Monthly Newsletter: September 2022 (No. 8)
This is the eighth newsletter and monthly feature highlighting events, happenings, and general news of all channels of Our Technicolor Life.
Welcome to Our Technicolor Life! We are a husband and wife team that lives a vintage lifestyle in full color through our many adventures in our tea room, travel, entertainment, and art. Follow along each channel that makes up Our Technicolor Life.
We are Jeff and Carrie Ketterman. During the day, Jeff is a General Manager with Kasgro Rail Corporation Management Division. With a fleet of over 500 heavy-duty cars, Jeff works daily to provide solutions to various needs of the multi-dimensional rail transportation industry. By day, Carrie is a painter, illustrator, and author creating murals, portraits, prints, wearable art, and children's book illustrations.
After closing up shop for the day. Jeff and Carrie host themed tea parties out of their historic home at The Old Capitol Tea Room, travel to festivals and vacation in The Not So Long Trailer, and have two bands, a 1950s style band, Rosie & the Rockabillies, and a 1920s style band, The Tin Pan Alley Cats. Each of these channels makes up our Technicolor Life.
TEA
Fasten your seatbelts, August was a wild and crazy tea party ride! It seems our little tea room that could finally caught on this year, our 6th year in operation. When we first opened for Mother's Day in 2016 people either didn't know what a tea room was or were confused that we hosted them the way we do. We can up with the term "tea-tre" tea meets theatre early on in the history of The Old Capitol Tea Room where we use our theatre background to make the tea room a whole experience. We have a lot of themes we like to offer so guests can dress up, play along, sing along, or just enjoy the total tea party meets theme experience. When you come to The Old Capitol Tea Room you have a traditional tea party with the cups and saucers, tea, finger sandwiches, and desserts but we add a little more to make it a whole unique experience. Based on the theme, you may play trivia, meet a character or characters, participate in a sing along, or even help us solve a murder during one of our murder mystery events.
We host tea parties on average 5-6 times a month depending on our schedule of work and other bookings. This is up considerably from when we first opened and would have 2-3 tea parties a month. In trying to keep up with demand, we hosted 11 tea events this month and I'm not going to lie, that was too many! We are pooped to say the least and I don't think I considered how many dishes washed and linens ironed that really meant for me. This next year I hope to achieve a little more balance in our schedule as well as be able to share our tea event schedule with a little more notice on the website under our upcoming events calendar. Goals for 2023 season have started already!
In the meantime, check out some of the fun events we hosted this past month here at The Old Capitol Tea Room. We hosted Office Tea & Trivia, our I Love Lucy Tribute Show & Tea, a 1960s Flower Power Tea Party, Breakfast at Tea-ffany's, Sound of Music Sing Along, Harry Potter Tea & Trivia, Snow White Story Time, an Elvis Sing Along Tea Party, and 3 private parties.
Tea & Trivia Tuesday: The Office
The Office Tea & Trivia hosted by Jan & Michael Scott a la The Dinner Party episode.
I Love Lucy Tribute Show & Tea
In celebration of Lucille Ball's 111th birthday, celebrated on August 6th we hosted our I Love Lucy Tribute Show & Tea.
Flower Power Tea Party
We are huge 1960s music lovers around here so we thought it fitting to host a Flower Power 1960s sing along hosted by Sonny & Cher tea party! We had guest appearances by Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, Neil Diamond, and some other long hair weirdo types for our medley of groovy tunes.
Breakfast at Tea-ffany's Tea Party
Breakfast at Tea-ffany's is the perfect excuse to don your little black dress, grab a tiara, and play tea party complete with sparkling cider in champagne glasses!
Musical Monday: Sound of Music Sing Along
We've been hosting a few Musical Mondays this season at the tea room and August saw the debut of our Sound of Music Sing Along Tea Party hosted by Maria and Captain Von Trapp. We even had a few nuns join in the fun!
Tea & Trivia Tuesday: Harry Potter
There is no such thing as too much Harry Potter so we host Harry Potter themes a few times throughout the tea room season and couldn't resist a back to school session. Dumbledore helped dust off the cobwebs with a challenging OWL trivia exam.
Snow White Story Time & Tea
This is another new theme we wanted to bring to the tea room and it's one we are definitely planning on doing again next season. We hosted a Snow White Story Time with one Grumpy but still charming dwarf.
Elvis TCT Taking Care of Tea
We couldn't let the summer season get away from us without one more sing along and this was the perfect timing with the excitement from the Elvis movie to add one more theme to August! Jeff is an Elvis impersonator from way back so when you already have not only one but two jumpsuits, you put them to use and have an Elvis sing along tea party! This one was such a fun event and so nice to hear the tea room filled with happy Elvis fans singing along to some of his best tunes.
In addition to these themes, we hosted 3 private parties this month! There was so much love, laughter, and celebration as friends and family got together to catch up and enjoy time and tea together. We hosted a 60th birthday party for Rhonda, a bridal shower for lovely bride to be Emily, and another bridal shower for beautiful bride to be, April. If you are interested in more private party information, please check out our Private Party tab under TEA. There are photos, video, and FAQ about all things private party related. As we move into our busiest season, we do not have any more availability for October-December.
Private Parties
We THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH for your enthusiasm and support of our little tea room that could! It is A LOT of preparation and planning behind the scenes to host these tea parties but we are SO delighted to be able to open our home and host so many wonderful guests.
Friendly reminder THE OLD CAPITOL TEA ROOM IS CLOSED FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER while we catch our breath and reset for the busiest time of year, our holiday season of October, November, and December.
And I cannot believe I am saying this at the beginning of September but we are 110% SOLD OUT FOR THE REST OF THE 2022 SEASON! All of our tea party events have sold out from October to December and we have no more availability for private parties this year.
It means soo very much to us to have had such a wonderful season with each and everyone of you that have come to tea with us here at The Old Capitol Tea Room where we enjoy “tea-tre” aka tea meets theatre. This would not be half as fun without your support and your enthusiasm for the themes, coming and dressing up, singing along, and just plain old playing tea party with us! So THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!
Please stay in touch here on our website, www.ourtechnicolorlife.com and subscribe! I post all of our events, upcoming events, tickets, and the monthly newsletter to the website before anything goes on Facebook so be sure to subscribe.
The Old Capitol Tea Room is closed January & February and we will begin announcing 2023 tea events towards the end of February on our upcoming events calendar.
Our formal tea party events may be all SOLD OUT…
BUT…. The Old Capitol Tea Room will be hosting a historic walking ghost tour through Downtown Corydon on 3 select Tuesday evenings at 7:30pm in October only! Stay tuned for tickets and details about our historic walking ghost tour, Curious Corydon, presented by The Old Capitol Tea Room!
TRAVEL
It wasn't just all tea this month, we actually were able to squeeze in some summer time fun with a milestone birthday celebration for my Mama, a picnic, state fair excursion, a couple of day trips to see some art, a visit to the Cake Bake shop in Indianapolis, catch a baseball game, saw Misery with the Chicken Coop Theatre Company, saw Bright Star at Derby Dinner Playhouse, made a visit the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, an outdoor movie night in downtown Corydon, and picked some peaches at Huber's Farm.
We started the month of August with a big celebration! It was a big milestone birthday for my wonderful Mama so we hosted a birthday party at the house and made great use of the patio we spent many hours on earlier this summer. It was actually more like a week long celebration starting with a Cooke family road trip to Holiday World. (We saw Santa!!!) And then we tested our knowledge with a fun night of trivia, before the big party that weekend! It was so nice to have my brother in town for the occasion. He lives in Zurich, Switzerland so his trips back home only happen a few times a year. And having friends and family gather at the house on the patio with perfect weather, even when it had been storming ealier that day, made it for the perfect ending in celebration for my Mama's birthday party!
There's something so magical about the St. Joe's Picnic. Maybe it's just because it's usually a beautiful warm summer night with all the lights and lively atmosphere old time picnic feel that I can't get enough of. The excitement of the crowd, the wheels spinning for your chance to win at the cake walk, or plucking down quarters to try and win a prize while the smells of popcorn and cotton candy float through the air. This evening lived up to every magical moment even if we didn't leave with a prize. We left with lots of laughs and memories of this magical picnic evening and supported the great cause for the St. Joe's Orphanage.
