Tea on Tuesday

                                              "French haul"

That is what I kiddingly call the box I received in the mail, just after last Tuesday's tea posting.

My friend, Teresa, just recently returned from yet another overseas jaunt. This time, it was France.
Since I live vicariously thru the travels of my friends (ha!), she was kind enough to send me some goodies from her trip.

 

There is  

TEA

                                                                             There is
                                                            CHOCOLATE


                                                    There are tiny jars of jam and honey!!!!


There is a yummy looking chestnut spread is an artsy little can. And no, that is not a baggie of an illegal substance- it is some wonderful cooking herbs.

Also included were some wonder-full little tourist cards- touting all that is fun to do and see in the surrounding areas of France.  Not too difficult to figure out, even if one doesn't speak French (which I don't!)

Mixed in with the exotic teas, are some  Lipton(!), and I love these cute elephants on other packages.

                                                                  Honey in a tiny jar-

                                             
                                                     Love the label on this tiny can - 

                                   Very classy teabags.....................I am drinking this today......

........with some apricot marmalade and a chunk of French bread!

             Teresa also included a bar of soap she made: not bad for a first try - I love the feel of it!

                                                 Merci Teresa............viva la france!!!!

                                              

                                               Please feel free to join us every Tuesday for tea!!

                              Drop in to visit Kimmie and Patty for a link to the other tea fanciers!!

Quilt Exhibit

If you live in NY- there is a fabulous exhibit of red and white quilts- the collection of ONE woman!!

It is at the NY Armory - thru Wednesday, I believe.

They guys who designed how the quilts would be displayed are amazing!!! They described it as a tornado- it is visually exceptional!!!

   

                                    (photo courtesy of Reuters)

I emailed Seth Apter,of The Altered Page    
who lives in NYC, about the exhibit, and he had already been to see it! He wrote about it here
in his Upper East Side online column about goings on in NYC.

Rug Hooking Extraordinaire

While volunteering at the local thrift shop, I met a woman who creates beautiful works of art out of wool strips.
She is a rug hooker, creating her own designs, inspired by things around her.Rug hooking is one of the original American crafts, probably born out of the waste not, want not ethic of days gone by.

One of these is her version of  an antique fraktur.

Rug hooking was something I attempted years ago- I still have that unfinished attempt, somewhere, with all the hand dyed wool strips, and the cutter. After seeing this, I may have to drag mine out, and try again. I tried it on a vintage piece of burlap, after sketching out my design. Burlap was probably not the best choice for a backing. This artist recommended using a linen, and was kind enough to invite me to her house to check out the  linen and a refresher course on hooking!! I may take her up on that one of these days!!!

This talented lady's name is Donna Lees Bleam, a fiber artist with the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Arts Guild here in Virginia.

Below are two of her pieces-click on the photos for a closer look.

This first one is an old tavern sign.

 

This is the fraktur.

 

Absolutely stunning work in person!

I may have to see if I can locate the box with my rug hooking tools, I feel the urge coming on....!!!!

Tea on Tuesday

Last Thursday, I attended another tea class given by Susan Teter at Julieanna's (Broadway, Va) Included was a very interesting video on tea farms in Japan. This was a preplanned class, not knowing the devastation that would hit the area near where this tea farm was.

It was really interesting to see how the different grades of tea leaves are created, and how the powdered teas come out of that processing too. I urge you all to google tea processing - just to see how it all comes to your teacup!
At the last minute, Susan had suggested that everyone bring their own teacup, altho she serves the tea in tiny paper cups to taste - all tea seems to have a better flavor in a REAL teacup!
There were quite a variety of cups - including mugs! I brought, in honor of the class being about Japanese tea, my Occupied Japan teacup I received in an online teacup swap I had last year. If we wore something green (it was also St. Patrick's Day) we would get 10% off any purchase that night - so my purse, and my teacup had green!!!LOL

I decided to make use of the furoshiki cloths my friend Teresa sent me, and wrapped my fragile teacup in those for travel to the tea class.

The saucer is wrapped in one, and the cup in another, tied in a knot and carried like a small tote.

The two teas sampled were gun powder green (oops- Sencha!!!-not gunpowder ! Gunpowder is from China!!) and wood smoked green.

 The wood smoked was ok, if you did not inhale - kind of had the odor of fish!! LOL  Loved the other Sencha green tho!

 

Here are Julie (dark hair) and Susan serving tea.

Dessert was a tasty  shamrock currant scone with cream. I forgot to take the picture, BEFORE I bit the shamrock "stem" off!!

One of the attendees, Nick, then got up to demonstrate the proper way to make matcha tea. Now I have spoken of matcha in previous posts. I love it. Now, I see I need to get a bamboo wisk!!! His method is a much thicker, stronger blend. The proper way to drink the tea, is with a sweet eaten prior to sipping. I like matcha either way.

Nick also drinks yerba mate - so I checked with him to make sure that I am drinking mine properly. I knew I was, but a second opinion never hurts!! I just wanted to make sure I was not creating a toxic mold in my gourd each time I drink!!!LOL

My purchase that night was this cute refurbished box- which will make a wonderful sewing box - the padded top is an excellent pin cushion!!!

Please feel free to join us every Tuesday for tea and drop by Kimmie and Patty for a list of other tea partiers!!!

Giveaway

If you like buttons, like I like buttons..... (sounds like the beginning of an very old tune....if you like Suzy, like I like Suzy, oh, hey, oh what a gal.......) LOL

Anyway, check out this buttons     and go to Barb's blog for a giveaway - you still have time!! She's giving away these buttons to TEN lucky people!!! I really don't want to diminish my chances by telling you all about it, but that is part of the deal to enter~!!!

Tea on Tuesday

Beware the Ides of March, because it is today!!! Not a good day for Julius Caesar, but hopefully a better one for you!!!

As I am posting, I have not yet had my tea- sooooooo, I will have my imaginary mint tea in this imaginary teacup!!

 

A dream of a teacup, with a dream of a price tag!!!

Speaking of mint tea, my mint is starting to poke thru the hard ground.

My daffodils are getting ready to bloom. This bunch will need to be thinned next year - it is a bunch that just popped up in the middle of the field behind the house. Part of the old fashioned daffodils that surrounded the old farmhouse, we are almost finished relocating all of them to around our own house. I just like seeing this bunch pop up out of nowhere - a signal that spring is almost here!

If you have have been to Kimmie's blog for a list of other tea partiers, you may have seen the beautiful little banner she made recently. Well, I am happy to say, that happy little banner now resides with me!!

If you haven't checked out Kimmie's Etsy shop, you really should - who wouldn't want to have of piece of Kimmie's talent !

The banner was so prettily packaged in fabric and wired paper ribbon - (I had started to open it, when I remembered I NEEDED to take a picture, so the twine bow is undone!)

Above is the wired ribbon, also two of Kimmie's little business cards (moo cards?)picturing some of her art.

The banner is made of stiffened tea bags (appropriate for today!) with her own carved ink stamp designs, layered on vintage dictionary pages. 

Temporary place of honor over a doorway, out of the sunlight, so it won't fade! Once we paint the walls (!) the banner will have a permanent spot.

Thank you Kimmie!!!

Please feel free to join us for tea (real or imagined) every Tuesday! Drop by Kimmie's   or Patty's blog for a list of other tea drinkers!!

Etsy Treasures

I am slo-o-o-o-o-o-owly stocking the "shelves" in my Etsy shop.

I have way too many fabulous finds here at home - and need to purge some of the inventory in my brick and mortar shop, sooooo.......

Here's a peek at the first couple of items that are in the Etsy store  right now!

A couple of denim hued 100% wool cell phone covers, in varying sizes. The one pictured is mine - and sorry, I have no more of these cute pewter lamb buttons!! But, I promise the others will have nice vintage buttons!
Since I don't know how to knit- these are crocheted, preshrunk, my own design.

Next, vintage zinc canning jar lids - will be sold in groups of 4. These are great for display, they will hold a candle, or you can wire them together for an interesting wall hanging! I have a ton of them - well, maybe not a ton........but enough so I can part with some!!

And, who knows, I may have an insulator or two on Etsy, like the above.


Here's a great old cigar box, from an estate sale,with some little wooden bits and pieces, -great for the mixed media artist!

Well, just thought I'd give you a sneak peek, of a couple of the "new" items. I may even be parting with an item or two seen in  previous Tea on Tuesday posts!!

Gotta run and work on a baby quilt .

If you see anything you like above, these are on Etsy  now!!!!! More stuff coming.
 

Tea on Tuesday

Did you know today is International Women's Day? That's what my calendar tells me- so, I raise my teacup to all my "fellow" women out there!!!!!

In today's teacup is Kroger's Private Collection brand- acai, pomegranate, blueberry green tea- it seems to cover all those healthy fruits in one hot drink!!!

It's kind of redundant- the name of the tea, then the description below- the name is kind of self explanatory, don't ya' think?

I'm sipping this flavorful tea in one of my "new" fabulous finds!! This was a real score- to me, anyway!!! I found these in the antique shop, while checking up on my own booth. 

Hidden away in a tiny booth were 5 of these little beauties for the sum total of $3.99! I could NOT resist!!

I bought them with the full intent of putting them on eBay or in my Etsy shop, but really fell in love with them when I unwrapped them at home.

They are museum reproduction pieces from the Henry Ford Museum. The design is reminiscent of the early 1900's in quite modern day colors.

Here is my group of five, circled around a vintage carafe that I've had for about 25+ years.

 

Also on my breakfast table this morning, is a throwaway vintage piece, rescued from the trash - with a little silver polish, and a dried flower found in my woods (hiding the bends and crimps in the piece). It turns out to be a quadruple silver piece circa 1896-98. My favorite era for dinnerware, silverware, and fashion- so it's a keeper, despite its damage.

 

Last, but not least, in celebration of International Women's Day and Tea on Tuesday, I am giving away ONE small canning jar of peppermint tea leaves. As you can see, I have more that enough to last me!!! I bought bulk from Frontier, and would love to share.

So, leave a comment on this post, and let me know if you are interested in entering for the tea giveaway. A random name will be chosen at the end of today.

Please feel free to join us every Tuesday for tea. Please stop by and visit Kimmie and Patty for a list of all the tea partiers!

The Sketchbook Tour 2011

Here is the schedule - if any of these locations are near where you live, you really ought to take the time to drop in!!! My book is there, and I know of a few other bloggers who have theirs there also. It is definitely worth a look!!! 
Mine is in the theme "The View From Up Here" - under "ooglebloops" or Pat McNally.


If any of you have a book in the tour - add your info in the comments below!!!


In between tour dates, the books can be seen back in the Brooklyn Art Library.

The 2011 Tour

Date	Location	Venue
February 19 - March 6, 2011	Brooklyn, NY	Brooklyn Art Library 103A N. 3rd St Brooklyn, NY 11211
March 12, 2011 12:00-6:00pm (during the SXSW festival!)	Austin, TX	Austin Museum of Art Located in the Community Room 823 Congress Ave Austin, TX
March 13th, 2011 12:00-6:00pm (during the SXSW festival!)	Austin, TX	29th St Ballroom at Spider House 2906 Fruth St Austin, TX 78705
March 30-April 2, 2011	Portland, ME	SPACE Gallery 538 Congress Street Portland, ME 04101
April 8-9, 2011	Atlanta, GA	The Granite Room 211 Peters St Atlanta, GA 30313
April 15-16, 2011 12:00-6:00pm	Washington, DC	Hillyer Art Space 9 Hillyer Ct NW Washington, DC 20008
June 10-12, 2011	Seattle, WA	Form/Space Ateller 2407 1st Avenue Seattle, WA 98121
June 18, 2011	San Francisco, CA	111 Minna Gallery 111 Minna Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Unfortunately you must be 21+ years of age to enter venue
July 14-17, 2011	Chicago, IL	Hyde Park Art Center 5020 South Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615
July 29-31, 2011	Winter Park, FL	Full Sail University 3300 University Boulevard Winter Park, FL

We Have a Winna !!!!!!!!

Thru random drawing- I put all the names on a piece of paper- and my daughter closed her eyes and picked out a name!!!Nathalie of An Artist's Legacy- congrats and your book will be in the mail today!!!!


Thank you everyone for entering, and I hope you will come back to visit often.


Stay tuned - another teacup exchange will be announced soon................................

Blog # 1

My first blog on Wordpress has been pretty much ignored lately.


There is finally a new post on it - warning - if you are not fond of nature or dead things- don't go there!!


Otherwise, please drop by........................................




PS- don't forget to enter the drawing in my previous post!! Giveaway closes at midnite tonite - a name will be picked tomorrow, Friday.

Tea on Tuesday

Some things of interest this cold sunny Tuesday, while I sit here sipping a hot cuppa Lady Grey with lots of honey.

First - if you love pincushions - you have to check out the winners of Piecework Magazine's Pin Cushion Contest - Unbelievable!!! I tried to show a picture here, but for some reason it didn't work.. So just go to this link - and view some fabulous creativity!!!

My favorite, altho it was really hard to choose just one, was the grandmother's purse, - and even the honorable mentions were more than honorable!!! I wouldn't mind having any one of them in my collection!!!


Second, I am having a little giveaway.

I recently purchased Angela Cartwright  and   Sarah Fishburn's Volume 11 of their wonder-full Pasticcio Quartz book.

As I was reading it, I realized, I had already ordered this issue !!  I got swept up in the excitement of thinking a new volume was hot off the presses and without checking, just blindly ordered it!!!

So, my mistake, is someone's gain!!

These little books are a fabulous compilation of everything artsy, from blog artist interviews, to paper dolls, poetry, famous quotes, rubber stamps, art history, and a mind boggling assortment of inspiring art, eye candy, photos, links, and how-to's. Alot of creativity between those covers!

Rules to enter: Spread the word on your blogs, leave a comment  here, with a way to contact you , and become a follower, if you are not already!

A winner will be randomly selected on Friday, March 4th.


As always, we are glad to have you join us for tea every Tuesday - please drop by Patty and Kimmie for a list of other tea lovers!