Teacup Tuesday and Hasta La Vista

Teacup Tuesday....

This is a Royal Doulton teacup and saucer
Made in England
and the pattern is Malvern.
As far as I have been able to find out I believe this was made somewhere between 1927-1933. It is in very good condition. I am just amazed it could possibly be that old!

Kim at Shabby, Pink and Pretty hosts the Teacup Tuesdays. Be sure to visit her beautiful blog!

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As for us, the top dog, big cheese, head honcho, the big kahuna, the chief (husband who wanted to be mentioned) and Steve are now in town and loading up the truck to take to Florida. They will take some stuff and drop it off in Oklahoma and pick up some gear to move on to Florida.

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Things are looking up. The gals (daughter, little companion, and me) along with our faithful pocket poochie will take off hopefully before noon tomorrow in a 2 car caravan.

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We will be visiting America's home town of Hannibal, Missouri along the way (very exciting) and will also briefly see Chattanooga, Tennessee. We very much look forward to getting to our new destination. I will be thinking of everyone along the way and hope to be able to check blogs a couple of times. So my parting words will be....

Hasta La Vista (see you later)

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and thanks Chief Warrant Officer Bircher (big buddy) and Steve (little buddy)

A last look at the river

Had to get these last shots of the river. It was really fun to be able to get all 4 seasons from this same bridge over the last 8 months.

Today I share with you with one of my favorite poems of all time,

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

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Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

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And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

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I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost--

Teacup Tuesday

Today is Teacup Tuesday hosted by Kim of Shabby, Pink and Pretty.

My teacup today is a Nasco Japan cup and the pattern is Rose Marie.

Okay, here's the story. Whether semi- consciously or subconsciously, I do not know, I managed to pack all my teacups. So, of course that meant I needed to get more. Now I figured I would hit this one shop that I know usually has cute little china cups for fairly reasonable and get one for me and one for daughter.

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Off my little companion and I went in search of cups for Teacup Tuesday. Sure 'nough, they had beautiful little bone china teacups for $10.00 for cup and saucer, so $20 for two. But... as we were looking around we spotted these, 4 plates, 4 bread plates, 4 saucers, and 4 cups. I don't really like to say how much but... $7.99. Okay, so ya, I know it's more to pack but alas, I had to.

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Packed some of it and...

Plan to tote the rest along with us in case we get the chance for some downtime and tea along the way.

Portable tea party!!

(Is it just me or is this case just itching to be painted?)

Don't forget to visit Kim's beautiful blog!!!

Getting ready to go...

Ah North Dakota, what can I say...

Very difficult to find anyone to rent to you when you have a dog, even if that dog is 7 pounds, you work from home, and he is crate trained. So this little cutie was the option really.

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Reaching well into the 90s when we arrived here, we promptly ran and got a window unit to go in the window that opened downstairs, yes, one window will work for an air conditioner downstairs.

Set up my office, not too bad until you realized that all these cords...

Run off that one little electrical socket back there in that corner. Luckily the house runs on fuses, yes fuses, which my son Chad (4th in line child working on his doctors in physics) assures me is much safer than a panel for some reason having to do with once the fuse blows no more electric (and then basically what I heard was blah, blah, blah, like on Charlie Brown).

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Now here's an interesting little tip you might need someday. See the shoestring hanging from the handle? That was because we had an ice dam build up on the roof and basically seal the back door shut and had to use the front door which wouldn't have been too bad except...

No door handle and we had no key to the front door. So I tied the long shoestring to the inside of the door and would pull the door shut as we left to trudge from the front of the house to the back in the snow.

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Well we did pretty well I think.

We dealt with the heat,

the space shortage,

the ice (Anabelle and I took a pretty bad spill in front of her school, landing pretty much face down in front of her school),

with the extreme cold (30 below zero),

the snow,

the infestation of box elder bugs, that lasted for months during the winter,

a broken blood vessel in my eye (the only time I had to take off work in the last 8 months),

the plumbing problem, everything that went down upstairs came up down stairs,

that funny smell? still can't figure that one out,

and the "automatic" garage door that occasionally will take 20 tries to get it closed.

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Things we learned...

You cannot buy snow removal in North Dakota during the winter.

I can still shovel a walk and it not kill me.

Carhartt is all the rage in fashion here during the winter.

Winter here lasts at least 6 months (it was 35 degrees last night).

Something about fuses...

and lastly,

I really prefer warmer climates!

Tablescape, from a different point of view...

I received these flowers from my son Chad for Mother's Day, so pretty!

Well, my little companion and I were puttering around today, packing some things up, washing a few things, generally working in the kitchen and then next thing I knew she was working on a tablescape around these flowers. She was very proud of herself for this one. These are her dishes, the pattern is Anniversary Rose, made in Staffordshire, England.

She was so sweet today (I figure this was a very "casual" setting).

Good job Anabelle!

Miss Janice's Giveaway

Just in case someone may visit my blog who does not frequent Miss Janice's blog (Etiquette with Miss Janice), she is having a wonderful giveaway contest. The prize is an etiquette book by Letitia Baldrige. These always come in handy and this one looks particularly interesting. I would highly encourage you to visit her blog, she is a wonderful, gracious woman who cares about others, and also has a marvelous sense of humor!

Out and about...

Hi ho, hi ho,

To Velva, North Dakota we go!!

Want to guess what's in Velva, North Dakota?

This cool bridge going into their park and, as the sign says, 1300 Friendly People!

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Okay, back to Minot and guess what we found today? A cup and saucer to go in my Homer Laughlin Eggshell collection, fun, fun, fun. These are really my favorite dishes I have. I love how they shine, the weight of them, the feel of them, and that they are USA made. Mine were all made in the '40s and '50s.

I'll introduce you.

This is the Cashmere design, it is Eggshell Georgian style.

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This is my Kingston Wheat, Eggshell Georgian. I have the most of these dishes.

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This one I had the name of and then promply lost it, it is Eggshell Georgian. I'll have to figure it out again!

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These are my Cunningham and Pickett Norway Rose dishes. They are really made by Homer Laughlin and are the Nautilus pattern.

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This is the newest to the collection. It is Talisman or Pastel Rose and is Eggshell Nautilus.

There are three cups but the other two have pretty bad chips. It also came with quite a few other pieces that are all in good condition. I will try to pick up a few more cups of this style eventually. All of the pieces cost about what you would have expected to pay for just this one cup and saucer and they are just so lovely!

I am getting ready to pack them, I really don't want to box them up yet. Maybe I'll give it just one more day, sip a cup of tea out of the Talisman tomorrow, ya, that will be the plan then!

Oh now what's the rush, I have 2 weeks...

So, out and about today and look what I found. Isn't this a beautiful little chair, very dainty and delicate, and so pretty!

I also found some pretty cool "new records." A little Dean Martin, a little Tony Bennett, and throw in some Guy Lombardo.

On the Guy Lombardo record they sing the ballad of Dangerous Dan McGrew, it's great! Now if you have about 10 minutes, grab a cup of tea,

Go to this site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zESPCjTN-6k, relax, pretend that you are listening to an old time radio show, and hear the poet recite his poem.

My little candle problem

Remember back awhile ago when we had that little "problem" with our candle?

Well, we did resolve it not long after that with what we felt were very good results.

Nice and tidy, much much safer, and a very nice glow when lit! Thought I'd share that with you before it all comes down for the move.

I should be honest though and tell you that I didn't even know this could be done until one day when I was at Goodwill and this lady I was casually talking with just popped one of these little glass holders into something like this. I hid my awe adequately and took my new found knowledge with me. Not long after I found a couple of these holders for a very reasonable price and here's the result. Pretty cool!

Love 'em weekends!!

I found this little table back some time ago. Nice size, good stability, very good price, useful. At the same time I would have to say I found it rather shockingly blue. It just screams out at you I AM SO SHOCKINGLY BLUE, and I am a person who tends to like blue!!!

So, being the weekend and knowing I had just oodles of time (ha), decided to help this poor little thing out. So, busted the craft paints out of storage. Started with a brush but being the type of person who once they start a project wants it done NOW, opted for a sponge instead. Got a couple of coats of pain on it and it was starting to come together.

Now to be honest with you I actually had a theme in mind for this little table.

I wanted to show the the Everglades, the water, and the Coral Reef. At this point last night I quit working on it, watched a movie, etc. Today I got up not so bright and early, got my hair done, and went to Hobby lobby for varnish. I walked out of Hobby Lobby with just varnish..... ha, right. Anyway, I digress. Came home and put 3 coats of quick drying varnish on her.

After a couple of hours she got to come inside (low odor varnish).

Let's play dress up.

I know, I know you're saying but you're using your Swedish Coffee Hotten for a teapot warmer. Yes, but they work the same way, believe me!

And the fact that the teapot, cups, sugar, and creamer were 50% off at Hobby Lobby justify buying them, don't ya think?

Add a pink flamingo and, well, ... it just works!

So here we go, less than 24 hours later we have our Florida table. And we needed a Florida table why? Because we are going to Florida next! My daughter has accepted a position in Tampa as a family nurse practitioner. We are pretty excited. We will be moving the end of May. We lived in the Miami area years ago but we have never lived in the Tampa area.

So, that's my table and that's my news for Saturday! Let's have some spearmint tea, it's really good hot or cold!