June Bouquet China

June Bouquet by Duchess

"Fine Bone China Made in England" 

I purchased this June Bouquet tea service for four

in a china shop in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2002

during one of our memorable trips to England.

I have four teacup and saucer trios, an open sugar bowl and milk jug

and the pretty teapot.

(I also purchased an extra carry-on to bring it to the USA.)

I enjoy using the tea set any time, but especially in June each year.

 

U.S. 25 Yard Sale Weekend

 

US 25 was established in 1926 as a part of the original United States 

Numbered Highway System that ran for 750 miles from Brunswick, GA to the Ohio state

 line in Covington, KY.  In addition to GA and KY, it ran through TN, NC, and SC.

In addition, there is US 25E and US 25W, both running through KY and TN.

Interstate 75 parallels US 25 through Kentucky including our town of Berea.

This past weekend, June 3, 4 and 5 was the tenth U.S. 25 Yard Sale,

held annually the first weekend of June.

There were many yard sales held in our county along the highway.

I no longer participate in, or attend yard sales, known as "yard sale'in" 

but about 15 years ago, I saw an advertisement in the local newspaper 

for a yard sale in a nearby town with English teapots.

I purchased the two Sadler teapots in the photos here and a few decorative items.

These are 4-cup teapots. The classic round shape of these teapots is my favorite.

A Fun Tea Table

This is a postcard I picked up in England years ago.

It is a photo of table set with Johnson Brothers English dishes. 

(and, of course a beautiful cream tea)

I have forgotten the name of the floral pattern.

This is a long story about a long-time collecting process of these dishes.

I purchased a vintage cup and saucer trio set years ago in an 

antique shop while traveling in Durango, Colorado. 

After that, I began putting 

together a complete set of dinnerware and two teapots piece by piece.

The dishes have different Johnson Brothers back stamps on them 

indicating the different ages of each dish.  

I even found some pieces at T.J. Maxx during the time I was collecting.

The table below was "A Teddy Bear Tea", a fun themed table I decorated using this set 

for the 2010 Berea Health Ministry fundraiser afternoon tea. 

I need to take these out of the china cabinet and use them more often. 

 

Nesting Teapot Dolls

 

Glenn brought this set of Matryoshka dolls, and several other sets, from the 

market in Moscow years ago.  As you can see, they are dated 1992.  

These are known as babushka dolls, stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, 

or Russian dolls.  They are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed

one inside another.  The name matryoshka means "little matron"

He picked this fun set for me because of the teapots.

A set of matryoshkas consists of a wooden figure, which separates at the

middle, top from bottom, to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside, 

which has, in turn, another figure inside of it, and so on. 

According to my research, the first Russian nested doll set was made in 1890.

I had forgotten about this set until our church children's minister

asked who had a set she might borrow for an activity. 

I was happy to loan the set for her to use. 

And, I learned she and her husband are major tea drinkers!

Duchess Teapot

Of all the many teapots and teacups I have brought from England

in my luggage, this is the only one that came home damaged. 

This is a Duchess bone china made in England.

The pattern is "Tranquility" and it has 

"The Chatsford Strainer Tea System" built in. 

The chip on the handle reminds me of where I purchased this teapot in 2008,

and how I brought it home in my carry-on,  

The chip just gives this pretty teapot personality.

The "Chatsford Strainer Tea System" is very convenient

for steeping loose leaf tea and easy to clean-up. 

 

Mother's Day Teatini

Our family Mother's Day dinner was at Boone Tavern Hotel.

There were three special cocktails which were, apparently, geared

toward the interest of the Moms.  Two included tea; 

"Not Yo Mama's Sweet Tea" and "Teatini" 

Both included iced tea and vodka.  

I was told their version of the Teatini was made with 

1. Tea

2, Lemon Simple Syrup 

3. Vodka

Quite frankly, I don't drink vodka and I don't like it. 

The drink, passed around to several at the table tasted like

muddy water to me, and various other yucky things to others.  

Obviously, not my cup of tea.  

 

Glenn's Pandemic Project

Many times over the years in my previous blog, I posted about 

our across-the-street neighbor of 32 years, Joyce.

At age 94, in September, 2019, she moved to Virginia to be near her son, 

and asked Glenn to buy her house.  The purchase was completed in December, 2019.

Glenn retired two years ago and adjusting to retirement has not been easy.

Therefore he felt he "needed" a project.

As usually happens, when you acquire a 50-year-old house of an elderly widow

who has not upgraded anything, there was more work to do than 

anyone anticipated to upgrade the house. 

Glenn did the work with the help of a few friends including a builder, an electrician, 

a plumber, carpenter/tile/wood floor guy, and window and door replacement 

and all-round talented good guy who has worked for us many times. 

Thank goodness for friends! 

It was a slow process, during the pandemic, because the number

of  workers in the house at one time were restricted, but that was fine. 

We had no time requirement or plan. 

Due to the pandemic with underlying health concerns, I  

I remained isolated/quarantined during much of 2020. 

In order to learn about "modern day" renovations, 

I began watching HGTV and searching Pinterest. 

When the project began, Glenn had no thoughts of  tearing down walls,

or redesigning rooms and adding walls.  The more I watched HGTV, 

the more daring my ideas became. *LOL*

Glenn made 6:00 a.m. trips to Lowes, before most shoppers, 

and I "advised".  I have very few before photos because, honestly, 

we had no idea the project would be such a major renovation. 

This photo was in February. after dismantling the fake brick fireplace he heard water dripping 

during a rain, only to discover the chimney to two fireplaces, main floor and basement,

 was leaking. The chimney had to be torn down and roofed over.

He discovered the floor where he was sitting had extreme water damage. 

Here he is during the reconstruction process. 

Glenn was very wary of a few of my ideas, including

removing the wall between the living/dining room and the tiny family room.

This is the finished gas log fireplace in the  currently

open floor plan living/dining/family room and kitchen. 

The original kitchen was a very small galley kitchen.

Below: the current open floor concept.

 

Joyce especially loved Glenn and Austin, and they loved and took care of her. 

Photos of completely redesigned bathrooms and more will come in future posts. 

I need to take photos of every room in the house including the now

finished basement, and I need to record more of the many upgrades. 

Perhaps, that will be a future post.