Wednesday, March 24, 2021

SPRING AND EASTER DECOR

 It is always a pleasure getting out
past spring and Easter keepsakes:



I love my sweet Nicol Sayre
pieces.


And like you I have a little
of this and that.  These bunnies
I have had for many years:


I love decorating my armoire
with my violet tea wares:




The decorating is both inside
 and outside
this time of year with
a new flag for spring.



And the garden is starting to
come to life:




Tomorrow I am having lunch with friends
so I made a little hostess gift for the
friend serving lunch.  Do you take
a hostess gift when a friend has you
for lunch or Afternoon Tea?  I think
it is a nice gesture:


And lastly if you are looking for a
new Easter tea cozy these are my
new "Drop In Snuggie" design 
available on my etsy site





Saturday, March 20, 2021

FIRST DAY OF SPRING HOPEFULNESS

 Today is the first official day of spring
and there is hope......it will only be in
the 50's but compared to some places
that is warm so I share a couple of
collages to encourage "spring".
These are older photos that
I played with in Pic Monkey.



I hope your weekend is sunny
at the very least.  Ours is sunny
and we are so glad it quit raining
but how can I complain when I know
that rain for us meant snow for many of
 you.  Hopefully, your bulbs are starting
 to come up.  Ours are up but just a few
 are blooming as  of yet.  I know it will
 be gorgeous in the coming few weeks.  This photo is from past
 times in the
 garden of course.



Thursday, March 18, 2021

A NEW "DROP IN" TEA COZY DESIGN

 For a while now I have been thinking
about designing a new type of tea cozy.
My main motivation was to come up with
 one that sits really flat on the bottom of
the teapot. 


So here are my four sizes and I am
calling my new design a "Drop In"
Snuggie Tea Cozy.


As you can see, the bottom is really
what is completely different from
my other ones.

You can find them available on
my Etsy page at

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

IRISH CURRANT SCONES FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY

 


 I always look forward to getting out 
the tea cozy I made from one of the
napkins in a linen set my Grandmother 
made me 52 years ago when I got
married.  Several of the napkins were
stained over the years so I used those.
 

Today I set a little table for us to enjoy
our tea time down in my basement tea
room.  I have made us some Irish Currant
Scones to enjoy with our tea.


I haven't crafted much this year but
made the little decoration last year.


You might enjoy baking these scones 
which were super easy so I leave the recipe 
at the bottom of this post.


I found the little Dome Tea Cozy 
at a mall in Kansas City last year.
It would be for a tiny teapot.


This is an old vintage shamrock apron
in the collage above.

I love these
darling personal
sized pieces for
cream and sugar.


I have to tell you that we have had a week
of rain.  It just keeps coming and more
is expected tonight.  The little birds
are all wet and this morning I saw a 
squirrel climb into one of the birdhouses
trying to escape the rain.  I
will be glad when the sun comes
back out but I do remember that
our rain in Missouri would have
been snow in Colorado!



And now here are the ingredients
 for some very easy scones.  

IRISH CURRANT SCONES:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line
a baking pan with parchment baking
paper which really helps to keep it clean.

Combine dry ingredients first and then add
the other items:  2 cups flour, 1 Tb baking powder, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1 tsp salt, 3 Tb soft butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup sour cream, and at the end add 1/2 cup of currants

I cut these 1 1/2" deep with a medium
scone cutter and baked them for 8 minutes in my convection oven so possibly 9-10 in a 
regular oven.
This recipe made 9 scones.


Thursday, March 11, 2021

MISSOURI STATE CAPITOL AND GOVERNOR'S MANSION

 Today we drove over to check
 out the progress on the Capitol 
in Jefferson City, Missouri.  First
 of all though I wanted to share
this flower shop:


I couldn't resist a photo of the
cute shop.  And then we drove
in front of the Governor's Mansion:



One block away is the Capitol:


Just across the street, I was surprised
 to see this statue of the 10 Commandments
(in view of everything like this
being torn down these days).

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

RESERVED FOR HOUSE WRENS

 Well, now the clock is ticking toward
spring and it won't be long.  We have
4 true seasons in Missouri which is
something I love.


I hung some of my favorite birdhouses
out this week and I see a pair of sparrows
out the front bedroom window, right now looking in the opening. 
 I forgot to put the "this house reserved
 for house wrens" sign up.

Then there is this sweet bird that has come
on our deck for several years.  He or
she must of been hit by a car?  Not sure
but one foot is gone so he hops on
one foot slowly.  


So Monday I took the black plastic bags
 off my garden statuary and put the tops
back on my birdbaths.  I put water in
them for the birds.  I am excited to
see bulbs coming up everywhere. I am 
so glad I planted bulbs again.  It's one 
of those jobs you really don't want to
do at the time you need to do it.  Really,
it is just like lots of things in life.  It 
would be easy to say - that's too much
work so I'll skip it but when spring comes
you are so glad that you did it.   It
was 70 degrees today so hurrah for that.

I have 2 bluebird houses up and have
had many Eastern bluebirds come and 
visit our yard in the last 2 weeks but they
 don't seem interested in our birdhouses.


And now it is Tuesday and I went
and bought a flat of pansies and
some primroses.  I see a few survived
the winter too and are popping up.
I worked on my little birdbath floral
decoration too today and it is 76 degrees.
It will be lovely tomorrow and then
cooler again so I am enjoying!

Thursday, March 4, 2021

MARCHING ALONG WITH TEA TIME

Now that March is here we know that
 spring is just ahead and where I live 
the pussy willow buds in March, the 
Forsythia blooms and bulbs start
 popping up.


So today I set up a little
tea time in my basement 
tea room:


I hope you are hungry because last
night I made a Coconut Cream
pie and I had enough to make some
little Coconut Cream Tarts for our
tea time:




Instead of typing out the recipe here which is a lot of work - I just scanned it into my computer.  So, by doubling this recipe, I actually made a big pie and had enough for 10 little tarts.  I could have put meringue on the tarts but didn't. 

 (I made the mistake of
cutting the pie last night without leaving it overnight so our pie did not slice as well as it would have if I had refrigerated it overnight first)


This recipe comes from an old 1966 Better Homes and Garden "Pies and Cakes" recipe book.  I have drawn from this cookbook so
much over the years and made many of
the pies and cakes.


Please pour yourself a lovely
cup of British Breakfast Tea.
I love the Republic of Tea's
version as it taste delicious.


I am fond of the memory I have
of finding this Spode Duberry pattern
with the coffee pot in Lafayette,
Colorado. 


I think these little tarts would
freeze easily!