Grandma's Teacup

Quite a few years ago now, my mother decided she was going to pass down a good portion of her teacups to my sisters and I.  She always had a story about where her dishes came from, and for the most part, I remembered what she told me.  "This bowl was used for shiny red apples on Christmas morning" ... "This vase was made by my mother's friend who used to work for Wedgewood in England" ... little snippets of family history, that really doesn't matter much, except to family.

Mom told me that teacups were a popular gift for young women.  They were inexpensive, pretty and a useful gift.  They were often given for birthdays and wedding showers in her circle of friends.  The day she showed me her teacups, they were lined up on the kitchen counter.  She wanted us to choose the teacups we would like to have.  I picked up this little teacup, "Gingham Rose" by Paragon to have a closer look.  I don't really remember anyone using this teacup.  The one I really wanted had been broken just a little while previous by two rambunctious dogs who took the moment when tea cups were sitting on a tippy little Indian table to go at each other, and the table was bumped, teacups flew up and crashed down (admittedly my dog caused the disaster).  It was a dark green teal with gold trim, and I always remember my dad drinking from that cup ... well, no longer :( 

Mom saw me admiring this teacup, and she told "My father gave this teacup to my mother as an anniversary gift one year".  A simple gift and a simple story.  I never met my grandfather.  He died of a heart attack long before I was born, before my parents even married. 

But from what my mother told me of him, I think we might have been friends.  He was a "bit of a naturalist" in the way he cared for animals.  He or his two sons would find wounded animals, bring them back to the farm and raise them.  The farm at one time had a pet crow and a pet great horned owl "Solomon".  He would take in any stray dog that needed a new home.  And my grandfather loved to read.

My grandfather was a market gardener and raised a variety of crops to sell at market on his small ten-acre plot of land.  Money was always tight, and my mother grew up during the Depression and a world war.  They lived on credit during the winter months, and paid up once the crops came in.  So when Mom told me this teacup was his gift to his wife one year, it touched my heart. 

This is the one that came home with me.  When I looked up "traditional anniversary gifts" on the internet, I find that china is the traditional gift to give for the 20th anniversary.  My grandparents, James & Violet were married in 1923 in Hamilton, Ontario. 

So Happy Anniversary to anyone celebrating their 20th today!

... and thank you for stopping by ;)

Wendy

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Gardening in September

Crisp air, bright blue skies and the grass finally turned green again!  Hello September :)  I do love September and the approaching fall weather, but I'm going to miss summer this year. 

I've enjoyed gardening this year more than most because I was able to share it all through my blog.  I do most of my gardening in the backyard, and the gardens in the front yard tend to suffer.  I hope to remedy that next year and plan on redoing the front garden so it's not all caving in on itself by mid-summer.

My zinnias are doing great in the little walled garden around the patio.  Planted from seeds in various locations around the yard, this is the only spot they really took, and I love the colours and the variations of the blooms as they mature.

The love-lies-bleeding is an annual favourite of mine too ... such an old-fashioned looking flower.   I was unable to find new seeds this year, but this is one of three that did come up from last year's seed packet.  The tails just keep getting bigger and bigger.  I wonder if I can dry them and harvest the seeds.  Should google that and see what I can find out.

 

I've transplanted a few black-eyed Susans around the yard from my original two little pots from the nursery years ago.  They do so well in my garden, and I love the bright sunny smiles in the late summer.  I did have some Shasta daisies planted alongside them in one garden, but the daisies don't last long enough for my liking and I think I may just pull them out.  The balloon flowers are just about finished too, and the bees have pretty much ripped apart the last of the blooms.

My son's pond garden looked good this year with the ornamental grasses we chose.  The grasses really give it a natural look, and it hides the pond garden from the patio, making it a secret garden in this quiet little spot.  Love it!

I planted a row of morning glories along the fence, and they're in full bloom now.   An amazing shade of blue ("heavenly blue"), reminds me of September skies.  My brother sort of ruined my happiness for these vines when he told me this is a weed out in BC, and it just grows over everything.  "Who would want that in their garden?!" he asked me.  Well, um, me!!  My mother and grandmother both loved this blue flower too.

I hope they seed themselves down and come up again in the same spot next year too :)

I have a nice little stand of turtlehead flowers that come out late in summer and are at their peak now.  The bees love these flowers when not much else is blooming.

 

Next spring I'm going to transplant some of this group to a new location ... somewhere more visible, maybe the walled patio garden.

 

I'm going to miss lounging out on the patio come winter ... I'm already hesitating about sitting out there now as the temperatures have really dropped this week.

More morning glories that I planted under the bird feeder.  I want to put seeds in the birdfeeder, but I'm afraid the squirrels will tear apart the morning glory.

 

And that's about all that's happening in the garden this week.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

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Thrifted Chairs Made New!

So I did get the chairs for my daughter all finished up and carted away to her new university home.  This is what they looked like before:

 

 

A rather awful combination of oak veneer plywood pared with a stale cigarette smoke odour.

 

I sanded the life out of these chairs, although it apparently wasn't required.  One good thing about the sanding, however, is that it took away the cigarette smell.  Cody thinks I did a darned good job on them ;)

Good job Wendy!

 

My husband took apart all the chairs and glued them all back together again to be sure they were sturdy ... and they are very sturdy.  He unscrewed all the smelly padded seats, and I ripped off the disintegrating fabric and put the foam padding into a tub of hot water to soak for a few hours, and then washed them to a new freshness they hadn't had in years.

 

So now the big reveal!!

 

TA DA!!

 

Two coats of bright white paint, and new fabric for the seats all stapled in place again.  I'm quite pleased with the results!  I always admire what great changes people make in furniture on different blog sites, and I was so happy to finally be able to try it myself!  A very satisfying endeavor.

 

 

Four chairs came from the creepy house.  Three identical, one with arms, and then one odd-ball that I picked up at the thrift store.

 

Four of the five chairs.

 

I made a padded cushion with ties for the odd-ball chair with the same fabric, so it ties in really nicely with the other chairs (sorry no picture of that cushion).

 

 

The chairs looked so nice sitting in my garden, that I hated to give them away!  Even this pretty red dragonfly thought they were something special.

 

 

I spent today driving my daughter up to her new place and getting the very last of her things in place.  She's happy to be living in her "own house" with four of her best friends from high school.  I hope they remain friends after living together for a year ;)

 

Good luck!!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy