Tea Time Thursday #60~Little Mustard Pots

It's warm and windy today for Tea Time Thursday. The rest of the nation is blanketed in freezing cold temperatures, but we are experiencing spring like weather in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, our snow pack is 58% of what it should be at this time of the year. So, as most of you are shivering, we are hoping for some more winter weather!

I also want to thank all  of you for your kind words and prayers for my friend's family. His service will be on Saturday. As difficult as the day will be, Jim and I will be there to honor Tim's life and support his family.

Today, I'm sharing my little collection of mustard pots.  They are small little pots that were placed on the table to serve mustard. They are perfect for mustards and other goodies on your tea table too....clotted cream, marmalade or jams. Sometimes, they are called wet mustard pots, which is why they have little spoons. After mustards were "prepared", a spoon was needed to serve the mustard which was dry mustard mixed with oil and vinegar.

This is my first and favorite little pot. My dear friend LaVonne sent it to me a few years back.
It is beautiful and is marked Germany on the bottom.  She gave it to me as it is decorated with Forget~ Me~ Nots, which has a special meaning for all of us Tasha Tudor fans.

I think it is hand painted, however, it is not signed. It is trimmed with gold and has a perfect little serving spoon with it .

I went on the hunt for others and actually, they are reasonably priced and small. None of my other pots are marked and some have lost their spoons along the way, but I like each one. Two are the same blank but decorated differently.

When I was looking for some information on the little pots, I found a lot of information on Colman's Mustard. Most of us probably have a box or tin in our spice cupboard.

There is actually a Colman's Mustard Museum in Norwich, England. Wouldn't that be fun to visit?

The mustards that we use on our meats and sandwiches developed from the dry form of mustard that was milled like flour from tiny mustard seeds.

I am not a yellow mustard fan, but I do enjoy German coarse mustards and many of the flavored specialty mustards. Are you a mustard fan?

Full Moon Tonight and Remembering a Friend

The first FULL MOON of the New Year is tonight. It's called the Wolf Moon. This beautiful photo was found on Pinterest and I love it. I don't know if the clouds will clear enough here in Oregon for me to actually see the moon tonight. Some of the other names are winter, quiet, freezing, cold and staying inside moon.

I am sad tonight. On Saturday, Jim and I were told that a dear friend had taken his life. His dad drove to our home to tell us. I taught with his mom as a young teacher and have known Tim since he was in grade school. He was struggling with things in his life but we thought he was doing better. It will always be a mystery, something we will not be able to understand. He leaves a daughter behind who he loved so dearly. I am praying for all of his family and especially his daughter. So very sad.

I want to thank all my sweet blogger friends who have been so kind to read my blog and leave me messages. It is just hard to keep doing everyday things right now. I will be back soon.

Happy New Year~2015

Happy New Year to all my blogger friends and family. I am going to be pretty limited posting until I get a new computer. I am long overdue for the upgrade on my laptop, so I guess that will be my first adventure of 2015.
I am not going to make resolutions this year or overplan my hopes and dreams. I am just going to jump in and see where God takes me.
It was a little different welcoming in the New Year last night. We had our little Otto here and he screamed his way through the first 15 minutes of the New Year. Poor baby...we think he is cutting teeth. Grandma and Grandpa need a nap.

Christmas Quilts

My poor laptop is on it's last leg. I haven't been posting much during the holidays as I can't load pictures from my camera onto my old laptop anymore...sigh. So I am going to try to post this as I want to share and record the history of these two Christmas quilts.

Last fall, I bought Christmas fabric for two quilts before I went to the Canby quilting retreat. I wanted to make each of my daughters and families a quilt. I have never made them quilts as they took so long to settle down, marry and have homes...lol! So this was the year to do it. 

Eric and Gina live in Seattle in a very mid century home. Their tree is white, so I chose the red, black, silver and white fabric for them.

Chris and Angie live close to us and love the 50's and 60's look, so I chose the reds and greens with vintage colors and prints. Their family room is painted with the lime green that is in the quilt.

The pattern is called TOSS UP and was easy, but time consuming. You end up with big blocks about 12 inch squares. My good friend and wonderful long arm quilter did the quilting for me. The silver one has snowflakes quilting in it and the red one is quilted with a whimsical tree pattern.Thank yo Nancy Pietzold for the excellent quilting job and for getting them done so quickly for me. 

I was so pleased with the final results and so pleased to give them to my girls. Of course, Tuba the cat liked the quilt too!

Merry Christmas! Tea Time Thursday #59

 

Merry Christmas dear blogger friends! Wishing you many Christmas blessings today. I hope you have time to enjoy a cuppa of your favorite tea this afternoon. These little dolly goodies are sitting in my beautiful holly Haviland teacup.  

Tea Time Thursday # 57 Christmas Teapots

It's been such a busy week and it's hard to believe that my last post was last Tea Time Thursday. I have shopped, wrapped, written my Christmas cards, kept Otto overnight,  had my car in the shop for a major repair and finished two major sewing projects to be shared later. We are leaving for an early Christmas in Seattle on Saturday, so I have been forced into getting everything done.
Ok, so let's get back to Tea Time Thursday! I love this postcard of the little girls and their dollies having  Christmas tea. Today, I would like to share some Christmas teapots. These little pieces of a dolly tea set are so sweet and I just found them at a shoppe. They are old and charming and perfect for the dolls.

I was at a flea market and picked this little demitasse cup and saucer. It's just so cute and it was only $2, so I wanted to sneak this in today too.

I think this is my favorite Christmas teapot. It is English and I love the shape. I've had it for about 15 years or so. I used to sell them in my retail shoppe....Holiday Card Shoppe. I love Father Christmas and of course the holly design.

This is the teapot that matches the Christmas Cup of Tea cup and saucers. It also has a nice shape and is a simple design. I have collected the cream and sugar and a few teacups.

I can't remember where I got this teapot. I like the lattice design. There are no markings on the bottom.

I HAD to add the Spode teapot! It has the famous Spode shape and keeps the tea nice and warm.
I love my Spode collection.

As you know, I am a big fan of Sandy Lynam Clough. A Cozy Christmas Tea book is full of tea recipes and charming graphics. It was fun to read through it again.

This recipe for Orange-Cranberry Tea looks delicious! I would like to make this during the Christmas season. I think it must be very pretty with the cranberry juice.

4 cups of cranberry juice
3 herbal orange tea bags
Thinly sliced orange wedges

Heat cranberry juice to almost boiling.Place tea bags into the pot to steep for 3-5 minutes.
Serve in mug with orang wedges for garnish.

Enjoy!

Tea Time Thursday #56 Wreath and Angels

A few weeks ago when I was working on my Tasha Tudor paper cornucopias, I wanted to add a chocolate angel to the cones. I have always been able to purchase them but I could not find any this year! The stores offered a snowman, a Santa, an elf and even a penguin but no angel... how sad is that? Angels are messengers from God. I guess God can't send us any messages this Christmas. I started to wonder, where have all the angels gone?

But first, I am late with my post for Tea Time Thursday, so on to my post before I get back to the angels.

For Tea Time Thursday, I wanted to share the wreath I have on my Tea Room door. I put it together years ago and hang it every years.

I tie on various silver tea related items. This is a teapot tea ball that Jimmy bought for me in Victoria on our first anniversary. There was a gift shoppe in the Empress and I fell in love with this little goodie. It is still my favorite.

Here's a sweet little fork that I love to use on my tea table.

 A nice tea strainer that's a good size to use. It sits nicely on a teacup.

This is another teapot shaped tea ball. This is another special one. Don't you like the shape of this one?

Oh and I really love this tea basket. It fits on the spout of a teapot so it can catch any tea leaves when the tea is poured out into the teacup.

Now back to the angles. When I was babysitting Otto, I took a look around my daughter's house to see if I could find any angels. I am happy to report, I did find some! This is a sweet mid century candle that lives on their mantle.

Angie has a pink bathroom and this little girl sits on the window sill. She is a cutie.

This little angel belonged to my mother. Angie has it on the window sill too.

When I returned home, I took a look around my own home. I found this quilted little miss a few years ago at an estate sale and she wanted to come home with me!

A vintage Hallmark ornament from 1980. It always reminds me of my two daughters...Angie and Gina.

I love this tiny wooden angel ornament. She was made in Germany and has been on our tree for many years.

I have these angels on my bathroom shelf. I also love the mid century little wax candles.

A trip to my tea room and I found more angels!

Our bedroom is blue and shows my love of quilts. This angel has wings made from an old quilt. It's a bit hard to see them.

My Tasha friend Janice, sent me this little angel and she just joins right in with the other quilted Christmas things. Very sweet and thank you Janice!

I had a busy day of Etsy and wrapping packages for Christmas. Jimmy and I did have a little tea break this afternoon. Just tea and some yummy shortbread. How are you doing getting ready for Christmas?