A Message from Ruth at Antiques And Teacups

Welcome to the blog of Antiques And Teacups! Let's share a cup of tea and talk about the things we love...like teacups, antiques, collectibles, visiting England, antiquing and learning about victoriana and quirky gadgets. Fun!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, O'Auld Lang Syne, Hogmanay, Happy New Year!



And a Happy New Year to you! We always take time on New Year's Eve to pray for God's blessing for the coming year and thank Him for His grace through the ending year. This has been a difficult year for many, and we are praying for His grace and mercy as we move into 2014. It just seems the fitting way for us to end one year and begin another...


New Year's Eve...the last one...in London, with the London Eye....


In England and other areas of the UK, especially in Scotland where Hogmanay is celebrated from Dec. 31st until Jan. 1st (known as Ne'erday) as the New Year's tradition, one of the old traditions is called First Footing. 


The First Footer refers to the first person who crosses the threshhold after midnight and "seals yer fate" for the coming year. The First Footer should be a tall, dark and handsome man with a "dainty foot" and come with certain things:


Until the First Footer came in the front door after midnight, no one should enter or leave. The First Footer would knock, be asked to enter and do so with gifts in his pockets which have regional variations. The usual in my family's tradition was bread or sometimes salt, coal, coins and matches. In Scotland the bread is shortbread and also included...what else? Whiskey! The First Footer then backs out of the door...so he won't take his good luck with him. Then the door (and the party) is free for all! 

The coal means your hearth won't grow cold, your bread is enough food, the coins insure prosperity and the matches, light.

First Footers who met the criteria, were in great demand and could make good money going from house to house by appointment. I don't know how many do so today, although a Scots neighbor said the gifts nowadays are more likely whiskey!


So who will be first through your door??? I know who will be first in our home, as He will never have left! A Happy New Year to you all and may 2012 be a year of health, prosperity, peace and happiness in our home and in yours!



Now on to the first Tuesday Cuppa Tea for 2014! In keeping with the New Year celebrations...

 I found this old cup...no saucer, just a cup...with the verse O'Auld Lang Syne on it.



The cup is in the Romantic Staffordshire style, and I haven't researched the blue transferware pattern yet. 



The cup was made by Wedgwood, England between 1891 and 1900 according to the mark.  The verse comes from a poem by Robert Burns who wrote it in 1788. It has become such a staple of New Year celebrations all over the English speaking world, and has been translated into thousands of languages.


So, with the help of some antique post cards, I wish you the happiest and most prosperous and healthy of New Years!



Monday Marketplace
Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday
Teatime Tuesday
Tea With Celia
Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness
Tea On Tuesday
Miss Kathy ~http://www.thewritersreverie.com/
Tuesday Tea       
Tea On Tuesday
Time For Tea
Tuesday Tea Time
Tea On Tuesday
Bernideen’s ~ http://blog.bernideens.com/
Tea In The Garden Tuesday
Lavender Cottage  Tea Time
Tea In Texas
Playing With My Camera Teatime           
Tuesday Blog Shop
Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

What’s It Wednesday                                           

Home On Wednesday

Sunday, December 22, 2013

LATE...didn't work..., Christmas Mug, Covent Garden Snow Globe, Merry Christmas!


I had this post scheduled to post on 12/22, but it never posted! RATS!!! So I am posting it anyway...late...but the link up will probably not work...not to worry...posting my regular Tuesday Cuppa Tea New Year's post tomorrow...have been out of town for Christmas, and hope yours were wonderful!


Welcome to the last post before Christmas! Isn't that amazing? I hope you have enjoyed the run up to this very special day as much as we have...this is really my favorite time of year!



The biggest problem is there is never time enough to do everything, and be everywhere we want to to celebrate...but we try!!!



I felt like sharing mugs today...as I have been handing out a lot of them filled with hot chocolate over the last few days! The Jesus mug and the English Robin mug are from my collection, and the Santa mug is from Antiques And Teacups. Click on the photos of that for more info...



This is my favorite Christmas mug. The mug dates to 1975 when we gave our lives to Christ and became Christians, and suddenly the holiday took on so much more meaning for us. I treasure this ceramic mug, and a large round cookie tray I have from then as well as a reminder of our first Christmas as Christians.




This mug with it's cheeky little bone china English robin mug came to live at our home about 5 years ago. The mug is by Dunoon, England and is such a favorite. It came from a set of 3 holiday mugs called Seasons Greetings. I LOVE English robins, who are very different than American robins...but that's for another post, maybe in January.

The next mug is also by Dunoon, England and from the same series, Seasons Greetings, but features Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as he is called in the UK...







What a cheerful guy! So cute! That'll keep your tea and hot chocolate warm with the sentiments of the season!

And on that note, I want to share photos from one of my favorite places in London, both to just wander around and enjoy as well as attending the weekly antique markets on Monday and Friday, if I remember correctly...Covent Garden . 


Once a rural center for fruit, flowers and vegetable trading...as well as more human wares, Covent Garden is now a more sophisticated and genteel home by theaters of famous restaurants, shops , cafes and a outdoor as well as indoor entertainment. The first photos are from me...taken on a visit in May...




with a unicycling juggler and the little boy he plucked from the audience to help him... and here are the same sights decorated for Christmas...










They are also famous for decorating for Christmas. the Lego corporation chose Covent Garden to build their wonderful Christmas snow globe of London this year....







You can see the London Eye and Parliament with Big Ben in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Tower. How fun! These photos of the snow globe are by Lego for the top one, and by a friend in the UK who sent the others to me. They are so fun!



And where you can still get roasted chestnuts from the street vendors....



And with the warmth and welcome of this fresh fruit wreath from Sunset magazine  I just want to again wish the the merriest and happiest of Christmases and holidays, and for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year...as prosperous in your heart and soul as we are blessed in our pockets and freedoms!



Please join the following wonderful blogs. I so appreciate your comments, but again, because of the season I will be SLOW responding...The linky is also there for your tea related posts. 
Cheers!
Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday
Teatime Tuesday
Tea With Celia
Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness
Tea On Tuesday
Miss Kathy ~http://www.thewritersreverie.com/
Tuesday Tea       
Tea On Tuesday
Time For Tea
Tuesday Tea Time
Tea On Tuesday
Bernideen’s ~ http://blog.bernideens.com/
Tea In The Garden Tuesday
Lavender Cottage  Tea Time
Tea In Texas
Playing With My Camera Teatime           
Tuesday Blog Shop
Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

What’s It Wednesday                                           
Home On Wednesday
 Coloradolady  ~ http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/
Vintage Thingie Thursday
 Mrs. Olson ~  http://jannolson.blogspot.com/
Share Your Cup Thursday
Tea Time Thursday
Pink Saturday

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Cross Stitch For Christmas, Antique Christmas Postcards and No Holly For Miss Quinn by Miss Read, more...

Hi there. I have scheduled this post, which is an experiment for me. It SHOULD post on Wednesday, Dec. 17th...I am just gonna see if it works! Being in the midst of Christmas festivities, I hope it works!



I am not a quilter, I used to sew and don't anymore, have tried crochet and knitting but can;t keep the stitches or gauge even, but I have a long history with cross stitch, which I love and find it so relaxing! I have a number of Christmas themed cross stitches that I would like to share with you, that go back to the 1970s. The one above is an old fashioned Christmas sampler that I did when we lived in a 1897 Victorian "shotgun" house in California...it was called shotgun, because supposedly you could open the front door and blast a shotgun straight through and out the back door without hitting any walls. The rooms were all one side or the other of a central hall through the house...true...



This next cross stitch sampler is  my Country Christmas Sampler I made while we were living in the mountains at 5,000 feet at a lake in the Lassen National Forest. About this time, we, and the adjoining little town of Westwood, had a boycott of PG&E when they tried to raise the electric rates 45%. We all organized and everyone turned off their power for a week. Mind you, there was 6 feet of snow at the time, but we were hardy folk back then...read a lot younger and less tied to media back then.  It was actually fun! Almost everyone had wood heat, so you melted snow for water and cooked on the wood stove, and lit your home with candles and kerosene lamps. It was November, and we had communal meals and had lots of musicians and games and had a ball! PG&E backed down and cancelled the rate increase after 6 days, as they felt we could go on for quite awhile...which we could have. Hooray!!! We made the national news with a headline of Mountain David whoops PG&E Goliath....cool!




The photo didn't turn out well on this...oh well. Anyway, a barefoot angel with hearts...sorta reminded my of Mary Englebreit....



And the last larger Christmas one I've done for awhile...been doing ornaments for gifts and package tags lately...like these angel cats....





do you have a collection of crafts you've done over the years that come out a Christmas or another holiday??



These are 2 antique Christmas postcards that I love. The one above is a lovely embossed English village scene from 1909, and the one below has a lovely verse from 1929....



A wish for your
gladness
As Christmas bells ring,
And all the bright blessings
These holidays bring.

Certainly my sentiments for you today. Now I am planning to sit down with a favorite Christmas themed book called No Holly For Miss Quinn by Miss Read...


Have you read Miss Read? Fabulous books centered around several Cotswold villages and their schools and inhabitants covering the Victorian era to the 1960s and absolutely charming. They engender a nostalgia...in me for the times and places my family lived and our families still do live. They are a wonderful window on the vanished or vanishing England and are a cozy, warm and restful series of books with endearing characters. Miss Read is the pseudonym of a retired school teacher, Dorthea Saint. I LOVE these books!


I want to post this for you crafty people with a crocheted tea cozy to be working on for next year....Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer! You can get the pattern HERE at a site called Craftsy.






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