What Is So Special About Getting Old?

I am thinking about this question lately and wondering what is my part now that I am "older"?

I have only just begun to think of myself as

"older".

In my minds eye I am still about 28 years old!

My bathroom mirror tells a different story (Lol!) that is compelling me to stop for a moment and recognize where I am... and who I am becoming.

I love old things, and always have. I adore all things vintage, and above are just a few items I picked up recently on a little antique market. I appreciate the passage of time that these items show.

Could I see the same value in the wrinkles around my eyes and mouth?  One cannot buy the effects that time takes on books, fabric and paintings. Seeing beautiful crazing on an old tea cup, or the yellowing of a books pages, creates a appreciation within me for these items and their previous owners. 

Could I truly appreciate the effects that time have created in my physical form?

As my mindset shifts with this new stage of life, I am questioning what is truly important to me, what is my deepest wish that I have yet to grant myself, and what place do I have in my world now? Even something as everyday as what clothes to wear bring up new questions for me. So when my friend Sieglinde shared this Youtube link with me about the Artful ladies of NYC, I was thrilled to watch and hear what they had to share about the experience of getting older. Thank you so much Sieglinde!

I thought I might share with you this wonderful trailer for a new documentary "Advanced Style":

I would love to hear what you think...

I have two milestones to celebrate this Feb and March!

Sooooo of course that means I am having a GiveAway!!!

YAY!

You all know how much I love to have a great giveaway!

I will be posting it this week so keep an eye out, there will be 3 prizes to give away.

Thank you so very much for stopping by!

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

Hugs,

Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday-Pink

Hello All!
Welcome once again to Tea Cup Tuesday where Martha and I
go through our china and pick out some cups to share with you.

Today, I am sharing a beautiful cup with you that did not belong to me long, as I purchased it for a tea cup swap. I looked and looked until I found this one. I had begun to loose hope, but there she was...sitting pretty on a little doily in an antique shop....waiting patiently for me to come and choose her. I am hoping that she is very happy, and the lovely lady who received her is equally as happy.

She does have a very pert position, leading me to think she is a very proper cup.

Sent along some lovely chocolates, teas, honey, and tea strainer.

The deep red and pink roses are gorgeous.

The handle very curvaceous and sweet in gold trim.

I do believe Marie Antoinette may have enjoyed using a pretty cup like this one.

Here you can see her high gold footing.

 

Did any of you guess she was an Adderley?

I was surprised to see the backstamp when I turned her over, I think I was expecting Queen Anne. Artful 

Affirmations has had a makeover as you can see. I hope you enjoy it's new format.

Here is a mailbox I have created to hold all my Valentines!

I had so much fun making it,  I made a new video of it to share with you!

 

I hope you enjoy it : )

If you want to join in Tea Cup Tuesday, just go and create a post with your tea cup in it and then come back here and link up below with that post's URL. And then Martha and I and everyone else can come and see your beautiful tea cup too!

Valentine Mailbox

This has been such a mild winter here in North Carolina.

We have enjoyed some very warm weather interspersed with showers and thunderstorms.

The rain is always welcome here, and I enjoy every thunderstorm we get.

Some of my daffodils are about to bloom, and there are buds on my Dogwood and Bradford Pears.

I hear many of you saying the same things about unusual weather in your area.

We have also had the luck to see a new bird couple at our feeders. We have not yet identified them. It is always exciting to see new visitors!

Enough about the weather...what you do think of my new blog look???

I engaged Karen from Valentine Design to give my blog a much needed lift.

And that is exactly what she did! 

I am loving the new header and the easier navigation. I hope it is helpful for all of you to get around.

I love Valentine's Day.

I have many fond memories of going to school on Valentine's Day and receiving cards from classmates.

I have always made cards for my kids and hubby, and have in the past created a mailbox for them. It was so fun for the kids to drop their letters into the box to be opened on the 14th. Such sweet memories!

I was in the mood to create a fresh new box as I am in a swap with Mary Jane's Farm. I am expecting 29 Valentines! Yay! My box is ready and waiting to receive them all happily : )

I got so interested in this process that I decided to share how I made it with all of you.

This rose was you average silk rose, until I hit it with Candy Apple Glimmer mist. Then I used Fabric Tac to glue down some of the petals after I pulled the green plastic base off. I tried to scrunch it down some to create a more open blossom. The G.M. gave it a nice golden shine which you can not see in the image.

I have had this vintage door nob for about 15 years, and now it gracefully adorns the top of the box.

Here is a free video in case you would like to see how I made my mailbox. Enjoy!

Have you been having a good weekend?
I love to hear about what you have been creating lately.

Tea Cup Tuesday-Romantic

Hello All!
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday once again where Martha and I pick out some of our favorite china to share with you all. As most of you know, we love tea cups and all things tea, and we love sharing with you as well as visit you and seeing your gorgeous tea cups!

I have Romance on the mind as I have been creating Valentine cards as well as a Valentine mail box
(which I will share in my next post).

So today I thought I would share with you my most romantic tea cups!

  

Beautiful edges...

Beautiful trims.....

Beautiful colors...

Beautiful age.....this one is fairly old...

Beautiful roses....

Having "tea" is a very romantic experience to me.

Having a beautiful and romantic tea cup to use makes it even more enjoyable!
Are any of you planning a Romantic Tea for Valentine's?

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today. Next week I have a new cup to share that sweetly fits in the "Romantic" category!

If you would like to join in this week, just go and create a post with a tea cup in it and then come back here and link that specific post to Linky Tools below. Martha and I will come over and visit you and see your lovely tea cup!

I am in the process of having a blog makeover and I am very excited about it.
This site will be easier to navigate and I will have larger images (Yay! No more cut off pictures!)
More about that next week ; )

And....I feel another giveaway coming on!

Oh how I love giving lovely things away!

 

Hello All

It is Valentine time!

Yay!

 

I find making these cards very enjoyable as they bring back memories of nights making them for my fellow class mates in grade school. I LOVED getting Valentines!

In fact, I remember we used to buy a large sheet of a variety of Valentines that we had to punch out....do any of you remember those sheets?....my favorite ones had gold trim! To this day, I am still loving gold trim! 

I have seen many vintage Valentines, but never seen the ones I loved best.I am still looking.

There is something very sweet about seeing something that brought one delight in childhood!

  This is where I began...

(cup of tea very important!)

I cut the hearts from a vintage lace placemat that had seen better days. I then sewed them on a water colored and stamped ATC card back with similar blue thread. I tried red first, but it didn't look fab, and now that I see the images, the blue thread is a wallflower!

with ATCs first...they are all done now. The coloring is a bit off.

This pic is more true to the coloring. See how much difference there is in where and when I took the photo? The first one was in the morning, and the second in the afternoon in two different places in my art room. It can really change the color!

 Then I began to make cards...and I used the same tea cup image. I began with a white scalloped card and card stock. I stamped dots on the back and used Shimmering H2Os on the oval card, then stamped with gold ink on a script stamp. Added a half paper doily, cup (with gold Stickles) and the saying. Voila!

And another card, smaller and with the same cup. A simple heart shaped card and a smaller one sewn in with script stamp. It also has gold Stickles on it but you can not see the accents in the photos.

It was a lot of work and a lot of creative fun!

Here they are ready to go out in the mail.

What are you creating lately? 

Hugs,

Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday-Blue

 Hello All!

Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday with Martha and myself. 

We are so delighted to see you today!

I hope you enjoy what we have to share.

Today I am showing off a new cup to me.

I do love a blue cup! Especially what I call Martha Stewart blues and greens.

This cup is more of a robin egg blue, which goes so well with the scrolling gold designs and the gold handle.

It is slightly waisted, and is a generous size for a great cup of tea.

The flowers inside the cup are a sweet surprise, as the outside is less decorated. I found this cup when I went up north to visit my son and his family..and my new grandson.

The handle is very fancy all decked out in gold. You can see the scroll and two other embellishments, a spur and thumb rest just barely there.

The flowers inside the cup are very well done. Lovely vibrant colors of many different flowers.

I find this scroll design interesting.

Top view of a gorgeous cup!

The plate has complementary flowers gracing the center.

 The backstamp tells us this cup was manufactured by E.B Foley. A very fine maker of china. I have a few Foley cups, and they are all very high quality and beautiful. The reddish orange numbers were added later, 3583? And I am guessing it is the pattern number. There are also three gold dots. I think they may tell who the artist is. From my research I have found this cup was created somewhere between the 1940-1950.

(click on the image to enlarge and see backstamp better)

I also wanted to share with you a new tea I have found called Rip Van Winkle...Love it!

It is a beautiful organic blend...don't know for sure what is in it as the bag does not say!

But it is very tasty : )

The tea is so gorgeous itself! It looks very fresh and smells divine!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Martha and I really do get a thrill coming to visit all of you.

We get to see your lovely posts, and beautiful tea cups! 

If you want to join in this week, just go and create a post with a tea cup in it that you would love to share, then come back here and link that post up to Linky Tools below.

Hugs,

Terri

What's Up?

Hello All

Here it is already the middle of January!

We have not had the weather we would have expected. In fact my daffodils have pushed through the earth and are up 4 inches now...I don't think they realize it is only the beginning of winter! Last year it was a few weeks yet before they showed up early. This is also the first year I still have herbs growing outside. Are you experiencing the same thing?

Now that the holidays are over, it is that time of year again, time to clean up, organize and clear out! I have been doing exactly that in my art room. I took before and after pictures....but turns out, I am too chicken to share just how bad it truly was : )

Now I am all clear to get moving on new projects. Yay!

Some jewelry...

 Today I was remembering back to the first jewelry i have ever made...and I was shocked to realize it was more than 40 years ago! Back then in the late 60s we were making macrame bracelets and chokers with shells and beads....do you remember that??? Then in the 80 I learned to wire wrap! Now I am learning to metal stamp and some other really cool things I have been experimenting with. I will show soon : )

 

Doing a little crochet.....

I am working on some Valentines with My favorite Paperwhimsy girl!

And I am hoping to start two new videos, free and a class at Creative Workshops.

 Art and Soul 2012 Virginia Beach

 I am getting excited about Art and Soul 2012 this March! This will be my first year attending. I have always wanted to go and I have always wanted to take a class with Sally Jean Alexander. So I am really thrilled that I am signed  up for 4 of her classes...wooohooooooooo! And, the best part....I am going with not one but two blogging friends, Jan and Marlynn! Super woooohooooo! If you are interested in a retreat filled with fabulous opportunities to be creative and mix with like minded people thank hop on over to the website and see all the amazing teacher to choose from! Just click HERE.

When the time comes I will be sharing my experience on my blog here so you can see how it is!

 Bye for now!
I am off to hop around and see your blogs!
Hugs,
Terri