Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Hello Teapot, Cornishware Teacup, Christmas At Sandringham

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed your Boxing Day. We watched all of the season 1 episodes of Downton Abbey on PBS last night back to back and are looking forward to season 2. A bit disappointed as the UK saw a Christmas special from the cast...but not here in the colonies!

 My teacup for Tuesday Cuppa Tea with Antiques And Teacups is a T G Green blue and white Cornishware cup and saucer that was made in the 1980s. Cornishware has been an English kitchen staple for years. This particular design was by Judith Onions and is a bit of a different shape from the traditional cylinder. Kinda different! I love Cornishware!

And staying on the blue theme, this is such a cute teapot! Price Kensington, more famous for their Cottageware, made this funny little teapot in the 1970s. I think it's really funny! I love the hands and nose with the bug eyes peeking over the teapot rim! To see more of the teapot or teacup at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

I have taken a bit of time off the last few days when all the holiday prep and shipping of purchases slowed down to read a bit. There are several books with holiday themes I reread...some of which I have talked about in previous posts. This is one that seems to be in the must read swasonal pile:

 
I love so called Village Cosy mysteries, and if you do but haven't read this series by a Canadian from Prince Edward Island, CC Benison...(maybe that's Sandi of Rose Chintz in disguise???) you might want to find them. The heroine is a Canadian housemaid at Buckingham Palace who stumbles on...sometimes quite literally...a murder and with the help of Queen Elizabeth II, they solve the mystery. 

Death At Sandringham House, where the Royal family always spends the Christmas holidays in Norfolk is the setting for this one and involves the Queen solving, with the help of housemaid Jane Bee, the murder of an actress in a local pantomime dresser up as her majesty...with the addition of the Duchess Of Windsor's missing tiara on her Hermes scarf.  The fun of these mysteries is they are all set at one or the other of the royal palaces. Having been to the ones in question, the descriptions are dead on...of the public rooms at least, the only ones I have toured...including Buck House during the Queen's absence in summer. They are also very funny books.

I was especially interested in Sandringham House this year because of the heart problems of Prince Philip which caused him to have to miss the festivities. It was also  Kate's first Christmas with Prince William at Sandgringham with the royal family, and she looked wonderful!

photo Mailonline.com

Have a wonderful time visiting the tea related blogs, some of which are listed below. If you missed my Boxing Day blog post with a Boxing Day Hunt video of with the Queen's annual message, they can be found in the 2 older posts below.

Cheers!

Ruth ~ http://antiquesandteacups.blogspot.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Wanda Lee~  http://silkenpurse.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Pam~  http://breathoffreshair-paperbutterfly.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Wanda Lee~  http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/ 
Tea For Two and Wednesday Tea For Me and Thee

Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
Tea Party Tuesday

Lady Katherine~  http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/ 
Teatime Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Bernideen’s ~ http://bernideensteatimeblog.blogspot.com

Friends Sharing Tea Wednesday

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday 

Cold Snap in England...York Christmas Fayre...Plum Pudding Teapot

There have been record amounts of snow and cold temperatures in the UK...there was just a BBBc article about travelers being stranded for 8 days in North Yorkshire because of snow...but at least it was at a pub! Pub Stranding.

This little photo is my favorite so far...it's off a BBC web page & doesn't enlarge, but you get the idea.

We got up in April during a buying trip in the Cotswolds one April morning and found 8 inches of snow had fallen overnight. We were lived in snow country at that time, but the rental but the rental car had normal tires. We had a 3 hour drive to the West Midlands to family on our for our next round of antique fairs near Stoke-on-Trent and the trip took up 9 hours. We thought we were going to get stuck going through one of our favorite villages, Snowshill (on a hill amidst winding, narrow roads as it's name implies) but made it through...next obstacle was lots of cars off the road & traffic accidents through the bottleneck bridge of Stratford-on-Avon. Were we glad to get to family in Erdington!!!  Had great photos, but my laptop crashed a week late in Worcester & I lost all my photos!

 One of the favorite things to do in the York area in Northern England is attend the York Christmas Fayre. The family was going this weekend, haven't heard if they did. But I'd planned on posting links to the sites because they are so much fun to look at and see what's going on "across the pond". York is an historic cathedral town and LOVELY to visit and shop in if your are looking for antiques. Lots of fairs, small shops & markets.

Yuletide York 
Christmas In York

Last night we went to the Christmas concert of the Peninsula Men's Gospel Singers which was outstanding. Well done guys! The O Holy Night was truly outstanding and Michael Rivers did a spectacular job of prep and conducting. Thanks for that Christmas gift!

We are off this afternoon after church to another local theater production Meet Me In St Louis by the Port Angeles Community Players for their Christmas show. Should be a lot of fun. The movie version is famous for Judy Garland singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

And lastly...another bit of holiday cheer we've just added at Time Was Antiques...a vintage Price Kensington plum pudding teapot. It even has the snocap of brandy sauce or hard sauce on top with the holly sprig! How cool is that!
Plum Pudding Teapot


Have a wonderful day, filled with the joys of the holiday season enjoying things you love to do! Cheers...oh, and cuppatea, anyone???