Teacup Tuesday - Week 2

Welcome to week two of “Teacup Tuesdays”.

I am so glad that you stopped by for a visit today and I hope that one of more of my regular visitors (and maybe even some new visitors) have chosen to join me in the fun of sharing photos of the teacups in your personal collections. Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out how to add Mr. Linky to my blog post yet (I'm not the most technical person in this world ya know!!). I was even thinking that it might be easier just to add the blog links of anyone who is interested in participating in this new weekly event to my blog post each week. If I decide to go that route which I think I may, anyone who is interested in joining me for "Teacup Tuesdays" can send me an Email before 10pm Sunday evening letting me know that you are going to be participating (include the address/link to your blog) and I will add a link to your blog within my post for that upcoming week. Hope that makes sense..

Now, lets get on to the real purpose for today's post..

For this week, I have chosen to share two teacups. Each was made by a different china manufacturing company and are of differing styles, but the floral pattern of the teacups are the same. They have such beautiful pink and yellow roses and are so sunny and cheerful that it’s hard not to fall in love with them when you see them. I was lucky enough years after finding these beautiful teacups to have found a small matching teapot in the same lovely pattern. You can sneak a peak of the matching teapot on my side bar. It’s shown in the first photo under “Pretty China”. Now, I am on the hunt for one or two matching desert plates. I may never find them, but I will never stop looking. If anyone is familiar with this pattern and may know where I can find some matching desert plates, please let me know.

The first teacup was manufactured by Queens China…

The second was manufactured by Royal Stanley China.

I should mention that these teacups are not just used for display. I use all of my teacups, teapots and desert plates on a regular basis. I have never seen the point of spending money on such beautiful things only to have them sit on a shelf or tucked in a cabinet collecting dust. These items are meant to be used and enjoyed and I defiantly do.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today. Come back next week to see more of my collection.

More Etsy Fun Finds....

Hello Ladies,

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

In my last post, I showed you a few of my latest Etsy finds, the pretty little pin cushions. Now I am showing you a few more things I have aquired over the past few weeks. I so love getting packages in the mail and I can't wait to open them.

I recently discovered the blog and Etsy shop of Elyse at Tinkered Treasures and I instantly fell in love with her sweet, simple and cottage style handcrafted “tinkered treasures” that she has created, some from the simplest of everyday items.

The first item I purchased from Elyse was this cute little shabby birdhouse painted in the prettiest shade of pink and decoupaged with a patchwork of pretty papers. It even came with its own sweet little pink birdie.

The other thing I purchased was a set of 3 shabby cottage clips she created from simple clothes pins. They’ve been hand-painted; decoupaged with tiny bits of pretty floral scrapbook papers and have even had some pretty bling added to them. These will be perfect either in my home office used as clips to hold papers together or maybe in the kitchen. I might even look for some tiny magnets to add to them so that I can keep them hanging on the refrigerator to hold photos, shopping lists, etc.

Thanks Elyse for sharing your creativity with others and allowing the un-crafty people like me to acquire some pretty darn cute things.

I'm A Naughty Girl...

I think I’ve been a little bit naughty these past few weeks!!

Having mentioned in on one of my earlier posts that I feel like I’ve become addicted to Etsy, you won’t be too surprised to learn that I’ve been doing a little Etsy shopping again. It’s a good thing Mr. Tax Man has left me with a little extra spending money in my pockets, so I’m not feeling the least bit guilty. I work very hard for my money and I deserve to treat myself to some new pretties every once in a while.

My newest favorite Etsy shop is that of Kathryn at Our Shabby Cottage. Kathryn lives in Australia and has sewn some of the prettiest items I think I’ve ever seen. Well, that may be exaggerating a little but, but it’s pretty darn near the truth.

Even though I am not a sewer, when I saw these sweet and shabby chic pin cushions, I just knew I had to have one (or two…. LOL), knowing they would look pretty displayed in a basket. Now that I have them, I am wanting more!!

Aren’t they pretty???

I’ll show off some more of my new Etsy finds in a day or two.

For now, I will say goodbye and that I’ll be back soon. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Teacup Tuesday - Week 1

Being the unimaginative and uncreative person that I am, I sometimes struggle to come up with new and interesting things to blog about.

Recently however, that has changed (at least for the moment... LOL). As I as I was doing dishes and washing some of the things I had used for a solitary "tea for one" party, I came up with the idea of one day each week sharing with you a photo of one of the many teacups in my collection.

I will call this "Teacup Tuesday".

This week, I am sharing a photo of my solitary Royal Albert "Moonlight Rose" teacup. I love the pretty blue roses on this teacup (which upon close inspection also have just the tiniest hint of pink around the edges). My dream is to someday find a matching (and affordable) teapot.

Make sure you come back next Tuesday to see more!!

P.S. If anyone else is interested to joining in and doing a post each Tuesday of some of your teacups, I would love to have you join me. And if I can figure out how the "Mr Linky" thing I've seen on other blogs works, I will include that in my future posts.

Happy Spring !!!

Not much needs to be said. The colors and the beauty of the roses speak for themselves.

I am so lucky to have found such pretty things on my antiquing jaunts (and at Target...) over the years and to be able to see such beauty everyday. It never fails to put a smile on my face.

I hope I've brought a little sunshine into your life and put a smile on your face today.

Happy Spring to you all !!!

Pretty Pillows...

I love pretty pillows in all shapes and sizes and I thought it would be fun to show you the pretty pillows I currently have on my bed.

This one is a butterfly shaped pillow made of chenille in a few of my favorite colors of white, pink, yellow and blue. This was so original that I just couldn't pass it up.

A small pillow made from yellow & rose chintz handkerchiefs.

Of course, I have to have a pillow with my favorite Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Fabric.

This last one is just a basic white crocheted pillow that I added a vintage handkerchief to, just using safety pins on each corner. When I find myself tiring of the blue, I can easily switch it out to a different color.

What lovely things to give me sweet dreams at night !!

Another Cute Bunny....

It’s funny…

I never realized just how much I love to be surrounded by cute little bunnies until I actually thought about it. Earlier this week, I showed one of them that I display all year around on an end table in my living room. Well lo and behold, here’s another one that sits on the end table on the opposite side of my sofa. Just like the other one, I keep this one out all year around also. They are just too cute to pack away once the Easter holiday is over and the colors of cream, sage green and rose match the colors of my living room décor.

This one is a ceramic bunny holding a watering can that has a candle inside. As you can see from the picture, I’ve never burned the candle. I have it sitting on a cream and sage crocheted doily with ruffled edges.

Next to this bunny sits a pretty cream and sage colored candy dish. I’ve had this for years and don’t even remember where I found it. I don’t think it’s old. In fact it almost looks like it could have been handmade in a craft/pottery class or something. All I know is that I love the colors and the scrolled detailing of the piece.

Time to say goodbye for now. Enjoy the weekend. Spring is just around the corner and I can't wait for it to get here!!

Random Acts of Kindess & Other Things

I just have to share a wonderful story with you about a simple random of act kindness that was bestowed upon me last week.

I can’t stop thinking about it as it is something that has never happened to me before and it was just the perfect thing I needed to remind me that even in these troubled economic times, there are still people out there in the world whose generosity goes above and beyond what most of us think of as “normal” and who can still find joy in doing something kind for a perfect stranger.

My story starts when I decided to go the through the drive-thru of one of our local coffee shops last Friday morning to pick up one of my favorite specialty coffee drinks and a scone for breakfast on my way over to visit my Mom.. The specialty coffee drink I get is not one of the cheapest and my total bill for the items I purchased was around $6.00. As I drove up to the window to pay for my order, the girl working at the window totally surprised me by telling me that I did not have to pay for my order as the person in the vehicle that had just gone through the drive-thru before me had also paid for my order in addition to theirs.

I can’t even describe how shocked I was and I’m sure I had a pretty odd look on my face, but after I realized what that kind person had done, I started smiling and I found myself in much better mood than I had been before that happened. I still find myself smiling each time I think about it. Isn’t it funny how such a simple random act of kindness can totally change the way we view the world around us?

I realize now that it’s my turn to “Pay it Forward” as Oprah would say and continue to spread the generosity and good cheer by bestowing a random act of kindness on someone else. I’m not sure when or where it will happen, but I do know that it will and that I will leave a total stranger feeling as happy as I was the day it happened to me. I think this is something that all of us should start doing on a regular basis. The world would be a much happier place if we did.

Now for one other quick thing, I just wanted to share a photo of something I have had for several years that while is perfect for displaying as an Easter decoration, is just too cute to tuck away after the holiday is over, so I keep this displayed all year found on one of my end tables in my living room.

It is a sweet little bunny whose bottom half is shaped someone like a ball and is made from a vintage (or maybe new…) handkerchief. Isn’t this just the cutest thing??

Hope you are all having a great week. I’ll be back soon…

My Lucky Day.....

Ever wonder why it is that when you go to the antique shops, sometimes you may end up coming home empty handed and feeling disappointed; and then there are those times you feel like you’ve hit the “mother lode” and you came home giddy with joy?

I’ve had it both ways, but today was one of my lucky days and I’m giddy with joy right now and I have lots of pretty new spring things to show off.

About an hour from where I live is a town called Buffalo that has several wonderful antique shops as well as several shops that hold what they call “Occasional Sales” where they are only open the first Thursday – Sunday of each month. I was able to schedule a couple of vacation days this week from work and timed it perfectly for this month’s weekend for the Occasional Sales.

I visited four different shops in town today and these are the new treasures I found. Can you tell I’m in love with pastels?

I found a darling little patchwork table cover that has my favorite colors of blue, pink, green and yellow. It’s not very large but will work perfectly on my coffee table or even as a wall hanging.

A white wicker flower basket (something I’ve been searching for, for a long time)…

A few pastel flower pots in pink and yellow…

A vintage Avon jar in a pink quilted pattern with a perfectly mellowed silver lid.

A pretty flower vase.

A pretty rose patterned antique gravy boat……

Some cream colored small doilies (sorry for the bleary picture)...

And last, but not least, a tiny spring basket with flowers and eggs in shades of pale pink yellow, green and peach. So cute.

Oh my… that’s a lot of new stuff, but even so, I managed to stay within my budget for the most part and didn’t go too overboard. Might have to put in a few extra hours of overtime at work to make up the difference, but it’s totally worth it.

Now, I just need to figure out where I am going to display all my pretty new things…

Hope you are all have such a good week as I am. Thanks for stopping by. Come back again soon.