Happy Anniversary!

16 years ago, my husband and I married. It has been a wonderful 16 years and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. (Happy Anniversary Honey. I know you read my blog every day. I love you and you are a blessing to me.)

We spent our honeymoon in the mountains. (I had two other photos to post, I took them this past June, but I can't find where I stored them.) I saw this heart hanging on the window in the gift shop of the Mt. Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had arrived the night before and it was cold. I remember the inn restaurant had a salad and the most wonderful French Onion Soup. The next morning, after breakfast, I went into the gift shop and saw this heart. I had to have it. I showed it to Ed and he loved it as well. It has been hanging over the sink in my kitchen ever since.

This is my Friday Show and Tell! Thank you Kelli for hosting Friday Show and Tell.

Make sure you stop by Kelli's There's No Place Like Home and check out all the other Friday Show and Tell participants.

Tea Card

I am in an online tea swap in the Afternoon Tea Forum on Delphi Forums. Except for writing a note in this card and packing my swap box, I have completed all my shopping for the swap. ;-) Just in case my swap partner is lurking, will just tease her with this card...

First you need to collect your supplies for the card you plan to make. Taking an idea from one of Kelli's earlier posts, I elaborated on this idea. I used a tin can (bushes baked beans!) for a template for my circle. And flattened the top. Also added a saucer and a handle. My swap partner loves breakfast teas and I happened to have this bag of Twinings on hand. (Don't worry hon, I am sending you some luscious loose teas as well!)

I embellished with some stamps and colored pencils.

To see more greeting cards go to Kelli's blog There's No Place Like Home and see all the beautiful cards displayed there today.

Now for just a little more tease for my Tea Swap Partner...

I have made photos of all the individual items before I wrapped them, but I thought it would be fun for her to get the package first. :-P

Birthday Tea Party!

Today is a special day! It is Jan's Birthday! Happy Birthday Jan! And she is having a Tea Party! I have brought out my Very Special Tea Set for the occasion.

You see, I got this set 16 years ago today. A gift from my Beloved. A wedding gift. Two days before our marriage. My future FIL had taken us and extended family (who were arriving for the wedding) out for dinner. DH and I had planned on exchanging our Wedding Gifts with each other that night. He said, "let's go by the house (his, soon to be mine as well, house) because you are going to want to leave it there... I got DH a Black and Decker Cordless Screwdriver. They were pretty much the new happening thing at the time and if you were a guy into tools and did not have one... Well that was what you wanted. At least, that was all my Groom-to-Be talked about. LOL!

I cannot tell you how delighted I was when I opened my gift! A teapot, creamer, sugar, 4 desert plates, 4 tea cups and 4 saucers. See how each cup, saucer and small plate are different? I just love that! And you are sure not to accidentally pick up someone else's cup. :-) My Groom said it is very "Missy" looking.

It is a Hazelberry Pattern made by Staffishire in England exclusivly for the Laura Ashley Company. Years later, as I walked by the shop, I saw they had dinner plates and DH bought me 4 for a gift to go with this set.

Oh look at the time!!! I need to get the scones baking and the kettle boiling. The party will start any minute!

Jan, I hope you enjoy your party! Scones with cheese, plain scones (served on my grandma's old pink Lu-Ray platter) with jam and Lady Londonderry Tea (was Princess Di's favorite). I've got the teawarmer all fired up and the tea is hot! Will that be one lump or two?

Happy Birthday and thank you for inviting me to your party! And for allowing me to share my very special Tea Set with you.

To go to Jan's Birthday Tea Party and see more participants click here and to go to Jan and Tom's Place.

Recipe
I love these tea cakes. They are called sugar cookies, but they are much like what my grandma made as a tea cake.

Puffy Heart Sugar Cookie
1 C White Sugar
1 stick Butter at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 C milk
3 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and vanilla and then beat until fluffy. Add milk. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to we ingredients, stirring gently to make a soft batter. It will be similar to a soft biscuit dough. Toll out on a floured surfact ot approximately 1/4" thickness (not too thin!). Cut out withh very basic heart (tea cup, pumkin, etc. any shape you would like) shaped cookie cutter and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. (Parchment not available, lightly grease sheet.) Bake approximately seven minutes until cookies puff up and are lightly brown on the bottom. Cool on rack and frost when cool.

Frosting
1 stick butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 tablespoon milk
(I also add a teaspoon of almond flavoring)

Cream together butter, sugar and salt. Add vanilla. Trizzle in milk slowly, adding a little extra if necessary to make a smooth frosting. beat until creamy and smooth. Separate frosting ito several bowls. Leave one white and tint the other different shades of pink using a little red food coloring. Frost the cookies in different shades. Sprinkle with multi colored cookie sprinkles or personalized with cake decorating frosting as you wish. Arrange on a platter with a pretty paper doily and enjoy!

Sunday Video

Alabama Crimson Tide Does it Again!

But just barely!

Roll Tide Roll!!!!

It's a PINK Clip Board!

Good Morning everyone! Happy PINK Saturday! Thank you Beverly for hosting another beautiful PINK Day!

This is a craft I did a few years ago. I have made several of these over the years. I love them. Who likes to walk around with an ugly old brown clipboard? Next week, I will post a tutorial on them. Or this particular style. Oh, and there is a pencil cup to boot! And it is PINK!

This is a 'cull' photo of my child. I have several beautiful photos from this shoot. I could not bear to throw it away. But I could Mod Podge.... And it did not go to waste.

The Clip Board has it's own Fru Fru!

I just love the pencil/pen cup. My mom and grandma had us making them all the time as kids, but, they never looked this cool or this PINK!

Oh that black ribbon and the black poka dots make the PINK really POP!!!

A nice gift set for a teacher, grandparent, parent or for yourself!

And this is really PINK!!!

Check back with me next week. I will post a tutorial on Beautifying your own clipboard and making a matching pencil cup. But meanwhile, stop by Beverly's place. She is hosting a wonderful fun PINK Saturday Party at How Sweet the Sound and see all the other PINK
Happy PINK Saturday! Saturday posts!

Nick Saban Arrested!!!!!

I need to preface that this is a joke. LOL! I forget that not everyone is from Alabama and understand how folks live and die collage football around here.

Nick Saban is the former Miami Dolphins Head Coach and was hired by the University of AL to turn their losing team back into the winning champions of the glory days of the late Paul "Bear" Bryant. Alabama beat the GA Bulldogs last weekend for the first time since 1992.

Of late, Alabama fans have been beside themselves. And this is bleeding over to the other side as I got this in an email from an Auburn fan.........

Subject: AP-Tuscaloosa - Nick Saban Arrested!

AP-Tuscaloosa - Authorities arrested Alabama head coach Nick Saban in the predawn hours Monday at his home in Tuscaloosa on animal cruelty charges. Saban, 56, was charged with 85 counts of animal cruelty in an alleged attack which occurred Saturday night in Athens, Georgia. Police said that as many as 92,138 witnesses saw Saban and a large group of violent young men under his control hit, kick, crush and destroy a large pack of mostly-docile bulldogs.

One officer was quoted as saying, "I haven't seen bulldogs treated this badly since the Michael Vick case."


ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!