Teapots and Treasures

I like tea. And this tea is some wonderful stuff. This tea, called White Pearl of Fujian, has been in my cupboard for a while. It was a gift that our sons brought back from Canada for me. I think I was a little set back when I read on the ingredient label that it has gunpowder in it.... lol (If anyone knows why gunpowder would need to be in tea, would you let me know?... ;o)














The other day we were in Tuesday Morning shopping for something or another and came across a Zarafina Tea Maker... It has settings for whatever kind of tea you are making and will brew the correct time for each kind. I love it. This tea was not the first steeped in this maker, but it has been regularly made ever since the first time. I have never tasted a tea as good as this one... just makes me wish I had brewed it when it was first brought home..lol The only problem is that when it is gone, I'm not sure I will be able to replace it....







Talk about a great week... Uncle Bobby and Aunt Edna came this week and we all had lunch at Cracker Barrel. The best part was the laughing and having fun visiting. The rain had stopped and it was a nice sunshiny day...


Uncle Bobby has already whittled me a deer antler and a cedar naalbinding needle. (Click to see them) This time he brought me this bevy of beauties...

The tin is a Glenfiddich Scotch Whiskey tin that was in my grandmother's things ... I have to laugh... She would never allow a drop of alcohol of any kind in her house. This had to have come from one of her sons returning from the Army...lol She was like me..could never resist something she thought was pretty, so I can see her ignoring the Glenfiddich part and keeping it because of the lovely graphics. A treasure in itself..


The pen and pencil set he made from corn cobs that came from their garden. Both write perfectly and fit easily in my hand. I had never seen any like them before...


The heart necklace is whittled and has a gemstone inserted. It turns out that it isn't my birthstone as was planned, but it is lovely anyway... and I told them it was okay because I have at least one child with that birthstone... :o)


The clay colored token that is beside the necklace is a ration token. There were several kinds and each one was a different color. They are called points and were used during WWII to make change for ration stamps. This clay colored one was used to buy meat. Amazing... another of those things I had not heard of and had never seen before. A note here.... the rationing stamps and points were not used as money... you still had to pay for whatever you bought. But if you ran out of stamps or points, you could not buy any more until the next month or whenever the next ration stamps were given out.


And the horn... well, that is a needlecase... handmade. And I love it. My naalbinding needles won't fit in it, but my other needles will.


Definite treasures all.....

It's Tuesday...

I finally finished a rough draft of the Spindling booklet I'm trying to put together for the class that I will be teaching at the Red River Museum Craft Saturday in March. I ran off a color copy and sent it to our son in Mesa, AZ to proof. Technical writing was one of his majors in college, so I'm sure it will return to me with at least a few red marks..lol

This class will be a beginner's class to learn to spin wool on a spindle. The class will put together a bottom whorl spindle just like the one in the picture so they will have an idea how to make their own. The actual spinning lesson will be with an Ashford top whorl beginner's spindle that I have purchased. There will be room for 14 in the class. Now that the booklet is almost finished, I am really getting excited about this class.

This is the embroidery work that I am doing for Hannah's quilt. I thought the blocks needed a bit of definition, so the red and green embroidery will be done on the seams, then there will be borders...then hopefully the backing and quilting. I have to hold myself back from really going all out... I have already considered painting the orange squares with little baby things...lol Or maybe doing ribbon roses... however... I think not..lol Perhaps on something for when she is older.. ;o)

Have I shown you my teapot bracelet? I just love it. It was ordered when we went to our daughter Bev's for Thanksgiving. She was hosting a jewelry party and taking early orders. As soon as I saw this I knew it was for me..lol Not that I have a thing for teapots, or anything like that... !!

My Favorite Things

I suppose everyone knows that I am a true lover of teapots and pitchers. I have Hall's teapots, funny teapots, collector's teapots, tourist teapots and teapots from other countries...but this one touches my heart somewhere deep inside that I can't explain...and it's not even a teapot...it's a pitcher... I found it in a thrift shop and gave all of $2.00 for it...

My Picture Puzzle

This is a picture that I took a couple of years ago. Jigzone has a place for you to put photos that will turn them into puzzles. This is one of mine..grin Click on the puzzle to work it..

First Spinning Lesson

Wow... It's hard to believe something so simple can make such a difference in how easy it is to spin! By changing the ratio, it suddenly became as if I had been doing it all my life. Love that. I had my first experience with a ball winder...gotta get me one of those. As a result, I found that it is quite easy to do a double ply instead of a triple ply and come out with 1/3 more yarn ... wow. Linda, of Yarn Again, was a wonderful teacher. Patient and encouraging, and laughs a lot. This was more like old friends getting together than a lesson. If you are ever in the McKinney, TX area, I would encourage you to stop in and visit.. Not only does she have hand spun yarn, roving, novelty yarn...but also hand woven scarves, shawls. She also gives weaving lessons...lol Ok..won't go there yet...grin

She also teaches how to knit socks...grin Guess what's next so I can use this new, smaller, double-plied yarn?

Yarn Again is located inside Morningstar Antiques on Louisiana St. Great place. Jim and Don went with us... what a wonderful day. DH, Jim and Don spent the hour plus that I was having my lesson wandering the antique shop. The lovely wedding teapot in the pic is my surprise gift from DH that I was unaware of until we got home... Isn't it lovely? We also found a couple of pieces of Hall's for my collection...

We had lunch at The Londoner ... wonderful English pub atmosphere with real fish and chips... then wandered the many, many antique shops around the square. Jim found a lovely, great condition treadle sewing machine...it now belongs to him..grin

A wonderful day....

I Found a Roving Source!

DH and I went with a wonderful friend to McKinney on Wednesday. The downtown area is chock full of lovely antique stores that we (of course!) could not resist wandering through. We had lunch in a wonderful English pub called The Londoner that sits right on the square of downtown... what a scrumptious lunch! And of course I forgot to take my camera... ughh

After lunch we decided to ask in one of the antique stores if they knew where a yarn shop was located.. The store owner was a lovely lady and pointed us to a store across the street where we found not only lots of wonderful roving and lovely yarn, but the Aladdin 12 cup teapot with the infuser...in pristine condition! And what a wonderful place!

The roving in the bowl is the Corriedale that I found in McKinney. How great it is to spin! Then yesterday the 5# of roving arrived that I had ordered from Halcyon Yarns.. looks like I will have plenty to do for a while..grin