August Monthly Box

Yeah.  August in October.  We’ve been having some fun and I kept saying, “Tomorrow, tomorrow…”.  Uh huh.  But I didn’t get this box out last year and I was at least going to get a few days out of this.  I’m contrary that way.  You can go to my January Box to see how I got started with my monthly boxes.

Another Marjolein Bastion creation. It has two matching mugs.  (My mother or BFF got me this, umm…)

Marjolein Bastion again. Yeah, I really like her stuff. Too bad I can’t remember who got me what with some of these.

Guess whose teapot? 😀 And my BFF did get me this one! It has two sides and supposedly 4 matching mugs. She could only find two.

Such a lovely teapot! It’s supposed to represent the four seasons.

Can you tell these mugs are well loved?

This is a cute single serve set by Price and Kensington. My Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law got this for me.

They know how I like gardening stuff.

Awesome lid! I love little details like this.

One candle holder for August. It was a clearance item.

The usual cabinet shot.

Today’s mug of the day. It’s a generous sized mug.

Hope you enjoyed the tea stuff!  Don’t blink too hard, September’s box will be up in the near future! 😀

July Monthly Box

Because of everything that has been going on I haven’t been posting my monthly box pictures.  In fact, I haven’t changed them out in several months.  But I did get July out a bit late and figured I should post it as a way to keep going.  So there will be August in August, you know?  Go to my January Box to see how I got started with my monthly boxes.

Tracy Porter the ‘Evelyn Collection’ “Embrace the Sweetness of Life!”  This was another teapot I spent clothes gift cards on.  Someday my mother will learn that clothes from certain stores will never fit me! 😀

These are the matching sugar bowl and creamer. So lovely!

Another Marjolein Bastin teapot. I love her work! This is one side…

And this is the other side! Isn’t it lovely!

There were two of these old Lipton teapots when we unpacked stuff from my Grandmother’s house. We couldn’t tell which one was my Grandmother’s and which was my Great Grandmother’s. So my mother and I each took one, but we have no idea who got what! 😀

My mother got me this. However, I’m thinking of passing it on.  I never use it ’cause it says not to put water over 200 degrees in it.  Water boils at 212 degrees.

This month’s candle holders. These lanterns do well outside ’cause they’re enclosed.

Tucked into the china cabinet!

The table slash work station. 🙂 And I think there is something going wrong with my camera. That computer does not have stripes!

One of the July mugs.  Yay, for the 4th of July!

Hope you enjoyed the tea stuff!  tea

Oooo, I Gotta Deal!

A local Hallmark store shut its doors here recently.  A very depressing circumstance.  This store has been in existence for as long as I can remember.  It was a small town staple.  With it gone, we’re left with Wal-Mart and Kmart for cards.  And trust me, the selection just isn’t the same.

I didn’t find out about the closing till the last two sale days, but I went to see what was left anyway. It was worth the trip.

A set of four lovely tea bag coasters and a gorgeous set of Hummingbird playing cards. A $30 value for $7! 

I may use one or two of the coasters on my bedside table to hold rings or something.  Don’t know yet.  And my daughter is already trying to talk me out of one of the card decks.  I don’t think so! 🙂

 

Christmas Tea Things (A Late But Very Short Post!) :)

Christmas was a rushed and bittersweet holiday this year.  November and December were spent dealing with two dying animals as well as all the holiday shtuff.  I had very little Christmas spirit this year.  The one real bright spot was the fact that Saver of Bugs managed to make it home for two days.  It was really nice to have her underfoot this year.

Because of my lack of spunk, I didn’t get the camera out and get pictures like I normally do.  So you’re not going to get the usual Christmas show.  However, as I was putting Christmas away (before February!) I managed to grab teapot pics. My Christmas teapots have never made the show before.  So here ya go!

Christmas mugs! Yes, they’ve been here before. But you need mugs for tea, right?

Cheerful Christmas teapots!

And I got a new teapot as a gift! It’s even prettier in person.

That’s it!  Now all I have to do is get the lights out of the windows and get my January Box out!

June Monthly Box (August week two)

Yes, I actually did remember to change out boxes last weekend.  I just didn’t sit down in time to do a post before midnight.  Night after night. Tonight I said, “The heck with it!” And I’m putting up a post even though it is already 11 pm.

I’m dealing with money issues, which stresses me out, so I haven’t been sleeping well.  And that means getting to sleep late and getting up late unrested and running like crazy through my evenings.  Ugh.  To add insult to injury, on my way home from delivering Spider Bait to an end of season barn party tonight, I hit a deer.  In the head.  I’m not sure if it was a really small deer or was coming up the bank on to the road. I didn’t see anything till I hit it. I knocked it off the road, that much I know, but it was too dark to see much.  And there was no way in hell I was stopping on that stretch of road in the dark.  I didn’t want to wind up like the deer.  So I drove the car to where there were lights and found out we will be spending more money on car repairs.  And our house and car insurance is due.  And school and property taxes.  I am not having much fun here at the moment.

And on that cheerful note, here are my June things minus, of course, all the mugs.

A Cracker Barrel purchase many moons ago. Hurray for Christmas cash!

I think I got this at Pier One. I fell in love with the purple glass. It’s a small lantern, maybe 6 inches high. Just big enough for a tealight. I like to put it on the end table of the couch so I can watch the light through the purple panes.

This serving for one was a gift from my Mother-in-law. I love that it has a saucer. It can be used with the cup or to hold a piece of cake.

A birthday money purchase from Target, I think. I have a thing for lanterns and I love this silver and pale blue combination. It’s about a foot high and looks better with a votive, even though inside it is set up for tealight. I just set a votive holder inside on top of the tealight holder.

See how tall it is? And, yes, I cleaned my table off again. Though it’s starting to look a little shabby with ‘stuff’ again 4 days on.

My mother went to Denmark one year to visit a friend and brought this back for me. A Danish teapot from a Danish manufacturer.

This is another Cracker Barrel purchase. It’s called ‘Blue Bliss’. The teapot set and the mug came separately. I’m sure you’ve seen the mug in my Mug of the Day spot. This is the teapot that goes with it. I keep the mug on my mug rack all year because it is one of my favorites.

And into the cupboard they go. I don’t remember if it was intentional or not, but this was definitely a ‘blue’ month! 🙂

And while I’m still working on making ‘me’ time a regular aspect of my day, I did manage to take time to make a cake.

Butter Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Mmmm. (Yeah, we hit that pretty hard the first day. 🙂 )

Ooooo, I might actually get this up -before- midnight!  Night, all!

 

 

May Monthly Box (in August, I know, I know)

So much for my posting in July.  While the Tour de France was utterly enjoyable (and crazy this year), it did complicate life a bit by taking a few hours out of every day.  This meant some things were neglected or handled sketchily.  Also during July, I had to get my son up and out on another bike trip to DC (a week).  And he was home for one week and then I had to pack up both him and The Husband for Boy Scout camp (both adult leaders). And that was another week.  They came home Sat. afternoon (July 26th) and Sunday night my nieces and nephews came for a week.  Can anyone say, “Dirty Laundry”? They left for home this morning. Oh, and let’s not forget the car repairs!  I was busy.

None of that explains the May box in August.  It was one of those, “I’ll get it tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…”  And now it’s August.  Part of the problem is I’m not using my tea stuff.  I’ve just been throwing tea into cups while I keep going.  I used to sit down every afternoon for a break.  I started doing this when the kids were little and I realized my melt down time was about the time they came home from school.  I had no interest in what was done at school or patience for their after school moodiness.  And so 3 o’clock became tea and snack time.  So I could deal with them sanely. And when they got home they needed a little pick me up to keep them sane till dinner.

There is no reason for me not to sit down and take a break.  Clearly running myself ragged and skipping ‘Me Stuff’ hasn’t improved anything or gotten massive bunches of extra stuff accomplished.  In fact, I think it has actually slowed me down.  It’s hard to focus and be energetic when you’re fried.  So it’s back to scheduling ‘Me Time’ every day.  And it will start tomorrow with a sleep-in day.  And I’ve put post-its on my calendar so that every weekend I will be changing out my boxes; not just to get caught up, but also as a weekly reminder to take some ‘Me Time’ every day.

This teapot goes with my dishes. “Flower Market” by Pfaltzgraff.

A faux seashell tealight holder from a friend.

Tea for one. I don’t remember how I came to have this one. But it has birds and flowers, so it is just right!

 

I got this on clearance many years ago. A cute little something for a table or shelf.

A cute little pot by Jan Karon. A Christmas gift.

A tealight lamp.

A gift from my BFF. A teapot by Marjolein Bastin.

My clean kitchen table!!! (This is a constant battle…)

Some of the mugs too big for the mug rack. And Spider Bait’s beer stein from Germany. And my jars of cookie cutters. And a pitcher I use as a vase…

And, of course, everybody in the cabinet!

 

April Box in April!

😀 Better late than never?  But at least I’m caught up with my monthly boxes. I even have an Easter Bunny teapot to show you!

My BFF got me this one year. I love the bee and the raised orchids.

Once upon a time there was a catalog that sold affordable cute teapots. Ahem. This was one of those pots. There used to be yellow on the pot and bright pink flowers and very green plants. And now we have a major fade of colors. I guess you get what you pay for.

This is the tea-cup that goes with the teapot.  The color is a little better here.

Another gift card purchase. On sale, of course!

Can you tell I love flowers? A Hallmark gift card purchase.

This is a jar candle holder from my BFF. Unfortunately I can no longer burn most scented candles and next to no jar candles. I have ‘chemical sensitivities’. Snort. I call them allergies!

Do you know, I have absolutely no idea how or when I got these? There are two!

A single serve Easter Bunny service! I bought this at Cracker Barrel one year.

The matching mug.

In the china cabinet!

I will leave you with one of April’s mugs. A gift when my daughter was born! Her birthday is the 30th.

 

March Box (Yep, I Got To It In March!)

Yes, I actually got to the March Box before March ended!  Hopefully, April will find me back on track.  Enjoy!  (For those of you who want to find out how my boxes got started, click here on The January Box.)

Here is a Marjolein Bastion tealight holder. I have two! Both my mums-in-law and my BFF got me this for Christmas the same year!

This was given to me by an older friend of mine many years ago. She left for Oregon to live with her daughter and take care of her grandkids. She is much missed.

This is adorable. But I can’t remember where or when I got it!

Another Marjolein Bastin creation. I can’t remember who got me this. Probably my BFF, but I also could have gotten it for myself. I love that the teapot is a watering can.

On the shelf. The bits and bobs on the bottom shelf are mostly keepsakes. Most of them mine, but some belong to my kids.

Ta Da! The first ‘big’ thing I knitted after I did a wash cloth or two were these placemats. Multicolored yarn was a mystery to me and I wound up with four very different placemats! Check out the front left place mat.

A bunny! My kids used to call it a ‘demon bunny’. Hey, Saver, do you remember why?

Here’s what it looked like after I put a bunch of stuff back on it. Plants I’m trying to save (orchids) and some given or purchased. The ice cream bucket has baby aquarium plants in it. Hey, that table’s pretty empty for around here!

I had some help taking pictures.

I made myself a treat. Anadama muffins! Mmm, Mmm good!

Mug of the Day

A springtime mug!

Time to wrap this up.  It’s midnight already!  Sheesh!

February Box (A Couple of Days Late :) )

So it was a busy weekend and I didn’t get the boxes swapped out on the 28th.  But I shall persevere!  Here are some pics:

A single serve pot that was supposed to be clothes! 🙂

This pot was a gift from my BFF. There are 2 pretty mugs that go with it that stay out on my mug rack all year. 

I got these at Cracker Barrel some years ago.

This teapot belonged to my maternal Grandmother.

A tealight, one of two, from my mother-in-law.

Tealight number two.

In the dark.

The table before some of my junk got put back on. Those are Himalayan Salt Crystal – tealight holders. Two are mine and one is Saver’s. Got these REALLY cheap at Rite Aid after Christmas one year.

In the dark!

These two covered mugs won’t fit on my rack so they sit on top the fridge. The one on the left is from my BFF and the one on the right is from my mother-in-law.

In two weeks I’ll get March out and I’ll be caught up!

 

January Box (Oh, yeah, that’s late)

My Monthly Boxes

So what’s in my monthly boxes?  Teapots, mugs, candle holders, some candles, and sometimes decorations.  Over the years I’ve acquired way too many to fit into the kitchen and china cabinet.  Some wound up in the basement not even used.  (No teapot, mug, or tea-cup comes into this house unless it can be used.) What to do?  I didn’t want to get rid of them, too many fond memories.  And I do enjoy my candles and tea.

Well, one of the things I have learned over the years with animals is to divide their toys into groups and switch them out every week or every other week to help keep them interested.  As I was trying to figure out how to make this work for my stuff, I ‘found’ one of my favorite books called Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions – Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  In it she discusses seasonal ‘tablescapes’ and The Seasonal Tree.  Yes!  Only instead of dividing my stuff up by seasons, I would divide mine up by the month so as to rotate all my teapots through and only have them in the china cabinet instead of all over the place.

I should note that my china cabinet isn’t used the traditional way.  It’s a hold over from a large house we used to live in.  The whole dining room set came with the house.  It’s old but wonderful and I used it for storage in the livingroom (this house is so damn small) till I decided to put teapots, cups, teapot books, and keepsake stuff on the shelves.  The cupboards below still have games and puzzles in them.

The past few years have not been fun and I didn’t keep up with the boxes.  So last year I brought everything upstairs (the monthly boxes live in the basement) and resorted and added the new stuff.  Then life went to heck last spring and I didn’t give a rat’s backside about changing out my stuff.  (I did do a couple this fall.) Well, it’s the New Year; but I’m always reluctant to let go of Christmas and didn’t get the last of it put away till Candlemas Day (Feb.2).

Sooooo, I’m getting January out for 2 weeks.  And then February out for 2 weeks. And then March will finish off, well, March.  No, I am NOT going to skip a month!  It’ll be another year before I see these pots ‘n stuff again.  So here are some pics:

My table before I threw my ‘junk’ back on it. The snowflake boxes are votive holders.

A gift candle I’m thinking of swapping out with the snowflake boxes on the table.

Some snowflake stickies I threw on the livingroom window. Excuse the angle, but the first picture head on had me reflected quite clearly in the window. In my underwear.  🙂

These teapots stay in the cabinet all year. They are color neutral and small. Only 2 mugs full. The white one is a teacart. I bought it for myself with Christmas cheer one year that was supposed to be used for clothes. 🙂  (It’s really hard to find clothes to fit me and I get disgusted with clothes shopping.)  The glass one is from my BFF. It came with ‘flower’ teas. You dropped the tea ‘ball’ into the pot and the ball turned into a flower. Really cool.

These are also staples. They are both from my mother. The one in the front is a table with flowers.

A January teapot. A single serve ‘Egg’ teapot by Marjolein Bastion. From my BFF.

Sweet chickadee! From my BFF.

This has a sugar bowl and creamer with it that I totally forgot to take a picture of! 🙂 This, too, was supposed to be clothes. I have mugs from this set that you’ve seen before on my Mug of the Day pictures.

All together now!

A cheerful tealight holder. You can’t help but smile back!

I also wound up with too many mugs for my mug rack.  So there are January mugs too!

These are wee kid size mugs. Their lids are an open book. You can see one on the right. I found these with a teapot, but I hate paying full price and waited till after Christmas one year to get them. Alas, no more teapots so just the mugs came home. The kids got a kick out of them. I put them up on top my fridge. (Which is freshly cleaned and decluttered!)

Mug of the Day

So here’s my first ‘January’ mug. Isn’t he handsome? The perfect size for a healthy cup of tea!

So that’s my January Box.  Two, now, actually.  In 2 weeks it’ll be time for the  February Box! 🙂