A Is For Always and Aluminum

Today  I  am joining  both  Alphabe-Thursday  and Vintage Thingies Thursday.

A is for Always!

When I married Mr. Garden, we vowed that our love was forever.  Twenty three years and two kids later, that promise still stands.  It has carried us through all the ups and downs life has chosen to toss our way.    I keep this little heart on a shelf by my kitchen pantry where I see it every day and am reminded that I am  a lucky girl.

A is also for Aluminum!

I recently started to collect vintage hammered aluminum pieces and I just love them!   I remember seeing these as a child when we would have church potluck dinners and teas.    I picked up the rose tray at a vintage Etsy shop.  And the little flower basket was found at a wonderful little antique store in Nebraska called Second Chance.

Come on over to Jenny Matlock's blog for the very first week of Alphabe-Thursday.

The Colorado Lady hosts Vintage Thingies Thursday.  Visit her blog to see all sorts of fun vintage items.

Look Up! - Mosaic Monday

Look up!

Hmmm.....Anyone want to guess locations where these pictures were taken?


Tues, Jan 19-  OK, I'm updating with the answers below.

 I have enjoyed reading your guesses.    And the the answer is..... right smack dab in the middle of the USA. (I thought some of the midwest bloggers might know.) 

Upper left-  St. Cecilias Cathedral,  Omaha Nebraska

Upper right- Dairy Barn,  Kansas State University, Manhattan Kansas

Lower left-  The tower above P.F. Chang on the Country Club Plaza, Kansas City Missouri  (Premier shopping and dining district, built in 1922 to look like Seville, Spain)

Lower Right- St John's Church, Omaha Nebraska

I'm joining Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.
And Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.

Please click on the links to view photo's from creative bloggers all around the world.

Little Blue House

Little Blue House.

Who lives here?

Doce Lar.  Home Sweet Home.
Come inside and see.

Blue Bear, Lord of the Manor, sitting in his comfortable arm chair.

Blue Mouse reads a story to her three children.

Blue Mouse goes into the kitchen to make tea.

Blue Bear puts on his sombrero.

Brown Bear, Orange Bear and White Bear play with their toys.

Brown Bear practices his trumpet.

Two Mouse friends keep cozy in the kitchen

Lots of other visitors come to call.

Peeking inside Little Blue House

Blue Bear and his family and friends pose for a group photo.

The Blue Bear family thanks you for coming to visit them at Little Blue House.

This little blue house was mine when I was a little girl. (in the 60's)   My parents bought the velvet Blue Bear and Brown Bear when I was 2 or 3 years old.  A few years later my Mom made Blue Mouse for me.  And as I learned to sew by hand, I made Orange Bear and White Bear myself.

My 3 sisters each had their own little Bear, Mice and Cat families and we would play for hours, wrapped up in a world of make believe.

To this day, when we sisters travel, some of the critters go with us.  Last summer I met up with one of my sisters at a doll convention.  Guess who came along?   Blue Bear and Red Rat.  (My sister's Red Rat got too close to a light bulb once and suffered burns to his knee, but he still manages to hobble along.)

They came with us:

to breakfast,

to the antique store, (this is the resident cat)

to the rare and used book store, (this is a cool old cash register)

and to the sweet shop.

What wonderful memories do you and your siblings have of playing together as children?

Vintage Thingies Thursday is hosted by The Colorado Lady.
And  Midweek Blues is hosted by The Dusty Cellar.

Pillow Party- Mosaic Monday

 Pillows made from vintage  embroidered tea towels, pillowcases and chenille bedspreads, with rickrack, lace and button trims added.   The embroidered duckling pillow is actually a baby pillow.

It's twice the fun today.  Joining  Rhondi's Pillow Party at  Rose Colored Glasses and Mary's Mosaic Monday at Little Red House .  Click on the links to see all the other creative pillows and wonderful mosaics.
Oh wait, three times the fun!   Just adding a third linky.  Smiling Sally is hosting Blue Monday.

Teacups and Teapots

I love teacups and teapots.  There seems to be no end to the gorgeous patterns and shapes made by various china manufacturers.  Over the years I have collected a few that I think are really pretty. 

This is my very favorite teacup. It's a chintz pattern from Shelley called "Primrose".   See all the little forget me nots in the background?

I have lots of other variations on forget me nots.  These three are all from Royal Albert.  l-r: "Forget Me Not", "Memory Lane" , and "?".  (The Memory Lane in front is my china pattern.)

Here are some pink rose teacups, also from Royal Albert.  (  l-r:  "?", "American Beauty", "Wild Rose", and "Lavender Rose".)

The three pictured here are  all made by Paragon and I do not know the names of any of them.  (If you  do please leave me a message.)

These are the three teapots I use most often.  There is just something so endearing about the round belly of a teapot and the curve of the spout.  l-r:  Denby "Greystone",  Queen's "Blue Calico", and a traditional  "Brown Betty".

Lord Nelson "Heather" chintz cream and sugar.  These were originally a gift to my mother from a dear friend in Canada.   I have had my eye on them for years and last summer she told me I could take them home with me.  I am a lucky girl!

Snow Fort, Snow Man, Snow Mountain

We have  had quite a bit of snow here.  Snow on top of snow, and then even more snow. This picture  was taken after the first or second snow.

This one was after the third snow.  It's starting to pile up.

Mr. Garden and my son went out to shovel the walks and decided to build a snow fort!  
The recycling bin makes a great snow-brick form.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Hauling another brick over to the the building site.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

That wall is looking pretty good!

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Making sure it's good and solid.  They had a great snowball fight after they were finished.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Then they shoveled the drive and walk for our neighbors across the street.  The Mrs. was so happy she baked them an apple pie!  That was the nicest thing ever!   It was yummy. (They shared with me.)

Son also built a snow man.  He came running inside to get a carrot for it's nose.  But all I had in the refrigerator were baby carrots.   Oops!  Moms should know to put regular sized carrots on the grocery list when the weather-man forecasts snow.  (It looks like I'm not going to win "Mother-Of-The-Year" this year either.)

The snow fort is still out there.  Next to the the snow mountain. (where we keep piling up the snow we shovel off the driveway. It's almost as tall as me.)  It  snowed more the day after the snow fort was built.  And tiny little flurries today too.  It just keeps coming down.  I heard it may warm all the way up to 30 on Sunday.  If it gets that warm I may need to put on my bathing suit!

Zinnias

I  love Zinnias.  Always have.

Hard not to feel happy when you have a bouquet of these beauties sitting in the middle of the room.

Apparently the nut doesn't fall very far from the tree.  My daughter loves zinnias too.  Here she is picking out a bunch at the farmers market.

Aren't the colors gorgeous?

A few zinnias still holding on half way through autumn.

Just an amazing little flower!

Blue and White Ironstone

You all know the song from "The Sound of Music":
"...when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad."
This has been a rough week for our family and I appreciate everyone's kind words.  We will feel sad for a long time, but we have to keep living.  So, I thought I would give the "favorite things therapy" a try.

Here is one of my favorite things:

I have always loved blue and white china/pottery.  My Mom sent me this gorgeous English Chippendale-Blue (Johnson Brothers) platter a few years ago.  I really like the floral and leaf design and the scalloped edge of this particular pattern.   It was manufactured for about 40 years, then discontinued sometime in the 70's.  It was also made in red and green.  If any readers have researched the Johnson Bros. I'd love to learn more.

It is snowing again.   I love snow, but we still have the last three snows sitting out there.  No one has seen the ground since before Christmas.   Some of the neighborhood kids are taking advantage of the weather and sledding down the hill at the school. (school was cancelled)

(Thank you to Rose H. for this link.)