Tea Cozie Cottage

Tea Cozie Cottage
Betty @ tea cozie cottage

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Tuesday Tea Time in the Garden

Wow, what gorgeous weather we are having, it's a little windy but feels good. Having my tea outside today, got a new teawagon at the auction on Friday so going to use it. Instead of sweets though, having fruit and cheese, I was bad on the weekend. A new tearoom opened in neighbouring town -Port Hope, so we visited it. It is called........ (have to get back with the name-forgotten), was a tea room years and years ago and was very successful, the owners just got tired of the work and retired.
Will show a couple of pictures of it, before I do my tea.


Very lovely inside, lots of teacups, prints on the floor of Walter Campbell, a local artist from the town of Uxbridge, linen table cloths very lovely. To the left is a door out to the patio. The rest of the house is a B&B very nicely decorated.

Frank studying the menu, tea was excellent, had a herbal tea, and Frank had a coffee. Hadn't had his quota for the day yet. We ordered High tea for two, came on  three tiered plates, bottom was sandwiches-cucumber, egg, tuna-maybe 8 quarters-were excellent, fresh-crusts on. But that was okay, second tier had two scones, tiny, with a ? drew a blank on the small dish of Devonshire cream and another of jam, no butter and scones were a little hard, but ok. The top tier had two strawberries cut in half and two small tarts, excellent but not enough. I ordered a carrot cake besides and it was great. See if you want scones, you get one, seemed cheesy to me, but I will try it again, atmosphere was wonderful. She also had quiche and salad and it was a great proportion. So will try it the next time.

Now for my tea today, because I had the carrot cake on Saturday (not to mention an ice cream cone Sunday) I'm not having a sweet today or tomorrow or anytime in the future.


My new brass tea wagon, ( I had bid on a walnut tea wagon also, but didn't get it, will be more in the future),
Using a yellow teapot with gold to match the tea wagon, it is one I have had for years and love it, (have seen it in a deep blue and it's gorgeous with the gold) tea pot is a Burslem,

Cup n saucer is a Royal Albert Evesham is the pattern, looking for  one with yellow and it so pretty. Had another one -a Shelley, doesn't match though it has daffodils, one has roses and I have a tea coaster that has blossoms on it, quite mixed up. Then my fruit and cheese is on Serena it at least has the roses to match the cup n saucer-a little tacky-oh well got the colour right anyways.



A cup of peppermint tea


my punishment for overeating...


Turned out Frank didn't get home to join me for a cup of tea, so this didn't get used, so not too mismatched,
and the Tea Coaster below (not the proper name-not doing so well today, wrong names, not matching-weather is great though)


it is so pretty, another auction goody that I have had for years.

I am sharing this tea with sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.ca
and with
also Tea Time Tuesday with Martha @marthasfavorites.com

Monday, 28 May 2012

Stepping up for Blue Monday

 Welcome to my Blue Monday, this is a ladder that sits on our back deck and extremely unsafe. 1st it shouldn't be sitting outside were everyone can see it, and when you stand on it-it wobbles so bad, you almost fall off. Frank (my loving hubby) insists it's okay, tells me to  just be careful-I think he is trying to do away with me. Anyways, last week a magazine I was reading said to put a ladder in your garden for interest and then on Aiken House and Garden blog with Carolyn she had a ladder in her garden. Frank hasn't noticed it yet, I kept warning him yesterday it was going, now it's going.....going.... gone
he's an auctioneer

                    
Now to make it even better, the ladder is blue, well their is a lot of blue paint on it, a blue bird house, a blue pot of flowers, a basket with blue roses painted on the front. The orange is to bring orioles-it is sitting beside the birdhouse I painted 20 years ago, has a board broken off the roof. You can't see it but hanging behind the little lantern is a feeder full of sunflower seeds. In the back ground is our mill, our auction business was called Grist Mill 41 years ago, but we have changed it to just Stapleton Auctions-no one knows what a Grist Mill is and can't relate. Changing times.


Thank you for joining me on Blue Monday, lets hope I'am still here next week, or I might be -going, going gone.
I am sharing Blue Monday with smilingsally.blogspot.ca

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Our Tea Cozie Cottage-Show and Tell Friday

In 2005, I was going to open a tea room in a rental property that we owned. Our daughter and her family had rented it for five years and had bought their own place in a neighbouring town and it was sitting empty. The property surrounding the home was our parking lot for our auctions. We are now in our 40th year of auctions-that is another interesting story-the auction centre is a retro B/A garage put back to 1957. That's for another time. Back to the Tea Room, we got the bright idea to restore the house and downsize and move out of the house we were in at this time. It was a five bedroom very comfortable charming home. So their goes my tea room, I had china cabinets bought to paint white, chairs, tables and china and cups and saucers. It was a wonderful dream, now Iam doing it through blogging. Going to share our Tea Cozie Cottage-that was to be the name of my Tea Room-never know maybe someday...
This was an Ontario cottage, dating back to the late 1800's, very small, the brick at the front of the house is different from the sides. The brick came from a neighbouring town from a big fire that wiped out many places. The original school house was on this property to the left of the house and moved back when the house was built. The School house is still here, used as an empty garage.
You can see hear the different coloured brick, very unique, we tore off the back room, took off the roof and restored from the bottom up. All the brick was removed and put back on as the walls of brick were just falling away.
So exciting and a little nutty, this was next door to the auction centre and it was sure discussed at length, that we were nuts
This is our new home and we do love it.
It is so charming, and comfortable and we are honoured to lived in it. I do thank God every day for this privilege, above you can see our pond and a corner of the school house.


This is my Romantic Home. Thank you for stopping by, I am sharing this with Cindy at   romantichome.blogspot.ca


Happy 4th Birthday Pink Saturday

Welcome to my Pink Saturday, that I am sharing with Beverley at How Sweet The Sound. Seeing the weather is so great, going to stay outside.
When we restored our new house six years ago, we dug out a new basement and two of the walls existing in the old basement, was large boulders poured in cement. Their is a name for that, but slipped my mind right now. We had this huge mountain of rocks and I knew I was going to have a pond at this new place (I had, had three ponds at our old place-we moved across the street). Majority of the rocks are pink, I just love them. Had one large pink boulder from our old house and a friend dropped off two more boulders, one pink and one grey that you can see streaks of pink in.
these pictures really don't do the pink boulders justice, but they are beautiful, especially when the sun shines on them. The first one to the right came out of the ground when we dug a well at our old place 40 years ago, (our son bought our old place and moved the rock over for me), ignore the green water please it will clear-I need a green Saturday.  Too warm to fast, once the plants grow will balance out. The grey boulder to the left has streaks of pink...
Majority of the rocks are pink,

At one side of the pond is a sitting area with all small pink rocks, the rose stepping stones are pink and the bench is pink, very very pretty when the pink water lilies come out and hyrdrangeas.
Their is a big mountain of more rocks to the left of this picture above. I hope you enjoyed this, nothing like a pond to sit and reflect. I thank God everyday I sit out beside it, for being so lucky to have this gift...
Iam sharing Happy Birthday Pink Saturday with Beverley howsweetthesound.typepad.com

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Tea in the Garden with Bernideen

 What a day, the weather is gorgeous. Today I had my tea on the bench of a trellis, I have shown part of this set before, but yesterday I went to an antique store and got four cups n' saucers and the tea plates to match. My other tea cups have a square handle and these ones have the rose that matches the teapot. I didn't show the handle, in all the pictures I took-still new at this.
I am starting to really love this set, I have collected odd pieces to it for years, but it is all coming together with a lot of accessory pieces. When you look up close at the design it is almost like a cheese cloth has been held over the china piece and the roses are cut out.

Iam enjoying Chai black tea, my last scone with honey butter, the little heart biscuit is for Daisy, and the lily of the valleys are in the sugar to my set.  All on a plastic tray that goes great with the Royal Winton set

Iam sharing tea in the garden with Bernadeen at bernideensteatimeblog.blogspot.ca

Monday, 21 May 2012

Tea Time Tuesday #5

Happy Victoria Weekend, everyone!!!
My tea today is a mixture of tea time and tea in the garden. Our weather today was glorious, the whole weekend has been. We have been living outside, slipped in today to make some scones and right back out.  My hands and fingers are aching from pulling weeds and planting, that I didn't get too fancy, just a little. Hope you enjoy it...


the scones were delicious, with honey butter, clotted cream
and strawberry jam.

The two tea cups are Shelley, and the little sugar bowl matches
it's holding the jam. The honey butter is in a little blue hobnail dish.
Knife is a mother of pearl and the spoon is a tea spoon, not sure what it is forgot to check it out. Their is a set all different colours, sort of like enamel and like mother of pearl.

plates are Limoge, I just loved them, and use them quite often.
My husband Frank joined me for the tea.

the teapot is a Royal Winton, cottage and pink, was
going to use in for a Pink Saturday,



Hope you enjoy my teapot and cup n saucers, Shelley is so delicate.

Iam sharing my Tea Time with Sandi at sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.ca
and Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Pink Saturday's 4th Birthday

Welcome to my Pink Saturday, I had used part of these dishes last week, for my Mothers Day Surprise Tea, so decided to do the whole table in the complete set. Missing teapot and have bought it on Kiiji and will get it in June. Can't wait. Pink is such a feminine, relaxing colour. The pattern is Serena by Royal Albert. Was my daughters and she has this new home and doesn't want anything, old or flowery. So I bought them from her-you can never have too many dishes. In the center is a pink dome that I have over an old cranberry pitcher, two vases pink w/gold, and then the two pink satin glass rose bowls on each side.

I got this print years ago and it's of teapots, flowers, plates, teacups, pitchers, hankies. I love it. It is called "Family Treasurers" by Barbara Mock. Bought it an auction. The lamp is a Fenton glass and I got it years ago at Cracker Barrel, flowers are in an end of day vase/pitcher...

I'm already for my next tea, anyone game???
I am joining Beverley at howsweetthesound.typepad.com

Monday, 14 May 2012

Tea Time Tuesday #4

Welcome to my fourth Tea Time Tuesday, so glad to be a part of all the gorgeous blogs.
These are three of my favorite cupss n saucers, not quite true, all my tea cups are my favorites. I used these on Saturday for my Mothers Day Tea and everyone commented on these three. Well actually no, they commented on all of them, but these three were their favorites and the one with the bird (below)  everyone loved. Hope you enjoy them.


They are Coalport and I got them at auctions, three different occasions.



look so pretty with cranberry glass.


Aren't the insides gorgeous?



I am sharing Tea Time Tuesday with Sandi at http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.ca

Saturday, 12 May 2012

a True Mothers Day Tea-Pink Saturday

As I had mentioned on Tuesday, I was having a surprise Mothers Day Tea for my mother today with her four sisters and one sister-in-law. I fell asleep while I was setting this up so am late again this week. She was totally surprised, came walking in while a sister was arriving and she couldn't understand why they were here, she thought we were going out for lunch. When she walked in with them I asked her if she had anything to feed them and she said yeh some hot dogs at home and looked at me like now what do we do?? It was a fun day
Cups and saucers were all  pink rose theme, (showed two on Tea time Tuesday) cranberry glasses, satin glass rose bowls, pink dome over the scones to keep them warm...

Instead of place cards had the little cones holding the roses, on the back of the chairs

names were done with wire and beads



sugar cubes that I cheated and pasted little flowers I had bought. Now what do I do with them?



Took me all week to get ready, had the table set Monday and this morning at 11:00 my daughter brought me her dishes Serena by Royal Albert? She doesn't want them anymore, so I did a fast change on another set of dishes I had set up. (My mother had given them to her when she graduated twenty years ago, some day she may want them back, until then they will be enjoyed and seen)

the guest of honour in a pink flowered jacket at the head of the table,


our deserts
Menu-assorted fancy sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, honey butter, mini cupcakes (pink icing), strawberries w/mascarpone and white chocolate (from the second last Tea Time magazine), mini lemon cheese cakes, pavlova w/blueberries, grapes, pomegranate juice (pink) and of course tea. Huge teapot in front of mom, will show it again some Tuesday.
It was an amazing day and everyone enjoyed it. All the sisters brought items from childhood, pictures, family bible, afghans, souvenirs from Ireland and told stories on them, lots of laughter and some tears.

Sharing my Pink Saturday with Beverley at howsweetthesound.typepad.com


Happy Mothers Day!!!