December 4th

Happy Monday! Just some of the soldiers and wooden figures on display at the Colantino home!
Getting ready for my trip to New England!

First Sunday of Lent

The Season of Advent is here today! The first purple candle is lit today and is the candle of HOPE. It is also called the candle of Prophesy. It was the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah.
I love the custom of the Advent wreath and the readings during each week. As a Christian. this helps me to keep my focus during the Christmas season.

Little Women...December 2nd

I love anything that has to do with Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. It truly is a classic work of art.

Last month when Jim and I went to the all city garage sale in Clark County WA, I found a set of Little Women dolls by Madam Alexander. I had no intension of buying dolls at the show. These were thrown in a bin marked down from $8 to $4! How would I resist? They were in such good condition too. I decided to put them under my little tree in my tearoom. I do think they are very happy to have come to a dolly home.

Louisa May Alcott was just a great American writer. I so enjoy her work. I still have many of her  books I have never read.

Jim and I were able to visit her family home in 2016. It was on my bucket list and I was soooo excited to be able to see this home. It was so warm and you could really imagine a family living there.We were there in the summer on a lovely day.

I was so happy to see her home and the property.

We were not able to take photos inside, however, there are many on Pinterest and on the computer.

The kitchen was one of my favorite rooms.

Louisa's room where she did her writing.

Another cozy room where our tour began.

Although this movie is not a Christmas movie, our family counts it as one! This is the version that I just adore and have watched oh so many times.

This is such a dear part of the movie. They are reading a letter from their father who was away during the Civil War. We are waiting to watch it when our daughter Gina comes home for Christmas. 

Welcome December!

Hello Blogger friends....well, the house is decorated and the tree is even up! My dad's apartment is ready for Christmas too.
I am getting ready to visit friends in New England again. I am flying to Boston on Wednesday morning and will actually be there on my birthday....Dec 8th! It is so exciting. I have been trying to get my clothes ready...warmer clothes...which has meant shopping. I love to antique shop, but don't enjoy shopping for clothes. I have to get a new suitcase and have my blood test on Monday before I leave and I think that's all I have left to do. The dolls have new clothes which I made this time. Hitty and Daphnie will be going this time. I will be visiting the library where the real Hitty lives on my birthday!!! Another adventure!!!!
The season of Advent starts tomorrow too.
I have featured this sweet little gal in years past. It was mine when I was little, so I cherish it.
I pray that you will all enjoy a lovely Christmas season ahead. 

Busy

I can't believe I haven't blogged in quite some time. It is a BUSY season. The Thanksgiving holiday was really fun but the whole weekend was really full of family events. Just off to bed now, but hope to post some pix of the last few days. 

Sweet Stephanie's Tea Cup Exchange REVEAL!

I signed up again for the sweet Stephanie's tea cup exchange. I happily participated in this one for fall. If you have never had the pleasure of joining an exchange, this would be a great one for you to try out. Stephanie has the most wonderful blog. You can find her blog, The Enchanted Rose,  at theenchantingrose.blogspot.com Stephanie spends a great deal of time organizing and doing her exchanges the right way. Thank you again dear friend for setting another exchange up for us to have so much fun.

I received this wonderful box quite some time ago. I like to save my goodies for awhile and wait for the reveal. Lea probably thought I forgot about her and her MOST GENEROUS gift box. You can see her blog, CiCi's Corner at www.ciciscorner.com She has a lovely blog so do visit her.

This is what I found when I opened the box! I was getting excited to open all the goodies inside!!!

Here's my "loot" all opened up. I will show the items to you...so keep reading.

What a sweet letter! So personal and very sweet.

She had the tea cup safely wrapped up in a separate gift wrapped box. Oh my!

Look at this most beautiful tea cup! The color is stunning and the bird design on the china is just lovely. It's quite large too...I have never seen a tea cup this size. Perfect for a yummy cup of tea.

Lea included two kitchen towel in my favorite fall colors and a most special wooden spoon that says THANKFUL. How perfect is that for this time of the year?

In her not to me, Lea said she is not a tea drinker. She sure picked out great teas for me. YUMMY.

I adore this pattern on the little pumpkin paper napkins. How perfect.

Oh, I do love this little kit. It is filled with little note pads and sticky notes. Don't we all need these? And to receive such pretty ones.

I was really looking for some chocolate and there was nothing in the house. I was so surprised to find the Russell Stover treats! My hubby is after the ginger snaps...lol.

You have to see the gorgeous bar of autumn soap and glass soap dish. I just love this set.

So dear Lea, I am sending you the biggest THANK YOU tonight as I share my goodies with my blogger friends and those who might pop over from Stephanie's reveal post the next few days.
I had so much fun.

Tea Time Tuesday #173

The wind is blowing hard again! Most of the leaves will be gone after three days of the old east wind. I took a break this afternoon and had a little tea break.

On the last day of the antique show, Jim bought me this wonderful German spice cabinet. I just love it! I think JIm liked it as much as I did. It will be our souvenir from the show.

I found this wonderful turkey mug at the all city garage sale this past weekend. It's so pretty. It's marked Queen's and Thanksgiving on the bottom of the mug.

I had these little cookies with my tea. A lady baked them and told me they were called German Peppernuts or Pfeffernussen. They are wonderful. I have never had them and think I need to bake some when I do my Christmas baking.

The pattern is a pretty one and a bit different from my Johnson Brothers patterns. I love the sweet  flowers.

The sunrise was just spectacular this morning. I wish the colors would have shown on my camera more true than they did.

Dolly Thursday

Dolly Thursday! Today, I was talking about Tasha Tudor's kitchens for her dolls. She had the most fantastic minis for her dolls, but I epecially love her kitchen goodies. This is my little Annabelle in her little kitchen. She is 10 1/2" tall and her minis are pretty much 1:12 scale.

This is a photo of one of Tasha's dollhouse kitchens. Lots to look at!

Back to Annabelle's kitchen. I love the little set of pottery pieces I found for her. They are perfect. I love her crocks too.

The pie safe was a gift from LaVonne last fall. She found it at Hobby Lobby.

This wonderful little cast iron stove was also a gift from LaVonne. Don't I have the best dolly friends? It is a great stove and just the right size for Annabelle and friends.

A few more goodies in her kitchen.....

I do love her quilt quilt rack. I made the quilt awhile back. It's a cheater quilt but looks so cool. Such a great tiny print. I also love her basket full of veggies...a nice harvest.

My next dollhouse adventure is for larger dolls. The scale will be 1:6. It isn't as easy to find things that size, so the hunt is on! I will probably collect things for a bit and have a large dollhouse/bookcase/china holder  built along a wall in my tea room. I have to wait for awhile but it's all fun. 

Pumpkin Moonshine Day! TEA TIME TUESDAY #172

It's almost 10 PM and it's been a long day. Happy Pumpkin Moonshine Day....Tasha Tudor's name for Halloween. I love this gentle images from one of her books. It was also Tea Time with Tasha today, so this is what I featured on our Take Peace group.

I love candy corn and it's almost time for it to disappear again.It was my little treat for the day.

I really like this tea! I am a fan of Rooibos, but had never tried Rooibos pumpkin spice before...yummy!

I love my bowl fillers....candy corn!

The tea cozy is quite cute and perfect for my candy corn theme.

I made navy bean soup and cornbread earlier today to take over to Angie's home tonight.  She fixed a  veggie soup for me and had hot apple cider. It was all really good and Otto was so much fun. He is growing up too quickly for Grandma Linda.

 After dinner, it was time for mommy to get Otto dressed in his dragon costume.

The weather was dry and brisk but no rain and not too cold. Amazing! He was so excited about every thing he got. He's showing me his loot.

Here he is waiting for the people to open the door. He really got into it all this year. After all, he is four now!!!

Mommy and her little green dragon!.

Daddy was checking out the candy.

Yummy Otto...that's the last piece of candy tonight!!!! If you eat too much candy, you might turn into a drazon!!!!