onecklace

Hey my little ponies! On Monday I headed to San Francisco with a few of my friends to celebrate my birthday at Crown & Crumpet. It’s an adorable little tea spot in Japantown that’s a definite must for any tea lover to go to! I passed by their original location a few years ago when they were still in Ghirardelli Square and made a mental note to eventually go there.

When making plans for my birthday, I decided early on that I wanted to have afternoon tea in the city with my girlfriends and dress up like Disney princesses a la Disneybound! How else would one go about celebrating the last year of their twenties? I ended up not wearing a princessesy outfit, but I still felt pretty damn fancy in my navy doe dress from ModCloth and t-strap heels.

As I looked up different places that served afternoon tea, I remembered Crown & Crumpet and promptly Googled it. Their menu seemed less pricier than most places, and their tea menu had a bunch of delightful sounding blends. I nearly ordered Alice’s “Drink Me” tea — a black tea with champagne and sugar crystals — but was told it had caffeine, so I opted for the fruity Snow White tea. 🙂

Crown & Crumpet has the most adorable decor too! The tables are lined with cheery floral table cloth and with little pictures of angels, Union Jacks, and tea cups. The walls were adorned with the cutest art, and there’s a large clock on the wall with antique tea cups and saucers instead of numbers. It says, “It’s Time for Tea” underneath it. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the clock though. Sorry!

Crown & Crumpet had some delicious food and treats as well. Jen ordered a slice of berry cake that came with jam and clotted cream, and now I want jam on all the cakes I eat from now on. No more frosting, just jam! Caitlin and I ordered scones to go with our tea, and they came with lemon curd, clotted cream, and raspberry jam (I think it was raspberry anyway) which I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since then. Why aren’t there any places closer to me that serve afternoon tea with all the English accoutrements like Crown & Crumpet?! WHY?!

Shanice, Jen, and myself all ordered the tricolore sandwich and they were really nice about letting us add on chicken and substituting cheddar for mozzarella. Caitlin got the chicken pot pie and Jen damn near stole it from her because she thought it was amazing! Our waitress also overheard us saying it was someone’s birthday and brought a little cookie dough flavored cupcake with a candle, and had my friends sing happy birthday to me. 😀

Afterwards, I asked the manager (or perhaps she was the owner…?) if I could take some pictures inside their private party room for the blog and she was more than accommodating! I mentioned to her that I had heard about Crown & Crumpet from passing by their old location a few years ago, and she talked to me a bit about how they ended up in Japantown and that they hope to open another location in downtown San Francisco.

I’d definitely love to go back to Crown & Crumpet and try a different tea and get more scones (and a slice of cake)! You guys don’t understand, those scones were SO. TASTY. And that jam! Oh my goodness.

dress: ModCloth (no longer available) // cardigan & hair pin: H&M
shoes: American Rag // necklace: c/o oNecklace (buy here)
glasses: Derek Cardigan (buy similar here)

I used to complain about the fact that my parents never gave me a proper middle name ALL. THE. TIME. Rather than having a traditional middle name, y’know, like one that is also appropriate to be used as a first name, I was bestowed with my mom’s maiden name instead while my older sister got that AND a traditional middle name. I could seriously go on about this whole subject, but I won’t. I finally started appreciating my middle name when I was 18 and even adopted it as my nom de plume and ditched my actual last name (well, not legally anyhow). But all together my initials = N.P.H. Just like Neil Patrick Harris! By default, I have the most legen–wait for it–dary initials. EVER.

After I started noticing a slew of monogram accessories pop up all over the web last year, I longed for a gold necklace that bared my initials. It’s funny, because I recall thinking that very thought while checking my email and came across a message from oNecklace asking if I’d be interested in reviewing a necklace of my choice for Le Fancy Geek. Kismet at its finest, right?!

There are tons of pretty baubles to choose from — you can have necklaces, rings, and bracelets customized with your name (just like the infamous ‘Carrie’ necklace from Sex & the City) or initials in silver and gold (24k plated, 14k, 14k white gold). They also come in various styles and you can choose what length and type of chain you’d like for your necklace to be on. I opted for the split chain monogram necklace on a 16 in. rolo chain and I’m completely smitten with it. The fancy font is slightly hard to read at first glance, but I love how it’s a great balance of being both delicate and bold.

If you ponies want to get one too, you can use the code “fancygeek” at the checkout to receive 10% off! Plus everything’s free shipping. And isn’t Mother’s Day coming up soon? Just sayin’. 😉

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there are apparently guidelines (which you can find here) for how your monogram should look if you chose to get a monogramed bauble. For example, it’s supposed to be First/Last/Middle. So my necklace should’ve actually been customized as NHP, but I didn’t see the guideline until after I made my request. Oops! I prefer it the way I have it anyway.

Cheers,
Nina

necklace: c/o oNecklace (buy here) // dress: ModCloth (buy here) // glasses: Derek Cardigan (buy similar here)
—-
FTC Disclosure: This is a sponsored post as oNecklace provided me with a product to review. I was compensated with the aforementioned product. All opinions expressed are my own.