Tea today is actually in a battered old mug, sitting by my computer, steaming hot with my fav, Raspberry Zinger.
I wanted to share the tea set that I have been collecting for over 5 years, which I shared in one of my first tea posts. The pattern is called Sweet Pea, it is a vintage chintz pattern that was made by Royal Winton in the 30’s. The tea pot style is called Albans, there were several styles available in this pattern and there were two different cup styles, and two different cream and sugar bowls. Other items that were made are a pitcher, salt and pepper shakers, sandwich plate (shown in the back) toast rack, nut bowl, candy dish and a covered butter dish.

I fell in love with this pattern after discovering that my grandmother had one piece, a covered butter dish, which I inherited. Actually it came to me by default, my mother and sister thought that it was hideous. I cherished it, we used it for special occasions, with the pretty little summer flowers brightening up the table.
One day a friend came over for tea and I invited her to pick out her tea cup from the china cabinet. I am sure you can guess from the image below that a little bit of a fiasco happened.
Nobody’s fault, I just had stacked a plate incorrectly and it slipped down, pushing the pieces in front of it along the shelf and onto the floor. The butter dish sitting prominently was hit first, taking this lovely little tea cup that had also been my grandmothers. Unusually enough only the bottom portion of the butter dish smashed, the top potion is resting fully intact at the back of the photo.
To say that my heart was a little crushed does not really cover my feelings at the moment, but being the lady that my grandmother taught me to be, I continued to entertain, and we had a lovely rest of the day. Afterwords I went on a quest that took me several years and several undisclosed dollars to find a replacement butter dish.
Along the way I discovered the other wonderful items that were made with this pattern. I made several wonderful connections with people from all over the world, Canada, England and Scotland, with the butter dish coming all the way from Australia. One sugar and creamer came from Florida (perhaps from a transplanted snow bird).
I eventually would like to find someone who cuts the pieces and puts them into a bezel and have a bracelet made. But for now I have recached the smashed and trashed into a bit of art with the help of Gimp photo imaging program.

Cubanism

Woven

Oils
A few weeks ago Patty left me a lovely quote and I would like to share it with you:
“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they fill the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.” ~Barbara Bloom
Thank you for stopping by, and glad to have you all in my life, I truly enjoy visiting you, and look forward to my Tuesday Tea with friends. Please join Kimmie and the rest of the group!
Christen