I'm baaacckk!!! Whew...a few months with NOTHING because it's been so hectic!

We moved home & business at the end of Sept. from Oregon to Washington to the top of the Olympic Peninsula. We are just across the Strait of San Juan De Fuca from Victoria, BC and the San Juan Islands, just to the west of the Puget Sound.

We have a great location and more warehouse which is very good, as now I can actually find some of the crates from our last English buying trip.

We had our first snow on the surrounding Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park just to the south of us. It's beautiful. And having lived for years at 5,000 feet with lots of snow it's great to have it up THERE.

We have the office and photo room set up and have gotten back in the groove with photographing great items for the websites. We have almost 2,000 items online at Time Was Antiques at http://www.timewasantiques.net
and will be adding more every day.

VICTORIA Magazine is Back!!!! My favorite for years until 2002, I think has been republished. You can see more info online at http://www.victoriamag.com/
We are so excited. Like meeting a close friend you haven't seen in a while and realizing just how much you have missed her.

We are part of a cooperative full page ad in Victoria by one of the other publications I advertise in, Tea House Times. You can visit them at http://www.teahousetimes.com.

So, we are back on track and excited about the coming holidays. I have gourds, autumn leaves and red candles on the table and am enjoying the crisp air and the anticipation of new traditions to establish in our new hometown.

Pull up a chair, fix a cup of tea or hot cider and browse our fine English antiques and collectibles at http://www.timewasantiques.net.

BACK TO REALITY AFTER ENGLISH BUYING TRIP

I've been awol for a bit. A combo of allergies and an annual buying trip to England. But am back, recovered from jetlag and back to listing fab items for Time Was Antiques.

The trip was fun and featured a lot of walking and shopping in different venues. The last week of the trip was in London in unseasonably gorgeous weather in the 60-70s. We hit the various daily antique markets and this photo is from the Saturday antiques market at Portobello Rd by Notting Hill in London. If you have claustrophobia or enochlophobia (fear of crowds) you don't belong there!!!! It's always the most packed, and amazing at what a mass of humanity can be packed into 4 blocks between shops and street stalls, and how much STUFF! Valuable to junk. Amazing! This year though, prices were up, variety was down and we came away with less than usual. Sigh...

I've got London pictures at the moment. A bit out of order for the trip, but haven't gotten to the other to transfer/upload from my laptop.

We also spent 2 days between/after markets being London tourists and walking the north & south banks of the Thames on the Thames path which is always fabulous, especially in the good weather we had. We did the British Airways London Eye which we tend to do every year or so. Love it for great views of the city.

As for the stock we purchased, we have started adding what we brought home with us in our carryons. Because we flew back on Maxjet (http://www.maxjet.com) an all business class airline at an incredible price, they didn't weigh our carryons so we were able to cram a lot in. The rest is starting to arrive as well.

So we have added/adding British royal commemoratives, Shelley China, small silver items like knife rests and sugar tongs, motto ware, china and lots of interesting things. Quite fun. It's neat to remember as you unpack them where you found them. Like reliving the trip. Awesome.
New items can be seen at:
http://www.timewasantiques.net


Back to listing on a gorgeous day in southern Oregon. Supposed to be high 70s which is about perfect! Plan to first go to the weekly Grower's Market for some organic produce thena cup of tea and a pastry with my DH in the park then back to work!!!
Have a great day!
Ruth

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's 2007, and we have drawn our winner for the Time Was Tea Time Gift Pack. We want to congratulate Alan L. of California whose name was drawn from all of our customers during the months of November and December 2006. Alan's gift pack was shipped today.

We will be announcing a new drawing in our next newsletter. I have to decide what it should be!

We want to thank all of our customers for a great year and many new friends. I had tea the other day with a local customer and very much enjoyed having a customer become a fried. We plan to meet for tea again. We had a lot in common and had a great time.

We are planning our annual buying trip to England and will be leaving the US on the 13th of April. We will only be gone 3 weeks this time instead of the usual month because of other committments, but let us know if you have anything we should be looking for for you.

Have a great week. Our kids & grandkids are in town for the next few days so we will be busy having a fun time with family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's Christmas eve and everything is quiet. The winds have died down and it's cozy by the fire with my Honey watching football with the cat on his lap.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve morning service at Ashland Christian Fellowship with a 4 person bagpipe group doing their annual traditional Christmas fanfare, then the kds, then lots of carols, hugs and best wishes.

Lunch/dinner with friends and a sigh that the hectic Christmas shopping period is over for another year. We actually had a SUPER year and are very grateful for the wonderful notes we have received from our customers. Thank you!

Tomorrow we report for duty at the Historic Ashland Armory to help at the 16th annual Christmas dinner given by our church to the community. It's free, all are welcome and we will be serving from noon to 4 PM. We usually serve 500-1,000. Last year we were with the kids in Salt Lake City but will enjoy helping this year.

As for Time Was Antiques we will be hard at work adding lots of new items. We recently acquired an estate collection of knife rests from England so we are adding those as well as lots of new teacups and saucers, linens, costume jewelry and lots of goodies!
Have a blessed day celebrating tomorrow.
Ruth

King Tut Egyptian Jewelry Sale

Happy Monday. I'm blogging while Honey is watching Monday Night Football. It's pouring down rain but we are cozy and warm with a fire.

Want to announce that we have just put all our remaining vintage 1974 Egyptian jewelry on sale that was made for the 1974 King Tut Exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate park, San Francisco, California. It sat in a safe from 1975 until the King Tut Exhibit came back last year. We still have cloisonne enamel pieces and only a few 14kt gold or sterling silver pieces left, and they are all on sale at 15% off for Christmas gift giving.

You can see them at http://www.timewasantiques.net

Watched The Two Towers from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy on TV last night. Have seen the other 2 but had somehow missed the middle one. Had read the books to the kids are they were growing up and they loved them. I was wondering how they were going to handle the Ents. Pretty fun. A lot bloodier than the book, where I tended to skim the gory battle scenes.

Tomorrow we plan to watch our favorite Christmas musical Scrooge made in the 1970s with Albert Finney doing the best Scrooge in my opinion. Great bit of holiday cheer. Hope you have finished your shopping...I haven't! I'm going to go order some gift cards now for the grandsons.

Ruth

Well it's sunny today and we had our BEST EVER day yesterday. Mucho items to good homes for the holidays! Today I'm a bit tired. Hoped to finish the Christmas decorationg yesterday but..maybe today.

My honey has been down all week with a cold but is feeling better today so I am happy. Cat isn't, she liked a permanent lap. My Honey found some football (soccer) on while he wasn't feeling the best and that was a good think to do when you're ailing.

Want to remind everyone that it's not too late to enter our Time Was Tea Time Gift Pack drawing. All of our customers who purchase items on the Time Was Antiques family of webstores are entered to win in a random drawing Jan. 1, 2007. That's a photo of it above. You can read more about what's in the gift pack at:

http://www.timewasantiques.com

in the Special Offers section.

Antique Jewelry Sale

Hi. Just to let you know that this week's Up To Christmas sale is 10% OFF on all antique and vintage jewelry of all carats of gold, silver, costume jewelry, pocket watch fobs and medals. That's a whole bunch! Add a little glitz & bling to your holidays!

Just purchase at http://www.timewasantiques.net and we'll adjust the price to reflect the discount.

Other than that, the sun is shining again, although it's in the low 20s at night and the holiday shopping season is in full swing. We have sold out of our luxury Holly Christmas crackers and only have 5 boxes left of the jewel color Raj crackers. I don't think you can have a holiday feast without one, and the Raj bright colors are great for New Years dinners too. FUN! And a link with victorian and English traditions as well.

We're off to brunch and then are seeing a favorite local band, The Trail Band, do their Christmas With The Trail Band concert matinee which has become an annual event for us. It really is great music, message and holiday cheer.

Have a great day!

Ruth