Teatime and snow

      Before I start my blog today I want to introduce you all to my daughter's new blog, Cooking With Amanda.  She is quite the cook and homemaker and loves to share recipes and ideas. The link is in the right hand column.  If you wish to leave a comment you have to click on the actual post. The home page just lists the posts.  Hope that isn't too confusing.


 And now to Tea Cup Tuesday..................

 The look of winter hit with a vengeance this past week.  As you probably know if you live in the Eastern US or were anywhere near a news report for our Thanksgiving you KNOW the east coast of  the US got hit with what is called a "northeaster."   If you were in the colder areas you got a LOT of snow.  If you were in the warmer areas you got a lot of rain.

Here are a few of the pictures I took as the snowstorm was ending.  Lots of heavy white stuff everywhere.

This was my backyard.   

This is an Atlas Cedar.  It is growing next to my back deck. Because of it's interesting growth pattern  I always call it my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

 Here is a picture of the dogwood tree growing in my side yard.  With the heavy snow you can barely see my antique shop up behind it.  But wait.... a bit farther down the page I will show you what it lookkes like a couple of days later.

 And here is the same dogwood tree looking in another direction.

The day after the storm as the sun came out and temps became a tiny bit milder a lot of the snow left the trees.   Here is a more recent of the dogwood tree.  You can now see my shop much better.  The driveway and roads are clear and dry... at least for the moment.

And now almost all of that snow is gone.........thanks to some rain and warm temps.  

You just never know at this time of year.

For once I am "almost" happy we didn't go away for the holiday.  Driving would NOT have been good.  So instead I stayed home and took a LOT of pictures. 

I found this special tea last year but never tried it until now.   .  It is by Bigelow and is called Eggnogg'n.   The box says you can have eggnog without the "guilt " and it  has the creamy flavor of eggnog.  I don't generally use cream but it says on the box that it will add to the Eggnog flavor....   I probably won't try that.  I can't say I "loved" it and it did not really remind me of eggnog, at least the eggnog I am used to.... I don't make it spiked normally so maybe that is why but it was an interesting alternative.  I think I will mostly stick to Earl Gray Vanilla.... it is something I love, no matter the time of year.

I don't  really have much in the way of Christmas teacups.  So I decided I would use  Blue Willow which I think goes nicely with the snowflake placemat.  I picked this heavy mug which seems to do the job on a cold and snowy day.  And the teapot is an interesting one I found up in Canada a long time ago.   You will see why from the mark below..............

The tea pot is some sort of advertising item for Ringtons Limited Tea Merchants.  Click HERE to go to their website. After searching the web I believe it is probably a reproduction.  But I don't care personally. I love it.

      I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

        These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

I am so thankful for Tea Cup Tuesday

I am cheating this week by repeating a post from 2012.  Life is just pretty hectic right now but I want to be sure you know how thankful I am for all of you.  This says how I feel so I hope those who remember it will understand and those who are new to my blog will enjoy it.

As we get close to our Thanksgiving I want to say a huge thank you to the ladies who serve as hostesses for the various Tea Cup Tuesday events on line.  I know I wouldn't be here without them.
And for my followers who join me each week to see what I have found to show, thanks to you all! Your kind comments make it even better!  And to the participants of the other tea parties.  What inspiration and fun are to be found!  Love it all!

I went out into my antique shop and started looking for things to display that would look like Thanksgiving.  No turkeys to be found but here are a few things that will look nice on the table I think.  The book I have shown " Autumn Accents" is one my own.  It is by Thimbleberries, designer of many great quilting fabrics.

The cute chicken casserole from Japan could be used to hold gravy, or a small serving of some vegetables.

For dessert, pie would look great on these dishes.  I am going to show the mark but have no real idea what it says.  If you know please let me know in the comments.  It is obviously some sort of gold.  And the set is made in the USA.

Also made in the USA is the large gold creamer.  I didn't get a close up picture of it but if you look closely in the overall picture you can see it.

And finally, we must have a cup and saucer so I selected this one from Royal Vale pottery.  It has a lovely yellow flower and nice fall colors.

I want to wish all my USA tea cup followers a Happy Thanksgiving.  And to those from other countries that don't celebrate this day please know I am thankful for all of you.

                I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

                 These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

Tea cups and tea sets and BlueBirds

We continue to have MANY birds visit us at our bird bath and bird feeding stations.  This weekend we had a visit from some BlueBirds.  They seem to just come by in the fall when they are heading south, stopping in at our place for some sustenance for the trip.  I had a hard time getting a picture because they were so active and finally had to take it through a window.  But this proves we have blue birds here, even if for a short time.

A couple of weeks ago Michelle at The Nest at Finch Rest offered a copy of Victoria Magazine.  I was the "winner" of the drawing to receive the copy.   This past week the package arrived and what a treat.  Not only was the magazine enclosed the the pretty napkins tied up in ribbon and a tiny tea pot charm.  Thank you so much Michele!!!!!

This week I thought I would play catch up on some of the pretties I have found at flea markets lately. Some are from our New England trip, some are more recent but they show the variety of choices out there.

     These first pictures are from our favorite flea market, a couple of weeks ago.  Quite the variety I thought.  I have several of them myself.

And this group even included a "royalty" teacup.

And from the big flea market in New Brunswick I found these....................
This first set is lovely and if I remember right it was quite pricey.  But wouldn't it make a lovely tea setting. I can't remember the name of the company but no doubt one of our tea experts will know.

  

 

  This next grouping is a Royal Albert Pattern called Lavender Rose.   I have  couple of pieces in my shop and my cousin  Ella has a full set of it. It is beautiful.  I had taken a group of pictures of her set while I was visiting her but some how they got lost during my travels.

 

                          Hope you enjoyed some of the tea things I shared.

 

              I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

                 These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

A Tea Cup Pin Cushion and MORE!!

Veteran's Day or Armistice Day as it is called in some places, is a very important day for us to honor those who served, have served and given their lives for our freedoms.  It is an important day at our house as my husband is a retired Navy Pilot.  And my dad served in WWII.  An amazing site unfolded in London, England at the Tower of London to remember all this..  Here is a link to see for yourself..

 Tower of London Remembers 

And here is one of amazing pictures.............

 


To begin I should report, for those that have been following  my health issues..... My cast has been removed and I am on the mend.  I will have to a lot of hand exercises and have a few P T  visits but I think things are now on their way back to normal.
   

 For this Tea Cup Tuesday I am going to show you something VERY DIFFERENT.  Here is a cup and saucer that I turned into a Pin cushion. 

The teacup had a few problems though nothing major so I didn't worry about this new use.  There are many ways to use your favorite tea cups that are suddenly not usable for the traditional cup of tea.
Check my Pinterest Page on the subject and you will see some of the examples I have found that I may use in the future.

And while on the subject of pin cushions I will get away from Tea Cups and  talk about all the other pincushions I seem to be unable to stop making!

I hadn't really thought too much about it until I finished this little project and took it up to my sewing room.  The project included a little pin keep and scissor keep, using vintage wooden spools... and made with wool felt.  I got the patterns from a magazine called Primitive Quilts and Projects.

 
When I went to put them in the sewing room I saw the other two pin keeps I had made in the last year or so... and realized they were all made using wool felt...  So now I have four.....  The crow and the square pin cushions were from patterns in the magazine called Create and Decorate.

   I do seem to need places to keep my pins.

 

Awhile back I made this pin cushion and bag set to keep on my ironing board.  So I guess it can be said I have enough pin cushions (keeps).... or then again maybe no.  I may find another pattern for a project I "need" to make.

Now it also must be said that since I have gotten back into cross stitch lately, especially the primitive style, I  have begun to make little "pillows" that they call  pin keeps.....  so you see it keeps on. I will talk about them another day.

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Thanks for joining me  today and I hope you will visit the other Tea Time blogs as well.

I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

Most of these parties will be available each week. But check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

  Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

My new Zinnia tea set

Watching the news and seeing all the snow pictures from this past weekend brings back memories of when we lived in Maine.  I don't miss it but do remember how much I enjoyed the mornings after a big snowfall.  It would be so quiet outside except for the snow plows off in the distance and everything was so clean looking. But right now I am happy to look outside and still see some pretty leaves on the trees!  And no doubt we will have our own snow soon enough.

The best news for me right now is that I am possibly getting my cast off tomorrow.  That will be a happy day!   I will report on that in my post next week.

MEANWHILE.............................

I found this set while visiting our favorite flea market.  It is a service for 12. And very complete. All sorts of serving pieces as well as the requisite place setting pieces.  This little tea party I am showing here uses just a few of the pieces   This particular pattern is called Sculptured Zinnia because the flowers are raised.  It is from Metlox Pottery... the Poppytrail Division.

Metlox Pottery was a California pottery.  You can read more about it at this site..

http://antiques.about.com/od/pottery/a/aa082104.htm

Sculptured Zinnia from 1964

Here I am using the salad plate to serve these tasty little blueberry strudel bites.  These are made by the bakery at our local Giant grocery store.  They do them in other fruits such as apple and raspberry but I like these the best.

And this is the mark on my plates. 

I did get a service for 12 but do not need that much.  So I imagine I will be selling some of the extra place settings  in my shop.  But for now I am enjoying  using at least some of it.

I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

Terri at Artful Affirmations *

Martha at Martha's Favorites *
Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

Some more pretty tea things

With some degree of luck I will get my cast off next week and then start therapy to get me back to a normal life.

I wanted to make one comment about last weeks post.  Ruth from Antiques and Teacups
told me this set  is a Shelley Set called Apple Blossom Chintz.  Well that is probably the reason it didn't come home with me.  I looked at some other pictures and determined it was sold by someone that offers a LOT of Shelley for sale.  After looking at the picture closely I see that the price was $40 which is probably relatively cheap for Shelley but it would have still stopped me.

But on to other things.  Here are a few more things I found at the flea market. 

I was surprised at how many cottage sets I saw during my visit. I have one and don't want another so obviously didn't get them..

I  saw these and thought they were interesting.  I didn't see a mark so don't know what they were.

 

 I am sorry that the picture below is hard to see.  It was raining a lot and those ware drops of water on the showcase.  I wanted to capture the picture so much that I took it anyway and cleaned it up a bit so you could see it too.  Yes, that is a teaset.  Teapot, sugar, creamer and a little condiment set. I just wasn't ready to spend a lot at this sale I guess and so didn't get it.  But maybe someday.

I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

Terri at Artful Affirmations *

Martha at Martha's Favorites *
Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

Some pretty tea things..............

As I continue on in my recuperation from hand surgery I am sharing more pictures of tea things I found on our travels to Maine and New Brunswick.  I got a new cast last week which was smaller and lighter so that was good.

I wanted to mention here also that a couple of weeks ago my husband and I went to  a huge car show in Hershey PA.  About 3000 or so vendors and vintage cars of every kind.  Because this is such a large car show there were folks there from all over the world....  one lady told me at the office stand that they had counted folks from over 20 countries. We spent three days there and did not see it all.

Since this is a tea post I won't go into much detail but I will show you  the variety... My favorite car was this one.....  A 1925 Renault.....  It was only $375,000!  

 And to the opposite end of the spectrum here is an old Chevrolet touring car found in a barn, ready to restore.  On the windshield is written "barn fresh."

But back to Tea Cup Tuesday and things I saw while we were traveling in Maine and New Brunswick.



I really liked this set and now have to admit I wish I had gotten it.  I don't know why I didn't.  I also don't know much about it.  But it seems pretty special to me.  It would have made a wonderful setting for a Spring tea I think.  I don't know the maker, perhaps someone reading this will know.

 This next cup is pretty self explanatory.  I have cups for our all of our birth months but since none are in January I didn't get it.  It is from Royal Albert's Flower of the Month series from the 1970s and features snowdrops. 

And finally this next set will always remind me of our cousin Helen whom we lost a few years ago.  She had this set and I always loved it when we used it when visiting her.  I do have a few pieces of it so didn't need to buy anymore.  It is called Old English Roses by Royal Albert.  It was made earlier than the present day favorite Old Country Roses of which I have way more than a full set!!!

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Thanks for joining me  today and I hope you will visit the other Tea Time blogs as well.

I have joined with the following Tea Cup Tuesday Tea Parties.

They may not be available every week, we sure to check!

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

Terri at Artful Affirmations *

Martha at Martha's Favorites *
Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *