SNUGGLING IN WITH AFTERNOON TEA

Like many of you we are having

another wave of freezing weather.

I really don't mind because there

are so many fun things to do at home.

So while the weather is cold I

found it a perfect time for
Afternoon Tea.  So last
night I baked an Apple Tart.

I have made this Apple Tart 
created by Ina Garten before

and the recipe is here.  I did
go ahead and put all the
apricot jam on in the 
beginning.

Some chicken salad 
sandwiches for the savory:

And the scones

can be found here except I did something

different - I whipped the whites of 2 eggs

and added that to the scone batter as

an experiment.  I have been thinking

about trying the idea for quite a while.

Outside the birds are so hungry
 because
of the cold weather.

My newest April issue of Victoria arrived 
and I am thrilled to see Ephemera 
in the opening article.  
I have taken an interest in the
art of paper crafting lately so I loved
the sweet paper shoes they showed and
the wonderful Easter eggs.

When I turned the page I gasped as I
saw the Devonshire Teapot.  I have 
a large collection of this old 1940's pattern
by Johnson Brothers that I started collecting
years ago in Houston, Texas.  Later,  I found a
large group of them in Colorado Springs
but I do not have  the teapot and haven't
 been able to find one.

Hope your week is delightful!

VALENTINES AROUND THE HOME

We didn't need a lot of encouragement

to stay inside this week.  The cold weather

has really been........cold.

So we have been drinking lots of hot

tea and as my husband works on

reorganizing paperwork, I am crafting,

decorating for Valentines Day and 

baking.

I love the old Valentines from

former times.  My friend Janice

gave me the rabbit box

 below last

year:

I enjoy things that look old but aren't too

but I am not a follower of contemporary

things - nothing wrong with it - but

it's just not my style.

After Christmas I usually put away

the red transferware but this year

I decided to leave it out.

Our home is odd in that it has a fireplace
near the kitchen it what was called
a Kitchen Hearth room:

Do you have some vintage Valentines?

THE TROUBLE WITH ME

No need for alarm...

no trouble.....just

a confession!  I don't like to

repeat the same projects over

and over.  I like doing many

different things.  I have had 

fun making these for friends.

My one friend

loves horses so I hope she loves

Victorian horses.

I have been cutting out clip art and

using glue and glitter for days here

and making an ongoing mess in

the kitchen so now I am sure I 

will love seeing things that came

to fruition and the mess associated

with them out of here.

I did some tea

 themed Valentine

cards of course!

And this one with Tasha Tudor's art 
from "All For Love" combined with
 the Eiffel Tower:

Now I am on to baking for a big event

at church tomorrow to help raise funds

 for needs in our community.

Hope you have a great weekend!

MAKING VALENTINE MEDALLIONS & CARDS

As you can see - there is snow on the

 ground seen outside the kitchen window:

A friend gave me this chalkboard

from the dollar store so I made

it into a valentine....

I have been having fun making

some whimsical valentines.

One of my friend's loves

all things French so I made

her this Valentine "medallion":

a little more shabby chic style.

We have been having severely

cold weather in Missouri so

it is a wonderful to snuggle in

and do some crafting!

I made this "medallion" for

my Victorian loving friend:

And as a late add on here are some I
am sending to friends:

Last year I made this tea cozy
and a Tasha Tudor Sparrow Hawk
Valentine House:

So, what projects 

are you working 
on this winter?

AN ORANGE-BUTTERMILK TART from Victoria's 2018 September Issue

I have been saving a copy of a recipe since

last fall to make the Orange-Buttermilk Tart

I saw in the September issue of Victoria. 

This dessert called for a 10" tart pan with

removeable bottom and sure enough, I

had one.  I love trying some of the
 recipes I see in Victoria.  Sometimes it takes
 me a while to get to each recipe I copy 
and lay it aside but eventually I

am ready to try it.

Isn't Johnson Brothers "Friendly Village"

ever so friendly. It is more perfect than ever

this winter with our snowy season. 

The snow we had last weekend put a bit

of a damper on my daily outdoor walk.

I finally realized everyone had shoveled

their walks on my side of the street so 

today I got out and just walked up and

down the long street 5 times.  Since it is

a rather steep hill I figured that counted

for a little more too.

We have been told that another snow storm

will be here this weekend.  This is most

unusual for our area of Missouri. 
 When I was out earlier

the creek sounded like a raging river

from all the snow .

I hope you are off to a wonderful New

Year and have found many things

to keep yourself busy this winter.  I could

 make some suggestions but perhaps you have

already figured that out.

Here is the recipe for Orange-Buttermilk Tart:

You can use your own pie recipe
 for the dough for a 

single pie shell or tart.

You can order Victoria books here:

and follow Victoria on Facebook!

(Recipe used here with permission
from Victoria Magazine)

and I added a little more bling to my
New Year/Valentines mantle today:

SWEET WINTER BIRDS

My friends and I joke about feeding the

birds.  I remember years back how all

the "older folks" fed the birds and now 

here I am doing the same.  

Yesterday I walked over to the Bonnie View
Nature Sanctuary and was going to take some
photos of the birds.  However,  the restrooms
were locked for the winter so I cut my visit
short since I was planning to be there for 
a while and then walk back home.

Today, our state is getting a snowstorm.

I especially enjoy my finch feeder because

I love the yellow goldfinches.  I didn't see 

them in Colorado but we possibly didn't

put out the correct thistle seed.  We did have
the red finches (why do they call them purple?)

I just refilled the feeder so it's
time to warm up with tea.

2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

Last Year I initially forgot to do a yearly
review where I would select one post from
 each month.  This year I did remember 
that so here we go with one post from each

month starting of course with January.

This January post was called 
"DREAMING OF
SPRING"

In February I got out my violet pieces
of bone china to enjoy and this post
was called 
"BRINGING OUT THE VIOLETS":

Of course in March the Easter and spring
decorating moved front and center but one
of the posts that caught my eye here was 
one about "JANE AUSTEN'S IRISH PASSION":

Moving on to April I chose this post
from April 14, 2018:  DAFFODILS

Just looking at that encourages me -
I forgot we can have daffodils in April 
here in Missouri.

And now on to May where I
took these photos on a 
"SATURDAY IN THE GARDEN":

You know I actually find this shocking that we
had these flowers in May.  I guess I'm still
remembering Colorado and the almost non 
existent spring. 
 This post I chose for June was about our
visit to The Dickey House Bed and Breakfast
in June. This was part of celebrating our
 50th wedding Anniversary 
which was May 31, 2018:

By July our garden was in bloom and
this post was about "CELEBRATING
 GEORGE AND MARTHA WASHINGTON"
 for the 4th:

In August I became acquainted with
Zinnias and saw that they can survive the
terrible heat in a Missouri Summer.  We
really had little rain all summer.

"ZINNIAS'S TAKE THE HEAT":

September:  "A FALL TEA IN THE GARDEN":

October:
 "ON A WARM DAY BEYOND SUMMER":

November:  "CHRISTMAS STARTS
AT THE KITCHEN TABLE" with
Friendly Village transferware:

and one last post in this review for
December of 2018 sharing 
"EPHEMERA ENDEAVORS":

Thanks for making it this far
 down in this posting!