Sorry I won't be able to visit all of you or have any new posts for a while. I may even have to delay the next installment for Teacup Tuesday. I'm sending this message from work as my computer at home seems to have up and died on me and I don't know when I'll have it fixed, so I don't know when I'll be back. Soon I hope!! It's going to kill me not having my computer at home until I can get things up and running again. I already feel the withdrawel kicking in.

I promise that as soon as I have things up and running again, I'll be back.

Say a prayer for me that it won't cost me a fortune to get my computer fixed!!!

Even Small Things Can Be Beautiful...

Oh my goodness... The days are just flying by aren't they? Where oh' where does the time go?

Seems like summer just started and now it's rapidly winding down and coming to an end. Before I know it, we will be deep into another long, dark, cold and snowy winter and I can tell you already that I am not looking forward to that at all. With the strange weather we've had here in Minnesota this summer with much cooler than normal temperatures, it almost has me scared to think about what the winter is going to bring.

The best thing I can do to take my mind off of that is to give myself a nice dose of "retail therapy" and I recently did just that and lucky for me, I didn't come home empty handed.

Tucked far back and almost hidden on a shelf in one of the antique shops I recently visited was the prettiest little china basket with a lovely raised pink rose and just a small touch of purple from what I believe are pansy's. So cute and just the perfect size to hold business cards that I aquire from different places. Functional and pretty at the same time.

I hope you've all been having a good week and that you have some fun plans for the weekend. I'm looking forward to Saturday when my family and others will gather to celebrate my sweet niece McKenzie's 8th birthday which is on Friday the 28th. She is growing up so fast and is getting ready to start 3rd grade in just a matter of days. So hard to believe as it seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny little baby that I could hold in my arms. Now she is a beautiful, bright, funny, opinionated and sometimes very stubborn young girl whom I love and adore even more now than I did eight years ago.

Have a great weekend !!

Teacup Tuesday - Week 23

Hello ladies and welcome to the final installment of "Teacup Tuesday".

Yes, you heard right. After 23 weeks, I have FINALLY come to the end of my collection of teacups and this week you will see the final two that I currently have in my collection. Don't feel sad though as Tuesday's theme of tea is not coming to an end just yet. Starting next Tuesday, a slight shift will be made and I will be moving on to my collection of teapots and as you can imagine, it will take a few months to get through those.

For now though, let's admire the lovely teacups that I am sharing with you today. I saved these two for last as I think they have to be my two favorite teacups. Both are Royal Albert teacups and are of the same style, but they are two different colors.

The first is Royal Albert's Lady Carlyle pattern, featuring of course my favorite color of pink and some beautiful roses.....

The second teacup is Royal Albert's Lady Ascot pattern which features the same floral pattern as the one above, but the Lady Ascot pattern has a lovely teal blue color instead of pink. Such a pretty color of blue and one that you don't see very often.

And just to be safe because I always have a fear of breaking my teacups and knowing how hard it sometimes can be to find a replacement, I purchased two teacups in each pattern just so I would have an extra in case one tragically breaks.

I can actually be a little over protective when it comes to my china and a perfect example is when I moved from my apartment to my house where I live now. Even though my Mother ever so graciously paid for a professional moving service for me, I just couldn't find it in myself to trust them to move all my boxes of china for me without breaking something, so I ended up packing all my boxes of china into my car and I moved it myself. I figured that if anything broke during the short trip to my new house, I would only have myself to blame. Luckily, everything made it to it's new home in one piece and I've been able to enjoy it all ever since.

Well that's enough about me and my crazy obsessions for this week. Make sure you come back next week to see the beginning of my teapot collection.

Now if you have the time and I hope you do, please take a quick trip over to the blogs of these wonderful ladies to see what pretty tea things they have to share with you today.

Valerie @ Traveling Through
Jocelyn @ Happy Cottage Quilter
Lola @ ...and Sew On
Mary @ Mary's Tea Cottage

Yummy Yellows....

Hey there girls, I'm back again. Happy Saturday to all of you. Forgive me for being absent for a few extra days, but I felt the need to give myself an extra few days away from blogging to focus on some other things, but now I've returned.

Last week I shared with you my small but pretty collection of purple. Today, you're going to see some of my collection of yellow. This collection is much larger than my collection of purple, but I've been adding to this one over a much longer period of time. Besides the color pink, I think the soft buttery shades of yellow have to be my second favorite. The yellow is so cheerful and soothing at the same time and even during the long and cold months of winter when the sun is but a dream, this little corner of my living room is like a ray of sunshine and it always makes me feel better when I see it.

And if you know me as well as I think you do, you will realize that it's impossible for me to stay away from pinks and roses, so of course those have snuck into this collection of yellow as well. The vases are covered in a lovely rose pattern as is the large watering can overflowing with an abundance of silk flowers.

Here's a closer view of my favorite cottage style vases. They are so pretty and I'm always thrilled when I manage to find a new one in good condition for a good price...

The collection also includes a small buttery yellow flower pot, a flower basket trinket box, a pretty floral picture framed in yellow and sitting just in front of that, a small china demitasse cup with pink and yellow roses..

The front of the little end table that I have my collection of yellow displayed on has a built-in magazine rack that works perfectly for displaying a few small plates with pretty pink and yellow floral patterns. Oh so lovely....

Well, that's all for today girls. Time to drag myself away from the computer and do some cleaning. I'll be back soon....

Teacup Tuesday - Week 22

Hello ladies and welcome to another edition of "Teacup Tuesday".

This week, I'm going to let you in on a little secret that I may have actually shared before and that secret would be that I can be a somewhat crazy, obsessed person when it comes to pretty china and collecting things. Today, I will share with you a perfect example of my obsession.

Have there been times when you've found something you really, really, really love that comes in more than one color choice and you can't decide which color to get?? Well, it's happened to more times than I'd like to admit and I sometimes find myself going a little overboard and I will end up buying one of each color instead of narrowing my choice down to just one.

Luckily, this obsession of mine hasn't landed me in the loony bin, nor has it caused me to go into debt yet, so I guess being a little crazy isn't so bad after all. And look at what I have to show for it. A set of three beautiful rose patterned teacups from the Allyn Nelson Collection.

One in blue.........

One in pink.....

And one in yellow......

And in case you're wondering but might be afraid to ask, YES, I do have a matching teapot and desert plate in each of the colors as well. You'll be seeing those in upcoming posts.

Just call me certifiably nuts if you must, but no matter what you may think, I love each and everyone of these teacups and their matching teapots, and I am so glad I purchased one in each color. It was definitely worth it to me to splurge on these pieces like I did and penny pinch for awhile on some other things, just so I could have something I really loved and wanted.

Now that you've spent a few minutes visiting crazy old me, stop by the blogs of these ladies to see what they are sharing for todays Teacup Tuesday. I can guarantee it will be well worth your time...

Jocelyn @ Happy Cottage Quilter
Pamela @ Lady Pamela's Cottage
Mary @ Mary's Tea Cottage

See you soon!!!!!!

Playing With Purple...

On a cloudy, gloomy and wet Sunday afternoon, I decided to snap a few pictures of my very small, but pretty collection of purple that I have displayed on a wicker stand in a corner of my living room. Besides the purple, the color green featured here is almost the same color as m sofa and chair so they all look very nice together.

This first picture features a large plate that I've shown before which features a gorgeous pattern of yellow roses, green and of course shades of purple. There is also a small berry dish in not quite the same pattern, but the colors are very similar.

And don't you just love these lady head vases? This one I've had for some time, but it is not an antique or even vintage. I found this very inexpensive head vase a few years ago in a local gift shop. Instead of having flowers in the vase at the moment, I've just placed a purple crocheted doily in the vase, to hide the gaping hole. Poor lady... little did she know that I would end up just stuffing her with yarn instead of filling her head up with some pretty flowers... LOL..

And sitting next to the lady head vase is another smaller lady, this one whom is wearing a hat that is actually a small trinket box. She looks a little blurry as it was hard to get my camera to focus clearly on her face due to her small size, but you can see that she too is made of purple in her dress and green in her hat.

And of course, this also gives me the opportunity to show off some of my collection of different colored doilies. My purple ones are featured here today.

I've been trying to add more purple to this collection and it's been a slow process finding things I like, so for now, this small collection is all I have. It will grow over time I'm sure. Probably not as fast as my collections of pink, yellow and blue, but it will happen, that I can guarantee.

Enjoy the rest of you weekend ladies and I'll be back again on Tuesday with more teacups !!

Simple Things...

The simplest things can make me very happy as long as a little pretty is thrown into the mix.

A perfect example is this darling little creamer with hints of blue and yellow and of course some roses thrown into the mix.

Can't get any better than that!!

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a wonderful weekend!!

Teacup Tuesday - Week 21

Hello my friends and welcome to another addition of "Teacup Tuesday".

Are you lacking sunshine where you live? If the skies have been cloudy and gray where you are, I have something today that will definately add a bright spot of sunshine to your day and will hopefully put a smile on your face.

What do you think of this lovely yellow Chintz pattern?? Beautiful isn't it?

This is a reproduction yellow & rose Chintz pattern manufactured by Welbeck in 1995 as part of a series of pieces that were offered for sale through "Victoria" Magazine. Of course, I just had to own a few pieces, so I purchased the teapot and two teacups w/saucers. Since that time, I've also aquired a few other pieces in this same series, including two desert plates that if I remember correctly I found at TJ Maxx of all places. I will show you the entire set when I feature the matching teapot in an upcoming Teapot Tuesday post.

What's really neat, is that years and years ago I found a small cottage style picture that has the same colors of red, yellow and blue that are in the teacups and they all blend together so beautifully so I snuck that into the picture too just so you could see.

Pretty as a postcard don't you think?? To see more pretty tea things, take a trip over the the blogs of these wonderful ladies to see what they are sharing for this weeks Teacup Tuesday.

Valerie @ Traveling Through
Jocelyn @ Happy Cottage Quilter
Lola @ ...and Sew On
Mary @ Mary's Tea Cottage

Remember ladies, anyone is welcome to join us for Teacup Tuesday (which in just a few more weeks will become Teapot Tuesday or maybe even Tea Things Tuesday...). If you are interested in joining us by doing a post on anything related to tea, we would love to have you join our little group. All you need to do to get added to the list is to send me an Email with a link to your blog each week that you wish to participate (Emailing me no later than early Monday evening) and I also ask that you link your post back to mine. Easy to do for anyone wanting to join the fun.

See you soon!!

Vacation Day Treasure Hunting - Part 3

OK ladies, to end the showing of my new treasures that I found during my week of antiquing and thrifting while I was on vacation, I've saved the best for last. Some of you may not agree, but for me personally, this was the find of the week.

This last find, like those in my previous post was also discovered in the beautiful town of Red Wing, Minnesota and had me totally giddy with excitement and I still can't believe that I was lucky enough to find this and bring it home with me. I almost passed by this item which was just laying out on a table amongst other odds and ends, thinking by the looks of it that it was nothing special, but boy was I ever wrong. My curiosity got the better of me and I just had to open the cover to see what was inside. I think my mouth hit the floor when I discovered what was hidden inside a very tattered and shabby looking scrapbook.

If you can read the tag on the scrapbook, you will see that the price of this very shabby looking item was $40.00 and some of you may cringe and wonder what on earth I was thinking to pay that much money for something in this condition, but you'll understand why when I tell you that this 9 x 12 inch scrapbook was filled with 17 tattered and yellowed pages of gorgeous Victorian calling cards and other beautiful ephemera. The scrapbook itself is not dated, however, my best guess as to an approximate date for this scrapbook is somewhere around 1908 as one of the pages included a large full page card which on the front reads "With best wishes of your teacher, Hilda Evensan, Hartland, Minn, May 29, 1908".

I have always dreamed of finding something like this, but I knew that in most cases, the price would be much more than I could afford or would be willing to pay. Luck was with me however on this date, and I found the treasure I have always dreamed of and at a price that I could actually afford. Even with this and the other items I purchased on the same day, I actually managed to stay mostly within the budget I set for myself on this shopping day, only spending a little more than I had originally planned.

So, are you ready to see what was inside?? I will end the suspense and let you take a look. Sit back, relax and enjoy a page by page look at the beauty which this tattered treasure holds....

Unfortunately, my camera does not do justice to the beauty inside of this book, but I hope you enjoyed seeing what was inside. I'm so glad I was able to find this treasure and also to be able to share it with all of you. I know this is something that I will enjoy looking at over and over again in the years to come.

Vacation Day Treasure Hunting - Part 2

Hello Ladies...

I'm back again to show a few more treasures that I unearthed this week while doing some thrifting and antiquing on my vacation days.

Day three of my vacation (Wednesday) involved a trip to the beautiful town of Red Wing, Minnesota that sits along the Mississippi River about an hour and a half drive from the where I live in the suburbs of Minneapolis. It has been a few years since I've been there and as it was a perfectly gorgeous day for a drive in the country I decided it was worth my time to pay Red Wing another visit.

It was definitely worth the trip as I found some really great things in Red Wing. The best thing I found deserves an entire post just for it alone, so I will share that one in another day or two, but that wasn't the only great thing I found and I will share the other things I found in Red Wing with you today.

To start things off, check out this totally gorgeous little pitcher I found. It's about 5 inches in height and has the most yummy colored roses on it. Pink, with just a hint of lavender. So pretty!!

Next up is this pretty little Royal Albert American Beauty dish. Just the perfect size for holding trinkets or maybe using as an ice cream dish...

And how about this cute little bowl that just like the vase I showed yesterday has a sweet cottagy look to it and will fit in perfectly with other pieces I have in my collection with this same floral pattern. They had this one marked as being a cereal bowl, but it's pretty small in size and I'm not quite sure it would work all that great for eating cereal as it wouldn't hold very much. I think it will work much better just being used for display.

And the last item for today is this cute vintage canister that I think I will use as a cookie tin. Love the vintage colors on this piece.

For those of you who love vintage kitchen items like I do, you would have been totally AMAZED at all of the vintage/retro kitchen stuff one of the antique malls in Red Wing had. They had shelf after shelf loaded with all kinds of vintage/retro glassware, cookware, etc. in just about every color you can imagine, from blue, green, red, yellow, and pink. I was almost drooling over the gorgeous displays. I wish I had brought my camera with me as I would have asked them if I could take some photos. Maybe I will next time I visit Red Wing. I'm definitely not going to wait too long before I go back for another visit. Just long enough to save up some extra spending money.

Well, that all for today ladies. Make sure you come back again later to see part 3 of my treasure hunting finds. I know you won't be disappointed.

Vacation Day Treasure Hunting - Part 1

Hello my friends and happy Thursday to all of you. Have you been having a good week?

My week has been amazing. I've been enjoying my vacation days immensely as the weather has been perfect and I'm feeling very relaxed and stress free. I think I could really get used to not working during the summer time. This is definitely what I would call the lazy days of summer.

To make things even better, I've had lots of free time to do some treasure hunting this week and boy have I been having a streak of good luck. So much so that I will need to do a couple of blog posts to cover everything and show all of you that wonderful treasures that I have found.

Early in the week I visited my local Salvation Army thrift store and I found a couple of really cute things there. I found a lovely tin canister with a soft yellow background covered with a beautiful floral pattern and a sweet little vase (pink of course...) with a lovely swirled ridge pattern.

Being the terrible photographer that I am, I couldn't seem to get a good enough picture of both the tin canister and vase together to show the true color of the canister, however, I did get a picture of the canister lid that came through sharp and clear showing the exact color.

A good start to the week don't you think?

Next up is a treasure I found in one of the antique malls in Stillwater, Minnesota. I've been on a streak of collecting pretty vases lately and this one fits in with my collection perfectly. It of course features my favorite flower the rose and it also has the perfect cottagy look that I love so much. See that cute yellow crocheted potholder behind the vase? That little cutie is something I found at Kmart of all places. It was part of their summer line of picnic ware.

Gotta run, so that's all for today. I'll be back with more tomorrow. Have a fabulous day!!!

Teacup Tuesday - Week 20

Happy Teacup Tuesday everyone..

Are you all having a good week so far. I can say that I am. It's vacation time for me and I'm just hanging out at home for the most part relaxing, and of course, planning visits to several thrift and antique shops throughout the week. To me, that is the perfect way to spend my vacation when I don't have the money for traveling.

One thing that always helps me to relax and unwind from the stress of work is to sit in a quiet spot enjoying a nice cup of hot tea and what better way to do that than with this weeks lovely teacup. I call this one my "cottage cute" teacup because to me, it represents everything about the cottage style I love so much, from the vintage feel of it, to the soft pastel colors that are so prevalant in cottage style decorating. I can just imagine how beautiful it would look if a person had a whole china hutch filled with different pieces in this pattern.

While I may refer to it as my "cottage cute" teacup, the official name of this pattern is "Virginia Rose" made by Homer Laughlin. I have a few other pieces with this same pattern that you've probably spotted on my blog in the past. For a long time, my blog header featured a photo that showed two matching plates. You can sneak a peak at one of the plates in my sidebar photos. I also have a soup bowl and a small platter in this pattern.

That's all for this weeks Teacup Tuesday. Only 3 more weeks of teacups to go, then it's time to make a slight shift to teapots. All of you who would like to share something for what will then become known as "Teapot Tuesday" are more than welcome to join me. I'm not going to limit it to teapots either. ANYTHING related to tea will be pefectly welcome.

Now that you've taken a minute or two here at my blog to see what I was sharing this week, please stop and pay a visit to these lovely ladies as well who also have something tea related to share. I'm sure you won't be disappointed..

Sandi @ Wayside Treasures
Jocelyn @ Happy Cottage Quilter
Lola @ ...and Sew On
Bunny @ The Creative Hare
Mary @ Mary's Tea Cottage

Debbie @ Pink Roses and Teacups

Pretty Storage....

Hello my sweet friends. Thanks for stopping in for a visit today. I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend so far. Me, I'm doing pretty good after a crazy and busy week at work. The work week is FINALLY over and lucky for me, I'm on vacation next week so now I can sit back, relax and catch up on some blogging.

Today, I thought I would discuss storage boxes. I love to find pretty storage boxes that can be used for storing all kinds of things from office supplies, books, papers, photos and just about anything else you can think of.

Over the years, I've acquired quite a collection of storage boxes in several different sizes that help me to keep things organized and yet still look pretty when kept in view on shelves in my office and in closets.

These are just a few from my collection. The first is a rose lovers delight with a robins egg blue background and covered with pretty pink and yellow roses...

The second one is covered in a pattern of vintage perfume ephemera against a background of lavender....

This pretty rose box is one I found at Target several years ago and was part of one of Rachel Ashwell's Simply Shabby Chic home decor collection....

And saving the best for last, I found these beauties at Home Goods, one of my favorite places to shop. I wanted to show two views of these so you can see the pretty floral pattern on the top of the boxes. These sit on a shelf in my home office holding paperwork and office supplies.


Aren't they lovely???

Now, I'm off to find something fun to do today. Not sure yet what it will be, but as long as it's not work related, I'll be a happy girl.

Take care and come back soon !!