Tea Things Tuesday

Hello and welcome. It's Tea Things Tuesday!!!!

A big thank you to our lovely hostess, Kim, at
http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com

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Now, last week I had introduced the Priscilla pattern and told absolutely everyone that I was going to clean it all up and send it off to my sister.

Well, that didn't happen. :(

As I was a cleaning the teapot up I noticed that there were a couple of spots in the teapot that were just not coming clean, so there had to be a couple of little flaws you really could not see but I'm just not comfortable using old dishes that way, much less sending it off to my (truly 100%, why would I ever exaggerate) angelic sister that way.

So, we had to find a suitable alternative. Luckily, we just happened to have one!

This is the Cashmere pattern by Homer Laughlin. This was also made in the very early 40's. We also had some dessert plates to go with this set...

and threw in 4 little silver teaspoons. Look at the shine I put on those babies (they were quite tarnished, dirty, dirty, tisk, tisk).

Decided she needed an infuser and just happened to have one that fit really well, it was meant to be!

I threw in a doily and some of that Casablanca herbal blend "tea."

UPS did a wonderful job packing and shipping and it should arrive in Colorado by Friday.

Love my sister, wish I could do more for her!



Me ... and... She


Happy Tea Things Tuesday!!

Do you have one of these?

Do you have one of these?



I looked and looked for just the right one.

Isn't it beautiful?

L


This is a mountain dulcimer stand. You can use this instead of trying to keep your dulcimer on your lap. This can be very helpful if your legs are not parallel to the floor (ha, upper legs) when you sit down 'cause then your instrument has a tendency to slide in the direction of the floor.

There are pegs to hold your dulcimer in place. I went ahead and got the deluxe model with the music stand.

This all folds flat and has a carrying strap attached in case you have to carry it very far to your jam session (have never jammed, but sounds like FUN!).



And with dulcimer playing... it's all about the FUN!!!

Tea Things Tuesday

Happy Tea Things Tuesday!
Hosted by: Kim at http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com
Thank you Kim!
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Today I am showing my Household Institute Priscilla pattern teapot, teacups, and saucers. I also have a couple of little sterling teaspoons in the picture. This set is made by Homer Laughlin. The teapot is dated 1940, but the cups have no dates on them.

I am going to get these all shined up and sent off to my sister, shhhh. She does not have a tea set, and I just think maybe she needs one. I do like to talk about tea and all the pretty tea things with her.

I'd like to package it all up pretty in the basket but I'm afraid it might get damaged so I think my best bet would be to go to UPS and have them take care of it all. I have always found the UPS stores to be helpful.
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Next, this is the only thing I have in the Midnight Rose pattern by Royal Albert. I think this pattern is just beautiful with its blues and light pinks. A tea mug with lid and infuser. Kinda fun.

Close up...

Here we mixed and matched Old Country Roses with Midnight roses added a little egg candle we picked up that goes well with it all, paired it with Skytone plate from Homer Laughlin and....

Ready for tea and toast!

Happy Tea Things Tuesday and Happy Thanksgiving!

An adventure at Sea World Orlando

Date: November 21, 2009
Captain's log
(ha, just kidding)
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Off to Sea World Orlando

Temperature somewhere in the 80's (should have worn my short britches), Christmas music playing in the park...

Beautiful daughter and, hamming it up, Little Companion. Love this time of the year in Florida!

Here's my artistic impression of Christmas in Florida, palm tree in front of evergreen, oh ya... I'm artsy.

Beautiful foliage...

BEWARE OF THE SHARKS!!!!!

More beautiful foliage...

Little Companion cooling off in the mister.

Clydesdale napping in the heat of the day, can you tell he's got his back legs crossed? Too cute! Beautiful horses.

And of course,

The whales...

Wonderful, wonderful whales

More beautiful foliage...

Happy seals...

Beautiful, happy day in Florida.

Blessed with a sweet respite from work and the everyday cares...

Home again, home again jiggety jig.

I've had something on my blogging mind for awhile now that I'd like to share.

So, pull up a chair, sip on some tea, and I'll spin you my tale and then together we can ponder the deeper things herein presented.

Now everyday, I pass a certain way, at least four times a day (say that 3 times fast!). There is an interesting spot that has an interesting sign. This sign on first glance you think okay, no fishing, swimming, or feeding wildlife, I'm okay with that. But everyday I pass this same way, at least 4 times a day, and glance over at this sign.

Let's take a closer look... here's the sign

driving, glancing.... let's jump out and go closer yet.

Every morning and every afternoon I come up with new questions like...

What kind of fish do you suppose live in this "water?"
You think it is catch and release or would you take um home and eat em fishies you caught here?
You think a line would actually go into this "water" or would the fish come to you?

Swimming? Swimming? Might have to question the sanity of someone who decided to cool off by taking a nice refreshing dip in this "water."

Then we have the whole feeding wildlife thing. Now we know there are gators here, but we do wonder what other kind of wildlife this habitat might be home to. The possibilities are endless.

So, I have to hope this sign went up before the "water" turned because I'm a thinking that people who really need these instructions would probably not be able to read them!

Hope your weekend has started off great!

Tea Things Tuesday

Tea Things Tuesday comes about only once a week, luckily for us that's today!

Thanks for hosting Kim! (http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com)
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Been a particularly trying sort of week. My daughter was involved in a car accident last Wednesday and spent a good portion of the day in the emergency room and then dealing with all the things that go along with that, i.e., car wrecked and towed, rental car, etc. She will be okay, just some pretty good bruises and scrapes. Then that "just a little brake dust" started actually grinding to an unbearable level on my car and had to get that taken care of pronto. One of THOSE weeks.
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Good time for tea! New tea in the mail, FUN STUFF, we're gonna try it out. Start with your Cafe Latte tea from The Tea Table. All kinds of good stuff in this tea, black tea, cocoa bits, almond bits, coffee beans, freeze dried yogurt pieces. Sounds good!



We're going to be using our Royal Doulton Malvern cup today. We had found this up in North Dakota and toted it all the way down to Florida with us. We will be using a tea bag and filling it with loose leaf tea. These are fun and can be purchased at The Tea Table also. We are using a little glass creamer borrowed from Little Companion and a cute little tea bag holder.



Here's a closer look at the tea. Very pretty, nice and dark.



Boiling water, steep for 3 to 5 minutes...



We let it steep a little over 3 minutes.




Very pretty. Nice taste with nothing added,




Nice taste with milk and sugar.

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As a reminder ... you really have to be careful what you leave out when there are impressionable children about who can read. Otherwise, you might just round a corner one day after fiddling with your tea things and find this happening in your very own house.



Happy Tea Things Tuesday!

Those were the days... Veterans Day 2009

Big Kahuna and his little buddy Steve in D.C., many, many, many, (etc) years ago.

Thinking of you on Veteran's Day...

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end



We'd sing and dance forever and a day



We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.

I even got one of these! Thanks Big Kahuna!

SEMPER PARATUS

Tea Things Tuesday

Happy Tea Things Tuesday!
And a big thank you to Kim at http://shabbypinkandpretty.blogspot.com for hosting this event!
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Now this is not my collection, these belong to my Little Companion, and this story probably really belongs to her but hey she's 6, so I'm just gonna borrow it for awhile.




This is Little Companion's little hutch. We found this out on one of our adventures and it was just the right size for Little Companion. She already had her china (Anniversary Rose by Royal Swan) which we had found in North Dakota. She also has a small creamer collection, she likes to pour her milk out of these in the morning, and she also has her own flatware.

But... she did not have her own full-size teapot.

One day she asked me where the teapot that went with these dishes was. Well -- says I -- that would be really hard to find, maybe impossible. BUT, I had this one that I had found while we were out thrifting recently and it actually looks pretty nice with her set. She decided that would be an acceptable alternative.

So, there you have the story of how Little Companion acquired her first teapot. It is not china, it is a Teleflora teapot, but it will due until we happen to stumble upon an Anniversary Rose Teapot by Royal Swan! Ha

Happy Tea Things Tuesday!

My dulcimers

Why howdy folks!!!

My daughter was going through some things today and showed me a couple of dolls I had made for her. Do you remember when these pocket dolls were ALL THE RAGE??? Anyway, she will be telling our story today. Way back about 3 or 4 years ago, I decided to start playing mountain dulcimer.

Since I wasn't sure if I'd want to stick with it I bought this for my first dulcimer. It is an "Old Standby" built by Black Mountain Dulcimers. For a student model it was very pleasant to play. It had a nice sound and I was really enjoying it a lot.

I believe this was my second dulcimer. It is a dulcimer hand crafted by Tom Yocky, Jr. The top is made of western red cedar and the back is African mahogany, solid woods. The sides are made of figured makore. It was signed on 9/9/06 and named "Memory." I call it "my Yocky."

This is my McSpadden baritone dulcimer. It is tuned lower, believe a 5th, (I tune mine to G-D-G versus D-A-D for the others) and has a very rich full sound. I surely do wish it had an ebony fretboard, my fingers slide easier on the ebony, but it is a lovely dulcimer and I could have it added if I were truly motivated. I call it my "baritone dulcimer."

This is my baby, my beauty. I love playing on this instrument. This is a custom McSpadden dulcimer with ebony fretboard. It is walnut with a high gloss finish. This has a mother of pearl Fleur-de-lis on the head along with a couple of others on the fretboard.

Truly a beautiful instrument and an absolute joy to play. I call it "my dulcimer." So now you are on a first name basis with all my dulcimers and they say welcome!

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Big project today was to sort through this hidden stack of music filtering through piano, guitar, banjo, autoharp, violin, clarinet (and even had a harmonica book in there) to find all the dulcimer music. Little Companion helped and we did it!!!

Hoping you're having a wonderful weekend!