During a rainy holiday in Hastings at the end of November 1903, Potter outlined a tale about a cat, a dog, and a tea party she called "Something very very NICE". She discussed the Lakefield sketches as backgrounds for the tale with Warne. He proposed a large format volume similar to L. Leslie Brooke's "Johnny Crow's Garden" to do justice to the detail of the illustrations, but the entire project was set aside when "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny" and "The Tale of Two Bad Mice" were chosen for development and publication in 1904.