Tea Cup & Mug Exchange - Fall Edition

I joined Stephanie of The Enchanting Rose for her very special Tea Cup & Mug Exchange again this fall. This is the second time I've participated in this fun exchange. Thank you so much Stephanie for hosting! 

What's not to love about this exchange. You get to collect together a mug or teacup and some goodies to send to a new friend, and you in turn receive something from another. This fall I was given the name of Andrea of Saskatchewan to send a mug. Andrea has a beautiful blog My Everything Corner and I quickly looked her up and read quite a few of her posts to get to know her a little bit more. Since it was close to Thanksgiving here, and the fact that she made a note that she "loves pumpkins", my task was a relatively simple one. Here's a sneak peak of what I sent to Andrea, although you can visit her to see more.

When my own parcel arrived in the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was sent from Stephanie herself! I was quite honoured to have received the package from the organizer of this well-run exchange. The box was beautifully put together, even on the outside! When you receive something that has been packaged so creatively, you know there are going to be good things inside :)

There were lots of pretty details throughout with the packaging and the gifts themselves. There was a predominant theme of autumn in everything that Stephanie sent. There was even maple leaf and pumpkin confetti sprinkled generously inside the box ... so cute! Every time I pulled another item out of the box, a flutter of confetti came out as well :) 

As you most likely know Stephanie does some beautiful sewing, and I was so very, very happy to receive some of her handmade items. First were her signature teacup coasters in fall colours ...

I love all the special details Stephanie adds to the smallest of items. Don't you love that lace and those yo-yo flowers with pretty button centres?

Next an adorable mug rug with a beautiful little pocket  holding a vintage serviette and a packet of green tea.

A close-up of the shabby flower ... can you see 3:00?

This is my friend Judith's afternoon tea time ... "always make time for tea", says Judith ... 

seeing this clock made me smile :)

Isn't the serviette so delicate? I love vintage things, particularly linens.

Look how prettily this tea towel was wrapped!

When opened up, it's a very generous size of thick cotton. I do quite a bit hand washing with my favourite dishes (I have quite a few dishes that just don't belong in the dishwasher), 

so this will come in very handy.

Beautiful sunflower details and brown rick-rack ribbon across the bottom.

It's more fun to dry dishes with something pretty, don't you think?

And a tea wallet! 

These come in so handy when you visit someone's house where tea is not 

the hot drink of choice (or you just want to bring your favourite tea with you!).

It's so beautifully made! I love your work Stephanie ;)

And look at the details of pretty ribbon and yo-yo flower ... lovely.

Inside are lots of lace (beautiful lace!) pockets to store your favourite tea 

... mine being Earl Grey.

The personal card from Stephanie had a recipe on the back for cinnamon rolls, which I will be trying sometime soon (yummy cinnamon!). The card came together with a matching recipe card for me to write a special recipe on it. I'm still thinking of which recipe to choose, and then I'll put it in my recipe box.

... again, it's the details that I loved ...

But it wasn't all handmade items. Here is a beautiful pumpkin plate that we used for our Thanksgiving dinner. I had made a pumpkin pie for dessert, but added some cookies to the table as well using this plate. It got lots of comments!

Isn't it pretty? I love that shade of green.

Some of the cookies I served at Thanksgiving were also provided by Stephanie!

Inside the paper bag were packets of more Earl Grey tea ... yummmm!

Here's the pumpkin pie I made ;)

Stephanie also sent these two beautiful decorative pumpkins ... so adorable!

I added them to my pumpkin display on a small side table for Thanksgiving dinner.

All these pumpkins have been gracing our kitchen table since then.

The beautiful glass pumpkin was a birthday gift from my daughter this year.

And last but definitely not least, is the adorable mug! 

I'm glad that owls are so popular lately because I have always loved owls, 

and now I see them everywhere!

Isn't he sweet?

And on the reverse side are some sunny sunflowers!

A beautiful mug for fall :)

Once again, thank you so much for everything Stephanie! 

I was quite in awe of all that you sent my way!

Everything is beautiful and very much appreciated!

Be sure to stop by The Enchanting Rose 

to see what others have been sending through the mail for this exciting exchange.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Wendy

the whole kit and kaboodle

Queen of Hearts Costume

As I mentioned a while ago, my daughter decided to make a Queen of Hearts costume for Halloween. It's all finished now, and she has raced back to see her friends in their old university town to celebrate Halloween tonight.

She found the inspiration for the costume on Pinterest, and if you search for Queen of Hearts yourself, you'll see all kinds of variations for this costume ... even zombified! The zombie queens were just a little too horrific for either of us, and she (thankfully) opted for something more fun.

My daughter made the top bodice portion by gluing playing cards over a tank top she bought at the thrift store for $3. She put the tank top on, and then using a glue gun started gluing the cards in place all around. I didn't help with any of that part, and she says she only burnt herself slightly once. ouch! I honestly forgot to ask her how she managed to glue the cards on the back, but maybe she took the top off to do them. Some people used only red cards, or only red heart cards, but my daughter decided she wanted both the black and red cards. Once she got to her natural waist, she first folded the cards in half cross-wise before gluing them on. This flared the cards outwards and gave her a little comfort to sit down.

She left a vertical space down the back where I was asked to cut the tank top from top to bottom. Then she punched holes in the cards and the tank top together down both sides of that cut. The holes were a little rough looking, and I begged her to let me make some buttonholes on the sewing machine before she even started gluing the cards on. But! (and you may already know this) kids can be stubborn when they just want to do things themselves. The argument grew, and finally her also-stubborn mother realized it probably didn't matter, and left her to work on it her way.

Once all the holes were punched, she took some grosgrain ribbon and threaded it through the holes on each side like a shoe. This lacing enables you to get the top on and off. She left two feet of extra lace on each side to help get this part opened up again. Some of the holes in the cards did rip, so she just reinforced all the punched cards with duct tape wrapped along the edge (both front & back).

I was left to sew the skirt, which was supposed to be "tutu" style. I have never sewn a tutu, and I don't think it turned out exactly as she had hoped. But it's only a costume for the night, and it's done, and I hope I am never asked to sew another costume again.

Here's the final result ...

You can see that the skirt didn't flare out like a proper tutu, and I think I maybe didn't use the right fabric for that.

My daughter also made this rose from playing cards following a tutorial she found on Pinterest and glued it onto a wooden skewer. I think it looks great!

I quickly made this "brooch" from some leftover lace. Seeing it now I think it would look better with some sparkly red jewel glued to the centre. We just hot glued this directly onto her costume.

And that's it!

Of course I left the finishing of this skirt to the very last minute, and had troubles with it (doing the gathers the gathering thread kept breaking!). I spent all day working on it from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and had had quite enough of it by then. If anything could go wrong, it did! Glad it's done and she's happy with it ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Subtle Fall

The fall colours in my neighbourhood have been lacking this year. I guess with the warm, humid weather continuing up until a couple of weeks ago, it has affected the strength of colours. When I look out my windows it's still predominantly green with just subtle hues of colour.

Earlier this week I took the kids down to our local marsh for an enjoyable walk along the trail and to get a few fall colour shots, such as they are.

Kids look so tiny in the woods ...

There were a few nice bird sightings. Nuthatches are so fast! that I only got one good shot of him, even though I snapped about six!

The turkeys are back in the piney woods ... all ready for a free handout.

 

They don't think I see them ;)

 

This short video has the chickadees eating seeds from my hand. It makes me laugh because all I can hear is the little girl in my care saying "a little bird on my head" when a chickadee landed on her head. She's so good and didn't panic, but kept repeating it over and over ;)

A bright cardinal heard the commotion when we stopped to feed the chickadees, but he refused to leave the safety of all these red branches.

The Canada Geese are always busy down at the marsh. Most of these birds will winter here now. When the temperatures suddenly drop however, it triggers in their tiny brains a faint memory of flying south and they flock together, honk together, cause great commotion and then forget where they're supposed to go.

 

Although the colours were subtle, some of the scenery looked like a painting with a faint haze in the air.

Loved the sweep of these bare branches (below) ...

The faint colours are still nice close up ...

Lots of vines heavy with grapes and other berries. I was surprised the birds hadn't already devoured these ...

Far too quickly it was time to head home again. Although I love being able to take the kids out with me on these little outings, I just want to keep going, going, going, but these little guys run out of steam quickly. A group of hikers were in the parking lot when we started out, and they marched passed us on the trail already heading back! I think I would be bored walking in such regimental style. When we got back to the parking lot they were all doing their cooling down exercises before hopping back in their vehicles. 

This little mallard is sporting his new fall pin ... all the girls thought he was special.

Thanks for stopping by today!