The Eccentric Tea Party. It's finally here!

What a beautiful evening for a tea party!

When I read about A Fanciful Twist's Mad Hatter Tea Party 2010 http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/

I knew I just had to join in the fun with all the other bloggers.

I have a little wonderland in my backyard where I have a little bristo table with a chandelier along with my wonderful swing. I spend many hours escaping life's stresses here in my wonderland.

We all need a bit of fantasy in our lives, don't you think?

Oh! I am so excited to bring you along. Well, come on lets go through here...

Oh My! here is the doorknob...




And the key! OH, look at the cobwebs, I haven't been here for a while.

Look! look over there. Here we are!




Oh, what a lovely setting. Everything is waiting for us. And it is so pretty.

Look at the table cloth. and the chandelier!
Oh the cups are so cute, and the napkins. Ummm, look at the truffles!

Oh Dear, Here I go again, forgetting my manners. Just rambling on and on. Oh, Well, ah, my, here, have a seat won't you.


Look at the lovely cupcakes baked by http://theunseasonedchef.blogspot.com/

they look so delicious! She is so talented. ;)

Oh Dear! What time is it?

Is anyone else coming?

I wonder?

I hope they are not late!

OK Mr. Rabbit, we will have a cupcake and cookies.

Why must you always be in such a hurry?

Well..... there is that Cheshire Cat. He is such a nuisance. Does he look funny to you?

That cookie did have a different flavor. Oh My...


Here, lets have a spot of tea. Tea always makes everything better!

Have another cup cake too. UMMM


The Mad Hatter is hiding but I see his bike.


Oh, there he is. He is sulking because he couldn't find his good top hat, but I like this one with his skin tone. Don't you agree?



"Sigh" I am getting rather tired. I think I will lie down on the swing and take a nap, then I will finish my book about Mr. Lewis Carroll. He is such an interesting man with such silly stories. I just don't know where he gets them.

Good night all, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Remember to visit all the other parties. Maybe I'll see you there!

Charleston close-up

One of my favorite things is to walk through Charleston S.C. photographing things close-up that just says "Charleston" to me. This is how I bring a bit of this beautiful city home with me.

A walk through the neighborhood

Garden urn

fennel

garden cherub

iron gate

These images will be available in my Etsy store Sunday March 28th

Have a great weekend!

Busy Weekend!

Last week I helped my friend pick out and place plants in her new landscaping area in front of her new house. This weekend we went out for a great lunch at a cute and very good tea room. They have a store and that was trouble for my friend. She made a few purchases that were pushing the budget, but they were so cute! Well, after lunch we decided to go look for pumpkins and such for our porches.

This is my front porch at my studio door. Just a few of the things I picked up. I love decorating for Fall.

Doesn't this look like a duck?

How about my Mocha Mum, whipped cream!

I have a few other decorating things I have done lately so I thought I'd share them with you coz my family think I'm nuts. Especially my husband!

I found this awesomely made nest in my backyard! I knew I had to do something with it. I mean, this bird worked so hard on her home! Then, while on several walks with Cooper (who by the way, is laying beside me on the couch and on my lap trying hard to push this laptop onto the floor! I'm having a really hard time typing with my left arm on his head.) anyway, I found the cool feathers and these wonderfully marked rocks! Are they not the coolest?

So I added it to the top of my bookcase.

Now I must digress back to the lunch. On our way home we saw a garage sale. Woo Hoo, Got to love bargain hunting and this was the ultimate garage sale find! There were two old wooden rustic garden benches that I knew would be perfect for her porch. Did I mention that she had nothing on the porch and it NEEDED STUFF! Also did I mention I love spending other peoples money as much as I like finding bargains? Well these benches go for around $20 to $40 around here at antique shows so when the guy said one was 1 and one was 2 we weren't sure we heard right. We snatched those babies up plus she got a few other things, I forget what coz I was busy spying this great old book and fake, but very real looking, dried roses. My purchase $2.00!

Look at that book! I just love the cover! and the inside page. I love this! Why don't we have beautiful printing in our books today? I am so excited to own this precious piece of history.

Then... I looked inside to the next page and saw this inscription!

1899! and this book cost .25! I am loving the new additions to my living room!

On we go...

Well we stopped at a few other garage sales back in our town and got more cute stuff but we needed more stuff for her porch so we went to Flower Factory. I said we'd try to only spend 30.00 more dollars! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you how I justified her purchases to her husband and how we could spend more. One of the items she got at that cute shop at the restaurant were new valances for her front hall. Cost, $37.00. Really a good deal actually but she had valances. (They were ugly!) She had to get these cute new ones. Any way, after we found those 2 benches for $3.00 that could have cost her $40.00, I pointed out her valances were basically free! A wash! Then after buying a rod iron bench for the foot of her bed that was priced at $50.00 and I bargained it down to $40.00. I saved her lots so we could spend a bit more to make her porch perfect.

Well, 2 hours later we had everything we needed!

Whew, Cooper finally got down. My arm was killing me.

I wish I had, had my camera with me to capture the perfectness of her porch but I wasn't planning on blogging about it. Sorry I was to lazy to get in my car and drive to her home for photos once I decided to blog this story.

I found a few things for me too so I photographed them instead.

This is my enchanted garden area where I have hung a chandler I found earlier this summer along with some other candle holders. Well I found the perfect candles to fit in the holders! These were the only ones this size and color!

As we were leaving to go to lunch I was looking at the tree in the front yard and thought I needed something for it. Well, low and behold I found this great chandelier for $5.00! Unbelievable!

Well this is my sanctuary where I spend my time when I am not working and this is why I don't get my blog up dated. Alas, the Fall will be over soon and to cold to hang out there and I must cease the day while it last! I'll try to be more faithful once the temperatures get colder and I won't be shopping any more real soon with my friend...Her husband has band us from being together for awhile.

Have a great Fall and take time to really see the beauty around you!