was so cheap. She found out that there were about seven thousand dollars worth of repairs that needed to be done. She was overjoyed, she didn’t want the repairs to be over ten thousand, so still, she was well within her budget, more money to shop with she was thinking. Now the first thing she did was called her mother to let her know that she had a very good feeling about all of this and to keep her finger crossed for her. She felt it, it was meant to be just like fairy tale stories.

The Call

 “Everything checked out, the loan was approved and your down payment was accepted, Ms. Hopkins,” Clementine screamed and jumped for joy. “I am finally going to be living my dream, I really can’t believe this, thank you, when can I sign the paperwork and get the keys? I have work to do.” Clementine called her mother back to let her know the good news about the cottage, it was hard for her to stop screaming with joy. She called the home improvement guy to get the ball rolling on the repairs, she called everyone she knew that could help assist in her moving process. She rented a U Haul and cleared out her storage space, she gave her landlord a 30-day notice she had not renewed her lease for this year, she was rented month to month, just in case she moved. “Yes, yes, yes,” she screamed. 

Home

           Now that all of the repairs have been made and Clementine is all settled in her cozy English Cottage; she is planning her Tea Party just as she promised herself and her mother. Now that she has sent out all of her invites for her House Warming and Tea party, she has to make sure everything is perfect. Clementine has to set the atmosphere, on her invites she made sure that formal was the attire and she would make sure everything else was fit for kings and queens.

Tea

           At last, the time has come, 4 pm on a Saturday, 10 guests, menus placed on the table with each person’s name printed on them, place settings were fine china plates and crystal glasses. Menu: Beef Wellington, lamb with mint jelly, roasted baby red potatoes with rosemary and garlic, and roasted asparagus with lemon and cracked black pepper and red wine; following dinner, Earl Grey English Tea; served from a Royal Albert Bone China Tea Set, Finger Sandwiches, and Tea Biscuits around the fireplace.

           Everyone was raving about how beautiful everything was, and about the exquisite dinner and tea. Her mother let everyone know she had an announcement to make. She stood up and tapped her crystal glass with her silver spoon and said: “I just want everyone to know how proud I am of my daughter Clementine, for making her dreams come true, she has always talked about this I thought it had become an obsession.” “I had no idea she had went all out until recently when she called me with the news.” “Darling I couldn’t be happier for you.” Just when Clementine was ready to cry, her mom handed her an 18^th-century antique oil painted vase. Clementine said to her mother, “mom it’s perfect, just perfect and I am going to sit this right above the fireplace on the mantelpiece, thank you, I love you, mom.” Clementine was very happy with her cottage and her monthly Tea Parties.