Tea Time Thursday #27 and a Little Get Away

I do love the month of November! Today was quite a "November" day with the Oregon rain, blustery winds and dancing leaves. Jim got the snow tires on both cars, so he can relax as most of the winter chores are done now. I did a couple errands and Christmas is up and running. Now that I no longer have my shoppe, I really am not ready hear Christmas carols when I walk into a retail store so soon.
I was looking for a bit of fall garland and there was not a drop of fall to be seen. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays...good food, family and just the calm before the storm. Jim and I are hoping to make some changes with some Christmas things this year...it's time.

Happy Tea Time Thursday! I am taking you back into my tea room today to share a few goodies. This is my doll Maggie who was made by Christine Lefever. She is an Oregon dollmaker who lives in Oregon City. Visit her blog to see her work and her current dolls for sale.....Christine. Maggie is the perfect doll for November with her sweet little brown frock.

This is the picture that Jim took in Christine's studio in her lovely home when we bought the doll. She was very gracious to invite us in to see her work. She's so funny.

So, I decided to feature this really pretty brown cup and saucer. I think it looks like fall with it's nice brown color and I really like the border design. Doesn't just invite you to have a cup of tea?

It's marked Royal Staffordshire Pottery England on the bottom.

I keep trying to get caught up on my blog visits and blog posts, but I have been having fun lately. I was invited to go over to Pine Hollow on Monday with my good friend Nancy. Here she is in front of her darling little home away from home in Central Oregon. We stayed over night after attending the Scrapbagger's quilting morning and visiting Peggy and Ina's homes. We had so much fun and got some sewing time in!

Lots of very tame deer walking around. They had to put up tall fences to keep them out of their yard and to stop them from eating all her trees and plants! They are just beautiful animals.

Thanks so much Nancy for inviting me to stay overnight and thanks for feeding me. Let's do it again when the weather improves. We may have to wait til spring now. We did drive through some mixed snow and rain on our way over and it was very cold!

A couple of pictures from our quilting time at the little church. It's a nice place to quilt! They meet every Monday morning. To celebrate our visit, they fixed a taco soup and cornbread lunch for us. So sweet and so yummy! Thanks guys...we had a great time and hope to visit more often. It's only a two hour drive and a scenic one at that.

First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review~Fairy Tales From Hans Christian Andersen

Do you like a good fairy tale? I do, so this month's First Friday Tasha Tudor Book Review is about  a book of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen that was illustrated by Tasha in 1945.

Just what is a fairy tale? it's a simple children's story about magical creatures such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants and mermaids.  Often they begin with "Once upon a time", "A long, long time ago" and may end with "They lived happily ever after".

This sweet book was written in 1945 and first published by Henry Z. Walck, New York. I am lucky to have a beautiful first edition that I cherish. The book is 273 pages long and includes 10 color illustrations and 31 black and white illustrations.  The one above is from The Wild Swans and is so pretty.

I have often seen this illustration but I didn't know it was from this book until I started studying the book a bit more. It's from The Fir Tree. Don't you love the way Tasha draws little children?

This one is from Thumbelina, which has always been a favorite of mine. Hang on tight Thumbelina!

I borrowed this picture from an eBay seller. It is similar to my book. It is still for sale by books4u29 if you are interested. This one doesn't come up for sale too often.

I wanted to give just a little information about the author of these stories, Mr Hans Christian Andersen.

He was a Danish author and poet, born in 1805 and died in 1875. He was best known for his fairy tales.

When I was little, I loved this movie with Danny Kaye acting as Hans Christian Andersen. The movie states, " this is not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about the great spinner of fairy tales". 

Happy Halloween

This little pumpkin man is stopping by to wish you a Happy Halloween! Lady Linda is just so busy again!

Canby Quilt Retreat 2013

I have been very fortunate to have been lovingly included in this quilting group from Central Oregon, The Scrapbag Quilters. I would never have become a quilter without them. When Jimmy was fly fishing on the Deschutes River, I became friends with these ladies and became a quilter.

This is one of the quilt retreats that I get to attend with the group. It's in Canby, Oregon and it's a beautiful setting. This is the lodge where we stay and have our quilting room.

This was the view outside my window! That's a river running through the property. So pretty in fall.
We all like this retreat as we get a private room and our own bathroom.

Kathy had to share her cute quilt with us! She has become such a good quilter in a very short time.

Everyone was ready to jump in and get started right away.

Nancy had to add the binding and this wonderful quilt would be done!

Busy quilting bees at work!

Scrapy hearts-cute cute cute!

Nancy altered this to be a queen sized bed quilt. The purples were so pretty.

Kathy's 30/40's print quilt in progress. I just fell in love with this one!

Hi Roberta! I see you behind your quilt. Love the piano key boarder.

Ina was just starting this quilt and I can't wait to see this one finished.

A new fountain has been added to the property, complete with fish..

We enjoyed a brief walk over to the dining hall. It was decorated for fall.

Lights, a fire and fabulous yummy food. We were spoiled and we loved it!

We had to laugh at the sign on our table....

I finished two baby quilt tops and made these adorable fabric pumpkins for my Mary Engelbriet studio. They were fun to make and pretty easy.

I also made the little doll quilt and pillow for my Etsy site. It was a fun little project.

We did have a bit of action on the last day. The fire alarm went off and the emergency vehicles arrived! False alarm.

It was hard to say good bye, such a nice quilt retreat. Everyone got alone well and seemed to enjoy the time together. I stayed up way too late but it sure was fun. I already signed up for next year!

Sharing Denise's Birthday and Tea Time Thursday #26

I just returned from my quilt retreat which was just fantastic! I hope to blog about it with pix in a few days.

When I returned, a package was waiting for me! My dear blogger friend Denise of Denise's Delights in Her Coffeeberry Cottage did  a really cute and thoughtful thing to celebrate her birthday. She had a give-away and I was the lucky one chosen for her gift! I met Denise through a tea blog a few years ago and we just clicked. Isn't it funny how that happens with blogger friends? She was going through a tough time and I wrote her a message. I still remember that. She has sent me some very sweet little goodies over the years. I love her and since she lives in California, I do hope we will meet someday.
The box is just the perfect thing to share this Tea Time Thursday.

 She knows I love Mary Engelbriet so the box was decorated with ME tea time cut outs.  I'm going to keep the box in my ME studio. It's just perfect. Love the fairy Denise!

 Quite the box of treats! Denise is very creative and makes darling tags! Some goodies in the box to encourage me to make a few! Of course this wonderful box included some tea time treats... a darling tea book, a tea stamp!, tea sugar and the neatest box of two special spoons- one for sugar and one for jam. So sweet.

THANK YOU so much Denise. I just love my box of lovely things. I hope you had a great birthday. I may have to steal your idea when my birthday rolls around.