Saturday Finds....

Unlike the dark, gloomy and wet Sunday we are having here in Minnesota today, Saturday was a beautiful day for the most part with sunny skies in the morning and mild temperatures, so of course I just had to get out of the house for a bit and pay a visit to one of my favorite antique shops.

The shop I visited on Saturday was the same shop where just last month I found some great stuff, for very cheap. My favorite dealer in this store prices her items on the extremely low side which I love and she has very similar tastes to me, so I always seem to find a few goodies to bring home and yesterday was no exception.

Spending just under $14.00 total, I snagged this cute wicker flower basket which is a soft mustardy yellow color. The basket is it almost perfect condition so I'm guessing it must be fairly new...

And a pair of Laura Ashley pillow shams, which of course are covered in pretty roses...

Not a bad day of bargain shopping if I do say so myself.

See you Tuesday for more tea time fun!!!

I'm A Lucky Girl....

I've been a lucky girl the past few weeks...

The first reason that I'm feeling lucky is that two fellow bloggers whom I've only just been introduced to recently have kindly awarded me a wonderful blog award.

This lovely award was presented to me by both:

Barbara @ http://purplegoatlady.blogspot.com/

Mary @ http://vintagecomfort.blogspot.com/

From the research that Mary did, the words translate to "This Blog is A Dream". I am very honored that both of these kind ladies think so highly of my blog that they felt I was deserving of this award. Thank you Barbara and Mary for sharing this wonderful award with me.

I am supposed to pass this award on to ten other bloggers, but it is so hard for me to choose which ones as all of your blogs are wonderful and I feel guilty over possibly hurting someones feelings by leaving them out, so I am going to pass this award on to all of my regular visitors. If you accept awards on your blog, please accept this one on my behalf and add it to your blogs. I want all of you too feel as blessed as Barbara and Mary have made me feel.

Another thing that has made me feel very lucky this week is that I was chosen as one of the lucky winners of the wonderful giveaway that Debi @ http://lifeinmystudio.blogspot.com/ did in honor of her own birthday. This was my first time ever in winning a blog giveaway and I'm thrilled to bits.

Debi drew my name for this sweet cupcake book, sprinkles and cupcake papers. How cute!! I'll admit I'm no baker, but I'm sure I'll have fun testing out some of the yummy receipies and looking at all of the pictures of cupcakes.

Thank you so much Debi !!!

My fellow bloggers are some of the kindest and most generous people I know....

It's Debi's Birthday..

It's Debi's birthday today and she is doing an awesome giveaway on her blog to celebrate her special day.

Make sure you stop by Debi's blog @ http://lifeinmystudio.blogspot.com/ to see all of the wonderful goodies she will be giving away.

Here's a sneak peak..........


Happy Birthday Debi. Have a wonderful day!!

Tea Things Tuesday

Hello my tea loving friends and welcome to "Tea Things Tuesday".

With that Fall chill in the air, this is the perfect time of year for pulling out all of that pretty china and putting it to good use by brewing up a pot of hot fragrant tea and snacking on some cookies, cakes or scones.

I did just that over the weekend using this beautiful rose teapot. The colors of the roses on this teapot range from a pale pink to a deep red color. What a pretty combination...

This teapot has a few matching companion pieces in my collection, including a single teacup and a desert plate. All three pieces feature the same floral design, but were made by different china manufacturing companies.

A lovely set for sure. To see even more lovely tea things, you can pay a visit to these lovely ladies as well to see what they are sharing with us this week.

Valerie @ http://travelingthrough2.blogspot.com/

Debbie @ http://pinkrosesandteacups.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Bee @ http://ourpeaceinthevalley.blogspot.com/

Candy @ http://rockcandy56.blogspot.com/

Rebecca @ http://bellemaisonshop.blogspot.com/

Vicki @ http://bunnycottage.blogspot.com/

Bunny @ http://creativehare.blogspot.com/

Joanne @ http://saturdayschild-jama.blogspot.com/2009/10/tea-things-tuesday-infusers-and-sachets.html

Mary @ http://marysteacottage.blogspot.com/

Jocelyn @ http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Lola @ http://ansewon.blogspot.com/

I'm also adding MckLinky to my "Tea Things Tuesday" post for the very first time, both to test it out and make sure it's working the way I hope it should, and also to allow anyone else who would like to share something for "Tea Things Tuesday" to easily join in. Please feel free to join us if you wish.

Just Had To Share...

For all my blogging friends who love anything pink, rosy and shabby chic, I just had to share a link to a great blog I discovered while blog hopping.

The blog belongs to a lady who lives in Malaysia and the blog is not written in English, but paying a visit just to see all the pink pretties is well worth your time. The pictures speak for themselves.

The blog name is SUESAFIA'S COTTAGE and this is the link:

http://shabbypinkchiccottage.blogspot.com/

Here's just a sample of the pink goodness you'll see (I hope she doesn't mind me "borrowing" a picture from her blog to share with you...)


Once you get there, you will find several other Malaysian blog links as well that are also worth paying a visit to as these Malaysian girls sure love their pink and Shabby Chic decor. Goes to show you that us American girls aren't the only ones.

It appears that she has an online shop as well, but I'm guessing she doesn't ship to the USA. Maybe that's a good thing though or I'd probably find myself spending lots of money and all the cute things I see.

See you tomorrow for "Tea Things Tuesday"...

Can You Say YUK !!!

OK, the calendar may say that it's only October 10th, which is still somewhat early in the Fall, but Mother Nature must have misplaced her calendar because this is what I saw outside my front door when I woke up this morning......

It's way to early for this stuff and it sure is gonna make for a very long winter. All I can say is thank goodness it's not gonna stick around for very long as the skies are already clearing so the sun should melt it within a few hours. Still going to be cold here today though with high temps around 40 degrees. What a lovely way to start out the weekend.

Happy Saturday everyone....

Instead Of Cleaning The Garage......

I went antiquing instead...

OK, my garage definitely needs to be cleaned and organized a bit as my sister has asked if she and her hubby can store their family's bikes in my garage for the winter, and I'll get that done one of these days, but I knew I'd have a lot more fun visiting a few of my favorite antique shops this week. So, of course the antique shops took first place on my list of things to do.

I didn't spend much money at all, but I still managed to find a few new things to buy, like this pretty vintage advertisement card showing a lovely lady and of course some roses too....

I tucked the new card in a darling little white wicker basket that I found for just $2.50 along with a few of my vintage postcards. I love finding these smaller wicker baskets as they work great for displaying so many things.

You can change the entire look of the basket by using it to display something totally different as well, like some pretty crocheted potholders as I've done here.....

The last thing I found was another pretty floral vase to add to my ever growing collection. I can't seem to stop buying these when I find ones that are in good condition. I love the different floral patterns on these and they have such a cottagy look to them which makes them fit in perfectly with my decor.

Finding pretty new treasures like these is much more fun than cleaning out the garage don't you think ??

First Day Of School.......

My family is the most important thing to me, and while I am not married and have no children of my own, I am a very lucky and proud Auntie to my younger sisters three children who I love and adore to pieces.

The youngest two are twins who turned 5 years old in April. Hunter and Kylee started kindergarten this year and I just had to share with you a picture that was taken on their first day of school as they were waiting for the school bus to arrive.

They are best buddies and just too cute for words!!!

Because I haven't had much else to do this week while I've been on vacation, I've been playing around on my blog changing some pictures. I'm sure you've already noticed that I changed my blog header photo. I figured it was time for something new to freshen it up a bit. Sorry, no Fall colors here. I love my pastels too much to give them up, even for the change of seasons and the holidays. I also changed my profile picture as well. Just thought I would point that out so you wouldn't think some stranger had overtaken my blog.

Hope you are all having a great week. Enjoy what's left of it..

See you soon.

Tea Things Tuesday....

Hello my sweet friends and welcome to the latest addition of "Tea Things Tuesday". I am so glad that you have stopped by for a visit today.

I would like to begin by sending out a special hello and welcome to the newest participant's that have joined us over the past few weeks.

Today, I am bringing a little dose of sunshine into your day by sharing with you my collection of Welbeck Chintz. It wasn't so very long ago that I shared the teacups with you as part of Teacup Tuesday, but now you get a chance to see my entire collection, as small as it may be.

This collection started many years ago when I purchased the Welbeck Chintz teapot when it was offered for sale as a limited edition piece through "Victoria" magazine....

Of course, I couldn't buy just the teapot. I had to have a couple of teacups to match, so I bought two teacups as well. The luncheon plates were added later when I discovered them in a local discount store (either TJ Maxx or Marshall's. I can't remember which).

A couple of desert size plates and a sugar and creamer set also found their way into my collection at some point along the way...

A perfect collection for a tea for two...

That's all I have to share today. To continue on your journey of seeing more pretty tea things, please visit the blogs of these wonderful ladies to see what they will be sharing with us today.

Mary @ http://marysteacottage.blogspot.com/

The Duchess @ http://roseteacottage.blogspot.com/

Jocelyn @ http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Rebecca @ http://bellemaisonshop.blogspot.com/

Bunny @ http://creativehare.blogspot.com/

Candace @ http://wraggedypatches.blogspot.com/

Lola @ http://ansewon.blogspot.com/

Valerie @ http://travelingthrough2.blogspot.com/

Joanna @ http://saturdayschild-jama.blogspot.com/

Ceekay @ http://thinkinofhome.blogspot.com/

Vicki @ http://bunnycottage.blogspot.com/

** I'd like to send out a special thank you as well to "M" at Tales from an OC Cottage (http://talesfromanoccottage.blogspot.com/) for allowing me to borrow the pretty button she created for "Tea Things Tuesday".

Something Pretty and Rosey....

Hey Girls.... Happy Saturday to all of you.

Sorry if I've been somewhat of a blog slacker lately, other than with "Tea Things Tuesday". I think I am going through one of those periodic phases of having bloggers block and not being able to come up with new things to blog about and just plain not having any motivation.

While I may not be posting nearly everyday like some of my fellow bloggers do, I never stay away too long and I'm here today to share a little something pretty with all of you.

I have tried and tried for some time to get a really good picture of this beautiful little china dish, but for some reason, no matter how hard I tried and no matter how many adjustments I made to my camera, I could never get a clear enough picture of it that really showed the details of the floral pattern. Don't ask me why today was any different, but my camera finally decided to be nice to me and I finally got a good and clear picture that is worthy of posting on my blog. Who would have imagined how much of a struggle it would just to get a decent picture of a piece of china??

This little dish did not have a lid to it when I found it in an antique shop, but because of it's fairly small size, I'm thinking that it may be a sugar dish. I could be totally mistake, but whatever it may be, I just love it. The roses are just so pretty and the shape if it is great too.

Well, that's all I have to share today. I'll be back again on Tuesday for sure with more Tea things to share. I'm so excited as our number of participants is starting to grow and there will be lots of pretty things to see. Don't forget to come back on Tuesday to check them out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend !!

P.S.

If any of you out there reading this are familiar with "Mr. Linky" and how to get it set up in a blog post to use for events similar to my "Tea Things Tuesday", so that participants can add their own blog links to my post, I'd appreciate some help and advise. Getting some guidance from someone who's used "Mr. Linky" before would be a lot easier than me trying to figure it out on my own.

Thanks!!