~~~~~Pink Rose Cup for Martha and Terri's Tea Cup Tuesday! Hurray!~~~

In all the flower world,  there are so many thousands of beauties, it's hard to pick a favorite.

But if I had to, pink roses always come out on top.

                                                                                                                                                                       

Now here's an admission: the cup pictured today is used daily for coffee, not tea.  However, it wouldn't be very nice of me to say Coffee Cup Tuesday on Tea Cup Tuesday, would it? Of course not.

It's my favorite utilitarian cup and I've been using it for my morning coffee for eight years! A couple of times it almost slipped out of my hand when I was washing it but it has not fallen and cracked into a thousand pieces.  I'd be sad if it did.

 

Every time I find a new cup for my collection, I contemplate whether to use it for my morning coffee but so far not a single selection can take the place of the pink rose cup.

It was made in England. It just makes me think of being in a flower garden and, of course, those roses are my favorite color.

For a look at more great tea cups, check the blogs of the two sweethearts who host Tea Cup Tuesday,  Martha and Terri, at  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ and http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE CUP IN YOUR COLLECTION THAT YOU LOVE MORE THAN ALL THE REST?

Laundry Room Makeover from Discards for Susan's Metamorphosis Monday!

Laundry rooms are usually rather uninspiring.

They are necessary and useful but exciting?  Uh uh.

When the laundry room's location in a home is in the basement, it's worse.  It makes doing a required chore even more unappealing.

Before the makeover, when it was time to do laundry, I'd haul the overflowing clothes basket down the basement stairs, flick on an overhead bare light bulb, and fill up the washing machine. Then, I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could.

When my immensely multi-talented husband helped a friend install a new kitchen, he asked if he could have the old sink and  counter top.  The answer was "absolutely."  At first, I was unenthusiastic, thinking the materials would just be more junk to add to the "someday" list but my husband surprised me.

He got right to work installing the counter top and double aluminum sinks.  First, out came the horrendously ugly limestone sink that looked like something Dracula used.  My husband added a few decorative Mexican tiles behind the faucets for a special effect.  He then picked out some overhead lights at Home Depot and put those in above the washer and drier and another set near the counter top. He even hung up a big painting we bought in Central America so I could load the machine while looking at art!

The counter top has plenty of room on which to fold laundry, sort clothes, etc.

Then came black and white tiles for the cement floor and shelving under the counter top for detergent, bleach, etc. He used lumber he already had to make the shelves.

Today, guess what?  Doing laundry isn't such a bad task to have to do. I love my laundry room and it cost so little money to do it's not even funny. So check out used materials that are going to be dumped.  Who cares if they aren't new?  Add a couple of coats of white paint, some lighting, and they are good to go!

IS YOUR LAUNDRY ROOM A PLEASANT SPOT TO WORK IN?

New England Public Building Has Architectural Detail!

                                                                

The house shown here now serves as the Community Center in Lenox,  MA, a small, rather upscale New England town. Whenever I am in that area and step inside this building, I feel that Jo, from the book "Little Women,"  is going to come sweeping from around the corner in her floor-length dress.

The huge rooms must have seen gala parties in their day and many guests at Christmas time as well. 

The size of the fireplace is amazing.

Large windows allow light to stream inside.

Exquisite details can be seen above the doorways. Layers of wood go all the way to the ceiling.

Old-fashioned lights are found throughout the large living room.

Here's what they look like lighted.

Chandeliers provide additional lighting in the former living room turned meeting room.  Arched bookshelves line the walls on either side of the fireplace. 

It's true what they say about old buildings like this one, namely, "They don't make houses like this anymore."

Now a bustling community resource, the Lenox Community Building serves townspeople in this New England locale. 

Lenox is a very picturesque town that is very New England in appearance. There is the town library, small shops of all kinds, and churches as well as  sweeping green lawns and towering trees, such as the one seen to the right.

Many inns and  bed and breakfast establishments operate here, too.  Lenox is also the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. On this multi acre complex, people come by the thousands to listen to the orchestra play on summer nights. They spread blankets on the grass, light candles in candlelabras, eat picnic lunches and sip wine.

All kinds of cultural events can be found in Lenox year-round.

Lenox is beautiful in all of the four seasons of this area.             
Many homes here are quite elegant.  One feature I
especially love is to see the fronts of the homes lighted

at night by spotlights. This  looks very inviting.                                           

                                                                                                          

DO YOU PREFER SMALL TOWNS OR LARGE CITIES?

Natural Lake Beautifies the Earth: POST FOR SATURDAY, MAY 29

Sitting on the shores of a lake brings serenity. Here is a lake that  is a serene, peaceful spot in Western Massachusetts.

A natural body of water, it's rimmed with gentle hills that change color with the seasons.  Some of the trees that surround the lake have been there since the time when Native Americans inhabited the area.

Whether the  surrounding hills are filled with greenery in the spring and summer or wearing autumn's splendorous gold, orange, and red finery, they look as if they were always guarding this lake.  Even in winter, when the hills are barren, they turn a deep, rich purple at certain times of the day.

This lake has been a part of my life since childhood. Whenever we drove to this part of Massachusetts, we visited the lake.  We ran to its public beach to splash in the water in the summer and we'd scare our Mom by ducking below the water.  We'd hold our breath and stay underwater as long as humanly possible. Fresh children.  Poor Mummy would be hysterical on the shore, screaming out the names of her children who she thought for sure had drowned.

As a teen, the high school ring my uncle let me wear slipped off my finger and fell into the murky waters of the lake.  That uncle is now gone and I wonder if it's possible for the ring to still be where it was dropped, buried deep in the mud on the lake's bottom.  Guess I'll never really know.

Coming back to the east after living for decades in other places, it's still sheer pleasure to go to the lake. The vistas there, from shoreline to whipped cream clouds above, squeeze my heart with their intense beauty.

Even on cold, dark days, when the water's filled with choppy waves, there's a magnetic attrraction to the lake.

Like humans, with varying moods, the lake calls out to me in all seasons. There is peace there.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE YOU LIKE TO CALL YOUR OWN WHERE YOU FIND SERENITY?

Boy and Girl Sculptured Heads for Cindy's My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday!

It is fascinating to look through mail order catalogues and see so many thousands of items from all over the world.

Sculptures have always appealed to me. However, the downside of catalogue shopping is the prices are not always affordable. Such was the case with sculptured busts of children.  Every time I went through a certain catalogue, those childrens' heads struck my fancy.  Their prices, however, did not because the sculptures were purely "want" and not "need" items.

I decided to leave them in the catalogue and just enjoy looking at them that way.  Then, one day,  a notice about a church flea market appeared in the paper. It's a sale that's held annually and is always pretty good so off I went.

There was table after table of merchandise and I carefully scanned every inch. Then I saw them----"alabaster" busts of two very pretty young people, probably from the Victorian age. Detailed features made up their sweet faces.

Picking each one up,  I admired how nicely they were done and then looked at the prices on the bottoms. Each one cost 50 cents.  Sold!

WHAT WAS THE LAST SUPER BARGAIN YOU FOUND BY CHANCE?

"Rapunzel , Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair"...... Post for THURSDAY, MAY 27

Remember the rather bizarre Grimm's fairy tale, Rapunzel?

It was about a beautiful girl who was kept locked in a doorless tower, deep in the forest. Whenever her wicked female enchantress wanted to visit her, she would yell out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel , let down your hair" and Rapunzel would lower her hair down from the top of the tower. The enchantress would climb up. ( I always thought how that must have hurt. I mean, wouldn't climbing up someone's long hair pull mercilessly on the scalp?)

Anyway, one day, the king's son was riding through the forest near the tower and saw the enchantress call out and then climb up Rapunzel's hair. Later that evening, the King's son also called out to Rapunzel and climbed up her hair to the top of the tower. (Boy, Rapunzel must have been surprised!)

In the story, she eventually escapes and ends up with the King's son, who, of course, must have been a prince.

One day, while perusing a flea market, I found a magnificent Rapunzel doll with absolutely gorgeous golden curls. She's got the prettiest face imaginable. She has  brown eyes and wears a deep, forest green dress. She's one of the favorite dolls in my collection.

 
 
 
 
 


DO YOU HAVE ANY STORY BOOK CHARACTER DOLLS?  DO YOU REMEMBER THE STORY OF RAPUNZEL?

Dreams of a "Some Day" What Not Shop

There are definitely pros and cons to recreational shopping.

Since I do mostly thrift store, estate, and yard sale shopping, it's easy for me to justify going! 

After all, I'm not plunking down hundreds of dollars for "new" merchandise.  However, the con is that I really don't need too much in terms of material goods. Our house has enough of everything, for which I feel very blessed.  Granted, there are not too many "new" things here, but it really doesn't matter to me too much.

The problem is,  if I see something I love while shopping, it's hard to pass it up.  It makes me yearn to have that upscale treasure shop of mine. That's what I'd love to do someday....have my own what not shop.  It could either be online or at a real location. The latter, however, would require rent, more of a time commitment, etc.

In the meantime, however, I have to use extreme discretion about what goes into my shopping cart. I've even had times when I've sworn off recreational shopping but, like any addiction, it's painful to eliminate it entirely

Recently, I allowed myself 10 minutes in one of my favorite thrifties. Now, not much damage could be done in 10 minutes. On the other hands, I found a couple of really sweet treasures in that space of time. If I had my shop, I would have given myself more time to shop for items to sell! ha!

Anyway, I came away with a very nice glass bowl that has its own little feet. It had hardly been used at all and there are now some apples in it. For $4.99, I thought it was a good deal.

Also found a milk glass vase with a hobnail design that will look lovely with a pink or red rose in it. Cost?  99cents!

DO YOU THINK OPENING  A WHAT-NOT SHOP, EITHER ONLINE OR IN A LOCATION, IS A GOOD IDEA OR A FINANCIAL DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN?

Martha and Terri's Tea Cup Tuesday

Sometimes we see a tea cup and are drawn to it for no apparent reason. That's the way it was with today's flower-covered beauty.

It's not an expensive cup. I think it was found it in an all purpose store. It's made in China by Nantucket. It was on a shelf with a lot of  other cups. The multi-colored flowers attracted my attention, as well as the gold rim around the cup, handle, and saucer. It was so pretty!   I picked it up and put it back down.

As I continued my shopping, the floral tea cup kept popping into my mind so I pushed my shopping cart back to the aisle where it was located.  It was a relief that it was still there. I picked it up, put it in my cart, and walked to the checkout.

This cup makes me think of spring, when real flowers are popping up all over.  Drinking a fragrant tea in this cup makes it taste all the more delicious!

Now, for a look at more wonderful tea cups, check out the following two blogs of Martha and Terri,

the sweet sponsors of Tea Cup Tuesday. Thanks for hosting, ladies!  Keep up the good work.Their addresses are http://www.marthasfavorites.com/and http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/