Shades of Winter.....

Hello my lovely friends...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and loved ones and that the weather wasn't too bad where you are.

Christmas was very nice for my family this year, although very subdued and unusual on account of the nasty snow storm we had here in Minnesota that went right through Christmas and made driving around town very traitorous on the ice and snow covered roads both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A good time was still had by all, especially my two nieces and nephews who were so excited about opening gifts. It was pure joy to experience the holiday and excitement through there eyes and to remember what Christmas was like for me when I was their age.

The snow is pretty much done here for now, but the skies are still cloudy (after a few short breaks of sunshine this morning) and between the whitish/grey colored skies and snow covered ground, it is very gloomy outside.

Better to be inside enjoying the same colors in a different form, like the shades of cream and white in my basket of pretty linens displayed on a shelf in my family room. So much prettier than snow don't you think?

I'm feeling very lazy this weekend after having had several relaxing days at home not doing much, but tomorrow is back to work for the start of a very busy week, so I'm not sure if I'll have much time to post again this upcoming week, but I'll try my best.

Enjoy the rest of you weekend and I'll be back soon!!

Because You Asked..........

Happy Monday Girls.......

It's gonna be a fun and crazy week ahead. Can you believe that Christmas is just days way? I can't but I'm just about ready. Christmas shopping is done and most of the gifts are wrapped and ready to make their way across town to my Mom's house where me, Mom, my sisters, my bother, my brother-in-law and my nieces and nephew will be celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The only downside is that I am one of those unlucky people that has to work ALL day Christmas Eve day so it's going to be a busy and long day. I have a feeling though that no one will be working to hard that day. It will be more about having fun and getting ready to celebrate the holiday.

Because several of you asked over the course of my "Tea Things Tuesday" event, I thought I would share a few pictures of how I display most of my tea things. This is not all of them as sadly some have to be hidden away in cupboards due to lack of space in my little itty bitty china hutch, but at least you'll have an idea...

Enjoy your week everyone and spread the love and joy of the Holiday season while you're at it!!

A Wee Bit of Christmas...........

After visiting so many blogs over the past few weeks and seeing everyone's gorgeous Christmas decorations, I had to cave in just a little bit and bring out just a few of my Christmas pretties to add a little holiday sparkle to my house.

I didn't feel liking digging out the Christmas tree, the lights and all of my other Christmas decorations, but I figured pulling out a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments to create a little tabletop display would suit me just fine this year.

I'll call this my "Christmas in a bowl". And as you can guess, most of my favorite Christmas ornaments are PINK!!.

With a yummy shade of shabby chic green thrown in for some contrast..........

And of course, we can't forget the glitter and lace trims......

A simple and creative way to add some holiday sparkle and shine to my house. I'll be displaying this bowl of Christmas pinks and green on my coffee table.

Tea Things Tuesday..............

Well Girls, this is it.. The final week for "Tea Things Tuesday".

I've finally come to the end of my collection of teacups and teapots and after today, I have no more to share with you. I have had so much fun over the past several months sharing my collection of tea things with you, starting way back when with my teacups and then more recently with my teapots and the matching pieces I have for each set.

I saved my very favorite tea set for last. I love each and every one of my teapots, but this gorgeous "Lady Carlyle" set from Royal Albert has to be my all time favorite. From the scrumptious pink, to the lovely floral pattern, this one can't be beat. For this set, I have a service set for two.

Starting with the teapot..............

And the two matching teacups............

Two desert size plates (one standing and one sitting underneath the teacups in the photo above) ..............

And a small little dish of which I'm unsure of it's purpose, but I just had to have it because it matched the set....

And my complete collection of this lovely "Lady Carlyle" pattern...

I would like to extend a big and heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who have joined me over the past few months in sharing your own collection of beautiful tea things right along with me. It has been such a pleasure for me to meet some bloggers I may not have met otherwise and of course, to see all of your beautiful tea things. The blogging community has some of the best and nicest people that I've ever had the honor of meeting and I consider each and every one of you to be my friend.

I am definitely going to miss hosting this weekly event, but even though it's come to an end, I'll still be here posting regularly about this and that, so make sure you come back to visit me in the future.

Until then, take a stroll over to the blogs of these lovely ladies and see what they are sharing with us for the last week of "Tea Things Tuesday"..

Fun Display Pieces......

Happy Saturday Girls...........

Just popping in for a quick post today to share a few pics of one of my newest little treasures I discovered just a little over a week ago while shopping in the antique mall.

I found this cute little rack being used as a display pieces which at the time was holding some embroidered tea towels in the shop. It looks to be a side rail from a doll crib and was painted a perfectly shabby shade of green and has just the right amount of distress to it.

Add some pretty hankies and a crocheted doily and voila!! A perfect little display piece that fits in perfectly with my vintage, shabby chic decor..........

It will be a fun way to display some of my pretty linens and hardly cost me anything. I think this was only around $5.00 or so.

A real bargain after all the money I've been spending on my Christmas shopping. Almost done with that thank goodness. Just a few more things to get and then I'll find myself buried knee deep in wrapping paper, ribbons and bows.

Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you again on Tuesday for the final week of my "Tea Things Tuesday" event.

More Cute Stuff.....

Hello Girls...

I hope you all have been having a wonderful week. My week has been super busy again as I'm back at work after my restful and relaxing vacation last week. This is the busiest time of the year for the company I work for and I won't be able to slow down now until after the end of the month. I am already looking forward to that time.

I thought I would share with you a few more of the pretty treasures I found on my antiquing jaunts last week. These items were all purchased using my "fun money" that went from being a storage box full of loose change that I had accumulated over a period of several months to dollar bills after a trip to the bank to use the change counting machine. It sort of seemed like free money in a way if you know what I mean. We all tend to think very little of that small bit of change in our wallets, but after awhile, it really does add up and it lets us buy some really nice things.

Most of you may not remember, but earlier this summer on one of my trips to an antique shop, I purchased this beautiful silverware storage box that was painted a cream color and had the top covered in china mosiac with a lid of some type attached to the top. So pretty and it was also very inexpensive.

Well on my trip to the same shop last week, I disovered that the same dealer had added some more china mosiac pieces that I couldn't pass up. The first was this small square box, about 5 inches in size. This one only cost $7.00...

A larger and rectangular shaped box was only $12.00...

For the quality of the boxes and of the mosaic work, I definately think the lady who made these lovely pieces is definately loosing out as she could be charging much more for them, but who am I to complain as I was able to add both of these to my shopping basket for very little money.

In the same shop, I also found some more pretty crocheted doilies to add to my ever growing collection. Both of them are PINK of course. I love the ruffled edges on the round one. I'd love to learn how to make these someday.


That's all for today my friends. I have a few more things to share, but those will wait for another day.

Tea Things Tuesday......

Hello my sweet tea loving friends...

I'm glad you are here today for some more tea time fun. This wonderful "Tea Things Tuesday" event is quickly coming to an end and next week will sadly be the last week. Yes, I am just about to the end of my teapot collection if you can believe it. I wish I could continue this forever, but I can't.

While we are still able to enjoy this event, I am sharing the third installment of my "sick obsession". Over the past two weeks, I shared with you my yellow and blue rose tea sets and this week, you get to see the pink version.

First up is the teapot.....

Followed by the matching teacup.....

And finally, the complete set...

Looking very closely at each piece sitting next to each other, I just realized that the pink background on the teapot appears to be somewhat faded as compared to the background on the teacup and desert plate. I wondering why that is. I'm surprised I never noticed that before. I wonder if the color on the teapot faded as it is sometimes exposed to sunlight while sitting in my china cabinet??? Hmmmmmm.

Oh well, either way it is still beautiful and I love it just the same.

Has anyone ever had this problem before with the colors on china fading like that when it's exposed to sunlight?

Make sure you come back week as I've saved the best for last. You won't want to miss it. Until then, take a little MckLinky stroll and visit the blogs of these other ladies who have some more tea things to share with us today.

It's Beginning to Feel a Bit Like Christmas....

Happy Saturday Girls!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day today and enjoying the excitement of getting everything ready for Christmas. It's beginning to feel a bit more like Christmas in my part of the country as the temps are getting colder and we are starting to see some light snow off and on here in Minnesota. The sun in shining nice and brightly this morning though, although its still very cold with the current temp only being 16 degrees. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I enjoyed my vacation from work this week, despite the not so perfect weather. Days of being lazy, visiting my favorite antique shops, going to my nieces school one day to have lunch with her in a lunchroom full of very noisy third graders and the best day was yesterday as I did some power Christmas shopping with my Mom and my younger sister. Almost halfway done with my shopping in just one day. Woo Hoo!! That money was just flying out of my wallet.

Of course, I had to by a few little presents for myself this week too and I did that without even having to dip into my Christmas funds. Over the past year, I had been saving all my loose change in a pretty little round storage box and as it was getting pretty full and quite heavy, I decided it was the perfect time to take it into the bank and turn it into some dollar bills to use for fun money. As I dumped the coins in the change counting machine and hit the "Start" button for the machine to begin counting, the smile on my face kept getting bigger and bigger as the dollar amount went higher and higher until it reached a final total of just a little over $102 dollars. Wow!!. It's amazing to think that all of those small bits of change I dump out of my wallet can turn into so much after a few months.

I put that money to good use, starting with these little gems. A Royal Albert "American Beauty" sugar and creamer set. A sweet addition to my collection of pretty china pieces.

They even look a little Christmasy too with the darker shades of pink that look almost red and with the green leaves..

Found some other really cute and pretty things too that I'll be sharing in the days to come.

For now though, I'm off to do some more Christmas shopping, this time by myself. Have a great weekend and stay warm!!

Rare Finds....

The middle of the week is already upon us and I can hardly believe it. Time goes by so quickly, especially during weeks like these when I'm on vacation from work and have lots of extra time to be lazy and do some fun shopping.

Of course, no vacation time can go by without me taking time to visit as many of my favorite antiques stores as I can before my "fun money" runs out. So far, this week has been a good one for finding some treasures. What makes it even better for me is that two of my new treasures are what I consider to be rare finds these days.

I believe I've mentioned before that I love to collect small desert size plates, especially those with lovely roses on them and that over the years, it has become harder and harder to find them. Well I lucked out this past weekend and found myself a rare find. Two of them to be exact. Both plates are the same and were only $7.00 each. A fantastic price these days for something so pretty.

The outside edge of the plates has a purplish/lavender color while the center of the plates are covered in a gorgeous rose pattern in soft shades of pink, green and white.

Yummylishes!!

These will fit in perfectly alongside my other rose patterned china pieces on the top of my entertainment center. If I can manage to squeeze them in that is. Otherwise, I will have to find some other place to display them.

Stay tuned for more in the days to come.

Tea Things Tuesday.....

Hello my sweet friends and welcome to another addition of "Tea Things Tuesday".

If you stopped by for a visit last week, you saw what I jokingly called "part one" of my sick obsession when it comes to collecting beautiful china and that was my pretty yellow and rose tea set. This week, you are getting to see part two of that same crazy obsession, but this time in blue.

The blue teapot is different from the others in that it has a slightly unusual shape to it. This one has more of a squat oblong shape while the others have a more "normal" shape to them. Maybe that's my way of justifying having the same floral patterned teapots in three different colors. I had to add the blue one to my collection just because it was "different"than the rest.

I don't have as many pieces in this set as I did in the yellow set I shared with you last week. This one only has the teapot, teacup and saucer and a desert size plate...

The robin's egg blue color of the background just happens to be one of my favorites shades of blue so I definitely could not pass this one up.

This week, I'm adding something a little extra to my "Tea Things Tuesday" post so I can share with you one of my latest Etsy purchases from the lovely Rhea at http://sweetnshabbyroses.blogspot.com/

When Rhea's health allows, she creates the most amazing faux pastries that she sells in her Etsy shop. Just last month, I purchased this set of three pink faux cupcakes that are topped with pretty paper roses. These are so pretty for displaying alongside my tea things and I'm lucky that Rhea is just like me and loves the soft shades of pink, green and blue.

At the time I am writing this post early Monday afternoon, she still had a few cupcake sets for sale in her Etsy shop. One in pink and a couple of mini cupcake sets in aqua. If you'd like to have a set similar to mine, I definitely recommend you check her Etsy shop out to see what she still has left. Be generous and treat yourself to a sweet and pretty early Christmas gift just like I did for myself.

After you've done that, visit the blogs of these lovely ladies to see what pretty tea things they are sharing with us this week:

A Look Back.....

Hi Girls,

Gosh, can you believe it's already Saturday? I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. I sure did and now I'm looking forward to Christmas which will be here before we know it.

The funny thing is, as much as I love Christmas and seeing everyone's homes decorated so beautifully for the holidays, I've never been real big on decorating my own home for the holidays. I guess when you are single and live alone like I do and when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are spent at the homes of other family member's, it just seems like an awful lot of work for me to pack things up to store away temporarily, unpack the Christmas stuff and arrange everything and then do the reverse once the Christmas holiday is over, when chances are, only a few people besides myself would see it.

So once again, my home this year will go undecorated for the Christmas holiday and because I don't have any Christmas decor to share with you today, I thought it would be fun to take a step back in time and pull out some old pictures from my blog archives and give you another glimpse of some of the pretty treasures I've acquired over the past year during all of my antiquing jaunts and shopping trips on Etsy...

Looking back at these photos makes me realize once again just how much I love the soft pastel colors and how I always tend to gravitate towards these colors when shopping in the stores or online.

Now I'm off to do a little blog hopping to soak up all the beauty of Christmas that I can find. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'll be back again on Tuesday with some more Tea Things to share with all of you.