Lady Luck’s Pop-Up Tea Shoppe made its debut at the Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair in East London on Saturday 4th April 2009. The exhibition style tea party featured tables dressed up from different eras from the 1930s through to the 1970s. Waitresses styled in the fashions from each decade served up a delicious menu of traditional home baked fancies and organic fairtrade tea on authentic tableware from each era.

After six weeks of planning every last detail the day was finally here! We were up with the lark and arrived at the Fym Fyg bar in Bethnal Green at 8am. We had just 3 hours to magic our little area of the vintage fair into a pretty little traditional tea shop. After hanging our bunting which consisted of 240 red, white and blue pennants and a gigantic hand flocked banner we were halfway there. Our team of 7 hair and make up artists headed up by our trusty creative maestro Tomoko Kinoshita turned the bar area into a temporary salon and got to work transforming our models into period waitresses.

With just moments before the doors were flung open our waitresses were ready - ta da. From left to right we have Davina from the 1970's wearing an apron handmade from an original 1970s pattern, canary yellow flares and beatnik headband. Faye from the 1960's wears an original sixties apple print apron with a yellow mini dress and beehive. Caity from the 1930's wears an original thirties apron with a handmade dress and headwear with finger waved hair. Sapphire from the 1940's wears an apron handmade from an original forties pattern and an original forties frock. Last but certainly not least Sara from the 1950's wears a handmade apron with matching hair band and polka dot shirt dress with a giant flicked quiff!

We had literally minutes to take the waitresses through how the tea shoppe worked, but luckily old Lady Luck pal Colette was on hand to run the cake stand and tackle the cranky tea urn! The girls picked up their matching pads and jumped next to their tables ready for the grand opening! Meanwhile in the kitchen intern Hannah was still frosting over 100 cupcakes, but we needn't have worried this gal was a real pro!

The tea shoppe filled up frighteningly fast - it really was quite something. When every seat had been snapped up we started a little queue and a take away service!

The 1930's table with linen table cloth featured matching bone china trios with hand painted floral decorations along with 2 art deco style teapots and a toast rack to hold the serviettes. Customers could play tidley winks or an original 1930s card game called Menuette.

The 1940's table with hand embroidered table cloth featured tableware made in 1945. Customers could pick up make do and mend tips from the big book of needlecraft and embroidery book.

The 1950's table featured late fifties tableware in the "fashion" shape and customers could flick through “homemaker” pamphlets published throughout the fifties.

The 1960's table featured plastic pop tableware, large red gingham vinyl placemats and outdoor picnic style teapots. Customers could play one of board games all of which were manufactured in the sixties.

The 1970's table featured a tablecloth and tableware in earthy tones of orange and brown. Customers could flick through the big ole craft books published in the seventies.

After bagging a much coveted seat in the tea shoppe customers could choose from a delicious menu of traditional home baked fancies which included macaroon tarts, carrot and cinnamon cupcakes, London tea loaf and lemon and poppy seed drizzle cake. Sam's Mum Mary and I had completed a 12 hour bake-a-thon the day before!

The day continued to be a roaring success, a real dream come true! Thanks so much to everyone who came along and patiently waited to be seated. I'm so sorry if you came later in the afternoon when we'd sold out of ALL the cakes... we really had no idea how crazily busy it was going to be. Next time we'll bake double! Promise! In the meantime why dontcha check out all our photos from the day on flickr.

Finally I'd like to thank everyone who's helped make this project happen - Sam, Mary, Dave, Hannah, Judith, Laura, Harriet, Julianna, Victoria, Betsy, Faye, Caity, Sapphire, Tomoko, Sara, Davina, Colette, Ova, Judy, Hazel - do you feel like you have your life back now? Thanks so much!

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