TEA CUP TUESDAY NO. 5!

Hi Ladies! Ok, it is Tea Cup Tuesday and time to party. My sweet friend Terri, just sent me the code for Mr. Linky. You know what to do, simply add your name to Mr. Linky and party on! There is lots of tea cups to see. Please say a pray for Terri. I know she has not been well. Please don't forget to visit her first at http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/, she is the best. Get to know her, you will love her like I do.

With that said, I am still in the green mode. My first tea cup is new. I purchased this one off Ebay last week. After I saw all the Paragon tea cups you shared last week. I just had to get one. It was only $4.95 and it is a beautiful mint color. Just love the rose in the middle. I have to behave myself this week, no coveting. Isn't coveting a sin? On Holy Week no less!

The second cup is a demitasse. It is Bavaria and all hand painted. It is so dainty and pretty. It too, is mint green with little pink roses. The last demitasse cup is also Bavaria. It features three ladies in a yard setting. You know I just love things with ladies, so this one really caught my eye. These two cups I have had for years. This last one. with the ladies, is a olive green color. A favorite because of the design.

So, Ladies, I want to thank you for playing and sharing your favorite tea cups. Please tell your friends, I would love to have so many people playing that it takes two days to look at all the tea cups and read your great stories.

I will be picking a winner for the Susan Rios book this week. So comment away!

I also want to thank you for your continued prayers. My family also needs a miracle. Remember this, there has to be a death for a resurrection! Blessings to you. Martha

Making Crowns on Palm Sunday.

Hi Ladies: Hope you are all have a good Sunday. I worked on the Crown most of the day today. I promised to show you how to make one yourself. This one is for my church. It is going to sit on the Cross on Easter Sunday. I may add some more jewels, but for now it is finished! Hope you can figure it out. If not just email me and I will help you.

1. Step one is to make a pattern. I used one that I found at Michael's and just
traced it. You can get a Burger King's Crown, it would have worked perfect. I had
this beautiful brown and gold paper. I need a man's looking crown so I think this
paper works good. You need to cut two, a front and back.





2. Step two is cut out the center of a gold paper doily. I am going to use this as the back ground for the jewel I pick for the center piece. I will use smaller circle of the same doily for frames around some rhinestones.



3. Step three is to glue the back to the front. This makes your base strong. It is also a good time to try and get an idea of what you are going to do to decorate the crown. I was thinking a first of this necklace with pearls. I later changed my mind.





4. Step four. Put a thin line of glue around the top edges of the crown. I then gave it a bath with gold glitter. Just for a little extra bling! Notice that I am working the whole time with the crown flat. We will make it round later.



5. Step five. I add the trims. I found this gold and rhinestone trim at Michael's. So I just sectioned it off evenly on the crown. I also trimmed the border of the crown with the same trim. I just glued the to the paper, nothing fancy.



6. This next step is to add a piece of trim to the bottom of the crown. This will give it a finished look. I had this piece in my stash. I glued the large doily and the four smaller ones to the points on the crown. I tried them with out the doilies and they just did not look the same. The center piece on the large doily is an Christmas ornament I had. It looks like a cross. I think is works better than my original plan of the necklace. The smaller doilies were attached to the crown by glue as well.




7. This step adds the star. A simple glittered star, wired and taped on the the back of the crown, easy. More ribbon is add also. I had some very pretty gold Ric-rack that I used on the bottom of the crown. Just glue, that is all you need.




8. The is some of the fun part. I added some of those curly pearl and rhinestone sticker things to each side. You can begin to see what the front looks like.




9. To create the back I punched some holes. It is like making a shoe lace and then I added gold ribbon. I am going to add a few make thing tomorrow. I always have to step away from it, to see what it needs. I know I will be adding things to the back to make it look pretty too. You can just use what you have and I am sure it will be beautiful.




I not the best teacher, but I hope that this will encourage you to make a crown for yourself. Girls crowns are so much more fun. Like I said this one is for the church. Please if you have questions or get stuck, email me.

Couple of reminders: Give away is Wednesday, you will have time to enter for more chances. Tea Cup Tuesday will happen again this week. I will try to have Mr. Linky up Monday so you can join in the fun. Lastly, my family and I need prayer. Please lift us up to the Lord. He knows. We need a miracle.

Blessings to all this wonderful Holy Week. May God give you the desires of your heart as you seek Him first! Martha

FAMILY FUN!

Hello Ladies: Hope this post finds you well. This week is just flying by. I decorated our church for Palm Sunday today. Can you believe Easter is just a little over a week away? Love Easter and all that was done on our behalf by Jesus. Sometimes it is hard to believe He loved us so much! We are truly blessed.

Thank you for all taking part in Tea Cup Tuesday. I loved some of your cups so much, I looked for them on Ebay. (I only purchased one.) Some of you ladies have some very expensive cups. I can't wait to see next week's. We are still trying to figure out how to remind everyone, before each Tuesday. Any ideas? Because of last week's misbehaving body, I did not share with you some of the fun things I recently did. Noah and I went to ride the trains at Griffin Park. Maya had her birthday party and the family got to meet my son, Kyle's, new girl friend, Allison. She is a sweet heart. So here are few pictures for your viewing pleasure, as well as, some pictures around the house. I love silk flowers, they are everywhere around my home.

I am also working on a crown. I am going to try to taking pictures as I go to show you how to make one. Don't forget 5 more days until my give away. To win the Susan Rios Book, all you have to do is leave a comment, join my blog and put my button on your blog. Each one will give you a chance. Choose one or all three!

Have a great week! Blessings, Martha

TEA CUP TUESDAY NO. 3!

Hi Ladies: Did you remember, Tea Cup Tuesday? Sure you did! I bet you thought I forgot, not true. Terri and I have been under the weather this week, so I am very sorry for the late notice. Please pray for us both, our bodies have been misbehaving. Remember it is easy to take part, just fill out Mr. Linky in the box and it will do the rest. That is it! You can join anytime of the day you want. We promise to visit and drool!

I love this day! I can't wait to see your tea cups. In case you have not guessed it already, I have a thing for tea cups and tea pots for that matter. Here are a few of mine. I wanted to show you the Irish Belleek Shamrock set I have. It is incomplete, a yard sale find, twenty bucks! Not bad if I do say so myself. It is still March so I just had to show it to you before the month was over. Like I said it is Belleek and is so fragile, it feels like you can just squeeze it a little too tight and that is it, goodbye cup. You can see right through it too. It is very pretty. All three pieces have the 2nd black mark, so they a quite valuable, I am told.

The daisy tea cup is Aynsley and it almost looks hand painted, it has so much detail. Trimmed in gold at the bottom and the handle. The second demitasse cup and saucer are my favorite of this bunch. They are Earl of Coventry, Blind Earl. I am not sure if you can see it, but everything on the tea cup and saucer is three dimensional . It is just stunning!

Did I tell you I collect insect pins and brooches? Several years ago, I saw an article in Martha Steward's magazine about these fine little pins and just had to start my own collection. The frog and the butterflies are two of my favorites. The frog is iridescent. The butterfly pearl is real and the jade is also real. I just love beautiful things, it makes me smile just to write about them. Weird, weird, weird, I know, therapy!

Thank you so much for being a part of this party. Don't forget, I have a give away at the end of the month for the Susan Rios book. All you have to do is leave a comment and become a follower. Blessings, Martha

SECOND TEA CUP TUESDAY!

Hi Ladies: It is Tea Cup Tuesday! (Ok, I know it is Monday, work with me!) Here are three cups that I currently have out on display. They are not my favorites, at least I don't think so. I remember falling in love with the color, they are teal. How often do you see that color? I would like to know if anyone else has teal cups. I think they are beautiful. The solid teal with gold roses is Crown Staffordshire, the Chintz with pink roses and gold roses and pale teal color is a Colclough China and the last white with blue flowers is a Royal Dover. All three cups are English. The pin on the white cup is an Original Robert, quite collectible! One day I will show you all my pins. Maybe I can do it by color, featuring a different color each week. I did tell you I collect vintage costume jewelry. I have Weiss, Haskell, Trifari, Hobe to many to mention. That was my first love, back in 1969, when wearing a bra was an option and flowers in your hair was not!

I hope that you will join us on Tuesday and show us your tea cups. Terri at http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ will have the same list up. You can join anytime, we will just add you to the list. Still trying to figure out how to send emails as a reminder to all. So if your name is not on here, just email and we will add it. We are using "Mr. Linky" this week. Terri's son has joined us to help set this up. Oh, to have a young brain! We are forever grateful to him!



For those of you that want to play, all you need to is fill in the two blanks above yourselves. The 1st box just the blog name, second spot, you blog address with http:// before it.
Does that make sense? It will add you the moment you do that. Very easy, I am told. LOL! We can do this ladies!

Hope that you will have fun sharing your Tea Cups. Don't forget the give away. Details in the last post. Blessings, Martha

It is Maya's birthday and spring is almost here!

Hi Ladies: Hope you are all having a great Sunday. I know I have been MIA for a few days. Due to the recent health issues, I have decided to start walking. I live minutes from Descanso Gardens, if you are ever around my neck of the woods, please let's make a date to go. It is beautiful, right now all the camellias are in bloom, as well as some of the bulbs they plant each year. It is a great place to go for a walk and talk to God. After today's walk, I worked on my own garden. I had forgotten how much I loved my yard. I am so behind with spring planting. So today, I transplanted three trees that had grown root bound over the last year. They were very large tree so, I am a little tired. I have an English Garden and it takes a lot of work. My roses are ready to bloom, the yard is coming alive with new growth. I have been sick too long and I just need to get over it. Being sick is boring!

I took a few pictures of the Garden for you to see. I also wanted to show you a few more items that are currently up in my home. As I was walking today, I realized that my whole house has been decorated only with Estate sale, yard sales and thrift shop items. Except for the appliances, mattresses and couches, everything else was found in one of the above mentioned places. I do on occasions go to antique stores, however, I have found they tend to be a little pricey. I have always had to watch my money so they are more of a place to go to drool! Don't get me wrong, I love to drool! It is one of my favorite past times. I just wish I could do more than drool, if you know what I mean?

I need to get myself in gear, it is Princess Maya's birthday on Saturday and I still do not have anything special to give her. She is going to be 7 and I need ideas! She really has everything, an only child with 3 Grandmothers and 3 Great Grandmas. The sweetest little girl you would ever want to be with. I have Noah tomorrow, so I better think quick.

Don't forget about Tea Cup Tuesday. Let me know if you want to play, all you have to do is share your tea cups. It is very easy. I am also having a give away in honor to the TCT. All you need to do for that is leave a comment, post my button and become a follower. Each one will give you chances to win. You can comment as often as you like, I love to hear from you! Just let me know what you are doing. Have a great week! Blessings, Martha