Letter "T" and Telling Time Tea Party!

To celebrate learning the letter "T" and Telling Time

 I hosted a little tea party luncheon for my preschooler grand,

and for both of my daughters early last month.

♥

It was a perfect time to use my clock teapot for a centerpiece.

It was a good day for using my Gracie china.

I only have 4 teacups and saucers in this pattern

 so it worked out well.

I was asked to teach some basic table and tea party manners.

(FYI - Katie asked Vivi a few days later about what she learned, 

and she remembered all she was taught!)

Pink velvet dress, cute tea hat, a sweet smile -

 yep, I believe she was ready for her tea time!

I used these heavier stoneware teacups for the soup.

I used these sweet fall napkins my tea sister/friend Pam D. sent

 in the mail - love random acts of kindness getting happy mail!

Paper napkins always best when there is a 4 year old at the table.

I really can't believe none of us even thought of 

taking pictures of any of the beautiful foods.

*Sigh*

Where is my Mary D. when I needed her the most????

♥

I am happy to report that Vivi liked almost everything!

(And these were rather mature foods, too!)

I was so happy she liked the curry soup!

About the only thing she didn't care for was the ham salad.

BTW- the pumpernickel was homemade by my hubs!

He is an amazing bread baker, and he nailed it perfectly.

It was the first time he'd ever made it, too. 

The cello-wrapped favor was to be a fun painting

of  an autumn pumpkin craft for us to do, 

 but we ran out of time so we weren't able to do it together.

Here they are in learning mode as I was in kitchen brewing the tea!

A play clock, a making a paper clock craft - such fun!

I absolutely love her happy pose!!

She left her very special pink shiny tea party

 princess shoes at the front door.

BTW- these cute wooly toys her Aunt Ezza

 hand made her and gifted her that day

 for doing so well in her learning!

Cute, aren't they?

I love the "cutie marks" on them!

Vivi's auntie makes her the cutest things.

I could do several posts on them alone.

The pink caterpillar with hearts was a very special request

 made by Vivi.  If anyone wants to know more about it please 

write me privately and I will share.

As always, thanks for your visit!

Stay safe, stay well, please!

Linking:

Tablescape Thursday

The Gift of Christmas Baking!

I have been baking my head off this week -

and thought I'd share what I am giving friends,

 neighbors and family.

I *always* make decorated sugar cookies and Russian Snow Balls.

Those are my two standard staple cookies for sure.

I love love love the smell of ginger cookies baking.

One of these days I intend on mastering the art of decorating with royal icing.

Practice, practice, practice, right?

♥

I made a bajillion each of : decorated cut-out cookies, 

snow balls, chocolate peanut crunch balls,

amd Oreo snowmen truffles.

(My daughter made the chocolate one with candy cane on top.)

Some of these were quite labor intensive to make,

but I had lots of fun doing so.

But it sure helps me get into the spirit of the season.

All of our pretty snow is gone now.

We won't be having a white Christmas after all. :-(

I think our last snow storm just came in too early!

Here is my post on the last snowfall if you missed here. 

Here is where I found the recipe for those cute snowmen truffles.

And they're perfect alone as a tiny token to give someone.

It is especially well-received when in its own wee gift box

tied up with string.

Merry Christmas!

As always, thank you so much for your visit!

♥

~Michele

If you missed my last post: I shared the cute pics

 of my first grand daughter sitting on Santa's lap here.

She is just too sweet!

Linking:

Foodie Friday   *  Mosaic Monday 

Easter was EGGScellent

Hello everyone!

 How I have missed you!

Aren't you all happy it is finally spring?

I am just popping in to share the prettiest fruit tart

 my daughter brought to our Easter meal yesterday.

It was huge and we still have 2 big pieces left, yay!

(And yes, it was as delish as it looks!)

I have made many tarts over the years but never used grapes -

I usually use kiwi for the green color.

 I thought it would be weird to use grapes - but it totally tasted great! 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Yesterday was warm and sunny in the 70s.

It really was the most perfect Easter weather

 I think we've ever had around here!

Our forsynthia bushes, crocus and daffodils are in bloom.

We had a HUGE storm late last night with thunder,

 incredibly bright lightning and torrential downpours...

...so my plan to walk all around our yard and garden

taking snaps of some of those blooms isn't going to happen

due to way too much mud and yuck out there!

But here's a snap of the front walkway daffodils for you!

At least that was dry enough to grab a quick pic.

It's very gloomy, chilly and gray today.

I am so glad it wasn't like this yesterday!

I hope soon I will be back to blogging 

with some new-found blog energy!

I do plan on sharing a house tour soon

 to show some of the changes made here at our nest.

We lightened walls up and bought darker furniture.

And switched and re-switched and I am nearly done switching!

And I shall soon be calling the job finished enough...

The fun springtime teacup exchange

 set up by sweet Stephanie at the blog

The Enchanting Rose

is now complete - and I cannot wait to share

my beautiful spoils with all of you next month
 for her big reveal linky party!

I also want to thank each of you who sent a note

or card asking how I am doing after my nasty burn.

I am happy to report that it's all healed up now,

I have all new skin there now... and a nice big scar -  

my "badge of courage. " 

And I give thanks and praise to our Most Merciful God

 that it wasn't worse, and that it is just hidden on my tummy.

Praise be! Whew! SCARY!!!

 Could have been my face, chest, eyes...

[source]

As always, thank you for your visit!

Have a truly blessed day and week!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Mosaic Monday

Breakfast Tea in the Garden Room

My sweet niece stayed with me last week

 and we had a pretty outdoor breakfast in my garden room.

We were nestled among the flowers and shrubs

and the birds, butterflies and bees.

I can think of nothing better than to wake up

and remember she is sleeping upstairs...

and to gleefully plan our little tea time together.

This time she did so much of the work because of my
 dumb-ole-foot-in-a-boot.

Just call me Hop-a-Long Cassidy!

Our menu was simple:

Eggs in a Cup - soft-boiled eggs w/ butter and freshly cracked pepper

Raspberry Scones with homemade "clotted" cream 

Fresh cut nectarines

Toast

Blueberry Tea

Our sweet and pretty breakfast made us very happy.

Just look at her precious smile of anticipation!

Aren't these the most beautiful paper napkins you've ever seen?

I've had them since Easter - I seldom use paper ones,

so I still had this pack - and they looked perfect with our pink/green/lilac color scheme, so we used them!

I wonder how well they'd decoupage?

They're so beautiful.

Have any of you ever decoupaged with paper napkins?

By the time we got everything all set up

 we'd worked up a big appetite

and ate every bit!

The night before the two of us had gone to see

the new Pixar movie "Inside Out."
I highly recommend it. 
It is very different than the other Pixar films

After the movie we went to a delish Chinese restaurant for dinner.
(Her favorite and I seldom go because hubs doesn't like it.)

I had to run to the pharmacy so I let her pick out
 a new nail polish there.

When we returned I gave her a fancy manicure.

(I also needed some sitting down quiet time after our running around!)

That pretty sky blue color on her nails in the pic below
is the polish she picked.

 : - )

After our breakfast I had her run up to my special girlie library

in our loft area and pick out any book for us to read out here.

I have a lifetime collection of special tea books and such.

She chose the one called "Thank You, Friend."

It was given to me a few years ago by a friend Sandra
when she visited from out of town for tea.

We took turns reading this sweet book

 full of Scripture, quotes, wisdom, poetry

 and basic feel-good thoughts. 

She was hesitant about reading the old fashioned script Cursive pages.

Do you all realize that hand writing & teaching Cursive is GONE?

The children don't learn how to write it or read it in schools anymore.

CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE:

 THEY CAN NO LONG READ JANE AUSTEN MANUSCRIPTS

 OR EVEN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE US?????!!!???

I shudder at this. Just yikes. Ok, I'm done now. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

We discussed many of the pages -

I wanted to make sure she understood the selections

and had time to disgest her food and her thoughts.

I am trying to teach her in our world of "crazy rat-race fast"

that savoring things like meals and tea and good books

is worth the time and effort to do.

I think she got into it, as she got super comfortable.

Oh, I should also point out that it was super sunny when we began

and by the time we finished it had begun raining.

That's why the last pics are dark.

I sure love my little garden covered patio zen room.

The rain didn't even bother us!

Indeed, I do believe we savored our time together quite nicely!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Mosaic Monday  *  Make it Pretty   *   Amaze Me Monday   *   Teatime Tues   *  Tea in Garden   *  Tuesday Cuppa Tea  * Tues. at Our Home
Return to Loveliness   *  Roses of Inspiration  

Giveaway Winner - BIG Spinach + Das Boot

The winner of my giveaway was Cindy from the blog
CONSIDER IT ALL JOY

Thanks to everyone who participated.

We have had the greatest harvest of spinach recently!

Our youngest daughter is a big time gardener and had extra startings
she gave us this year - and wow did it ever take off!

The spinach really took a shine to our big vegetable garden.

(I call it the "Back 40" as they do down at the Ranch in Gunsmoke.)

    

You really cannot tell how large these spinach leaves are
but to give you an idea:
this sink is extra large and extra deep

and it is plumb full of spinach!   

I just grabbed one of the medium leaves fast and had a yogurt*

I was about to eat and sat it down on the leaf so you could see

how huge each leaf was!

*Which, incidentally is my all-time favorite brand of yogurt.

It's all natural and mmmmmm good. Try it!

And no I am not compensated, just opinionated.

I had such high hopes to actually doing foodie post showing

my delicious chicken and spinach dish I made a little later that day

but, well, you know I never remember the foodie stuff.

We cook, eat, clean up - business done.

Then I recall my intentions and get that "Ah crap" moment

 when one says to oneself

"I get an A for sincerity and and an epic fail for foodie pics.

~~~~~*~~~~~

For those who didn't know, I am not wearing one of those

really ugly Big Black Boot things due to some small stress fractures

in my foot, advanced tendonitis and arthritis for the cherry on top.

I started my physical therapy for it yesterday;

3x a week for a month, then we'll see how it's healing up.

I've been trying to weed around the garden in this thing-
not getting good at maneuvering yet - yikes.

(Weebles Wobble But They Don't Fall Down!)

I am not happy about any of this, but want to float gracefully

down the aisle in August when our youngest daughter 

gets married - so praying for fast healing.

Just got word my sister's health needs some prayer-
for her privacy I won't delve details 
but it is becoming much more serious.

Also my sister's sister-in-law is in ICU and needs prayer.


So - a giveaway winner, some huge spinach
 and some prayer requests is what I am all about today.


What fun weekend plans do you all have coming up?
Whatever you do, may you enjoy peace and safety!


As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

WOW Us Wednesday  *   Foodie Friday