White Christmas ~ Tea Cup Style

I can scarcely believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve and then Christmas the day after. Just like Bing Crosby sings, I wish we could have a White Christmas... well, as long as the snow is on the grass and the roads are clear, I hope we have the whitest one ever!

 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the tree tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

 

This week I'm sharing a white tea cup and saucer set made by Duchess China. I believe I've shared this cup before, but couldn't help sharing again as it's my only white cup. It's also my only solid color tea cup.

Silver is one of my favorite colors and all of my white Christmas-y items are trimmed in silver, which I know clashes just the tiniest bit with my gold-trimmed tea cup.

 

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say are you married
We'll say No Man
But you can do the job
When you're in town

 

 

I love collecting snowmen. This guy is so cute with his little bucket of snowballs for sale. I found him at Hallmark a few years ago... the day after Christmas, when he was half off... which is of course the best time to buy stuff!

 

 

 

 The bottom of the cup and saucer both bear the Duchess name and stamp.

 

 

In addition to Snowmen, I have a Santa Claus collection. I finally stopped buying Santas about five years ago as there's not enough room to display all of the ones I currently have. So I only pull out a few each year. I can't remember where I bought this guy, but he's quite rotund and jolly.

 

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I'm linking up to:

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites
Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage
Tuesday Cuppa Tea at Aniques and Teacups

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Michelle

Christmas Tea Cup and Saucer

I'm so excited... there are only nine days left until Christmas Day! I have two more people to buy gifts for and then I'm done. How are you doing on your shopping?

 

 

Today I'm sharing my second Christmas tea cup and saucer set. I shared the first one two weeks ago. This one is also by Royal Albert. It's part of their "Flower of the Month" series. It's called "Holly" and comes in at #12 in the series.

 



The front and back of the cup feature the same design and the gold trim is still in excellent condition after all these years. The holly berries and leaves are handpainted. The cool thing about this design is that the red berries are raised, so you feel them when touching the china.

 

Here comes Santa Claus,

Here come Santa Claus,

Right down Santa Claus lane.

 

I love collecting Santas, especially the ones with an old-fashioned look to them. I found this guy at Home Goods a few years ago.

And I made some delicious homemade, chocolate chip cookies! I never shape the cookie balls before baking. I just plop the dough onto the baking sheet so that I can have the homemade look to my cookies. Here's my recipe for my chocolate chip cookies. The recipe makes about three to four dozen, depending on how big/small you want your cookies to be.

 

 

I'm linking up to:

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites
Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage

 

Thanks for stopping by today,

Michelle 

 

Royal Albert Christmas Tea Cup

December, at last! Thanksgiving to New Year's Day is my favorite time of the year and Christmas is my favorite holiday, hands down. I love all the food, the extra family time, getting the house and the yard decorated, listening to all the great Christmas songs out there and celebrating the birth of Jesus. 

 

This week I'm sharing a lovely Royal Albert tea cup and saucer set. I found this set at a yard sale for only $1.00! I couldn't believe it. I'm never lucky like that with tea cups, so I immediately snatched it right up.

The name of this pattern is South Pacific. I'm not sure why a Poinsettia pattern is called South Pacific, so I decided to google the flower to see if that's where it's from. I discovered that the Poinsettia is native to Mexico and was once used by the Aztecs to make colored dye. It was brought to the United States by Joel Roberts Poinsett and named after him.

I'm crazy for handles and I love this tea cup's handle with its gold design. Below's a picture of the interior of the cup. I love when china makers add floral designs inside the cups. The coloring on this set is really vivid in person, especially the red.

 A little angel that I just love!

This adorable couple that we all know as Mr. and Mrs. Claus was a ceramic project that my mom did about 10-15 years ago.

The marking on the bottom of the saucer reads: Royal Albert, Bone China, England, South Pacific.

 

 

I'd never heard the story of why the poinsettia's so closely associated with Christmas and came across this legend of the flower, from WhyChristmas:

 

"There was once a poor Mexican girl called Pepita who had no present to give the the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked to the chapel, sadly, her cousin Pedro tried to cheer her up. 'Pepita', he said "I'm sure that even the smallest gift, given by someone who loves him will make Jesus Happy."

Pepita didn't know what she could give, so she picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a a small bouquet. She felt embarrassed because she could only give this small present to Jesus. As she walked through the chapel to the altar, she remembered what Pedro had said. She began to feel better, knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the nativity scene.

Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into bright red flowers, and everyone who saw them were sure they had seen a miracle. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the 'Flores de Noche Buena', or 'Flowers of the Holy Night'.

The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ. The white leaves represent his purity."

 

I'm linking up to:
Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites 
Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage
Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Thanks for stopping by today,

Michelle

Aynsley Tea Cup and Saucer

This week I'm sharing an Aynsley tea cup and saucer set.

 

I love the birds on the cup and saucer, unfortunately I don't know the name of this design.

All the colors are really vibrant in person.

 

There's a lot of gold trim going on!

 

Thanks for your visit today!

~Michelle

I'm linking up to:
Terri at Artful Affirmations
Martha at Martha's Favorites
Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage

Duchess China

Is anyone else excited that Fall is here? The tree in my front yard has almost completely changed color. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it's always the first one to change color in the Fall.

 

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a

bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~George Eliot

 

 

This week I'm showing off this white tea cup and saucer by Duchess China. I believe I shared this one last year, though instead of carnations, I filled it with snowball flowers.

 

I was playing around with material contrasts in my journal and decided to apply that thinking to this cup and saucer. I like the softness of the flowers in delicate china against the roughness of brick and wood.

The saucer, cup and handle are trimmed in gold.

Both the saucer and the tea cup are marked Duchess Bone China.

Thanks for your visit today!
~Michelle


Linking to:
Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Teatime Tuesday
Terri at Artful Affirmations for Tea Cup Tuesday
Martha at Martha's Favorites for Tea Cup Tuesday

Royal Chelsea Tea Cup and Saucer

This week, I'm showing off one of my favorite tea cup and saucer sets.

 

 

 I love people scenes! The cup and saucer feature a trio of folk, in a black and white design.

 

 

 Two ladies are being assisted by a gentleman in trying on buckets as hats. Nearby, a cow and dog show no interest in what these silly humans are doing.

The gold trim is in excellent condition. There are two bands of gold around the foot of the cup. Each side of the handle is trimmed out in gold as well.

Both the cup and saucer are marked Royal Chelsea/Made in England/Fine Bone China on the bottom.

 

Thanks for your visit today!

I'm linking up to:
Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday
Martha at Martha's Favorites for Tea Cup Tuesday
Bernideen at Bernideen's Tea Time Blog for Tea in the Garden

Tea with Carnations and Jane

Considering it's August, we enjoyed a nice break from the heat this past weekend. I'm so happy we did, because I was out looking for stuff I absolutely didn't need on the Highway 127 sale (aka the World's Longest Yard Sale).

One of my finds, from this past weekend, is this Lusterware tea cup and saucer set for $2.00. I really like the mixed floral design and the pink coloring.

It's simply marked 1201 on the bottom with no maker's name or mark.

Here's the saucer. Both the cup and the saucer are very shiney-looking, especially out in the sunshine.

One of my favorite things to do is to use a glass jar for flowers, especially in the summertime. The carnations seem to match the floral color on the tea cup.

I'm currently rereading this delighful book called "My Dear Cassandra" by Jane Austen. These are letters written by Jane to her sister, Cassandra and to a few others. I picked this book up on a trip I took to England way back in 2000. Below is a peek inside the book.

A few weeks ago, I participated in the Mad Tea Party blog event hosted by A Fanciful Twist. Then, last week, Dena at The Enchanting World of Milady Leela, notified me that I was the lucky winner of her giveaway, which turned out to be this sweet, little book called "Tea Party".

All the pages are pink, which is so crazy as I've been craving pink for the last couple of weeks. The book is full of tips on how to have a tea party. I really like this idea of creating small sachets of tea bags for guests to take home with them.

I'm linking up to:

Martha at Martha's Favorites for Tea Cup Tuesday
Bernideen at Bernideen's Tea Time Blog for Tea in the Garden