It was our Pop-Up Christmas Tea Party at the BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular a few days ago and my-oh-my what a full on festive time was had by all! Our cute troupe of waitresses for the day were Patricia, Caity, Ailsa, Claire and Laura.

The Craftacular lived up to its legendary reputation as *the* busiest craft fair we've ever seen as hundreds of excited shoppers streamed through the doors at midday. The empty seats in our tea shoppe were filled in an instant and our first 50 customers popped their complimentary crackers and tucked into our new menu of homemade festive fancies.

The menu included our two Tea Shoppe favourites vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream or chocolate frosting and a victoria sandwich (this time baked in a cute heart shape). Our Christmas Specials included red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, ginger cupcakes with ginger buttercream, yule logs, star mince pies and gingerbread cookies. We also introduced - Dip'n'Sip, a hot chocolate served with pink and white cocktail marshmallows! Yum!

Everything was served up on a beautiful array of vintage crockery but unfortunately we had our first ever breakage! In fact we're now 3 teacups and a tea plate down, oops.

We dedicated one of our tables to decorating your own gingerbread! I baked about 200 cookies using my friend Jeanne's secret recipe (which took over 2 years and numerous cocktails to prise out of her) and shaped them with my friend Kali's vintage collection of cookie cutters.

We were delighted to find the Broken Hearts DJ-ing in their too-cute-for-words matching outfits, telephone receiver "headphones" and a vintage festive playlist to die for. I only wish their set lasted the whole day!

Each tasty treat was topped off with a rockin' robin drawn by Lady Luck's Leah Stewart. Tweet, tweet.

I won't tell a lie and tell you all it was plain sailing... with only an hour and a half to set up an entire tea shoppe we were kinda higgledy-piggledy at the start and then we had pesky urn troubles, eek. But after this we settled into the swing of it and we all worked our lil' socks off for our delightful customers. We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did! Merry Christmas! x

The legendary BUST Magazine Craftacular is coming back to ole London Town and promises a real cracker of a festive shopping knees up! From knitwear and jewellery to home décor and stationery, the BUST Craftacular is the one-stop shop for the very best in handmade gifts and wares. Yearly, BUST goes above and beyond and turns out a great party including drinks, tasty treats, goodie bags and featuring the best DJ’s to keep shoppers’ dancing.

Launched in NYC in 2004, the BUST Craftacular has grown exponentially since its inception. More than just a shopping event, the BUST Craftacular is a fun, don’t-miss, all-day party, featuring musical performances, crafting classes and demonstrations, a raffle, product giveaways, food and drinks!

Lady Luck Rules OK will be there with bells on...visit our sales table which will be bursting full of our best selling jewellery where every purchase will come with a lil' festive freebie! Then come and snuggle into our Pop-Up Christmas Party with a pot of tea, a tasty festive treat including homemade mince pies, gingerbreadmen and snowy snacks and delve into the stocking filler lucky dip for free! Phewee.

Lady Luck’s Pop-Up Tea Shoppe returns to the Affordable Vintage Fair on Sunday 25th October! The Fair has moved to a larger venue - the Sustainable Studios which is just moments away from Brick Lane. We'll be serving up a delicious menu of home baked fancies and fairtrade tea on authentic vintage crockery in a nostalgic tea shop setting. We're still putting the finishing touches to the day and will update you all very soon, but for now pop the date in your diary and check out what else is happening at the fair!

After our first Pop-Up Tea Shoppe I wasn't sure I'd do another because the first was so so stressful - selling out of cakes by 1 o'clock, only having 2 hours to style 5 waitresses and the logistics of the venue. After a few days off and lots of looking through the photos I wasn't sure how I could NOT do it again? One thing was for sure, I wanted to wait for the right event which meant in the months between turning down a few offers until we heard news that the BUST Craftacular was coming back to London town! Early morning coffee meetings, venue measure ups and a little negotiating later and everything was in place for the second coming of the Pop-Up Tea Shoppe. Eek!

It had been 3 months since the first tea shoppe and I had pretty much been baking on a weekly basis perfecting recipes and seeking out new ones! Each Friday I bring baked delights into the studio to gain essential feedback for all the gals. My red velvet cake with creamy vanilla frosting was such a bit hit I definitely wanted to add that to the menu - and as sure as eggs is eggs it was the first thing to sell out on the day! I also set out a two day baking schedule which meant I nearly tripled my output, it did require 5am starts and midnight finishes but hey, ho, in for a penny...

Our new menu of traditional home-baked fancies included: carrot and cinnamon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (and I remembered to refrigerate the frosting for 2 hours before piping this time!), banana and chocolate cupcakes, HUNDREDS of vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting (dyed in different candy colours), victoria sandwiches, lemon and poppyseed drizzle cakes, giant chocolate cookies, the mega popular red velvet cake and a super summer special...

Another worry on my mind was the event being held in the middle of summer - would people really want to drink tea and eat cake? (well, we all know the answer to that now!) So I wanted to present a summer special to woo in the customers and after hours of trawling baking blogs I came across Ice-Cream Cupcakes! Oh yes! The batter is baked INSIDE the cone and then frosted on top with sprinkles and a flake topper so it actually looks like an ice-cream. I remember the first time I brought them into the studio our intern Ashleigh nearly fell off her chair with excitement.

The next thing I wanted to change was to make our wonderful waitresses look well more waitress like. The aprons made for the first tea shoppe were amazing but the clothing underneath was a bit off kilter. So I decided to match them all in simple black shift dresses and design a bunch of name brooches. I also had a good excuse to watch many a film noir movie in the name of research - hairstyle and make up ideas for Tomoko and waitress outfit ideas!

I was happy with all the crockery and it was a real joy to see it all again when we laid out the tables on the day. On a sad note my 1930s teapot had cracked leaving an incomplete set (sniff) but my fave table is most certainly the 1950s table - it has a full Midwinter "Quite Contrary" tea set in the fashion shape. When Roy Midwinter designed it in the fifties inspired by America and bored of post war Britain he created a sensation. I love it! During a last minute trip to Columbia Road flower market the Sunday before we picked up little pots of red roses to use as centre pieces for the tables (and then as gifts for the waitresses at the end of the day).

On the day itself I was up at 5am to finish the frosting and I was a little ahead of schedule so decided to bake another cake (I think I'd lost the plot a little by that point!). Leah was looking after getting all the waitresses ready at Superette and we went to the venue to get the tea shoppe ready. All in all the day went without a single hiccup and this time the cakes lasted til 5pm - not bad eh? I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who helped out! Our super ace waitresses: 1930s Ailsa, 1940s Emma, 1950s Caity, 1960s Hannah and 1970s Emma. A big shout out to Tea Shoppe host Leah (who has been mentioned in several blog posts and comments about the Craftacular!). Our trusty kitchen helpers Mary, Dave and Tanya. Our cake counter lovely Esther. Sam THE Man. And of course all our SUPER ACE customers - we love you!

Will I do another Pop-Up Tea Shoppe....? Plans are already taking shape...xxx

There are more photos on our Flickr page check 'em out here!

Our latest Pop-Up Tea Shoppe at BUST magazine's Summer Craftacular was so super fun and so super busy we've decided to write a couple of blog entries so we can include all the juicy behind the scenes stories and ace photos! This first part is written by Lady Luck intern Ailsa who was also our super stylish 1930s waitress for the day.

When Leona asked if I’d be a waitress in the second ever Pop-Up Tea Shoppe I was really excited especially after seeing how amazing the girls looked last time. Being an intern, I was already helping with the planning but getting to play such a big part in the actual day sounded like loads of fun! The days before the Tea Shoppe became a mad rush to get everything perfect in time. Luckily, we all knew what we had to do and all the plans started coming together very nicely, including a Tea Shoppe Tombola with loads of lovely prizes that I very nearly stole for myself while sticking all the tickets on…

Lots and lots of bubble wrap was involved as I got all our crockery ready to make the journey down Bethnal Green Road to the venue. At the last moment we decided it would be a good idea to get some more 1940’s crockery so after some hunting by Leona, on Thursday I picked up the perfect teapot and cutest itty bitty cups from a stall in Spitalfields market. A trip to Party, Party in Dalston to pick up 15kg of icing sugar and drag it back to Superette in a broken suitcase on possibly the hottest day of the year (don’t ask!) and a mad hunt for blue food colouring round the Sainsburys’ of East London on Friday morning were also part of our final Tea Shoppe preparations but leaving work on Friday we were sure everything was in place for the day to go perfectly!

I arrived at Superette bright, early and makeup-less the next morning and pretty soon we had all five waitresses- even 1960's Hannah who went home to change her white tights into black ones (part of our matching outfits) but decided to keep her yellow shoes on (really not part of the matching outfits). There were a few minor hiccups along the way including 1970's Emma’s makeup having to be re-done because Tomoko wasn’t happy! By 11am however, we had three waitresses looking really good!

I was starting to get a little worried though, I still didn’t have any makeup on, my hair wasn’t finished and the car was coming for us in 20 minutes! As Leah and the three finished waitresses locked up the studio, Hannah’s eyelashes were still mid-application and my make-up was no way near done. Tomoko kept her cool though and we all bundled out of the studio… Leah had a moment of extreme panic when our car turned up and could only sit 6 people, when we had asked (AND confirmed) for a 7 seater. Luckily we had a nice taxi driver, who after a little persuasion (ok, a lot of begging) squished us all in and let us take part in a shoe drive-by on Bethnal Green Road. Hannah’s flatmate waited by the side of the road with black shoes for her and we pulled over so the shoes could be passed through the window! A very good time saving idea!

We arrived at York Hall to an already massive queue of anxious looking craft shoppers waiting outside, we were rushed inside to meet Leona and have the final touches made to our styles. After a two-minute briefing and a few photos for the blog, The Pop-Up Tea Shoppe was open just moments before hundreds of excited customers rushed into the hall.

The Tea Shoppe got busy very, very quickly (possibly because all the cakes looked so delicious) but Leah kept everyone queuing in an orderly fashion making our job a whole lot easier! We rushed around taking orders, collecting and returning crockery to the kitchen. All the customers were lots of fun and were getting into the Tea Shoppe spirit.

The day went so quickly and we were extremely busy. By 5pm we were sold out of cakes but still served tea and played tombola with lots of happy customers, until we also ran out of teabags and had to close (a very successful) Tea Shoppe! Amazingly nothing was broken - I was so worried I was going to break something very pretty and irreplaceable.

Well done to everyone who took part in the day, I think we all worked really hard and I hope everyone had as much fun during their Tea Shoppe experience as we did, I’m looking forward to the next one already...

Come and join Lady Luck Rules OK and our Pop-Up Tea Shoppe at the BUST magazine summer Craftacular. The Craftacular is a shopping bonanza running from 12pm until 8pm at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, featuring crafters, DJs, drinks, cakes and dancing. Shoppers can browse through hundreds of the best in handmade gifts and essential summer accessories, from handbags and ornaments to jewellery, clothing and cards.

Shoppers can take a break at the much anticipated second coming of the Pop-Up Tea Shoppe hosted by Lady Luck Rules OK! The exhibition style tea party features tables dressed up from different eras with waitresses styled in the fashions from each decade. A delicious menu of traditional home baked fancies and organic fairtrade tea will be served up on authentic tableware from each era. Summertime specials will include ice cream cupcakes and homemade lemonade!

The event is sure to be a Craftstravaganza with a super selection of bespoke activities and workshops for shoppers to take part in. We'll keep you up to date as this info comes in! Plus the V&A Museum of Childhood (which is a hop 'n' skip from York Hall) will be showing a craft themed exhibition entitled Make Do and Mend! What a great day out!

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!

Lady Luck’s Pop-Up Tea Shoppe is an exhibition style tea party which features tables dressed up from different eras. Customers can play tidley winks and cards at the 1930s table; make do and mend at the 1940s table; become the perfect homemaker at the 1950s table; go POP at the 1960s picnic table or get crafty at the 1970s table! Waitresses styled in the fashions from each decade will be serving up a delicious menu of traditional home baked fancies including macaroon tarts, lemon drizzle cake and carrot and cinnamon cupcakes.

You'll find the Pop-Up Tea Shoppe inside the Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair which will send budget conscious vintage clothing lovers wild with excitement! With more than 40 stalls of vintage and handmade designs, the fair takes the pick of the best shops, online retailers and wholesalers. Stallholders come from all over the UK to sell everything from 1940s lingerie to fifties prom dresses.

Hope you can join us all for a pot of expertly brewed fairtrade tea and more...