Tea Time Tuesday

Well, it's here again ... Tea Time Tuesday over at Martha's Favorites, Rose Chintz Cottage & Inspirations, The Plumed Pen, and Lady Katherine Tea Parlor.  Don't you just love a tea party, complete with beautiful china and beautiful friends with whom you can enjoy it?

Today I am showcasing a lovely little tea cup I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago.  I have always been partial to pansies, so this cup immediately drew my attention where it was sitting amongst a pile of old china and glassware.

I really love everything about it from the shape of the cup, to the fluted edge of the saucer.  And the colours of the flowers are so very pretty.  You can imagine, I was quite excited to purchase a Royal Albert in perfect condition for only $1.50!  (Have I mentioned just how much I love to go to yard sales?!)

I also found another delightful piece of china at the same sale.  Unfortunately, it is not in perfect condition, but I fell in love with it anyway, and at 75 cents, I thought it was well worth the asking price.  However, being a little bargainer, I asked if they wouldn't mind taking $2.00 for the cup & saucer and plate all together.  I got lucky and they said yes!  Never hurts to ask, does it?  :)

As you can see, there is some damage in the glaze on the plate, but there are no chips or cracks and the design is really lovely.  It's marked Royal Winton on the back of the plate and has a number 7 in gold.  I'll have to do a little bit of research to find out more about the pattern.

Don't they look cute together?  And just look at those sweet little treats sitting there beside them!  You'd never guess, but they're actually little lipgloss containers!  Aren't they adorable?  I found them recently in a small boutique and couldn't resist purchasing them, with the intent of using them as a wee little gift for someone sometime.  

There are actually four of them in the package, each one looking "good enough to eat"!  They are made in England by a company called "Natural Products Ltd." and labelled "Naughty but Nice!"  And why am I giving you so much information about these cute little lipglosses?

Well, because I just can't resist giving them away to someone, that's why!  It occurred to me yesterday that I now have 100 followers.  Definitely a reason to give something away.  So, anyone who comments on this post in the next 7 days, will be automatically entered into a draw for these cute little lipglosses.  And because I love to give things away, I'll probably tuck a little something else into the package as well, before I mail it off to the lucky recipient.  

Hope you're all having a wonderful time visiting tea parties today!

Blessings, 

Ro

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.
Heda Bejar

It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.
Richard Braunstein

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill

Marvelous Monday!

Oh, it has been a really crazy busy time here in the Magnolia household ... I apologize for getting side-tracked from regularly blogging last week and hope this week I'll be a little better at staying in touch.

Today is Marvelous Monday ... a windy cool day here in Southern Ontario.  I'm not complaining though because we have been enjoying such a wonderful hot summer that I don't begrudge a few days here and there of cool weather.

On this Marvelous Monday, I am especially thankful for my cat's recovery!   On Saturday, my little Tiger just seemed to turn a corner in her recovery and suddenly we looked up to see her walking almost 100% normal!  She's still "wobbly" so Mr. Magnolia says she walks a little bit like she's had too much to drink, but she's actually standing up completely on her back legs when she walks now so she no longer looks like a raccoon when she walks.  She has been only able to hold herself up about 3/4 of the way on her back legs up until now so she has been walking with a strange rolling, hunched-over gait.  I can't begin to tell you the feeling of joy that flood through me when I saw her stand up totally normal on Saturday and start to walk with like a healthy cat!  Every time I see her standing up properly now I get the same flood of joy in my heart.  I really didn't think she would ever walk normally again!

So on this Marvelous Monday, I'm very grateful to all of you for your prayers and kind thoughts towards my cat, and hope that somehow each one of you will able to see a little miracle in your own lives, to give you hope and cheer your hearts.

Blessings,

Ro

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."  

Abraham Lincoln

Thank God for the Aztecs!

I have to admit, although I am a Christian and I love to read fiction, I rarely enjoy Christian fiction.  Honestly, I just find it is often incredibly insipid (think sappy stories about life on the prairies) or overly preachy (I'd just as soon go to church and hear a sermon thank-you-very-much!) and rarely do I find it an enjoyable read.  However, I came across a book in our local public library recently that was categorized as "Christian Fiction" that had an intriguing title "Chocolate Beach" so I thought I'd give it a try.

Well, first off, I have to warn you that if you're looking for a really deep novel that will change your life, this probably isn't it!  But, in it's own charming way, Julie Carobini's light-hearted approach was exactly what I was looking for in a book that I could read on a nice hot day, lying on my porch swing, enjoying the breeze and pretending the constant sound of traffic from the six-lane highway just a mere kilometer away was actually the song of deep blue waves rhythmically pounding on a golden sandy beach.

And though I wasn't expecting it, the book actually got me thinking deeply ... well, at least as deeply as one can think on a drowsy summer day anyway.  The thing is, some of her points hit home, just not in an overly-intense way, but more in an "Ah, I recognize that in myself" kind of way.  Like when her heroine, "Bri," realizes that she is spending more time worrying than she is praying, and when she gets all caught up in trying to change the exterior without acknowledging that the internal probably needs more tweaking.  And of course, who can't relate to the notion of "break-up brownies" - that absolutely necessary "go-to-dish" for all those broken-hearted and in need of the ultimate comfort food?!

I won't give away the plot line, in case you all want to read the book, but suffice it to say that one of the external changes that Bri attempts, is to learn how to cook, and she starts by attending a seminar on cooking with chocolate.  Smart cookie, eh?  I mean, if you're going to learn cooking, you might as well learn how to cook something delicious and chocolately!

Being an avid cook, I found myself quite interested in the menu at the seminar:  satiny chocolate soup, glazed chocolate potatoes, sumptuous chocolate chili and chocolate cherry fondue!  Yum!  What's not to like about that?  I've heard of chocolate chili before and have been meaning to try making a batch myself, so after finishing the book - yeah, another good point is that it's a pretty quick read - I decided that it was time to attempt to cook some myself.

Now unfortunately, Carobini's book did not contain any recipes, so I went surfing the net and found a few to choose from.  The one I landed on contained no fresh veggies beyond one onion!  This just seemed really wrong to me - chocolate and chili are both soul foods to me, and soul foods just can't come out of a can alone! And right now my garden is over-flowing with fresh produce just waiting for me to slice, chop, and cook, so I switched things up a bit and below you will find the "tweaked" recipe I ended up using.

The result was an unbelievably satisfying spicy chili, with a subtle dark, earthy taste of chocolate that gave incredible depth to the dish.  I am not 100% happy with the final result but I am now totally hooked on chocolate chili and intend to keep practicing until I have the perfect blend of ingredients.  If any of you have a good chocolate chili recipe you'd like to share, please send it my way.  As for "glazed chocolate potatoes" ... well, I haven't tried those yet, but they just don't seem quite as intriguing as the satiny chocolate soup that is probably going to be my next experiment!  And in the mean time, I'm sending up a huge prayer of thanksgiving for the Aztecs who were smart enough to realize the value of chocolate!  I can't imagine life without it!

Chocolate Chili Recipe:

Brown 1 lb of ground beef and 3 medium sized onions, drain any excess fat, put beef/onion in mixture into slow cooker.

In frying pan, with some heated olive oil, gently soften 4-5 good sized sweet banana peppers and 3 jalapenos that have been rustic-chopped.   Once done, add to the slow cooker.

Rough-cut 5-6 medium sized fresh tomatoes.  Add to slow cooker.

Crush 3 garlic cloves and add to the slow cooker.

Add the rest of these ingredients to the slow cooker and give the mixture a good stirring.
- 2 (15 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz) can of kidney beans
- 1 (15 oz) can of black beans
- 2 tbsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. cumin
- some fresh oregano chopped fine
- 2/3 cup of semi-sweet dark chocolate chips

Cook on the highest setting of your slow cooker for a half-hour, then reduce to cook for at least 3 hours more.  The longer it cooks, the more flavour will be released into the mixture.

Tea Time Tuesday!

It's that wonderful day of the week when our thoughts turn to the refined notion of tea parties, lovely china, and good friends to share them with!  Martha over at Martha's Favorites, Sandi over at Rose Chintz Cottage and Inspirations, Wanda Lee over at Plumed Pen and Lady Katherine over at Lady Katherine Tea Parlor are all hosting tea-themed memes!  What a great way to meet new people and enjoy viewing the unique tea things that each person has so thoughtfully included in their blog.

Today, I am featuring two of my favourite tea cups.  For some reason, I find myself always drawn to Aynsley china.  If there are 10 tea cups to view at a thrift shop, my eye just invariably seems to go to the one in the lot that is an Aynsley!  The two tea cups I'm showing you today are both the same Aynsley pattern, although they have different background colours, one being blue and one being pink.  Apparently there are others available too, and I would love to add to my collection some day so I have one of each background colour.

I love the fact that while there is a small landscape on the outside of the tea cup, 

the largest, most beautiful landscape is hidden inside!  

The bluebell pattern is so lovely, a landscape pattern with soft blues and rose colours, it never fails to evoke the soft cool Spring days one would find in England.   After emigrating to Canada, one of the few things my Mum missed about England was the long Spring weather.  Here in Southern Ontario, Canada, things get hot fast and from one day to the next everything changes dramatically in the Spring.  My Mum used to tell us stories of walking in a forest carpeted with bluebells and it always seemed the most magical of places we could ever imagine!

And speaking of cool Spring weather, we had a wonderful break from the hot, steamy summer weather yesterday, with the arrival of a sudden downpour.  Even the cicadas stopped their incessant buzzing while the rain poured down in sheets, drumming loudly on the porch roof while I sat serenely on our swing, so enamored with the raindrops that I found myself setting aside the book I was reading so I could enjoy the spectacle of a rainfall.  Once the rain had lessened, I snuck inside to grab my camera.

Follow Friday!

Yup, it's the weekend again!!!!  Yipee!!!  And that means Follow Friday 40 and Over is happening over at Java's Never Growing Old blog.  If you haven't checked out her blog, you really must.  Her posts are incredible, her sense of humour wonderful, and she is absolutely inspiring!  I just know you're going to love  her.

For those of you who have been following the story of Tiger's attack and recovery, I wanted to give you a little update.  For those of you who are visiting today, the "readers digest condensed version of the story" is that our shop cat snuck out one night a couple of weeks ago and got attacked by a dog resulting in significant injuries.  Fortunately Tiger is getting stronger every day.  She is using both of her back legs now, although she is only able to hold herself up about 3/4s of the way.  She is walking .... well, sort of shuffling ... and able to hold herself up to use the litterbox now.  All of these things are amazing when you consider what she has gone through.  I'm starting to encourage her to walk more now that her wounds are healed, but she still has to be kept away from stairs or any elevation changes as she could injure the hip that was operated on if she jumped down on it.

My husband has made a little pen for her outside so she can enjoy the grass and watch all the birds, bees, and butterflies go by.  I sit outside with her twice a day so she can enjoy the outside.  I'm nervous of leaving her there alone so I stay with her - we frequently have dogs show up on our property and I think it would frighten her to death right now if a strange dog just suddenly showed up and she was in a little pen that could so easily be knocked over by a bouncy dog even if it had no intent to hurt her.

Here's a picture of the little sweetie in her "pen" - she loves to lie there and look up at the sky and sniff the grass and she walks around in her pen, shuffling her way from one side to the other.

I can't wait for all of her fur to grow back in so she will really look like herself again.  If I take a photo of just her front half, and from the right direction so you can't see the area shaved under her chin, then she looks perfectly like herself!

Well, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Blessings, 

Ro

White Wednesday

Out for a drive a couple of weeks ago, I spotted this door and just had to stop and take a picture.  Simple and sweet, it called to me, causing me to wonder what type of people live there, laughing and crying, living and toiling, ordinary people no doubt - but hopefully they experience moments of great contentment as well, the kind of contentment that their door seems to symbolize.

"There are no words more simply sweet

than Home and Love."

Robert William Service

Following White Wednesday at Faded Charm Cottage.

Tea Time Tuesday!

Well, it's Tea Time Tuesday over at Rose Chintz Cottage & Inspirations and Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites.  Can't wait to spend some time today checking out all the lovely tea cups that everyone will have posted!  So much fun.

Today, I am featuring one of my tea cups that really isn't my favourite!  It's just not exactly my particular taste, however, I wanted something a little bolder and wilder to showcase today for a specific reason.

My bougainvillea is blooming with riotous colour thanks to all the wonderful advice you bloggers gave me about keeping it alive and well.  

It's just so stunning right now that I thought I would choose a teacup that would look great with those incredible blooms.  But a delicate little tea cup just wouldn't do!  So instead, I chose this one ...

It's bold and a little bit sassy and not really like my usual taste at all, but still I couldn't resist it when I came across it at an estate sale a few weeks ago.

On the bottom, it says "HAND PAINTED" and "MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN" with a crest that says "TRIMONT CHINA" in the centre.  I have no idea if it has any particular value, but I quite enjoy having it in my collection and it's bold yellow colour and big design just seemed to match the vibrant colours in my bougainvillea.

Here's one last look at the saucer ...

Quite something, isn't it?

Blessings,

Ro

May Flower:

Pink, small, and punctual,

Aromatic, low,

Covert in April,

Candid in May,

Dear to the moss,

Known by the knoll,

Next to the robin

In every human soul.

Bold little beauty,

Bedecked with thee,

Nature forswears

Antiquity.

Emily Dickinson