Tea with me at Audrey’s

Delta Pi Delta Alumnae Chapter had their November luncheon at Audrey’s Attic, one of the busiest high-end consignment shops in Naples, Florida. In this shop (named after fashion icon Audrey Hepburn) you can find brand names on secondhand clothing, estate jewelry and antiques. The British woman who owns the shop had always wanted a tea room as well, so the tea room, “Tea with me at Audrey’s,”  which adjoins the shop, came into being last year. 

The Tea Room at Audrey’s is decorated in a Victorian style and has tea-related décor wherever you look: chandeliers fashioned from tea pots, tea cups and saucers; all manner of tea pots and cups arranged in collectibles display cases; tea-time sculptures; and fine china cups and saucers on a serving buffet, on small tables around the room and on the walls. 

First-off, we were offered our choice of tea, served in individual mini-tea pots filled with tea leaves and hot water, which we strained into our cups. Our tea choices consisted of English blend, papaya mango, green tea and white peony with lavender. Our lunch was served on a three-tiered serving dish with finger sandwiches of smoked salmon, egg salad, ham and Swiss and cucumbers. On the upper tiers were homemade raisin and cranberry scones and mini pastries.

After lunch we had a short meeting during which there was a discussion about attending the Alpha Chi National Convention in Orlando, Florida, in June, 2016. Several members already have plans to go. Sasha Williams reported that there were 170 initiates at the newly formed Alpha Chi chapter at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.  Donna Porter announced that Pam Lawson, Esther Lawson’s daughter, and Debbie Phillips, daughter of Bobbi Hanson and niece of Betsy Townsend, would each become an Alumna Initiate and be initiated at the national convention. Sue Halvorson reminded members to wear something red to the Christmas meeting at Imperial Country Club, where the Lydia Singers will regale us with Christmas hymns and carols.  

On our way out, it was impossible not to start browsing through vintage and designer clothing, accessories and costume jewelry, but the shop comprises 4,000 feet, so it’s not a place that you can do justice to in a brief time.

Audrey’s Attic

Nancy, Rosemary and Carolyn at the entrance to Audrey’s Attic

A view of the tea room

A Tea pot chandelier

Amy, Judy, Jennifer and Susan, pledge sisters at the University of Miami a few short years ago

Shirley, color-coordinated as usual

Sandi, Scottie, Rosemary, Carolyn and Sandy

A collectibles display case in the tea room

Kathy, Pat and Scottie

Scottie and Kathy

Pat with a mannequin in vintage clothes

A tea pot chandelier

Sasha, Carol, Paula (a server) and Mary

A tea-time sculpture/lamp and accessories

Brenda, Zarie, Sasha, Kerry and Jean

A cups-and-saucers chandelier

Kerry and Jean

Kerry, Carol, Mary Lou and Sue

A serving buffet with tea-time accessories

Phyllis, Carol and Sasha

Ann and Shirley

Phyllis and Nancy with our three-tiered tray

Becky, blog writer/photographer

Susan, Nancy, Carolyn and L.E.

Julie, L.E.’s daughter and Valary

Serving trays laden with food

Carolyn, L.E.’s other daughter, received a surprise sparkler flower birthday candle.

Alpha Chi Summertime Luncheon on the Beach

On July 17, 2015, Alpha Chi summertime residents met at Marker 36 restaurant, the new name for the Sandpiper Restaurant, in the beach community of Pelican Bay, Naples, Florida. The new name refers to the restaurant’s location according to a beach marker system. To access the  restaurant, we used the parking lot on Pelican Bay Boulevard and took the tram by way of a path and boardwalk to the beach. We’ve had our summer lunch in this spot for several years now.

We received news of the colonization at Florida Gulf Coast University. Phyllis Verrone reported important dates in regard to this event: recruitment will take place at FGCU from August 12-16; bid day for existing sororities will be on August 16; AX bid day will be on September 12. AX Chapter meetings will begin on Sunday, September 13, from 1:00 - 3:30, and continue every Sunday thereafter. New members will be installed on Friday, November 6, and the banquet will be on Saturday, November 7. 

Shirley Blake gave a brief summary of Delta Pi Delta meetings for the 2015-2016 year. We will go to Marco Island in October to hear about clean, green homes and to Audrey’s Tea Room in November (hats optional but fun.) Our December luncheon will be at Imperial, where we will again hear the choral group, Lydia’s Song. In January, we will get suggestions on good health from Carol Flaherty at Windstar CC. Our fundraiser in February will be at Pelican Bay, and Hera Day in March will be at Worthington CC. In April, we will have a cooking demonstration from the chef at Carrabba’s Italian Restaurant. 

All in all, the coming year promises to be a very good one for Alpha Chis in Southwest Florida. 

Tram pick-up point

The tram and our chauffeur await us.

The tram winds around high-rises and through mangroves to reach the beach restaurant.

The entry to the restaurant with the boardwalk to the beach in the center of the photo

The beach to the right of the boardwalk

The beach to the left of the boardwalk

Donna, Shirley and Phyllis

Linda and Pat

Rosemary and Sally

Jean, Kelly (Scottie’s granddaughter) and Scottie

Teddy and Fran

Jackie and Rosemary

Scottie, Shirley and Becky

 An Alpha Chi table
The person to the left of Sandi is her sister, Sally.
Even the waiter is smiling.

An Alpha Chi table

Our group photo (Click on photo to enlarge)

Waiting for the tram to go back

Good-bye until next summer

The Bailey-Mathews National Shell Museum: Alpha Chis See Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

The Shell Museum is located on Sanibel Island on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Southwest Florida. The museum opened to the public in 1995 and operates as an information and reference center for scientists, students, and shell enthusiasts, particularly those who are interested in the mollusks of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida..

  Sanibel Island is one of the best seashell collecting spots in the world. The museum also owns a collection of Pacific Ocean cowries and cones donated by actor Raymond Burr, who owned an island in the Fijis, and who led the efforts to raise funds to build the museum.

The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum began in 1990 with a gift of land from the Bailey brothers, John, Francis, and Sam, in memory of their parents, Frank P. Bailey and Annie Mead Matthews.

 

Outside the museum is a memorial garden dedicated to Raymond Burr. Inside the museum is a small exhibit about him as a film actor, philanthropist and shell collector.

 

A view of the museum building with the new shell banners in place

Sue on the steps leading up to the entrance of the museum

Nancy on her way up to the museum

 

Jean, Sally and Linda in the gift shop/registration area 

 

Phyllis and Sandy looking over items in the gift shop

 

 

In the Great Hall of Shells, the centerpiece is a rotating 6’ diameter globe surrounded by shells from selected geographic regions.

 

 

Tiffany is beside an exhibit of worldwide record-sized shells.

 

 

A display of the largest known representatives on record of several very large species of mollusks.

 

 

 Opeatostoma Pseudodon

This species, a predatory sea snail, is found in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. This world record-sized shell was collected in Isla Solanga, Ecuador.

 

 

A display of cephalopods (marine animals with tentacles), including models of a nautilus, a giant squid, and an octopus, the three main surviving branches of cephalopods

 

 

Inside the Children’s Learning Lab are hands-on displays, games and a live mollusk tank.

 

 

MMM…Mollusks! Cuisines featuring edible mollusks from 5 continents. You can email your favorite recipe to yourself or friends.

 

 

 
Life-sized models of a Calusa Native American father showing his son how to use the shells of the locally-occurring large whelks to create tools.

Jackie looking at a shell flower arrangement

 

 

 

Shellabration--2012 by Goz Gosselin

 This large free-standing shell flower arrangement measures three feet tall by two and one-half feet wide. It is made of all natural colored shells.

Treasures of a Sailor’s Widow

“Many a sailor’s wife or sweetheart waited patiently for months in her New England cottage for the return of her beloved from a long voyage to the South Atlantic and the Caribbean. Her reminders were the treasures he would carry back with him from far-away ports such as this Sailor’s Valentine and seashell collection. Although she would most likely have stored her collection in boxes or displayed them on shelves, here she has decorated a large shadow box, in the tradition of Sailors’ Valentines, and turned it into a folding table.”

 

 

Shadow box/folding table

 

 

No, a Sailor’s Valentine was not made by a sailor to pass the time at sea. Making Sailors’ Valentines was a highly prized art form developed in the early 19^th century by women in Barbados and other areas of the Caribbean and often bought by sailors for their loved ones.

 

 

The craftsmen would often include romantic sayings, such as “Forget-me-not” or “Remember me.”

 

When Caribbean and other stop-over ports for New England whalers ceased to be ports-of-call for the whaling ships, this shell art also disappeared by the 20^th century. Recently, this craft has undergone a revival.

 

The “money cowrie” is a species of small sea snail. The shells were historically widely used in many Pacific and Indian Ocean countries as shell money before coinage was in common usage. As such, it was the most widely circulated and longest-enduring currency in history. This pillar holds “a fortune” in money cowries.

Rosemary and Phyllis

 Sue and Kerry

 

 

A stick chart was an ancient navigation method used by early seafarers to help them locate different islands and sea routes. “These maps consist of small sticks tied together in straight or curved lines, intended to represent the currents or waves to be met, while the islands are to be found at certain points where these lines meet.” (a description from an 1862 Nautical Magazine.)

 

 

Cowrie-shell-eyes of this tribal statue

“Shells in tribal cultures have been used since the dawn of civilization as tools, ornaments and weapons. To early peoples, shells symbolized sex and life eternal. The burial graves of cro-Magnon Man in Europe contained shells from the Red Sea. Ancient Egyptians placed cowrie shells over the eyes of their mummies for sight in the hereafter.”

 

Rebecca Mersch, M.Sc., Marine Biologist
 

Our presenter is the kind of person who is so well-informed and passionate about her field that you can’t help but become interested in cephalopods and gastropods and the way they live. (Many gastropods are herbivores, but as Rebecca told us, there are also a few predatory carnivorous gastropods, which makes me look at snails in a whole different light.)

 

Rebecca’s attentive class

 

Rebecca is standing by a tank full of marine animals.

 

Donna admiring a sea snail in the tank

Donna and Rosemary taking a closer look at the marine animals in the tank

 

Nancy, Scottie and Darlene are looking at “Shelling this Week,” a community shelling map to find local beaches and parking and to share shell finds.

 

The restaurant at the Sundial Resort

 

Donna, Ann and Jean in front of the restaurant

 

Pat, Rosemary and Jackie on their way into the restaurant

 

 

The view of the Gulf of Mexico from the restaurant

 

 

 

The first table of Alpha Chis

 

 

The second table of Alpha Chis

 

 

The third table of Alpha Chis and Guest, Debbie, daughter of Bobbi Hanson.

 

 

Birthday girl Betsy, Bobbi's sister and Debbie's aunt

FYI: Official Notification from Alpha Chi Omega National Headquarters

Alpha Chi Omega is Florida Gulf Coast University-bound in fall 2015! We are so grateful to FGCU Panhellenic Council for the invitation to colonize on campus, and we are eager to meet the real, strong women of FGCU! #AXO