Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas to all my sweet friends! Hope you share all the joy in your heart with everyone you meet! A Baby changed everything.

Tea Tree

My family always knows it is that time of

year when they see me dragging the black

bags up the stairs (groans from the background)

I have 3 trees that stay decorated and this
is my favorite!

This is my tea cup/teapot tree

It sits in my alcove on an antique table.

It is cold in that room in the winter so

I don't get to have my tea in there as

often as I would like; this tree stays up

until February.

A Merry Christmas To All!

My collection of nutcrackers waiting for friends

to arrive
Table set and ready for guests!

Wish you could have been here to share a cup of
tea with me!

What a wonderful teaparty we had at my house this weekend!

May your cup always be full of love and kindness.

Have a beautiful Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Turkey Day to all my wonderful blogging buddies! I hope your day is all warm and fuzzy with lots of family, friends, great food and your favorite cup of tea!

God Bless,

Brownie tea party

A Tea-party for 12 Little Brownies
Trying tea for the 1st time.

What a beautiful party hat!
They each decorated a sweet cupcake
and made a fun craft!

Waiting for all the friends to arrive

Before the party began!

This was the place-setting (including a purse party favor with

a pop up candy bar inside!

swapped white box

Hi all! Last night we had our quilt meeting with our (round robin) white boxes in hand and ready to swap. Everyone placed their box on the table open, so we all could get a peek at everyone's block (picture to your right). Wow, some of those blocks were awesome! I did a Christmas/snowman block (picture at your left). Even though I won't get it back until March it will get a lot of use in the years to come. I am so excited and will keep you updated. Oh yeah, did I mention the white box I picked up held inside a beautiful star block? Now I have to figure out what I want to add to this already perfect block; hmmm...what to do?

How nice it is to come home from a crazy day, check the mail and find a sweet little package in the mail box waiting for me! Thank you Lisa "my blogging friend" what a wonderful surprise to find so many fun things inside! Can't wait to try some pumpkin spice tea. That was so sweet of you! You did not even know that it came on my birthday!

It is FALL!

Well today is the first day of fall. It starts officially here in my neck of the woods at 5:59 today. This has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember. As a kid, we couldn't wait to carve pumpkins and make scarecrows that would sit on the front porch or in the front yard; my favorites were those with the pumpkin heads. Jumping in the leaves was a big deal too! When we lived in Texas, I missed the changing leaves, but they still had the fall spirit!

The wooden scarecrow in my picture came from a friend in Texas. He is one of my favorite fall decorations! I have pulled out my pumpkin recipes and I am in a Teaparty mood! I've been looking for Pumpkin Spice Tea but have not found any yet.

I am looking forward to sharing my fall recipes and Teaparties with all of you, thanks for all the wonderful comments and kind words you have shared with me!

Blessings

I am not the only one

Oh what a day today! I am glad it is over! Thanks for all the nice comments about my round robin, I will be showing pics soon of the 1st part of the 12 inch block.  I wanted to share something that my family (all male) thought was funny; last summer I found a sewing dress form (mannequin) at a yard sale for $5.00 yes $5.00. I was so excited when I saw it! We had just bought the house we live in now and I was looking for items to furnish my new (happy space) sewing/scrapbooking room. I only had $40 to spend TOTAL, of course I painted everthing with a coat of white paint. Anyway, I found this manaquin and dragged it to my car.  She now has her own place by the window; I call her Manny - for obvious reasons! (I know creative huh?) LOL.  She somehow has acquired a couple of outfits and my kids think it is strange for me to "dress it," but as I was blog-hopping this week I came across 11 dress forms (mannequins) on other people's blogs! Everytime I  saw one (all different, all dressed in some sort of clothing) I started to chuckle, I yelled to my kids, "hey I am not the only one!" I thought I would share a  picture of her here. If you have a (Manny) story let me know. Have a GREAT day!  

Quilting Round Robin

After what feels like a short summer, we are all trying to get back into our fall (school) routine.  We had our much anticipated first Kindred Kwilter's group meeting at our church that meets once a month (we don't meet over the summer). Not everyone that comes attends our church, so it was really great to see everyone together again. What was really funny was how everyone was so interested in a pile of plain white small boxes (they looked like pizza boxes). Of course we were not allowed to pick them up and look in them (shhh... it was a secret!) Every year we do a new project for ourselves and an outreach or mission project. Our only ongoing project  we do all year long is making baby quilts; our group makes baby quilts for all the new baby's that are born to church members. So 25 to 30 ladies continually make baby quilts all year to keep up with the demand (we have 800 members at our Church, that means a lot of babies!)       

Have you ever heard of a Round Robin? Well I had heard of one but never was involved in one... until now! I am so excited! Let me tell you how ours is going to work... this is a quilting Round Robin and every quilt group has their own rules.  Our quilt group is doing a very simple round robin for our 1st one as a group.

Each person will make a 12 inch block of their own choosing. You place it in your white box (the mystery white pizza box with instructions and a place to put your name glued inside), then at the Oct. meeting everyone will place their box on the assigned table. At the end of the meeting you will pick up a box (not your own) on your way out- the fun part is you don't know who has your box! The next person will add some kind of borders to your block. Then in November, you will do the same thing. This will continue until February, and in March you will get your own box back; what a surprise it will be! You never know what you will find in the bag attached to your box (by then it will not fit in the box!) I just love this idea! I will post pics of my block when I get it done, then pics when I get it back in March. Can't wait! 

Fall is almost here

Can't believe that Labor Day weekend is over already!  We had a wonderful time with my inlaws! We ate too much good food while sharing a lot of joy!  Hope to get together again soon.

Fall is almost here, need to get the rest of my decorations put out; of course I have already put my fall teapot on the buffet ready for any surprise guests that may wander in!  Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

Blessing's,

Love Yard Sales!

Here is a sweet little treasure my friend Linda found for me at a yard sale last weekend. And the best part.... a $2.00 bargain! It is so cute!!

I love getting together with creative friends! This past February, our quilt group Kindred Kwilters got together in Tecumseh MI for our annual quilt retreat. We made a table runner with pinwheels as the focus, so pinwheels became the theme of the entire weekend. We had so much fun! A visit to the British Tea Room was the highlight of the weekend for me; the entire upstairs was reserved for our group of 25. We made our own table arrangements with the pinwheels theme in mind. We also provided some fun party favors for everyone and the food was wonderful! A great time was had by everyone!

Welcome to My Cup of Tea!

I am so happy to be launching My Cup of Tea, Tea~Parties! This has been the plan for many years, and because I have been unemployed outside the home for awhile now, this seems to be the best time! I know the economy is not good (believe me) but we all still have birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers and special times with our friends.

We need to cherish those special moments as often as possible and I would love to help you with that! I have been crazy for tea as long as I can remember, and collecting anything that has to do with tea has become an obsession -(much to my family's dismay! LOL). Old doilies, tablecloths, teacups, teapots...oh so many things and not enough space!

Someday I hope to own a sweet little Tea Room here in our cute little town where I can share all my treasures and joy with everyone! I pray one day the Lord will provide a way for that to happen.

Thank you for visiting me; I'm looking forward to planning a Tea Party just for you!

Visit our cozy home

Well, hello my friends! This is to let everyone know to visit http://www.ourcozyhouse.blogspot.com/ to learn about the family stuff! Please visit this blog to because great stuff will be here also! Thanks for all your imput and interest!
God Bless!
Donna

Changes to come

Hello my friends! This is just an update to let you know this blogspot will become my business blog very soon and I will be posting a new blogspot address for our family blog, please feel free to visit both! I am excited to be posting lots of pics and info! Please be praying for my new business venture it is something I have wanted to do for the last 15 years. Check back soon to see the new changes. Thanks for all your support!

Summer flying by!

Wow it has been a while! So sorry for the delay, let's see I went to Florida came home for 2 days cleaned my house after being gone for 12 days with boys being home for most of that time, then waited for my moms movers to come, my mom, step dad and my two nieces 7 and 11 have moved 2 streets over, it is such a blessing to have family around (after 13 years) now that my mom and family are almost unpacked we will be going on vacation soon, this summer has flown by already! In the mist of all of this I have been working on my new business, soon My Cup Of Tea will proudly present "Tea par~teas for young ladies" more information later. Very exciting!
Check back with you later. Have a great week!

My Backyard

I was out working in the yard this week and thought I would share some of the springtime flowers blooming in my yard, I am reminded again and again by the power of God, how he provides for every living breathing creature on our planet. I know sometimes we may think God has forgotten us but if you look outside at all the beautiful flowers and trees that have had to endure the bitter winter wind and freezing temperature's patiently waiting for the winter season to be over so they could bask in the glorious sunshine once again. I think that is how life is, sometimes we just have to wait for our season to burst forth and bloom again.
Have a Great Mothers Day!

SPRING~SPRING

Wow! What a beautiful day today! It is 70, sunny and my daffodils are blooming! Yippeee! We are on our way to a wonderful spring! Hope everyone is healthy and happy!
This weather always puts me in the mood for a party so I have been thinking about having a spring tea party and have been pouring over cookbooks and web-sites looking for new and wonderful tea-party delectable's, if any of you have a favorite you would like to share please leave me a comment and let me know, I love to try new things especially when it has to do with a tea-party! I don't know if any of you have been to the Sweet Shalom Tea Room in Sylvania Ohio, if not, you should go! Last spring my friend Michelle treated me to a wonderful afternoon of Tea, savories and wonderful desserts not to mention great conversation! We had such a nice time! I would really love to go back soon!
My son Brandon turns 17 this week, so hard to believe he is that old! No wonder all my bones are aching and I need to dye my hair more often!

March Madness is ending......

What a stinky week this has been! I just can't seem to kick this sickness going around our house, I am now on my 3rd round of it and hopefully the last! Tonight it is snowing and very windy not to mention it is cold.....snif...snif all adding to my misery. Ok just needed to whine a little now I am better! LOL. This week I am working on a scrapbook for someone else, which is good because it will be done soon and then i can work on my own.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week and stays well.

March Madness

Wow, spring has kinda sprung! So many things going on, everyone is working really hard not to let life pass by with unnoticed moments. We are about to move into a new stage of life, with 2 teenage drivers and family moving close to us, things are about to move into tornado stage! LOL
You should be prepared for some weird posts! Right now I must remember God is in control!
I am going to try hard to post more often, I really do have a lot to say!
Thanks for reading!

Finished Projects

Just this week I came across a really cute project I would love to tackle but I have made a decision; I MUST finish the things I have already started, so with that said here are 2 punchneedle projects that needed to be framed. They turned out really nice. This has been a really busy couple of weeks at my house. I am so glad that huge snow mound in my front yard has melted away, I know there is a possibility of more to come!

Whoo Hoooo February (spring is close!)

Today is February 1st, a new month with lots of things to do! My husbands Birthday is this month the (13th) no heart cake for him! He prefers round, when he was growing up all he ever had was a heart shaped cake LOL, so we try to make him a different shape with a little heart....somewhere in it or on it. Our ladies bible study started Tuesday and will end in March, I think we have around 60 ladies between morning and evening group; it is called Enjoy by: Tianne Moon, a thirst quenching look at Philippians, so far so good!
Our quilt retreat is at the end of this month, I cant wait, but I don't want the month to go to fast dose that make any sense? Leave a comment this month and let me know what projects you have on your plate. I would love to know what is happening with all of you!
Oh by the way, my friend Lisa made my new blog backround for me, I think it is so cute! Way to go Lisa!

Cards & Stuff

Wow, January is going fast! It reminds me that spring is right around the corner! Think Spring- Think Spring! LOL! I am looking forward to planning and planting my little herb garden. Just waiting for my new seed catalogs.
February 14th, Valentines Day is also my 6th year anniversary working with Close To My Heart (selling stamping and scrapbooking supplies) It has been something I love doing and I am looking forward to holding some new workshops this year. Just for fun I have posted some of the cards from workshops I have done over the years.

My son bought a new printer/scanner so I have been learning how to use it we are having fun!

Creative Fun!

I love being creative, here is a picture of a punchneedle project I did last year, think of it as a mini rug! You punch into what is called weavers cloth from the pattern printed side of the fabric (backside) with a special needle called a punchneedle you use different sized needles that punch with 2,3 or 4 strands of thread. This is so cool because it is like coloring inside the lines with thread, your project is finished really fast! I have made and given away many of these little projects, this is the only one I kept for myself. If you have any questions about it or would like to learn how to do this, I would be more than happy to teach you just leave a comment or e-mail me. It is really EASY!

Welcome to 'My Happy Space'

Hello Everyone! Here are some pictures of my work room as I call it my "Happy Space." I sat down the other day to figure out how much I spent in the last year making my space"happy" and I spent a whoppin $35.00 Whoo hooo! Not including the shelves on the wall, a gallon of white paint and my Volkswagon that was put together in the room (that was a gift from my hubby.) The paper rack I bulit out of metal cubes. The rest of the stuff came from yard sales, gifts from friends, Goodwill, Salvation Army or treasure finding on the side of the road, (trash day) my personal favorite (much to my husbands dismay!) I have yet to share this room with my Texas friends, and I am glad to have a place to share it with everyone.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Wow 2009 is here, I can not believe it! I pray we have a fantastic year to come, we will have a lot of changes this year; my mom will be moving here to our little city, Brandon will be 17, Marshal will be 16 (yes 2 teenage drivers!) I do not look forward to that. More painting will go on in the house and maybe some work on the bathroom downstairs.
I would love to finish 4 quilts(Christmas gifts for next year) in 2009 and at least 8 punchneedle projects (also gifts). But we all know how it is; real life gets away from us and before you know it, it will be 2010! I pray all of you will have a wonderful year this year and make sure you have a lot fun too!