Tracie's Tea Cup for Me

Hello All,
Happy Friday!!!
Today I am sharing with you the tea cup that I have received in a trade with Tracie of Fishtail Cottage. She has a gorgeous blog and is hosting a garden party! Stop by her blog to get a real break from this cold winter we are having.

Tracie sent me a lovely little box with this Colclough tea cup, a lace hankie, a doily, some tea and some candy. She also kindly sent along a paper with the history of Colclough on it....

wasn't that thoughtful!
I have not owned Colclough before. I am lucky to now have a pretty example of it.
Thank you so much Tracie for taking the time to pick this pretty cup out for me.

I want to thank Sharon of Faith Hope and Cherry Tea for hosting this swap. Thank you so much! If you follow the link to her site, you will be able to look at all the swap tea cups!

I have been doing some more creating, and I will be posting about them soon.
Hugs to you all,
Terri

Miniature Tea Cup Tuesday!

Hello All and welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!
Martha and I began this venture almost a year ago and we have been enjoying it immensely. Martha has some fine cups to show you this week (as usual!) so pop by and see her too.
Today I am sharing tea cups in a different way, I am sharing tiny tea cups!

I have always loved miniatures. I have created a dollhouse and a tea room and I still have a little work to do on both of them yet before I show them off. I have seen incredible doll houses in blogland. One that really amazes and delights me is Linda's at Une Petite Folie's. Linda's "Petite Maison" is magnificent and I can't even imagine the amount of work that has gone into it.
It is worth the visit!

These beautiful blue and white dishes and tea cups were commissioned to be made to recreate a vintage pattern. I wish I could remember the miniaturists name who did this. I was able to buy a number of them from her when she was downsizing her collection. I was able to get platters and bowls too! I will treasure these items and pass them down to my daughter some day. The table was made from recycled items, and the chairs were brown plastic when I bought them, so I fixed them up to look more chic! I love how they look like they have rattan seats. I am hoping to make or find some delicious looking food for the table.

I am happy to announce my Valentine Tea Cup Giveaway!
This beautiful Royal Albert cup will be given away on Valentines day!
Isn't it lovely? I was looking for a cup that had red and pink in it and I found this cup. It has lovely detailing on the base of the cup. The gold trim really adds to the cups charm. If you would like to enter, just leave a comment and make sure you leave an e-mail.

These photos do not show the lovely raised pattern on the lower end of the cup.
The photos I took tonight do not show it off in it's best light.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today. If you would like to play along, create a post with your tea cup in it. Tell us about it, how you came to have it, who made it? We love to see the back stamp if you can get a pic of it. Then sign in below with Mr. Linky. Make sure you test the link once it is up!

My FREE Fairy School video tutorial series is now complete! Yeah! There is a button on the upper right bar that will take you to supplies, instructions and all the videos.

Hugs,
Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday!

Hello All!
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday once again!
Martha and I look forward to this day each week when we get to come and visit YOU and see your lovely tea cups! Yea!

I was thinking about why I love tea cups so much...
I am sure some people must think me a little off my biscuit when they hear I co host a day of tea cup peeping!
The thought came to me that they are beautiful. And I LOVE to focus on beauty! I have known for many years now that beauty and delight are healing for me. The more I focus on the beauty of each day, the more I enjoy my life. Setting up a pretty tray with my choice of lovely tea cup, plate, tea pot and pretty spoons is pure delight for me! These moments of beauty are precious to me. Anyone else out there feel this way?

This delicate beauty is new to me, I found it in an antique store on sale for $5. It has two chips, one on the rim of the cup and one on the edge of the plate. It has plenty of tell-tale wearing of the gold trim. This tells me that the cup was well used and well loved.

Tea in this cup is so delightful.
The cup itself is so light and fine, it makes the tea taste even better! I do not care that it has chips. But I would be delighted to find a match that does not.

The flowers are vibrant and outlined in raised gold.
The photo does not truly capture it's beauty.

This beautiful and delicate cup is made by David Haviland. I was surprised to find out that he was an American. I did not know that. He took his family to France in 1841 to begin his own porcelain factory after seeing some of the fine china that came from the Limoges region. This region is one of the few in the world that has naturally occurring Kaolin clay, which is essential to white eggshell like china.

The handle is a simple loop with a spur in the exact perfect spot for my middle finger to balance the cup! It is a very comfortable cup to drink from.

The green backstamp is of Charles Edward Haviland's company,
he was one of David's sons.
Here is a link to a fascinating history of the D Haviland China Co. The red stamp has been added over the glaze. I spent quite some time trying to find historical records for E. B. Taylor's import company. I only found bits and pieces, one being an advertisement in the Times Dispatch in Richmond VA showing a sale....china that was $1 for only 50 cents. The year was 1908.
I did find some evidence that there may still be E. B. Taylor stores or a store but no record of the company itself.
The Haviland backstamp appears to be from around 1885 to 1900, but I am not sure. Charles's company did not survive the stock market crash in 1929.

Mmmmmm delicious!

Especially with raw organic sugar.

Thank you so much for stopping by!
If you would like to play along this week just sign up with Mr. Linky below and make sure you test the link when it shows up that it actually goes to your post. Please also make sure that you have a tea cup to share with us in your post, or a story about a tea cup, or a poem about a tea cup, as this is all about tea cups. Yea!
Hugs to you all,
Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday Pink!

Hello All
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!
The one day of the week that Martha and I get to share out tea cups and hopefully get to come and see yours!
I am also showing a doll I just finished as well as a new Fairy School Tutorial video at the end of this post.
Today I am sharing a lovely pink tea cup and saucer.
This cup has a corset shape.

Simple loop handle with gold highlights.

This cup has been well used and well loved.

Love the gold leaf detail.

This cup was created in 1952 by the English company Anysley. How do I know the date? The number 28 below the stamp was part of a system installed in 1924 to help date the cup. You add the number below the stamp to 1924 and you get the year it was made. This is a handy system! The number 2225 is the pattern number, and the R may be the artist's initial. I know some of you out there are real experts on china, if I am wrong, please let me know.
I appreciate your help.

This is a very vintage looking poesy of roses!

And here is a prim doll I made as practice for a swap.
I have not made a cloth prim before, and I have never needle sculpted a nose! I did enjoy this project very much!

This little one is about 12" tall.
The pattern is by Back Porch Pickens at Pattern Mart and can be found here

She has painted on simple blue shoes, but with a sparkly addition...for added magic!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I do so love it when you do!
I hope that you are having a very good January.
If you have a tea cup you would like to share with us, just sign in with Mr. Linky below by filling in the two blanks. Remember to click on the link yourself once it comes up so you can be sure it goes to your tea cup post.
Sometimes a link does not work and I am sad to not be able to find you!

Free New Tutorial!

If you are interested in Mixed Media and fairies....you may be interested in my newest videos. Below are part A and B of making the Fairy School House itself. The next two videos to make the fairies and the furniture will be out very soon! (this weekend).
Thank you so much for all your very kind and supportive comments about my video tutorials.
Hugs,
Terri

Here is part a

And here is part b

Fairy School Tutorial! Yea!

Hello All!
How is your January coming along?
Ours has been cold and unusual....we have had snow and ice several times!
One of the benefits of weather like this is that I stay inside more and have more time to create!

Today I have posted the first two parts of a new free video series where I am demonstrating how to make a Fairy School from a shoe box. I totally loved this project. It is fun and fanciful!
When you are done with part A and B the entire school house will be done, inside and out.
The next two videos (which will be out very soon) will show how to create the faeries as well as the furniture and the accessories. It is so much fun to create these items!

(click on photo to see the image even better)

If you do create a Fairy School, I would love to see it! Please send me photos and I will post your Fairy School on my blog and tell my visitors about you and your art.

You can make this school house from any old shoebox that has a removable lid.
At the upper right hand side of this blog there is a link to the Fairy School Instructions and Supply list.

You can always substitute items with whatever works for you. I have used Paperwhimsy images for most of it, and there will be a list with the sheet numbers in case you would like to use them as well. There are so many different ways you could make this school. You could use vintage photos to create your faeries, you could use magazine images as well. You could paint or draw your own faeries too! Try using dictionary pages to paper the walls, or old greeting cards to paper the ceiling.......

Here it is!
Hugs,
Terri

And here is part b

Tea Cup Tuesday and my Mistake

Hello All!
Welcome to another Tea Cup Tuesday!
Last week I shared a cup with you that was a mistake! You were all so kind and did not even tell me that the photo of the back stamp was not the same cup as in all the rest of the photos!
I had taken pictures of two different green cups and mixed them up! So the mystery cup of last week was actually this cup here today!
I apologize for my mix up.

This is the simple cup that was made by a company
no one has any information about.
It is a simple, but pretty vintage cup.
It has a plain loop handle with a little touch of gold. And if I had to guess,
I would put it around my birthyear, 1959.
It has plenty of little cinder marks on it...it was not made carefully. But I love it, I love the green color. I love the gold filigree trim.

I would have never put these two color of roses together, but on this cup, it looks quite nice.
We have been having dark winter days here, and I have been finding it difficult to photograph in natural light. The colors above are a little harsh. The cup is prettier in "person"!

And as you can see it was made by Royal Imperial, in England.

My favorite tea for this cup is English Breakfast. Mmmmm, with cream and sugar!

Now, this next item below is a gift I received this Christmas from one of my sisters. Isn't it beautiful! But it is not a cup.....

It is a very classy cream soup bowl! I love it, I have wanted a cream soup bowl!

My sister bought one for each of us girls in our family.

It has very pretty detailed gold designs on it.

And as you can see, it was made by KPM.

Thank you so much for coming by and visiting.
If you would like to share one of your teacups with us please sign up below with Mr. Linky.
Martha and I have been hosting this party for 10 months now, and we will be having an anniversary soon. I think that would be a perfect time for a tea cup giveaway!

I want to let you know, that the crepe paper I use in my Crepe Paper Flower video is now available (after a long drought) at Paperwhimsy.com. This is so fab, it is very stiff crepe paper and lends itself well to flowers. It comes in three colors, pink, blue and cream, all in one package. Paperwhimsy has the most gorgeous high quality images available.
It is worth a trip over there to the shoppe to see!

I also have some new videos all ready to debut this weekend.
Hugs to you all!
Terri

A New Year and a New Cup! Tea Cup Tuesday!

Hello All and welcome to the first Tea Cup Tuesday of 2011....YEA!!!

First of all I want to thank each and everyone of you who stop by and visit me.
I love (I really mean LOVE) hearing from you and visiting you as well.

As you can see I have just gone over 700 followers and I am speechless....
I never could have imagined that when I began blogging about my crafts.

I have so enjoyed meeting you and seeing all your beautiful creations, art, home life, and reading your thoughts about life and love.
Blogging has enriched my life, meeting you all is the best part of it all!
Thank you so much.

Now for Tea Cup Tuesday.
Today I wanted to start the new year off in a positive way, so I thought to show a cup that brings me joy.
How can a cup bring anyone joy you ask?
I don't know....but just looking at it makes me smile!
This is a new cup for me from Ebay (what a fab places!).

This is truly a joyful cup! I am not usually a "green" person, at least not this shade of green.

But there is something just right about the colors of this cup. It has a lovely vintage look and feel.

I love all the gold filigree, a common theme with many of my cups. The vibrant display of color in the flowers really brings this cup to life. I find that I use this cup the most lately of all my cups.

This is my only Royal Imperial cup. It is also a cup made in England. In doing research on this cup I found that this company name is a bit of a mystery. None of the often used books have even mentioned it. I have also read the the word "Royal" was not used unless the manufacturer actually had a "license" to use the term, and since there is no historical record of this company, it is highly unlikely. One idea is that another company for some strange reason used this name as temporarily, but not a large company. It also has many little spots on it that tell me the maker was not that concerned about quality. I did also read that the stamp looks like a stamp used by Ridgeway, which was a very large company at one time. I am sure Ridgeway would have done a better job on this cup. So, my cup is unidentifiable. Do any of you have knowledge of the Royal Imperial China Company from England? I would love to hear!

One of my favorite things that brings me pleasure....mmmmm....tea with jam and bread! Toasted of course!

I also love using my favorite sugar spoon....

To dip into my favorite raw sugar (not too much though, just a little....)

Pretty cups are just sooooo delightful!

Thank you so much for stopping by today for Tea Cup Tuesday.
Martha and I host this party because we are over the moon about collecting them.
We love to see what your favorite cups are.
If you would like to play along, just enter your information in the two blanks below in Mr. Linky.
Make sure you put up a post with a featured tea cup please!
Tell us about your cup, do you know the history, the maker, what do you like about it?
We would love to come visit you!
Hugs,
Terri

Laura at Laura's Rose Garden is having a giveaway! I thought I would post it here since it is a beautiful tea cup and other amazing goodies.