~ afternoon tea – butter baked goods ~

It’s been a while since I’ve had afternoon tea, it seems that I’m a sporadic “tea-er”. I tend to go in high frequencies followed by a phantom mellowed out period. Since my afternoon tea friend is going to be away for four months we decided to try a place that’s been on our list for quite a while, so long in fact my friend had forgotten about it – Butter Baked Goods.

Although reservations are not required I highly recommend them as the place got busy fast! The afternoon tea service is 28$ per person, they also have a lighter tea set option at 14$.

The tea room is fairly small but easily accessible, in fact it’s right by a bus stop. Although I live on the opposite end of the city so it would’ve taken me 90 mins to bus here. (Thanks for the ride younger brother!)

Despite the size of the store, they were able to make the most out of the space and fit in quite a number of tables. I really liked their table settings.

Each tea cup was different and this was mines, it reminded me of a creamer cup. We were also given metal tea strainers that I kept forgetting to use…

~ our tier ~

~ finger sandwiches ~

I think I had the largest egg sandwich and cucumber sandwich here, not that it’s a bad thing but they usually tend to be half the size. 

~ scones with jam and devonshire cream ~

The scones were chocolate and pecans as well as a raisin scones. I only had enough stomach room for one so I had the chocolate and raisin one, it was delicious. We packed the raisin scones to go afterwards.

~ sweets ~

Now that I think about it, all the sweets were fairly good. I enjoyed the chocolate tart and pecan tart the most. Although the granola bar was good and the lemon pound cake were moist too.

Butter Baked Goods also sold…well…baked goods! From what I could see everything looked good, I was even tempted to buy a cookie home but clearly I was overstuffed from tea.

At the end of the counter you can see the cookbook they released.

Their products were also being sold at Chapters, which we surprisingly ran into while shopping after this tea excursion. 

I had a great time at Butter Baked Goods, my friend and I sat for a little more than 2 hours and not once did we feel rushed. In fact I felt welcomed as they offered to refill our tea pots many times and always with a smile. If I lived close I have a feeling I would become a regular and if you’re not in the mood for afternoon tea they also serve breakfast and lunch.

~ disney cruise 2013 – castaway cay ~

Castaway cay, oh how I miss thee. To be truthful I was never a beach person and I believed holidays spent just lying upon the sand a waste, but now I have been semi-converted! This part of the trip really made me change my perspective of beaches and relaxing!

The view outside our room after we docked. That morning my siblings signed up for some snorkeling, I didn’t go but apparently the water was so murky they didn’t get to see anything. I’m so glad I decided to just sleep in, they had to get up at 6am or 7am for muddy snorkeling.

I wish I found these or was told about this earlier! These are the cards for breakfast room service. Basically you check off what you want, hang it outside your room door and you will have your breakfast served to you the next morning. There are lots of breakfast options and you can also request a time for it to be delivered. Be wary though, I hear that the morning of the last day many people get room service so you may not get your food exactly at your requested time.

We decided to walk and find the tram to take us to Serenity Bay, the adult only beach.

The walk was actually quite far, or perhaps because I was starting to get impatient. There were lots of food places along the way and a store too which also sold suntan lotion, towels, toys, and what not for a good day on the beach.

One of the food stands. To be honest it took a while to get used to not having to pay for anything, you just walk up and order your food, eat and leave, with the exception of alcohol of course.

Finally there….

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! My sister and I swam out first while my brother watched our stuff. We reached that small island in the middle and stayed there for a quite a bit. Afterwards my sister and brother went out, to be honest I don’t think anyone really needed to stay behind to look after our stuff…

I’m so glad I grabbed a bag of these chips from the food stand, I was starving at this point.

When I look at these photos I can almost hear the waves and feel the water…

        

Enchanted Garden was the restaurant for our final night’s dinner. I was excited to eat here because it looked gorgeous in the photos.

This photo was actually taken during lunch, there’s no way you’d get a photo like this at dinner because it would be so packed.

Our server would suggest various dishes to us every night. I also noticed that he would get very happy and excited if you chose the dish he recommended.

Our breads, butter and special spread of the night. I can’t particularly remember what this one tasted like..

My romaine salad….my sister and brother laughed at me when this came! However! It was actually pretty easy to eat but not enough sauce. Those must be the biggest croutons I’ve ever seen and I’m not a fan of them in the first place.

My fish and thai sauce, thai sauce makes everything good.

I think this was my sisters dish.

Again my trio of mini desserts…

Our adorable towel elephant thanks to our room keeper!

The next morning it was my turn to laugh at my sisters breakfast, look at her two hard boiled eggs =D

~ iphone photos – March 2014 ~

Looking back at these photos, I’m glad I started doing these monthly iphone photos. More often than not I’ve already forgotten what I’ve done in the past month, so writing these posts make me appreciate the passing of time and my experiences that much more. 

March was a busy month for me, it was when midterms were scheduled and when I had to register for summer courses. I still managed to find time for myself as always in between and I had more time near the end of the month. I managed to catch up with some friends and try out some new restaurants!

There’s a certain few blocks that I always pass by on my way to school that has the cutest shops, luckily my friend and I found time to check out the cute stores! I thought this changing room layout was adorable~

hehe

Menchies! I was craving something tropical so I got a mix of mango and lime~

Popcorn was served when my class went to the school theater to watch a documentary about Andrea Palladio, it was extremely interesting and fun.

 

Mcdonalds has a Toasted Marshmallow hot cocoa right now and it’s actually not bad! I’ve already had three…I use the fact that it’s “limited edition” as an excuse to have more.

These photos make it feel like spring has finally come! I helped my friend order the Tarte package, I really want to try their lip surgence sticks and lipgloss though.

Nice bathrooms calls for  shameless selfies~

This restaurant has been on my to try list for forever! The photo is a bit misleading because it wasn’t really warm enough for patio weather yet so they lowered the windows down for us.

The food wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything spectacular either.

That’s it for March! April is crunch time too since I’ve got finals and what not but hopefully I’ll probably be able to manage more break days in between since my exams are spread apart quite well. I hope everyone has been enjoying the beginnings of spring~