New Free Holiday Banner Video

Hello Every One and Happy December!

To celebrate the beginning of the most magical month of the year, I have created a little video showing how to make a simple banner that you could drape across the front of your fireplace mantle, or over a window... or anywhere!

In this video I do a banner with the word LOVE, in the photo the banner says JOY.

You could do these banners in so many different ways...they are super easy and fast. I made two from scratch in one day.

I hope you enjoy this little gift to you.

Hugs,
Terri

Hello All and welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!
I am delighted that you have stopped by!
Today is the day Martha and I celebrate and show off our tea cups.
If you have a love of tea cups too, and some to show off, please join us by signing up below.
Today my cup is simple, but elegant....in my humble opinion.
I do love the corset shaped cup. I also absolutely love this shade of blue/green.

It looks quite plain in the photo, it was a stormy day when I took the pictures. But this cup is not plain at all. The flowers inside really liven it up.

As you can see by the backstamp, it was made in England by Aynsley, this company often created the corset shaped cup. The hand written number (?) in black could signify the artist of the cup. John Anysley started his company in 1788 because he loved to collect china. His son tried to follow in his father's work, but was not able to run the company well. Mr. Aynsley's grandson began to work at the company at age 9, sometimes working 16 hour days to learn the business. He did much better than his older brother, and the company did very well.

Below is the end result of my crazy idea to create a tea cozy from vintage laces, buttons, ribbons and a huge rhinestone button. I actually do love how it turned out, very eclectic. Also below are the Christmas trees that I bleached. I love all the different colors.

The rhinestone button top.

Below are three of my new vintage tea spoons, these are tiny spoons used in tea cups. They are smaller than a traditional teaspoon here in the US.

Thank you so much for coming by today!
I am so glad you could come. I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving (those of you from the US). It is almost December!!! One more day and then it is countdown to Christmas.
Remember to stop by and visit dear Martha!
Hugs,
Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday

Hello All!
Welcome once again to Tea Cup Tuesday!
I know, it seems odd to dedicate a day to a piece of china.......but Martha and I do it anyways.
Why? Because we love tea cups.....
not as much as we love all of you, but we do enjoy a pretty cup!

There is something about a yellow cup that is so cheery, so uplifting that it feels good just to drink out of it. This cup is one of those cups. Much more ornate than most of my tea cups,
this one is full of gold filigree.
I have filled this cup with my favorite Chamomile tea.

There is a split loop handle with a tiny thumb rest.

The top of the thumb rest has this tiny leaf design on it, and I love this little touch!

The flowers in the bottom of the cup match the flowers on the plate. They are a lively poesy of color.

This cup was made by Hammersly. This company went through many changes as most of the pottery companies did. It ceased to be a company in 1982. This mark was used after 1939. I wish I could narrow down the date. But for now....somewhere between 1939 and 1982.

Thank you so much for visiting today. If you would like to play along with Martha (please go and see her china too) and I, please fill in the two links below on Mr. Linky. Make sure your post has a tea cup in it that you are sharing....as this meme is about tea cups. We love coming to visit and seeing your beautiful tea cups!
Hugs,
Terri

At Home with Jane Austen

When I took this photo, I was I standing at the cross roads near the home where Jane Austen lived for her last eight years. During these years she wrote most of her major works. Jane lived in Chawton Village, England from 1809 to 1817.

This is one side of the large cottage, the door to the left is the entrance to the kitchen, and the door on the right goes into the parlor. Originally the entrance was on the street side of the house. I am taking this photo from the side garden, which is shown in the photo below. The entire time I was here, my thoughts were "Jane walked in this garden, Jane sat in this room...."

Below is the back garden. The grounds are lovely,
and I wonder if they were so when Jane lived there.

I took this photo below to show the beautiful moss
growing on the tree's trunk and the stone fence.

This is the dining room where the Austens had their meals.
Jane would have been in charge of breakfast each morning.

Today I want to share with you why this room was so special to me (as I mentioned in my first Jane Austen post). Can you see it?
It is not the tea wares, nor even the tablecloth with Jane's own needle work on it.

It is not this lovely dress.
You can not see it in the photo of the dining room as it was behind me as I took the picture. I heard from my friend that it was a nightmare to create! How does my friend know this? She just happens to live next door to a very talented seamstress who does many important historical projects, one being to recreate Jane's clothing! All the dresses in the house were made by this gifted lady. I will show the rest in another post.

Here is the reason this room is so special to me...this is where Jane sat each morning and wrote. Here, at this spot, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion were written...imagine that....at this little table by the window!

This is a poster about the history of her writing spot.

I have long admired Jane and her ability to write stories
that draw us in and transport us to another time, stories that teach us about humanity.

Standing there by that table, my admiration for her grew immensely. While I pamper myself with a laptop, a Lazyboy and hot chocolate, she wrote day after day on this tiny table, sitting in that little hard chair....with a quill!
What an amazing woman she was,
what an imagination and understanding of human beings she must have had!

Thank you so much for coming by and visiting today.
I appreciate each and every one of you!
Hugs,
Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday Autumn

Welcome everyone to Tea Cup Tuesday!
Something Martha and I love to do each week is share one (or more) of our tea cups with you,
and then hop over to your place and see your tea cups as well. I am amazed at all the variety and at some of your collections as well.

My cup today is Austrian. I do not have many made in Austria, but I find that they are very delicate cups and usually beautifully painted. I do love the autumn colors of this cup.
My favorite color rose is a rose just like the ones on this cup!
It wasn't an expensive cup, I am sure it was under $10. It was well loved as the cup shows plenty of wear on the gold gilding. But I do not mind in the least. I still find it a lovely cup.

This cup has a simple ring handle, I love how it is spotted with gold!

Bohemian porcelain is not bone china, but made from very fine white clay, feldspar and quartz. Bohemian porcelain made before 1918 may use Austria as the country of origin.
I am thinking that this cup is pre 1918.

What beautiful art work!

It is truly Autumn, I love the contrast between the bright blue sky and the golden fall leaves.

I thought I had already posted my last rose of the year, but there are a few more hanging on despite the frosty nights. This is one of my favorite roses.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please do stop by and see Martha. She is a dear soul and radiates love all around her.

If you want to play along. Create a post with a tea cup (or more than one) that you would like to share with us. Then come here and fill in the two blanks below with Mr. Linky. Once you have created your link, test it out, sometimes it does not work.
Have a wonderful week and enjoy every thing you possibly can.
Hugs,
Terri

Shrine Collage Bracelet

A shrine, to me, is a representation of a sacred intention of honor, love and respect.

A month or so ago I posted a shrine that I was inspired to create after reading Sue Monk Kidd's book "Traveling with Pomegranates". I found her writings about her search for her sacred feminine self intriguing and provoking. I love the way she writes, I love how everything she sees holds meaning for her, an opportunity to know her self better. I am still thinking about her book a month later, and I felt motivated to create a shrine that I could carry with me.

I used a length of a vintage rosary I found during my trip to Paris this past spring, and re purposed a piece of chain to mingle with it. I then began creating charms from beads, stones, brass...anything that had a symbolic meaning for me. This bracelet honors the mother in me as well as the sacred mother...it is really about unconditional love and birth. It is an affirmation for this next chapter of my life, now that I am past the cycle of physical fertility. The blue egg shaped stone represents the birthing I will be doing from my creative heart.

The Mother Mary circle was actually from a pair of earrings. I have used one of them in my bracelet to symbolize being held in the arms of unconditional nurturing love. Each charm in some way holds the intention for creativity, inspiration, courage, luck, beauty, writing, redemption, forgiveness and imagination...Whew! This bracelet hold a lot!

Thank you for stopping by.
I have been catching up with as many of you as I can each day.
I love visiting your blogs and hearing about your thoughts and seeing your creations.
Hugs,
Terri

Jane Austen and Tea

Hello Every One!
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!
Today I will be sharing a tea cup I saw in a very special lady's dining room.

This is the street side of the home where Jane Austen lived her last eight years, and wrote most of her major works. Jane, her mother and sister Cassandra, were given this home to live in by one of their brothers. It is in the Village of Chawton in Hampshire, England. When we arrived, it was morning, there had been a light rain, and the sun was just about to come out. Even now in the 21st century it is a quiet and peaceful place.

My friend and I entered through these gates, both quite excited to be there.

This is the side garden to the house. The open door to the right is the kitchen.
Can you tell how thrilled I am to be going into the home of the incredible author who wrote Emma! I do love that story! But I also love all of Jane Austen's stories.

This would have been Jane's Dining Parlor, complete with fireplace and hob.

Jane was in charge of breakfast, which means that she was in charge of tea as well.

She had the key to the tea chest, which was kept to the left of the fireplace.

A friend gave Jane's mother a Wedgewood breakfast set in 1811. This would have included a tea pot, cups and saucers, sugar bowl and creamer. There may or may not have been a matching china tray. Jane's nephew suggested in his memoirs that Jane was the kind of woman who would want to wash her china herself after using them, instead of trusting them to the help. I can understand why, considering how valuable china was at that time, not to mention the high cost of tea and sugar.

What a lovely simple tea cup!

This silver tea pot belonged to the Austen family, you can see two of their tea cups in the background.

To stand in this room, knowing Jane was here (and as I will share in another post, a much more compelling reason why this room was so significant to me) and made her tea in here, served it to her loved ones....Wow!

Today I leave you with a message from this amazing woman.

As you see above worked by Jane in embroidery floss.

If you would like to join in, please add your name to Mr. Linky below. Please do not sign up unless you have a tea cup to show us.
Please do share one of your cups, how you got it, why you love it, where it came from...
things like that. We love coming to see your beautiful tea cups.