Tea Time Tuesday , From My Sister!

My sister Joni travels a lot and when she is in towns that hold special family significance she often picks up a souvenir. When she was in Minnesota she decided to travel to Little Falls to see the town that was part of our Mother's heritage.She stopped at an antiques & collectibles shop and bought me this teacup! Thank-you Joni. On this day I picked some grapes from our vines and served myself a piece of Black Walnut Pound-cake I baked using a recipe from blogging friend Mildred. ( delicious!) I made a pot of Red Rose tea and took some time to catch up on some reading.

Mikasa Bone China~ Chippendale.

During this week of Thanksgiving I am hoping you remember all the many blessings you have , no matter your circumstance, there must be some blessings! I am thankful for my family, for sisters, children, grandchildren. I am thankful for my dear husband, for a home and food to eat. I am thankful for my God, and that He showers His blessings on the just and the unjust, that His love for me is unconditional.I could go on & on but you get the picture. Happy Thanksgiving to you ! ~"You say "if I had a little more I should be satisfied'; You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled." Charles Spurgeon ~"In everything give thanks.." I Thess.5:18

Visit the ladies below to see more things Tea!

• Terri ~Artful Affirmations*
• Martha ~ Martha's Favorites*
• Lady Katherine ~ Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor*
• Wanda Lee ~ The Silken Purse*
• Sandi ~ Rose Chintz Cottage*
• Pam~ Breath Of fresh Air*

Spot on Torquay Pottery ~Accidental Collection

This is a post about accidental collections. Yes, accidental. I never set out to collect Torquay pottery. We were given a few pieces of this pottery . A beloved Great Aunt of my husband's thought we would like it. She never said much more about it than that she bought it on one of her tours to England. I thought it was cute and kept it safe in a cupboard for a time when our kids were growing up. On a trip back from a visit to family in Oregon my sister Joni and I stopped at a garage sale in a very small, by-the-way town. The garage sale was one of those many would pass by quickly. Lots of plastic stuff , lots of junk. However, against my better judgment my sister encouraged us to stop and lo and behold, there was a piece of Torquay pottery for sale~ 75 cents! I knew enough to know this was a good deal! Joni paid for it and gave it to me. ( What can I say, I had no change on me at the time!) Joni began collecting Torquay pottery and later sold me her collection. So you can say this is an accidental collection. A happy , cheerful little accidental collection! Thanks Joni and Aunt Marion! Each piece of pottery has a little motto , or saying on it. Hence it's other name "motto ware". "The Devon Motto Ware is by far the most popular of the Torquay wares in the united States and Canada." ....The patterns, quaint rhymes and proverbs have attracted public attention in the twentieth century and still into the twenty-first century the pottery continues to delight visitors seeking souvenir items." "early Motto Ware carried inscriptions written in normal English but later on an exaggerated Devonshire dialect was adopted to appeal to the tourist trade. Motto Ware got the reputation as being the "bread and butter" of the Devon ( England) pottery industry. Each piece is unique in its' own way even though many bear the same decoration, because each is "custom made" being hand-made and hand-decorated." Torquay Pottery by Gerry Kline

Happy Birthday Joni~

My younger sister, well, all my sisters are younger than me, and taller- my younger sister Joni had a birthday yesterday and to celebrate it 3 of us girls got together for lunch in my home. Our youngest sister is in New York . We miss you baby sister! If you want to laugh til you cry just hang around these ladies. I kid you not, I am the "straight man" in the foursome, they are so funny. I always feel like I am several steps behind them as the jokes and pranks are speeding by, or over my head. I eventually catch on, but by then they are several funnies ahead. At this rate though, if we have the privilege of spending many more birthdays together we will have to wear some Depends because of all the laughing. Here is Joni holding up her new birthday girl goblet ( I get mine on my next birthday) and my kitten Ralphie. Joni is a cat lover and wants a cat very badly. She loves her husband way too much to inflict a cat on him, so to make him happy because she loves him Joni will enjoy my cat when she is here. So, happy, happy birthday sister, I love you!"Family faces are magic mirrors looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future." Gail Buckley

On a totally different note, please check out Debbie's blog, Of His Pasture, and read a post that will make you think.*

Snakes, Professional Rest Stops, and Mary Poppins

~My baby sister Tricia is taking pictures of us at the bowling alley in Ocean Shores. They have Rock n' Roll night with flashing lights, fog, and music. The fun begins at 10:00 p.m. It is a small bowling alley and we were all wearing the shirts our sister Joni bought for us....the shirts say 'group therapy' and have 3 wine glasses on the front..the shirts are pretty and sparkly.See ? ( below ) ~Sister Tricia is in pretty good spirits even though she is terrified of snakes and creepy crawlies, even PLASTIC creepy crawlies, and that 2 of my sisters were continually leaving the creepy crawlies in various places to startle Tricia and entertain us no end as she shrieked and screamed off and on throughout our weekend. At the bowling alley she was surprised to find the little snake in various places she stuck her hands into...bowling balls, purses, poor sister. ~We ( meaning especially me ) did not bowl well. I realized quite soon that a prior bowling adventure with my grandson might just have been the beginning of my back problem as my back began to get the painful twinges very soon after the first few frames of bowling. My 2 youngest sisters also said they think their bowling days are behind them as they began to suffer. Ahh, all 4 of us are a scant few years older or younger than half a century, leave it to a bit of bowling to make this very clear. ~I taught my sisters how to locker hook ( above) and they caught on quickly. Our youngest sister gave us pedicures. We played board games and talked. We sang a lot of the old family songs we sang together as we grew up. Songs our dad would strum on his guitar with us, songs that were popular as we grew up, songs on albums played over and over. ~Here ( above ) are sisters Karen and Tricia at our stop at a "professional rest stop" ! Those are Karen's very words. Now what is a professional rest stop you might ask, or not ? Why, a PROFESSIONAL REST STOP is NOT a Shell gas station rest room with an outside entrance.Yup, that's right. Karen announced it was time for a stop at a rest room on our way to Ocean Shores and sister Joni, very familiar with the whole route directed us to this stop. Clean, convenient, on the way...as we pulled in to the gas station sister Karen was adamant this was NOT a " professional rest stop" and that she wanted to drive on until she found one. I have never heard this term before and will always use it from now on. Anyway, the picture above was taken at such a place on our drive home. While Karen and Tricia were taking a break sister Joni pulled the last creepy crawlie stunt. ~Take one plastic snake and insert it into the malt balls carton sister Tricia was eating out of prior to stopping. Then place the candy carton back in the front seat. Then pause and reflect that if she finds the snake while Karen is driving and reacts predictably, we four sisters just might find ourselves careening off the freeway into oncoming traffic or worse...so , revise plan. Inform sister Karen, before driving away, that we have a trick to pull on Tricia. Tricia gets into the car and we ask for some malt balls in the back seat. She tips the carton, sees the snake, literally hits the roof as she screams and then she jerks sideways while screaming. Ha ha. And yes, if we had been driving when she discovered the snake we would have probably had an accident. ~After this stunt, we assure Tricia there will be no more snake appearances. ( I mean , she has found the snake in her bed, purse, toilet, all kinds of places the whole weekend) I put the snake in my purse to return to my grandchildren. And Tricia, if there were any more snake events...my snake is innocent ! ~This video was taken as we all were singing the Mary Poppins songs we realized we all 4 remembered and were singing. I could have titled this " This Is What Happens When you Have Mimosas For Breakfast", but the truth is, no alcohol consumption is necessary for having a good time with my sisters. Thanks sisters. " Sisters are part of the treasures of life " I had a wonderful time this weekend and a treasure trove of memories !

Spot on Sisters' Re-union

~The day finally arrived ! It has been many years since all my sisters and myself have been together. Three of us live here in Washington, but our baby sister flew here from New York. From left ( youngest ) to right ( oldest ), sister Tricia, sister Joni, sister Karen, myself, the OLDEST!We are at the home of my daughter A.Joy, and un-beknownst to us, my grandchildren hid plastic bugs, spiders and snakes in and amongst the car and our things. This set the scene for some exciting times on our reunion get away!

~We arrived in Ocean Shores, but before we checked into our penthouse suite, we decided to stock up on groceries for the weekend.~

~If there had been music we could have arranged a shopping cart dance in the grocery store !~

~We ate well and enjoyed the sunset on the ocean horizon.~

~The next morning sister Joni had the staff cleaning lady take our picture in our p.j.'s !~

~Tomorrow, The Rest of the Story!~

Blessings : good times with sisters, sunsets and sunrises, sisters