Teapots and Quilts

Spring is due in March but it is still cold enough to REALLY enjoy a hot cup of tea.

 As my regular followers probably know I READ A LOT.  I almost always have a book handy.....  So when I saw this teapot available on ETSY I thought how much I would love to have it.  Unfortunately it is a big pricey for me but I do love it.  They also have a single cup style that is a bit more in my price range.  I wish I liked it as much as the first one. We shall have to see.  But meanwhile here are the two teapots I am talking about.  If you want to learn more about them and the seller click on the picture and it will take you to the sale page...........

 The classic authors tea pot...

The Poetry Books Teapot

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As February draws to a close I continue to be amazed at how fast time flies.  Must be having a LOT of fun as the saying goes.

This past week I started a new quilt project.  It is a Block of the Month style, ,(this one actually has 3 blocks a month.)  Because I am on the continuing mission to use up my stash of fabric this is a perfect one.   It will be comprised of 30 squares and I am making them "scrappy" to use up my existing fabric but they will have the one common denominator.....  a cream colored fabric I had bought a lot of awhile ago and never used. And various blues and reds.

Here are the first three blocks that I finished this past week.  Now I have to wait a few weeks before the next pattern arrives!   If you think this is something that might interest you, you can  check it out on Craftsy... (and, no, I am not getting any payment for mentioning this here.)  See below for the link for Craftsy.  (It is a relatively inexpensive project. (if you use fabrics from your stash!!!)  Just $2 USD a month for 10 months.  You will get the pattern for three blocks each month.

Here is a link.........   Simple Traditions BOM on Craftsy..........    And if you decide to do this.... you can join the facebook group to get lots of fun inspiration.        Simple Traditions Facebook Group.   You will have to join the group to read it but it has been worth it so far!!!

And here is a picture of a few of the bulbs coming up in one of my garden areas.  That means Spring MUST be near.........  And YES, I think that hole in upper right part of picture leads to the "home" of the resident chipmunk.  LOL

 

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

And the heart beats on..................

As February marches along so do the hearts.  This is the Art Journal Page I did for the month of February.  I told you last week I would share it this week.

Our cold weather of last week disappeared for a bit and brought a LOT of rain.  And finally this rainbow.

This is was the scene across the road from our house after the storm.  It didn't last long but it was lovely while it lasted.


The day I started writing this post was not very nice so I stayed in and did some crafting and had some of this tea...  It is called cranberry autumn by Harney and Sons.  I found it at Barnes and Noble in the fall.  I only have it occasionally but always enjoy it when I do.

The mug I am using was made by Buffalo Pottery a LONG time ago.  You can see the mark below with a possible date.  Sometimes, when I need the tea for warmth I like to have it one of these heavy mugs.

 

Here is the mark.  It says 1911 but don't know exactly what they means.  It is for sure that the mug is old.   I am sorry the mark is a bit hard to read but that is the way it is printed on the mug.

 

 

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

February is for Hearts

February continues here in my part of the world with snow on the ground and some cold temps finally arriving.  It seemed like Winter didn't want to come this year.... but now it has, at least for awhile.

For the last couple of years I have expanded my artwork into the area of collage.  I have found several places on line where I can get prompts for art journaling and when I do the art journaling I usually do collage.......... Sort of like the post card I showed last week.  Here is the collage I did for Valentines Day last year. It featured a Valentine given to me by my husband and I just expanded on it to make the page.   Next week I will share the collage I am working on now.

     

With our very cold  temperatures it is definitely a good time for a hot cup of tea..... 

Today I thought I would show one of my favorite tea cups....  made by my absolute favorite maker... Royal Albert.  If you read my posts often you know I always seem to like to talk about my Royal Albert Tea Cups.  This particular one is called Old English Rose.  It is a special one to me because it always reminds me of one of  our favorite cousins....  Helen Lawrence, who is no longer with us.  She loved this set and so I always think of her when I use it.

 Sorry about the color change in this picture.  Not quite sure why that happened.

If you visit the History of Royal Albert pages you will learn this design was used up until the late 70s.  But I think I like the earliest ones best.

 The mark on this one indicates it was made between 1939 and 1945.  

One thing about February is that it is a huge month for celebrations.  The main one after Valentines Day that I always think about is that it is National Heart Month.....  Without a heart we wouldn't be here....... but there are many other celebrations as well.  Quite a fun month actually if you celebrated them all  from the Presidents, to Black History, and even Dental Health Month.

There is a website I like to visit that lists all the special days, weeks, etc. of the year and February is FILLED.   Probably a good thing here in the northern part of our country.  With cold temps and often snow what else are you going to do but PARTY.

Here is a website you can visit when ever you want to know what special days are coming up.

Brownielocks' Holidays & Fun For Everyone!

             One example is that  February is National Children's Dental Health Month.
     My dentist's office even has a holiday tree  filled with Hearts and Shiny Teeth. I haven't been back again to take a picture but maybe next year.

Do any of you do holiday trees?  I have thought about it but so far haven't done it.  As they say... maybe next year.

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

Valentines and Tea

With Valentines Day approaching rapidly I decided to bake some of the family's favorite cookies... Sugar Cookies with cream cheese frosting and crushed "chicken bones" candy on top.  I talked about them awhile back on another post.  You can check them out here.  I made them for Christmas this past year.........          Chicken Bones Sugar Cookies...............

I don't really have any "Valentines" tea cups but I always love to use my cottage designs so here is a cup and saucer by Royal Vale................

And the tea pot is from Arthur Wood, England............

Here is a close up of the cookies.   They probably won't last until Valentines Day so I will have to make another batch.....  which is ok by me........................

One of the art forms I really enjoy is making collages.  And to that end I have joined artist Lisa Vollrath's Mixed Media Club in some monthly swaps making postcards where I generally do collages.   Appropriately enough for this post, this month the theme was Valentines Day and here is my offering.  I had such fun making it though it took awhile to get it like I wanted it.

    The way the swap works is that we make three postcards using the theme and we send them off to her where she swaps them out and sends us three others plus one from her.   It is always a fun mail day when they arrive. If you want to learn more about her swaps to try it yourself here is the link..................   

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

50 years and counting

We made it to 50 years............  who would have thought back in 1966 when we were married.  2016 seemed an eternity away. But this past week our 50th Anniversary arrived!!!

Our daughter sent us a fun and special package this year.  It is filled with all things golden.... It was fun to look through it and find what she had found out and about that was GOLD.  And she added three little framed pictures of us from our wedding, all those years ago.  What a special daughter we have!

For this weeks post I am showing a very special (to me) picture.  On Christmas Eve in 1965 Bill gave me a Christmas Present that included a box with two coffee mugs, symbolic of our first date.  AND nestled in that box was an engagement ring.  Needless to say I was quite speechless for a while after.  Of course my family was all there too....  wondering at first what was going on since they didn't see the ring right away.  50 years later only 1 of the pair of mugs remains intact but here it is... in a place of honor on one of my kitchen display shelves. But today I nestled it in the Anniversary Box.

Because my husband's mother was Canadian we got a LOT of bone china teacups and saucers as wedding gifts.  And that is how my collection (obsession really) came about and now of course my collection is way larger than I ever thought it would be.  The first cup and saucer I opened was the Royal Albert Silver Birches pattern. I remember it well.  Unfortunately I no longer have it, probably lost in one of our many moves.  But I did love it and it began my love of Royal Albert.  I found this picture on the internet in  case you don't know the pattern.

 Normally we don't do a whole lot for "gifts" for each other for our anniversary since Christmas is  so close by and we generally get what we want then but this year we decided it was time for a new car... so we started out looking a week or so ago and on Tuesday of last week we brought it home! That is definitely quite an anniversary gift by our standards.   It has all the whistles and bells that make it interesting to drive.  I am not sure I will ever learn them all but it is fun!  So car hunting and celebrating our anniversary were last week's adventure.

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

Snow and more snow

I am continuing on today with some blue and white china from my collection.  This is from the Liberty Blue Collection which was given out in grocery stores in about 1975.  I was not living in the continental US at that time but was living in Puerto Rico where my husband was stationed with the Navy.  So I didn't get in on it until later.   

I found the following quote on line about the china........... It was at a site that sells a book about Liberty Blue.

"Blue and white ironstone dinnerware has been collected for many years, and the introduction of the Liberty Blue pattern in 1975 by Enoch Wedgwood of England, with its fifteen different historic scenes of colonial America, brought forth keen interest. Here the Old North Church, Minutemen, West Point, Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, and many more historic sites are shown. The Liberty Blue promotion coincided with America's Bicentennial celebrations, causing more people to become interested in owning a set for themselves." 

 Each piece, or in this case, a set, features a scene from American History.  This one was the Ride of Paul Revere.  I have most of the set and will feature others at another time.

 It is a really nice collection to have if you like Blue and White China.

 And then there was the SNOW.......................

 For the past week all the weather men in our area were reporting on the big blizzard that might be heading our way.  Well, I wouldn't call what we got a "blizzard" because there wasn't much wind... at least not yet.  The snowing has stopped and we got a lot, at least a foot I think.  My hubby and our neighbors had the "fun" of going out and "playing" in it.  We have had many worse storms while living in Maine so it wasn't that big a deal.  But for many folks that live in our area it was Big.  It is all in what you are used to I think.... AND it is January!!!!!
  I stayed inside and made soup (from scratch) and I baked. I did cheat a bit  and made brownies from a Betty Crocker Mix but they were Good!  And the soup was too.

Now we wait for all the snow to melt again.  It will take a bit longer than the last little one we got.

I hope you will all visit me again next week.  You just never know what I will be showing.  Or talking about.  Or if we have had another "adventure."

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*

January Tea and Music

 

And so another week passes since my last Tea Cup Tuesday entry.  Time is surely flying fast.  Must be having lot of fun as the saying goes.

This week I want to share more Blue and White China, of which I own a LOT!!!!  These two mugs are a couple of my favorites.  Nothing better to me than holding a mug filled with warm tea or coffee on a cold winter's evening.  And these two are so nice and thick and hold the warmth well.

 The one on the right is from the Buffalo Pottery Company.  That was in the US.  And the one on the left simply says Japan on the bottom though it is hard to read.   I love the way the one from Japan has the extra treat inside with the pretty design you see, only as you have drunk some of the tea.

 Here is the mark for the one from Buffalo China.  It is an old cup, probably washed many times so the mark is a bit messy but you get the idea.

       I imagine I will be using these often over the next few weeks until things start to warm up.

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

It was Saturday night and my favorite BlueGrass group The Hillbilly Gypsies was going to be on stage in a   town about an hour from here.  I sort of "hinted" I sure would like to see them since it would be the fiddle players last performance with the group for awhile.....     So dh says.... sure get the tickets and find a nice restaurant!   I didn't waste time and did just that........

SO... off we went.  Considering it is January and our weather isn't always the best this time of year I was a tiny bit worried.  HOWEVER... not necessary.  It was cold but CLEAR.... And the drive in both directions was uneventful.

I had found a restaurant right across the street from the concert venue and luck was with us as we found a parking place right there!!!  (Someone was just leaving.)  

The Restaurant called Stella A is called a "bar and grill" featuring Greek Food although they had lots of other selections.
 
Upon being seated we were served this little Hors D'oeuvres Tray featuring Pita bread and pickled peppers.  Wow but they were good.  This is a picture from the website but it is what they looked like!!

Bill had Osso Buco   which actually is an Italian Dish but it felt Greek that night (LOL)  And I had Pork Souvlaki which is most assuredly Greek.  The servings were so ample we had the leftovers for lunch the next day! '
 I tried to get pictures  of our meals but lighting was not the greatest for that and my camera rebelled!

I asked for hot tea as my drink but was disappointed that didn't have any variety other than the "house blend."  It wasn't bad but I am thinking in future I should carry some tea bags with me of my favorite teas.  Some of our favorite local restaurants do carry varieties of tea but not this one.  I will say though the tea really hit the spot on this cold night.

We don't often go  to this town but you can bet if we are there in the future we will try to plan to catch a meal here again.

After dinner we crossed the street and went to the Elks Lodge ball room where the concert was to be held!!   The band was already warming up so that was a treat as well.  Since we have seen this group many times and feel like we know them we chatted with them a bit.  The room was not conducive to take pictures that I would want to put here so I took one from their website.     But it is still them.

  The Hillbilly Gypsies from Morgantown, West Virginia

I should point out that Bluegrassers we have met seem to love to meet up with old friends and fans and are always willing to chat a bit.

     The fiddle player, who can play classical as well as bluegrass is my favorite.  He always dresses in bib overalls and often plays barefoot.    This is purely an act!!! He is a VERY bright and talented young man.   Unfortunately he is leaving the group for awhile to do other things.  I will miss seeing him.  But wish him well.  Part of the reason I really wanted to go to this concert was to see him one last time.  We will be seeing the group again this summer without him.

After three lovely hours it was time to head home..................



I hope you will all visit me again next week.  You just never know what I will be showing.  Or talking about.  Or if we have had another "adventure."

I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

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

Hope you will visit them too.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

Share your cup  Thursday*