Winter Afternoon Tea Party

I was invited to the loveliest of afternoon teas recently

and I am so pleased to be able to share this with you.

My dear tea society "sister/friend" Marina hosted a tea in January
 with the most perfect winter's theme and attention to detail!

This is a very pic-heavy post so I will hush and allow
the pictures to do most of the the talking.

Here was the gorgeous teacup I used.

I loved her blue and white and shiny tablescape!

I could spend an entire month showing you

 all Marina's collection pieces.

Her china cabinets are filled to bursting with exquisite tea items!

(And she has a great story behind nearly every piece, too!)

Oh, my, the food was so pretty and sooooooooooo delicious!

This was our delicious and pretty "welcome to tea" beverage

 in her gorgeous heavy leaded crystal goblet.

             (Which matched her yummy mini cupcakes perfectly!)

And don't they look nice all snuggled up

 to yummy frosty white pretzel bites?

I got lucky with the little gift bags I brought as gift favors for the gals-

seemed to fit in rather well with the tea colors.

Here are my very best of my best friends;

 my Sandy's Tea Society Ladies.

L to R:

Dawn, Karen, Pam, Mary, Auntie Pam, and Marina.

I absolutely adore these gals. They are so loving, polite, giving, kind, thoughtful and sweet.

My time with them is never enough. I miss them even on my way home from my visits.

They are truly beautiful both inside and out. 

The adorable snowman towels that were placed

 on the backs of our seats

was our thoughtful favor from our lovely hostess, Marina!

Thank you, sweet friend, for a most delightful tea party!

♥

As always, thank you, too for your visit today!

Hugs!

~Michele

Linking:

Inspire Me   *   Teacup Tuesday   *   Friends Sharing Tea 

Tablescape Thursday   *   Bernideen's Tea Time 

BABY BLUE EYES!

Sharing pics of my sweet wee grand baby today.

It's been over a month since I have shared pics of her,

so thought it high time I show you how she's grown!

You cannot tell in the pic above

 but her Aunt Eve knitted those leg warmers 

that are being used as strap covers for her tender wee neck.

Since this pic was taken regular covers have been purchased, 

so now those warmers are working to keep baby's legs warm!

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

This is baby's last visit to the doctor in pic below,
 just happy moments just before 3 new immunizations.

She cried only once for a millisecond on the second one.

(It really welted up, so it had to really hurt!)

She's looking at herself in the mirror talking to that baby.

"Hey! I believe I know you!"

And at 6 months she is growing perfectly well.

Her pediatrician gave the go-ahead to begin cereal in her diet.

She's to continue nursing; also taking 6-8 ounces of formula per day.

You can see she is ready to feed herself -

 pic was taken the first time she ever ate from a spoon.

Her momma says she's a natural born eater. 

~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

Aren't her eyes soooooooooooo intense?!?

She looks right into my soul!

I love she is chewing on her auntie's rubber spatula.

I love even more all the drool on it, haha.

ALSO:

For all of you who asked about the Gerber Baby contest.
I sure do wish I would have mentioned it earlier on the blog,
and not the last day for voting! We found out today she didn't win -
but the good news is a local boy did make runner up-
 so that's good, huh?

Maybe next year she can win.

Thanks for voting if you were able! ♥♥♥

Credit: All pics on this post taken by baby's Auntie Ev's phone.

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Anything Goes

The Blizzard of '78

What a day that was in my childhood!

Back when winters were REALLY winters.....

with tons of snow, and Lake Erie would freeze ten feet deep....

And I am reminded by my little sister today

 that it was on these days exactly 39 years ago 
that the infamous storm hit us:

THE BLIZZARD OF '78.

[credit: Google images]

We had so much snow and the 65-miles-per-hour
winds coming off the lake

was so howling and so loud and strong.

 The snow drifts were 20 feet high in some places,
covering doors and windows on most homes!

[credit: Google images]

We were able to get out once a kind neighbor
 shoveled snow away from our door;

the neighbor men and boys went around to the houses

  checking on folks - especially the elderly.

Many homes are empty in that summer vacation area in the winter,
though. So many go to warmer places for those cold months!

[credit: Google images]

All services stopped - electricity and certainly telephones.

  Everything but our survival ceased.

We lost electricity for days and my father, mother,

 little sister and brother and I just huddled in

our den (smallest room in our large home) to try and keep warm.

 I remember we played a lot of games during this black-out.

I remember my father and mother very worried about my older siblings who had already left home and were in college.

[credit]

These were the days before "make up" lost school days -

 and if my memory serves me right we

lost well over a month of school.

 Which was fun to us kids, of course.

I remember once the storm was over we got all bundled up

 and slide off the roof onto the snow just like these kids are doing.

[credit: Google images]

I remember my little brother and a neighbor friend made the best igloo and it didn't melt for months!
It was so solid (they wet it down with water to turn it into ice) and it so cold outside they could even have a little fire going inside it! I think my brother made it because he was going crazy stuck in the house with his two sisters! I remember not really being invited in to play in that igloo, but that's ok. After all, I was a teen by then and didn't play much, heh heh.

The National Guard had to come to the rescue

 to some of the more remote rural areas

 who didn't have snow removal services.

70 lives were claimed due to this storm, 51 of them Ohioans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's not all that perished. Much wildlife died.

I remember seeing so many frozen birds, it was awful.

{source]

The Berwick's wren, which was on the decline, was virtually eradicated by the storm, said Jim McCormac, avian education specialist in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.

The Carolina wren and the northern mockingbird have bounced back since nearly being wiped out, he said.

The bobwhite quail, which is most comfortable in an open field and some brush, has faced a tougher recovery. Its numbers have failed to reach pre-blizzard levels. Ohio is trying to help by resettling quail from Kansas on reclaimed strip mine land.

[source]

Below explains the winter storm of 1978:


By Wednesday evening, the storm moving out of Mississippi had began to rapidly strengthen and began to phase with the Midwest low pressure system as it moved into Eastern Tennessee pulling together deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and an arctic air mass that was ejecting out of Canada.   

The result was phenomenal intensification as the barometric pressure dropped to an astonishing 958 mb when the storm moved north over Cleveland Ohio.  (A record for low pressure at the time for the Central US.)

This type of rapid deepening is known as "bombogenesis" and is usually reserved for strong hurricanes.  The storm is also referred to as the "Cleveland Super-bomb".

Here's a look at one of the few satellite images available of the storm captured on the morning of Thursday January 26, 1978. 

[credit]

This unforgettable storm was really something to experience! 

It's very difficult to explain to the younger folks,

since we're in a warmer climate these days,

 just exactly how major this storm really was.

I encourage everyone to look up this amazing storm.

There are so many videos and a zillion pics to see
 about it from all over the North East and snow belt!

I' d love to hear from you all,
 and if you were impacted by this storm, too.

As always, thank you for visiting!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

WOW Us Wednesday   *   Outdoor Wednesday  

Winter 2016 Living Room Tour

It is still very much mid-winter for many of us!

Before long I will be changing up our home

 to reflect the next holiday, St. Valentine's Day -

 so I thought I'd share my living room and a few pieces 

placed here and there around our nest before it's just too late!

I kept out some of my white and silver trees

 because they fit right in with our snowy winters here.

Here's a close-up pic showing off the painted off-white table

 tucked way in the back that is a bit difficult to see.

Some of you may remember that my daughter Katie

 painted this table for me years ago - she did a fabulous job!

 Just look at those sweet legs!  

♥♥♥

You may have seen my antique pinecone teacups in this last post.

Apparently I have a real fondness for pinecones.

I have these little plates that match some of my teacups, too. ♥

I have a small collection of cute tiny Putz houses - but this favorite one gets the grand honour of being featured on our mantle because but it has little lights that turn on- the windows are really holes. In this pic it almost looks like ivory paper, but it isn't -the lights are on but no one is home.

Everything around here seems to be touched

 with the peaceful, sparkly magic of winter....

Tucked on the bottom shelf of our little painted side table

is an old silver tray holding wintery treasures.

Yes, that is daquiri ice sea glass....not just for summer anymore!

My sweet tea society sister-friend Pam gave me this

 lovely winter bird's nest the last time she stayed here.

I keep it tucked under that cloche

but took it off so you could all see it clearly, without glare.  

One need not ever go far to find something "birdie" around here.  

To me they're all finches!  : - )

That little china bird is tucked into a pottery trio

 that says Love Hope Peace - appropriate for year 'round

 not just for Christmas....we all need more of all three, don't we?

 It sits in my antique farmhouse hutch across from the living room.

Arborvitae tucked into a silver vase for just a "touch of winter."
There is something about this pic I really like about its composition.
I like the shadows here - and shadows are usually the enemy,
but not so much in this photo to me, at least.

Speaking of arborvitae - it is an unloved shrub for many
but I planted some as a privacy next to our hottub when we had it
about maybe 12 years ago - they were little 4 foot tubs - light enough 
I could carry them and plant them myself...and now they must be
at least 18 feet high. They filled out and give a great "wall of green" backdrop
next to what is now my zen room.

You can see my covered porch "zen" room here.  

As always, thank you for stopping for a visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

At Our Home   *  Home and Garden  *   Share Your Style 

Share Your Cup   *     Favorite Things   *   Everything Else

Feathered Nest   *