Today I’m showing a lovely teacup that I received as a Christmas gift from my friend Ruth. It is Royal Albert bone china in the Highland Thistle pattern that was introduced in 1969.
This beautiful footed cup is in the Montrose shape. It was made in England.
Be sure to visit Terri and Martha, the lovely hostesses of Teacup Tuesday. Also visit Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Newnan-Coweta Magazine “Tea For Toys” event. It was held at the Holly Cottage Tearoom in Newnan, GA. Each guest purchased an advance ticket and also donated a new toy to the Coweta County Foster Parent Association.
This English style tearoom has the perfect mix of traditional decor, delicious food, and friendly servers.
There was quite a festive atmosphere at this Christmas tea. Lovely favors and goody bags were provided for each guest, including a gorgeous paper arts shoe at each place setting. Each shoe was unique in color and pattern and contained a teabag tied with a pretty bow tucked inside.
Of course, the food was delectable. It included Yorkshire loaf, sandwiches, scone, truffle and fruit, plus a yummy English Sherry Trifle.
I’ve already asked Angela (on the left) from Tea With Friends to include me on next years guest list. I’m really hoping that this will become an annual event.
You can read more about Tea For Toys at Angela’s blog, just click here.
After attending the wonderful “Tea For Toys” event in Newnan, GA, I stopped at a couple of thrift stores on the way home. I found a pretty cup and saucer by Noritake Ireland in the Thornton pattern.
This is a discontinued pattern that was produced between 1980-87.
The pretty flowers are very pale pink and white with a lattice work background, but I was first attracted by the wonderful shape of this cup.
I found several other items including a couple of Christmas With Victoria books ($2.49), a lovely glass footed bowl ($1.50) and a pretty Lenox Christmas Tree dish (.99).
The Noritake teacup was also a bargain at $1.99. It’s fun to shop at thrift stores and Goodwill, isn’t it?
You can visit the lovely blogs of Terri and Martha the hostesses of Teacup Tuesday to see their posts and links. Also visit Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.
Had I but one penny in the world, thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread. - William Shakespeare (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Gingerbread has been around since ancient times, but the first gingerbread man is credited to Queen Elizabeth I. She presented visiting dignitaries with their likeness baked in gingerbread. It can also take many other forms such as a dark, spicy cake.
For as long as I can remember, gingerbread in some form has been part of my Christmas. When I was a child, my Mom always baked gingerbread men, which she decorated with white royal icing. Later, I would bake different kinds of gingerbread cookies for my family, including chocolate gingerbread men.
Now, my younger daughter puts together a gingerbread house with my grandsons each year. It has become a holiday tradition in our home. Most of the time the gingerbread house is an all inclusive kit and that makes it much easier and more fun for everyone.
The boys will usually help for a while and they have fun placing the candies on the house. When they have tired of decorating the gingerbread house, they move on to another activity leaving their Aunt Cynthia to finish the job. This year the construction turned out to be a little tricky, since the icing took so long to set that the roof and various candies kept sliding off.
We like to display our gingerbread house over the holidays, so of course it gets too stale to eat, but the boys enjoy breaking it up and eating a few of the candies on the first day of the new year. Maybe I’ll try making some gingerbread snowflake cookies this year so that we can have some edible gingerbread.
And for a little trivia, did you know that a gingerbread house was made in Poland that was 11 1/2 feet high. Think that’s big - it didn’t come close to the World's Largest Gingerbread House built by Roger Pelcher in 2006 at Mall of America in Minnesota. It was more than 67 feet tall and 1,496 square feet. Over 14,000 pounds of gingerbread was used in the construction.
This cup from the Allyn Nelson Collection is bone china and made in England.
It has a pretty scalloped and gilded edge and I think the full blown roses with the lilacs are very pretty.
The little spray of flowers inside the cup is lovely too.
I don’t know much about this cup and couldn’t find this pattern online. There are many other beautiful patterns by Allyn Nelson.
Stop by Terri and Martha's blogs to see their gorgeous Teacup Tuesday posts and links to many more. You can also visit Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.
This week I have an abundance of apples at my house and realized that I’d better do more to use them up. These extra large honey crisp apples are delicious to eat plain (sweet and crisp), but I’d never used this variety for baking before. Seems like Granny Smith are the most often recommended type for recipes.
The October/November issue of The Cooking Club just happened to have a section with apple recipes.
The recipe for spiced apple crisp appealed to me since it doesn’t need a top crust and I had a deep dish pie shell in the freezer.
The pie turned out great. The apple slices kept their shape and the pie was easy to slice.
This pie was delicious with a nice cup of tea. A dollop of whipped cream or some vanilla ice cream would also be a nice with the pie.
After the success of this recipe, I’m ready to move on to the Apple Ginger Cake and Salted Caramel Apple Bars from the magazines Apple-licious recipe section. They will be a nice compliment to my Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie.
How about you – what’s your favorite way to use up an over abundance of apples?
I’m not sure that I have any teacups that you haven’t already seen on Teacup Tuesday, but I do know that I haven’t shown you my miniature teacups that adorn my tabletop “tea tree” each Christmas. I’ve been collecting these miniature teacups, teapots, spoons, jugs, tiered tea trays, etc. for many years now.
This one is a Spode cup in the Christmas Tree pattern. I also have the matching Spode teapots.
This next one is Old Country Roses and was made for their Ruby Anniversary celebration. Many of you have these in full size cups.
I’m sure you recognize this Wedgwood Jasper Ware cup and saucer. This is one of my favorite tea tree ornaments. I would surely love to own this in a full size cup – what collector wouldn’t?
Many well known china companies produce miniatures. They are a perfect collectible for people with little storage space or for those that like to collect on a budget.
Be sure to visit Terri and Martha for Teacup Tuesday and Wanda Lee and Pam for Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday.
