Blue Monday

Today is Monday and Sally of Smiling Sally has invited me to join in on the fun of Blue Monday’s. I couldn’t pass up the chance to show off some of my blue pretties, so I am pleased to join in the fun.

For my first “Blue Monday”, I thought I would share a photo of a darling little blue lady figurine. I found her standing regally on a shelf in an antique shop one day and she was so dainty and lovely that I couldn’t resist bringing her home with me. She now stands on a book shelf in my blue office at home where I can see and enjoy her everyday.

Have a lovely Monday and come back for another visit soon :)

I had so much fun with my first “Pink Saturday” posting and I wish to send a big thank you out to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting the weekly event and for all the ladies out there who visited my blog and left such nice comments for me.

I discovered several new blogs myself and have enjoyed visiting all of them. The only one I wasn’t able to visit was the blog of a lovely lady named Judy who left a comment for me, but no link to her blog/web page. So Judy, if you come back and see this new posting, please leave me another comment with the link to your blog/web page as I would love to come visit you at yours.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll be back with another new posting in a day or two.

Pink Saturday

On this, my first "Pink Saturday" posting, I thought I would share a few photos of one of my favorite Pink tea sets. I have a large collection of teapots and teacups, but this set stands out among the rest and is one of my favorites. It is a Royal Albert teapot in the “Lady Carlyle” pattern. The vivid pink against the white and floral print is so pretty. Who can’t help but love it.

A closer view of the teapot shows even more of the fine details

I hope you enjoyed your visit today and that you will come back again soon. I would love to hear from you so that I will know that you stopped by for a visit, so please leave me a comment. In return, I shall try my best to visit all of your blogs as time allows. I know that there are many out there that I haven't discovered yet, and I am looking forward to visiting your blogs and getting a chance to know all of you.

Enjoy the weekend!

Fun and cute things

It's been a few days since my last post, so I though I would drop in to say HELLO.

Over the past week, I've been busy playing with my new digital camera. I've been going through my house just taking pictures of random things that I will add to my future blog posts. For today, I will only share one of them.

I was in Michael's craft store a while ago when I found these really cute pastel colored "diaper pins" on the bridal/baby shower party favor isle.

They were so cute and I couldn't resist buying a couple of packs. They were very inexpensive and are just something fun and cute and even functional as they are actually quite sturdy. They are about 1.5 inches in size. I thought it would be fun to use them instead of paperclips when I want to keep papers attached together. They are now sitting on my desk in my office at home in small white hobnail dish where they are in easy reach whenever I need to clip something together.

I love finding odd and unusual things to use in a new way.

Enjoy the rest of your week :)

Saturday fun.

What a fun weekend I have been having.

First and foremost, I finally bought myself a digital camera yesterday when I went and did a little shopping after work. I had wanted one for a very long time, but just never got around to buying myself one. After creating my new blog, I figured I better hurry up and get one, so I could start sharing more photos with everyone. You'll laugh when I tell you that the camera I ended up buying is even PINK!!

I spent last night and this morning figuring out how to use it and I've been practicing by taking lots of pictures that I will be able to share with you in as time goes by.

Today, I spent even more money. I visited one of my favorite local antique malls this afternoon and came home with a really good find.

While I know it's not an antique, I found a lovely barkcloth pillow in the soft and shabby shades of pink and green that I just love. There is also a hint of purple as well some blue and cream. It is so lovely and will fit in with my living room just beautifully. I probably paid a little more for it that my budget should have allowed, but I couldn't pass up such a pretty find. I know if I had left the antique mall without it, I would have regretted it.

Isn't it lovely???

Here to is a picture of my living room. You can see from this, just how well my new pillow will fit right in.

My wish is for someday to be able to find a beautiful and affordable cream colored television cabinet, coffee table and end tables, but for now, I must live with the old brown ones that I have had for years. I'm not very handy when it comes to painting and I would be afraid of ruining them if I tried to paint them myself.

I hope you all are having as good of a weekend as I am. Until next time.

Kim

Tea Time

The coming change of seasons with the departure of the hot and humid days of summer to the arrival of the cool and crisp fall air is something that I find myself looking forward to, as it allows me to more fully enjoy one of my favorite and largest collections and that would be my collection of teapots and teacups.

I began my collection of “Tea Things” over 20 years ago and since then, it has taken on a life of its own. For who can wonder through a quaint little antique shop or even a local discount store and see a lovely teapot or teacup and not want to take it home to set it on a shelf amidst the many others you already own.

My extensive collection of teapots, teacups and small desert plates is a veritable garden of roses with each teapot, teacup or plate being covered with roses of different varieties and colors. Several of the teapots having matching sets of teacups and desert plates, and some do not. In focusing my collection to mostly rose patterned china, it allows me to mix and match many of my pieces when I sit down for a solitary pot of tea and maybe a plate of cookies or hot scones just taken from the oven.

My collection of tea things fills a small china hutch in my dining room, an entire cupboard in my kitchen and there are many pieces scattered throughout my home on shelves and tables. This photo shows just a small portion of my collection. In the coming days and weeks I will be able to share more photos with you, but sadly at the moment, my ability to share photos with all of my new visitors is quite limit as I unfortunately do not have a digital camera yet and must rely only my old 35mm camera for the moment. I ask for your patience and understanding until that time.

Many years ago, I discovered a quick and easy recipe for scones. They are delicious and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. This recipe makes approximately 10-12 scones.

Scones

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
4 Tbsp sugar
¾ Cup Frozen Non-Diary Creamer (thawed).
½ Cup white baking chips

Pre-Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cube and cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until the size of small peas. Stir in the 4 Tbsp sugar and baking chips. Pour in the Non-Dairy Cream and stir by hand just until the dough is formed. Do not over-mix. Drop approx ¼ cup of the dough onto a cookie sheet (just like you would if you were baking cookies).

Sprinkle lightly with sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes. Serve warm from the oven with a pot of your favorite tea.

Wishing you all a happy and lovely day!!

I've Gone and Done It!!

I’ve Gone and Done It!!

I’ve taken the leap and jumped into the world of blogging. This is the first of what I hope will be many blog posts in which I will be able to share with you things about myself, my life, and my interests in collecting, antiquing and decorating my home. For now, things will start out a little slow while I learn more about the art of blogging, but as more time goes by, the posts will become more frequent and I will be able to add more and more photos to share with you.

To give you a little background information about me, my name is Kim and I am a single 41 year old female living in a townhouse in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota. My favorite hobby is browsing the antique malls and discount stores to find shabby, pink and pretty things to decorate my home with. Hense, the name of my blog. I describe my decorating style as “cottage meets shabby chic”. My favorite colors are robins egg blue, butter yellow, cream, sea foam green, and of course PINK!! Think of Easter colors and you’ll have a fairly good idea of my favorite color palate.

I enjoy collecting pretty rose patterned china, including teapots, teacups, desert plates and sugar and creamer sets, vintage tablecloths, vintage tea towels, crocheted potholders and hot pads, and much more. As more time goes by and I am able to, I will begin adding more photos to my blog to share some of my favorite items and collections with you.

This is the first and only photo that I will share with you today, but it will give you a general idea of my decorating style and what my home look like. This is a partial view of my living room and dining area. The living room walls are painted a coffee cream color and the dining room walls are painted the prettiest pale yellow color. The arched doorway and windows are highlighted with a pale spring green to accent the arches. The arched doorways (there are actually two) and windows are the first thing that made me fall in love with my townhouse when I first saw it nearly six years ago.

Please come back and visit again and do what you can to share my blog with others!!

Kim