Teacup Tales

Hello Tea Friends, One of the highlights since entering the blog world is participating in fellow blogger Stephanie's teacup exchange at  The Enchanting Rose . Stephanie hosts this exchange twice a year and this was my second time participating. Last fall Stephanie was my exchange partner and gifted me with a beautiful Spode teacup and many of her amazing handiwork crafts. This year I was delighted to receive two wonderful packages from Debbie of  Blogger Loves the King ! Debbie gifted me cinnamon stick tea. Cinnamon happens to be my favorite seasoning and I enjoy flavored black teas. Along with the tea, there was a devotional book which had space for journal reflections. I like the garden theme. This beautiful Paragon teacup was also included! The cup and saucer feature exquisitely painted camellias. If you read my blog, you may recall I featured a similar teacup. I am thrilled to have a pair! They are actually my first pair of matching teacups. ...

Happy Leap Day! We are experiencing spring like temperatures and I believe our gardens are confused. All of my daffodils have withered and the tulips have sprouted but not bloomed. While I adore the sunny days, it's not so lovely to experience this in the midst of a drought. We need more rain! While we are on the subject of gardens, I have been fixated on my camellia bush. It bloomed profusely every December for the first three years we moved here. Last December we didn't have a single bloom. As you can see in the photo above, we have only one flower that bloomed last week.  Gardeners, any ideas what is causing the lack of flowers?  The bush itself is healthy with new glossy green leaves. Camellias are such a treat to enjoy in winter as they are my only cut flower. Well, since I can't have camellias in vases I will enjoy them on a teacup.  Come join me for tea and a piece of chocolate pudding cake. Today's featured teacup is one that caught my eye...

Happy August Tea Friends, I hope you are enjoying the last "official" month of summer! Please accept my apologies for not posting last week. I flew to a work conference in San Diego and the wifi was really spotty in the hotel which made it quite difficult to complete a post. I'll finish up that post at another time. For now I would like to share about yesterday's fruit picking experience. My family has been eager for me to make a peach cobbler so we awoke early and headed to a u-pick farm area. The farm we chose had u-pick yellow peaches, white peaches, plums and heirloom tomatoes. We are not huge fans of white peaches so we were on the lookout for yellow ones. Unfortunately only two of the trees had yellow peaches-petite ones and they were rock hard . Hence no peach cobbler...I will share the my recipe later in another post. Peach Trees I'm most excited about the heirloom tomatoes we picked because our vegetable garden was very unsuccess...

Welcome!  Please join me for a cup of homemade mint tea! A couple of months ago I read an article in Tea Time  magazine about making your own tea from backyard herbs. I thought I would try it; even though I'm not a fan of tisanes.  One of my goals as a blogger is to expand my palate as a tea drinker. I definitely prefer black teas but realize there are so many amazing tastes and health benefits from other types of teas. This post was inspired by today's featured teacup that I recently received from a relative. It was part of her mother's collection and she knew I would welcome it into my own collection. It's subtle mint green color inspired me to make a "green" tea. (Excuse the background for the photos. Today is a dreary dark day with very poor lighting in almost every room...except the kitchen.) It is an Aynsley teacup from England. I really like the white of the outer cup and dramatic curved handle. A swag of bouquets of flowers r...

Thank you for joining me today as we continue to "pre-celebrate" St. Patrick's Day with a Forty Shades of Green Teacup Party.  Forty Shades of Green is a common phrase used to describe the fields and landscape of Ireland. When you fly over parts of Ireland, you see a patchwork of beautiful green squares of land. Johnny Cash is the mastermind behind this phrase, and it was the title of his 1961 hit. He was so inspired after a trip to Ireland that he penned the lyrics to the song. (image from internet: free clip art) Here is your teacup which will be today's featured teacup. Our forty shades of green tea party will begin with my one and only green teacup. It is a beautiful mint green Paragon bone china teacup that I inherited from another great aunt. My interest in collecting more Paragon teacups has peaked. I think their patterns are very classic. I thought this was the perfect teacup for St. Patrick's Day as well as welcoming spring with its...