Tea for Twenty

As I mentioned yesterday... and the day before... aaaand every 20 minutes, if you've seen me in real life over the past week - I was fortunate enough to join an awesome group of bloggers for Tea with Sarah Richardson, first lady of Canadian interior design, last Friday before Blog Podium. (See here, here, and here to find out more about how I got so lucky!). 

Sarah of Saige Wisdom, Jill & Emma of The Happy Space Project, Julie of Elliven Studio, Britt of Gallery No. 8, Tia of More of Everything 

It was amazing. Honestly, I've probably worn these words out, I've said them so much recently but it was an experience I'll never forget. I've adored Sarah and her work since my early teen years when Room Service was on. I've been an avid watcher of every single show she's done, even when I was a poor university student with no cable (Thank you HGTV.CA!). 

I think it's challenging for it not to be a letdown when you meet someone you've idolized for so long. After all, you've built that person up so much in your head to the point where he or she seems incapable of normal human faults. So I was a little worried going into the event that Sarah wouldn't be as she seemed and I would be disappointed. But, I definitely didn't need to worry.

Trying so hard to play it cool.

Sarah is every bit as sweet, genuine, funny, and quirky as she comes across on TV. She graciously welcomed us into her design studio, which as you can see from the photos is STUNNING. 

We sipped on tea cocktails from bespoke tea sommelier (yes, that's a real thing!), Jennifer Commins of Pluck Teas, and chatted design with Sarah, her senior designers Natalie Hodgins and Kate Stuart, her hysterical PR guru, Deb McCain, BlogPodium creator, Jennifer Flores, and each other. 

Brittany of My Daily Randomness with Sara of Saige Wisdom and Sarah of Sarah Russell Interiors

Tia of More of Everything, Britt of Gallery No. 8, Laura of Gracefully Searching, Melissa of The Sweet Escape

Much like a preview of BlogPodium the next day, it was so lovely to be in a space with a group of other people who are passionate about the same things as you. We drooled over the design of the studio, quizzed Sarah on her favourite antique hideaways, chatted about a few local artists, and one of my favourite parts - got a preview of Sarah's new fabric line for Kravet and the inside scoop on the long and detailed process of developing a line of fabrics.

Sarah explaining how they choose what colours go where.

Sarah and Kate worked on the fabric collection together and designed it in coordinating patterns and colourways so that people can easily recreate aspects of Sarah Richardson Design's signature fabric-on-fabric-on-fabric look at home. And the best part? They specifically focused on making the line affordable so that the average Sarah viewer could use them! How great is that?

At the end of the 2+ hour tea, Sarah and her team gifted us each with a custom tote bag made with one of her new fabrics and filled with Pluck Tea to take home. So sweet. 

Photo from the ladies of The Happy Space Project

All in all, it was just the most fantastic day. I was giddy for pretty much the entire rest of the weekend... and probably still am. Thank you so much to Sarah and her team for making us feel so welcome and to Jen and her team for making it all possible. Once-in-a-lifetime-experience, indeed.