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.

Tea Things Tuesday.....

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

For today though and for the next two weeks, I really think the title of my blog post should be "Welcome to My Sick Obsession".

I've mentioned it before but I'll say it here again today. I have a crazy little obsession sometimes when it comes to collecting things, whether it be china or something else. Many a time, when I'm given a choice of colors to choose from, it's just too hard for me to make up my mind and decide which one I want the most, so I will sometimes go a little overboard and splurge, buying one in each color.

That's what happened when it came to the three teapots/tea sets you'll see today and over the next two weeks. When these Arthur Woods tea sets first appeared in a gift shop that I frequently visit, they were available in three color choices, Pink, Blue and Yellow. Three of my favorite colors and when you throw in gorgeous roses to boot, there was no way I could only choose just one. So I splurged big time and became the very happy owner of three lovely tea sets. Don't get me wrong or think I have pockets full of money, because I definitely don't and I didn't actually buy them ALL at once. I may be crazy, but I'm not that crazy. I was lucky enough however to acquire them over about a two month period as my finances allowed, scrimping in other areas where I could. I was just very lucky that they weren't sold out by the time I had the money to purchase each set.

Today, you get to see the Yellow tea set, starting first with the teapot. The yellow background is such a lovely, soft shade of yellow and makes the pink roses stand out so beautifully...

My yellow tea set includes a salad/desert size plate, teacup, sugar dish and creamer.....

Make sure you come back next week to see Part Two of my sick obsession. You won't be disappointed. Until then, follow the MckLinky links and visit the blogs of our other tea loving friends to see what they are sharing with us today.

I've Been Moving Things Around.......

Last Sunday I FINALLY got around to doing something I have been wanting to do for a very long time.

I did some rearranging of furniture and things in my spare bedroom that I use as a sitting room/office/crafting space and now it's finally worthy of getting some pictures of to share with all of you.

The spare bedroom is somewhat of an awkward space when it comes to rearranging furniture because of the placement of the window, heat ducts that could not be covered and also because there is no overhead light and there is only one outlet in the room that I can plug a lamp into that will turn on and off with a regular light switch. The room does have one good thing going for it though and that is the fact that the window has a southern exposure so this room gets lots and lots of light in the morning and afternoon and when the sun is shining, it's always nice and bright in here which I love. I HATE dark rooms!!. I had this room painted a pretty shade of spring green which I still love to this day. The color on the walls in this room are the same as those in my bathroom.

Dummy me, I didn't get any "Before" pictures because the room was a total mess and I sort of only decided at the last minute to start moving things around, so you'll only get to see the after shots.

The newest addition to the room is a six foot folding utility table that I bought on sale at Target. I covered it with a big white tablecloth to hide the ugly table and also to hide some plastic storage boxes underneath. It's amazing how a simple white tablecloth can turn even the ugliest of tables into something kinda pretty. I have the same kind of table in my office/computer room downstairs as well. These utility tables are perfect for using as a desk.

I'm the kind of girl who likes to have a lot of "stuff" and pretty things to look at, so of course it didn't take me long at all to cover the top of the table with some of that stuff and those pretty things that I enjoying seeing. From storage bins to hold papers and magazines, a mirror, flowers, pretty file folders etc. It's still a little cluttered at the moment as things continue to find their place, but I kinda like it this way so I'm in no hurry to get things put away.

Now, sitting just to the right of my new desk/table, is a cute little desk I found in an antique shop a year or so after I moved into my house. I love this little desk. It's so shabby chic/vintage looking. It used to sit against the opposite wall where I now have my love seat. See that cute wicker shelf on the desk? I bought that with my birthday money I got from my Mom earlier this summer. Cute as can be and perfect for using as a display shelf on the desk.

A slightly different angle so you can see part of the closet doors....

Now if you turn around and look at the opposite wall, you will see my love seat in it's new spot up against the wall where the little desk used to be. The bedroom door is just to the left of the love seat...

This final picture is the best that I could get of the whole room standing in the doorway. See that secretary desk to the left of the window? That used to sit against the wall where the new table is..

All I can say is it sure was hard and sweaty work moving all that heavy stuff around all by myself, but it was definitely worth it as I am much happier with the room now than I was before. I just wish I had done it a long time ago.

I hope you enjoyed seeing another glimpse of my home. I know they only come few and far between, but it takes a lot of work to get things "just right" before I feel they are worthy of sharing with all of you.

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks as always for stopping by for a visit.

Tea Things Tuesday....

Hey there girls. How are things going in your world?

My world has been somewhat crazy as usual with work STILL being extremely busy and me getting the opportunity to pretty much work as much overtime as I want, which of course means more $$$ in my pocketbook to use for fun money, but it also means a lot mores stress and exhaustion.

To battle that exhaustion and to wind down and relax after a busy day of work, I will often make myself a small pot of tea and snack on some yummy cookies for a little pick me up.

A great way to do that is using one of my favorite teapots. This little beauty is about half the size of a regular teapot and will hold maybe three cups of tea. Just perfect when I don't feel liking drinking a large pot of tea all by myself.

The unusual story behind this teapot is that unlike many of my other teapots, this one came into my possession AFTER I already had two matching teacups. I had found the teacups at different times years earlier and loved the pretty rose pattern in pink and yellow and had always dreamed of finding a matching teapot someday. Well that day finally arrived much to my delight a few years ago when I visited a small antique and gift shop in the town of Osceola Wisconsin, just across the border from Minnesota and discovered my much dreamed about teapot just sitting on a shelf waiting for me to bring it home. It was a little pricey in my opinion as most teapots these days are, but after having dreamt about it for as long I had been, I just knew there was no way I was going to pass it up and leave it behind, no matter what it cost. It was definitely worth paying what I did for it and I've sure gotten my money's worth out of this teapot as it is probably the one I use the most often.

The two matching teacups are different styles, both of which I love, but they do have the same rose pattern as the teapot.

Now if I could just find a few matching desert size plates, I'd have a complete serving set. Maybe someday I will, you just never know. Until then, I'll enjoy and get much use out of the pieces I do have.

Thanks for stopping by today for some tea time fun. I hope you enjoyed your visit. If you'd like to see even more lovely tea things, follow the MckLinky links below to visit the blogs of my tea loving friends who are also sharing some of their favorite tea things with us today.

Precious Lady..

What is it about these sweet, adorable, precious lady planter figurines that capture my heart so much.

Maybe it's the soft muted colors of them, or the sweet innocent looks on their faces..

Or maybe even thier charming little backsides..

Whatever it may be, I think it's always going to be something that draws me to them and makes me want to add more and more of them to my collection like I did with this sweet little lady to day.

Did you find any treasures of your own today?

Tea Things Tuesday....

Welcome my friends to another addition of "Tea Things Tuesday".

Today, it is my pleasure to share with all of you another dreamy rose teapot and the matching pieces I have in my collection.

This beautiful teapot has a slightly different shape than most teapots, but one that I find very pleasing. Of course, having it covered in pretty roses in the yummiest shades of pink doesn't hurt either. The teapot is stamped on the bottom as being made by the Crownware Giftware Corporation.

A close up view of the floral design.. Aren't the colors just yummy?

My complete collection of the lovely pieces I have with this beautiful rose pattern (the colors are kinda wonky in these next two photos thanks to my oh so fabulous photography skills, but you can still admire the beauty nonetheless).

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today. To see even more wonderful and beautiful tea things, follow the MckLinky links to the blogs of my sweet tea loving friends and see what goodies they have to share with us this week.

Have a fabulous week everyone!!

A Blue and Pink Kind of Day.....

Don't you just love the kinds of days that are just about perfect in every way?

Well, I sure do and Saturday was one of those days for me. The weather here in Minneapolis was just gorgeous yesterday with sunny blue skies all day and temps in the mid sixties. A perfect day for some antiquing and to make things even better, I decided at the last minute to visit an antique mall that I hadn't been to in a while and I was surprised to find out when I got there that they were having their big 21st Anniversary sale this weekend and just about everything in the store was 20% off. Woo Hoo for me!!!

Despite the store being very, very crowed with shoppers looking for just the perfect treasure, I still had a great time and I found lots of cute things to buy. My stash of goodies came to less than $40 so I was thrilled to pieces. As you'll see, blue and pink was the theme of the day.

Lots of pictures to show today so sit back, relax and enjoy looking at the new treasures I found.

The first is the full stash of goodies all group together....

A sweet Fenton bowl/candy dish in the yummiest shade of blue with peek-a-boo cutouts along the top edge of the dish....

A pretty way to display some smaller tid bits....

Like these pretty rose advertisement and calling cards...

And perhaps some vintage button cards filled with pretty pink buttons....

Going back to the blue theme for the moment, how cute is this plastic travel tissue case? This piece too is my favorite yummy shade of blue and is in perfect condition...

This next item you are seeing may well be the beginning of a new collection for me. After seeing several of these featured in different posts among my fellow bloggers, I couldn't pass up this small china flower posy when I spotted it in a display case. The tag on this one said there was a small chip on one of the leaves, but if there is, it's so small that I can't even find it.

And because I'm the type of person who believes a person can never have too much of one thing, if it's something they really love, I had to add two more pink crocheted potholders to my collection.

Now that I'm here at the end of today's show and tell, I just realized I forgot to get a separate picture of the cute blue shoe stretcher thing-a-ma-jigs (my way of saying I forget what they are really called..) You can see them in the first picture though.

I hope you enjoyed the chance to see all of my new goodies I found on Saturday. Today's shopping won't be quite so much fun. Shopping in grocery stores never really is.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday with some more pretty tea things..