A Bloggers Tea Party - Pt. 2

The bloggers tea party I refer to is going on over at Artsymama's blog. Be sure to go see what's up. I already posted about it in my last blog, but this is Pt. 2 and my original idea - to share my teapots with you.

I was going to just dust (cough, cough, hack, cough) them off a bit and take a simple photo of each of them but then I decided they'd look better with a bit of tea towel or what not beneath them. The next obvious thing was to add a tea cup. And then... well, I got a bit carried away and made these small vignettes. I tried not to spend all day doing it, but I do now have cabinets opened wide, assorted cups and saucers that auditioned spread out all over the kitchen, knick knacks scattered about, and a shelf full of stationary and art supplies knocked over and left for the cats to attack. So, yeah. All your fault.

But it was fun to dig around my house and really look at and take pleasure in some of the beautiful things it holds. It inspires me to keep dusting after I start cleaning it all up again later.

My mother gave me this tiny tea pot. I love it. I bought the dragonfly cup and saucer at World Market. Hubby broke the handle on it and instead of copping to it, he tried to glue it back together before I noticed. Ahem. Like I wouldn't notice that the handle was glued back together with a huge gap in lining it up. Harrhump. I think the little dish is from my mom as well. Nest full of eggs is from a wonderful French style shop that just opened up in our tiny town called La Belle Maison. I go in there regularly just to get a "fix" of being surroudned by beautiful things. That is, beautiful things that are regularly dusted. The tea towel is from there too.

I bought this cauldron shaped tea pot on eBay. I have a Kitchen Witch Theme in my kitchen, so how could I resist her! The little sugar bowl was a find at a local thrift/antique shop. I can't remember where I got the silly black cat. I've got a half dozen live black cats as well. The orange cloth is actually a dishcloth from the little French shop. And "Elpheba"in the background was a really wonderful surprise birthday gift from my hubby.

This whimsical tea pot I found in a junk shop in Sweet Home, Oregon. I can't really call it an antique store. It wasn't a thrift store either. It was just a big barn sized building stuffed to the rafters with old stuff. I bought a bunch of great things that day and sadly left behind a number of other things that were much too large to carry back home in my small Subaru. The tea cup was a sale find at Ross Department Store. And the Cecily Mary Barker flower fairies are from my collection. There was a flower fairy in the first photo too, sitting on the edge of the nest.

Another tea pot from my mom. I've never actually used this one, it sits on a decorative shelf. The old jar was in an online secret sister gift swap box. It held the most wonderful loose leaf herbal tea blend. It made a cup "full of flowers". I drank it all up and now it holds some other tea from the health food store. Can't remember where I got the little birds, they're a fairly new addition to our home.

I inherited this Hall tea pot from my Great Aunt Florence. She was my grandmother's twin sister and they lived together for as long as I can remember them. They were identical in their youth, but by the time I was born, my grandmother was the round, soft and plump one and Florence was thin and angular. They reminded me of the two of the taller fairies in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. They always fondly bickered like them too. At the time, I wasn't quite sure why she bequeathed it to me specifically as I didn't drink tea much at the time. Well, except iced tea. But she must have known something I didn't, because since that time I have become an avid connoisseur of all things tea related. The lovely gold trimmed tea cup, saucer and spoon (which is gold with little roses on the handle - wish that had come out better in the photo) are all from La Belle Maison. The little chair clock was a Bunco winning - I used to play Bunco with my mom and her friends. And the pen I picked up in the gift shop when we visited Castle Caernarfon in Wales.

I also have a children's Fiesta Ware tea party set which is toooo cute, but I decided that would have to wait for another day. I want to get back to visiting the rest of the tea party-ers. I'm having a lot of fun.

P.S. In case you'd like something a bit stronger then tea, I have a post up on Laume's Studio today about wine art.