staying in

 it's been rainy and gray outdoors

and a good day to stay in

one of my birthday gifts was a stack of hexagon quilt squares

made from vintage fabrics and handstitched

... they were just waiting for me to come along

I've set aside some of the squares that aren't being included in a mini quilt I'm working on

 they make darling little mug rugs

- the perfect thing to work on when it's so dreary outdoors -

making rainbows in spite of the weather

:)

the "pause that refreshes"

no tea today

:)

I'm going to be taking a blog break for a little while

summer life with my family is taking up all of my time

*

I'll post my photos here and there

(like I've been doing)

but the next 2 weeks look totally crazy

I'll also make the rounds and visit folks

... my favorite late night wind down activity :)

*

here's a beautiful song I wanted to share
it's only 3 minutes - you'll be glad you took the time - sip your tea and listen along:

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
-William Shakespeare

playing with skeleton leaves

earlier this week I showed you the skeleton leaves 

which were very kindly sent to me from Bridget

some were curled

and some were pressed

I decide to press the curled ones

and it was very easy to do that with a hot iron

(the one I use for paper making - badly stained and designated for messy jobs)

after pressing them with the iron

I painted them

and then I mod-podged them to tea bag paper

(mod-podge is a decoupage acrylic goopy sort of gluey product)

I am loving how they turned out

one thing just led to another

with no real plan in mind

so what will these finally become?

I have no idea

but I'm having fun

:)

working tea

 except

in my case

"work" is always play

a lovely and sweet commenter sent me these amazing skeleton leaves

(all the way from Florida!)

the kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me

 it is because of inspiration like this that my work becomes play

beautiful found objects:

smooth stones

miracle leaves

rusted metal found in a creek bed

*

special thanks to Bridget in Florida

a gift in return is my humble thanks for your thoughtfulness

that is my work for today

:)

*

I am on "island time" this summer

... late for tea again!

the jackpot

I'm always on the hunt for beach glass

and while on a family outing today we found a bonanza of it

(it helps to have extra eyes on the lookout)

bonanza 

noun 

1. a source, usually sudden and unexpected, of luck or wealth 

2. (Mining & Quarrying) US and Canadian a mine or vein rich in ore 

[from Spanish, literally: calm sea, hence, good luck, from Medieval Latin bonacia, from Latin bonus good+malacia dead calm, from Greek malakia softness] 

beach glass and pottery shards

about a pound of it

wow!

cities on the water have old dump sites where the glass and pottery is plentiful

years of tumbling among the stones wear them down

and this fella could have cared less

:)

he's just happy to have a sunny day

sharing ...

... can be as simple as passing along an idea

Tracey Fletcher King is now drying her teabags on the windowsill (just like me!) all because I shared an idea with her ... she says, "spent all day following Matt and Phoebe around and nabbing their teabags before they went anywhere.... the ledge in the kitchen is looking like the teabag graveyard...xx"

and that's all the way in Australia!

... and sharing can be as involved as sending a package international mail ...

just because I mentioned to Nancy (Bits By Nancy)

that she had quite a find there with her antique buttons and really cool garters 

... she sent me some!!!

and that was all the way from Canada!

I know

Canada is not that far 

but getting our postal systems to work together harmoniously 

makes it feel like it's the other side of the world

... and she included some Exotica Tea in this really neat handmade teabag style gift pouch ...

sharing a great idea that I will definitely repeat!

it looks really really special

I'll be having some after dinner

lemon grass and citrus peels and peppercorns

Thank you Nancy!!!

*

... and thank YOU so much for stopping by today ...

it's ALWAYS fun to share tea time with you

:)

how the wine bottles turned out

you may have read my post last week about my glass adventure

now that Mother's Day is past, 

I can show the results

(these were gifts)

*

these are the bottles before firing:

(left) balsamic vinegar bottle           (center) bacardi rum bottle                 (right) run of the mill wine bottle

 *

the process 

(known as "slumping) 

involves heating the glass bottle in a kiln up to 1400 degrees

and then gradually bringing the temperature back down

doing this flattens the bottle nicely:

(left) balsamic vinegar bottle                              (center) wine bottle                              (right) rum bottle

 *

the fun part was decorating them:

*

for the rum bottle, I decoupaged the reverse side with a postcard image and old book text 

then I added the faux sailor knot around the top:

*

for the wine bottle and the vinegar bottle,

I added copper wire and beads around the bottle neck

and I also wire wrapped a cheese knife

the wine bottle makes a perfect cheese plate:

if this looks like fun to you,

look for local ceramic or stained glass shops

sometimes the "paint your own" ceramics places have classes just for this

it's fun - and makes a great gift!

vintage mahjong set

my Dad gave me this mahjong set that belonged to his grandfather

he knew I would love it

... yup ...

it probably dates from the 1920's

the tiles are ivory and bamboo

and is a nearly complete set (missing only the dragon tiles)

but, the front panel of the cabinet is gone ...

... what's a girl to do?

why, make one of course!

I embossed a piece of thin gauge metal

and added a photo of autumn dahlias from our garden

a little gesso adds some aging texture

I couldn't be happier

... and ...

a book about mahjong is on the way from amazon

sweet tea

my daughter's tea:

well, it's actually hot cocoa

(and Trix cereal)

I know .... lots of sugar

*

but here is more sweetness:

(above) an unexpected gift from Pat at Ooglebloops ... tea bag papers from around the world, a beautiful photo card of her own creation, and her really cool bricolage calling card ... thank you Pat!

*

(below) and a soap swap with Yvonne at Inkspiller's Attic ... she convinced me that making soap was not hard if you follow the directions, so when I told her I tried it, we swapped a couple of bars. Hers is made with Texas Rainwater and essential oils  .... I wish you could smell it! It's  amazing! And the packaging is of her own beautiful paintings ... thank you Yvonne!

*

what is sweet in your day today?

I hope it's more than just tea

:)

xoxo

geeky gift

if you've been reading my blog for a while

you know that I have a special love for matchboxes

and a while back I found an entire flickr pool devoted to "matchbox stuffing"

what a great gift for that geek you know

:)

my etsy listings:

flowers - matchbox treasure

winter dreams - matchbox treasure

***

and because I know you're a do-it-yourselfer

take this idea and run with it

I know you can

:)

now I can show it

the birthday present for my sister, that is

it's about 7 X 11 inches

the base is an old book cover

and I added lots of layers of collage,

gesso, pen, paint, oil pastel, jewels, etc.

I centered it around a vintage advertisement for a washing machine

and as I was working, a story was taking shape in my head

my sister loves retro, vintage, fun, quirky stuff

so I was thinking of her the whole time I was making this

it has her personality all over it

especially the crowns

here is the story:

of course, I used my new typewriter :)

the story is glued to the back of the piece

... all of it just for fun ...

tea and gifts

it's funny cuz I played in a chain e-mail a little over a week ago

it was called "moneybags"

it promised that if you forwarded the e-mail, in four days you would get all kinds of moolah oolah

I may have even sent that e-mail to you

:)

carefully packaged handmade goodies

well, I DID win Becca's giveaway on her blog

lavender sachets

(and I also won a raffle at the type-in last weekend)

mini-tart pincushion

some things are better than money

sweet tag and lace crochet

like handmade, beautiful and thoughtful gifts

:)

thank you Becca!!!

* * *

if you play tea on tuesday, I can't promise any "moneybags,"

but I can promise you will make some new friends :)

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