Black and White Afternoon Tea

This is a rather simple tablescape, I am still finding my way here, but I hope it will bring a smile. The footstool is in front of my sofa, the wooden tray was a gift from a friend, as were the tea cups and saucers. The tray is set up for an afternoon tea with a friend. Tablescape Thursday is hosted by Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ Just a note on the footstool, it was a garage sale find that another friend upholstered. The green velvet on the top was a remnant that just matched the decorator print. They go so good together. A better picture of the china and the treats. I am a fan of the lace doilies, and use them when ever I can.

The cups and saucers the tea pot and the cream and sugar all have chickens on them, it reminds me of a toile pattern. I always try to add an edible flower to my treat tray, I think it is pretty as well as a conversation piece.

I do teas like this on many occasions, my friends and I enjoy it, informal but still with the air of a proper tea.

I really had to scrape for flowers we don't have much blooming now. But I found these charming grape hyacinths and the pink hyacinths. They were rather short so I used a salt shaker for a vase. I do that quite often to display short stemmed blooms like pansies and short stemmed roses.

vintage roses

Hi everyone, I have been busy the last few days. Yesterday a dear friend and I took a road trip to a crafts show in the Albany area. It was very nice, lots of hand crafts, reclaimed furniture, Quilts, vintage collectibles of all sorts. There was lots to look at. One thing I found interesting was they had a lot of potted plants, mostly Begonias, they were very pretty, I almost bought one to go in my family of 3 diff. kinds, but I didn't. My friend and I had a lovely time we caught up on what has been going on with each other. And even met some old friends in the area and had a nice catch up lunch with them and their 91 year old mother. 91 years of age, I have known this woman for 40 years and she still looks the same as when I met her. I can only think the same for all of us, that we can still look 40 years younger at 91( that is if we make it). :)

My first Giveaway

http://victorianvintageromance.blogspot.com/Hi everyone, I am ready for my first giveaway, I have reached some of my personal blogging goals and have decided to celebrate with a giveaway. I have several things in mind for the prize or prizes, it will most likely be from my handcrafted gift items on my Vintage Romance blog, listed above. So if you are interested please leave a comment and if you care to you can tell others, and add to the fun.

Tablescape Thursday

Presenting my first attempt at joining Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday which is hosted by Susan. So I hope I can get it right. This is my antique Ice cream table. I did this very quickly and late in the evening as you can see. I choose Cabbages and roses as my theme with a touch of green by way of another nature shape in the leaf bowl.

In this close up you can get a better view of the cabbage plate with the leaf bowl on it. I apologise for the dark shadows but the lighting is so poor in our house.

This picture shows the little cabbage bowl with the spoon it is so cute I just love it.

I was trying to get a close up of the sugar cubes but the sugar tongs are covering them up. They have frosting roses on them in pink with green leaves. If you click on the picture you can see them better in the close up. They are always a big hit at the tea partys.

You can almost see them here. Well that is my first attempt, I hope it is a success.
Enjoy.

Announcing my new shopping blog

I have just started a new blog. It is Vintage Romance, it is a shopping blog featuring my handcrafted items for self and home. Please stop by and shop around and leave a comment as you look about. I would love to hear from you. These are a couple of pictures of some of my offerings. I call these "Baby Cakes" cupcakes, they are all wrapped up in cellophane ready to go.

This is one of my "Party Hat" lamp shades, all done up in ribbon flowers and lace. I will be listing new things frequently. Please visit and tell your friends. Thanks so much.

Creative havoc on my desk

O.K. I can no longer hide it. I have to own up to the fact that I am a messy, messy, person. This is the desk in my craft studio, it is 6' long and 26" wide, and no matter how many times I clean it up and make things nice, this is how it looks after a couple of days of making thing. There are many things in progress here. The pillow ( a close up below) is slated for a shop as well as the heart which is still in the undecided pile as to how it will end up... as a hanging or an add on I haven't decided yet.

This close up of the pillow and heart was mainly to show you this fabulous shoe box I got from Nordstrom. The pink part is a drawer that pulls out. How cute is that.

I have some cellophane bags with different things in them. The ones in the front are called peddler packs and they have collectible sewing supplies, such as a vintage button card, vintage lace wrapped on a vintage clothespin, some ribbon, beads and some porcelain flowers and a battenburg lace flower. The bags in the back have fabric cupcakes in them, they are trimmed with ribbon roses and lace. All are for sale if you are interested.

The chaos goes on, ribbon, glue rubber stamps, card stock, tape measure, a vintage dresser scarf ( lower left) I just got it at a garage sale it's fate is undecided. These are all the elements of the finished product. And I might add many unfinished ones. I work from both sides of the desk depending on what I am doing.
On this side I usually do my beading work. There, I have come clean now anyone in the whole world can know what a mess I make when I am making things. But I must admit when I sit down to a clean desk, I get very little creative input. So it just maybe that my creative gene is spliced with one of chaos.