MEDALLIONS FOR VALENTINE'S DAY, TEA ROOMS AND FOR FUN

The last few weeks I have been working

at making some paper ephemera medallions

for my Bernideen's Tea Time etsy page.

I have 2 large ones and 6 small ones done.

I hope you can check them out.

I have spent a lot of time on these.

Some are Valentines, others are

Queen Victoria themed and others

are French - Eiffel Tower themed.
I am sending this one to a sweet 
young friend in Colorado Springs:

And this one will go to another former customer

and friend who lives in Woodland Park, Colorado.

She will be very surprised to hear from me:

ENGLISH KING AND QUEEN TEA COMMEMORATIVES

I have recently re-watched the PBS movie

Victoria and also other past versions

about Queen Victoria.  What a fascinating

person she was and what about her amazing

husband Albert.  He was a great man of

integrity.  If you have looked back and

studied the many Kings of England,  you 

know that was often not the case.

I have been enjoying a display of my King

and Queen tea wares this winter in my kitchen.

I change this display regularly so then

 other types come up and these go back down
 to the basement tea room. I also made an
 ephemera  medallion but I know I overdid 
this one so others won't be quite so full.  

My Fulton friend, Karen who I met through 
the Tasha Tudor Facebook Group when
  I lived in Colorado Springs,  got me 

interested in the Victoria and Albert

 lusterware pieces that were sold at the 

1851 Great Exhibition.  Prince Albert was

 in charge of this event and oversaw the project.

  After reading about the pieces which were

 sold as souvenirs at the exhibition and after

seeing Karen's collection, I was smitten!

I have acquired a few pieces.

If you purchased something from the UK,

you know the shipping is what drives your bottom line up.  I was able to find this Staffordshire figurine in Georgia, USA

 so that helped a lot.  

Another friend, has one of these I 

had admired at her home.

I just added a 9" plate
 which arrived from
England to my 
collection:

Queen Victoria became Queen when her

 uncle, King William IV died and he had no 
living male son as heir to the throne. Two
 of her other uncles also did not have
 legitimate male heirs so it passed to her.

 She was only 18 years old.

She served as Queen from 1837 to 1901 and her name is why it is called the Victorian Era.

Her son Edward the VII became King in

1901.  His wife was Alexandra. 

 He served until 1910 and we call his

period the Edwardian Era.

Next we have King George V and his wife

 Queen Mary. If you saw the Downton

 Abbey movie, they were portrayed in

 the story.  He served from 1910 until 1935.

Remember the Titanic went down in 1912.

So who comes next?

Remember the King who abdicted to

marry a divorced American woman?

King Edward the VIII was on the

throne for a brief period and then

George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

If you saw the "King's Speech"

that would be George VI.

He served from 1935-1952

And of course Queen Elizabeth - 

the present Queen and longest

 reign to date!  I have really enjoyed

reading about all of these but find

Queen Victoria is a favorite.

If you saw the PBS Historical Documentary

"The Wedding"  - you probably found

it fascinating like it did.  I have watched it

several times lately.  I could barely
keep up with all the history in "The 
Queen's Palaces" about the 3 royal 
residences.  

I need to say - I may not have everything

100% correct in this post. I am learning.

Just let me know if something is wrong.

Are you interested in Queen Victoria?

CONTENT TO BE AT HOME

Now that winter is upon us and

things have slowed down it's nice to

be at home and as Jane Austen said,
 "enjoy real comfort".

Today our neighbor across 
the street
built this for his
sweet little daughter!

Wintertime for me means sewing,

crafting, baking and organizing.

I don't plan to do a lot of running

around now but am content to stay

at home.

I have been enjoying watching the
birds too.  My family gave me a
pair of those bird watching binoculars
for Christmas so I can zoom in from 
the kitchen table.

One of the things I have been doing is
reading and researching a number of things.  
After watching different DVD's I began
reading about the Kings and Queens of
England.  Then I decided to do some

 "royal" crafting too.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

ANOTHER VISIT TO FULTON, MISSOURI

Last week my friends Janice and Gina

and I were invited over to Fulton, Missouri

east of Columbia.   We went to the lovely 

home of our friend Karen and had an

 Afternoon Tea and a lovely time enjoying

her home, antiques, books and collectibles. 

 I forgot my camera but will share Karen's

 home here from our visit there in April:

Fulton is a lovely old town - rather small

but with Westminster College and

William Woods University there are plenty 

of young people coming and going.  

Downtown the main street is still brick with

  charm and history and Winston

 Churchill visited here in 1946 and gave a

very important speech with President

Truman. (prior post link)

The building above is St. Mary Aldermanbury

 which originally stood in London, England

 and was completely rebuilt once in London after a

fire. Then all but the walls were destroyed

a second time in the Blitz of World War II.

It was then sent over and rebuilt in 

this town of Fulton, Missouri. There

is also a Churchill museum in the basement .

My husband and I drove through Fulton

today and I took a few photos of some

of the lovely homes north of the downton

on Court Street and the surrounding area:

This one still had a few Christmas

wreaths outside:

My husband's friend has moved

to Kentucky and I saw that his

old office "building" on the

left has a new paint job.

In the coming weeks, I hope to be sharing
 more about some other lovely old homes 
here in Missouri.

2019 YEAR IN REVIEW

For quite a few years, 

I have been doing yearly reviews

with links to some of my posts.

Last year I didn't post much but

let's do a review just the same.  This

post was called 

"Snuggling In With Afternoon Tea":

I hope I can do a better job of posting this 

year.  I am retired and that means I should 

have all kinds of time, right?  I seem to

just fill my life up with so many things.

Here's February of last year and

my favorite time to share violet china:

March meant a lot of crafting last year.

Here in Missouri it also means spring

starts to stir a bit which is always good news.

  I realize that's not true for everyone.

  It seems to be the advantage of living

 where summers are very hot.

A post from March:

By April I was able to 

really see some gardening:

There was a "Bouquet for
 Tea In The Garden"

 in May:

As the summer moved along I

enjoyed many hours outside and

for me - I got a real suntan which 

was shocking.  I loved it when the

hollyhocks came up around our

mailbox.  I had to learn not to

water them as that causes yellow

fungus.  Here is my June post

which included my Grandson 

graduating from high school!

July:

August "Ladies for Lunch":

Some sweet Home School
Moms came to use my 
downstairs tearoom in September:

October:

November:

Looking at that photo above amazes
 me even now as I see I had hydrangeas
 blooming in November!

And for my last month of December I
want thank all of you who have followed
my blog and leave comments.
I hope to post more often in 2020 -
let's see if I can at least try harder!