The T-Cozy

Happy 5769

Today is Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish new year 5769. Happy New Year! It's tradition to eat something sweet, like apples and honey, as a symbol of our wish for a sweet new year.

When I was a kid, my mom would always bake the most delicious honey cake at this time of year. Luckily, I still have a notebook filled with her hand written recipes where I found at least four different recipes for honey cake. I'm not sure which one is the delectable one I remember from my childhood and sadly my dear mother isn't around anymore for me to ask. So here's one of those recipes if you'd like to give it a try.

1 teaspoon instant coffee crystals
1 cup water
3/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup chopped pecans
sifted powdered sugar

Combine coffee crystals and water; stir until dissolved. In a mixer bowl combine oil, sugar, honey, eggs and vanilla. beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well mixed. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute more. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cloves. Add these dry ingredients alternately with the coffee mixture to wet ingredients in mixer bowl. Beat 2 minutes. Stir in pecans. Turn into a lightly greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake; cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serves 10 to 12.

My mom was a fabulous baker. And it must have rubbed off on us a little as my sister has started her own baking company. Check out her website at Baker-Babes.com.

If you venture to give this honey cake recipe a try, I hope you'll like it. And though this is a tough time for our country right now, it's always nice to enjoy a little of life's sweetness.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

Susan

Musings of an Eclectic Mind

Time for me to bestow another of my Kindred Spirit awards. This one goes to Teena of the blog entitled Kitschen Pink, with the very fitting subtitle "Musings of an Eclectic Mind." Teena lives in rural mid-Norfolk, England with her husband and son and enjoys rummaging at charity shops, field sales and jumbles (so British!). She states, "If it's colourful and makes me smile, I collect it!" I certainly have a similar collecting philosophy so you can see why I find her a Kindred Spirit.

Along with being an entertaining and witty blogger, Teena is also a very talented artist. Her specialty is hand embroidery using vintage and recycled fabrics, buttons and trimmings (more of my favorite things). Here's a piece she created embellished with buttons and beads that was inspired by one of the flower arranging categories at a local village produce show.

Isn't it beautiful? Truly a work of stitching art!

I've never been to the U.K (hard to believe since I had a tea room for five years) but I envision Teena's village to be like the one in a favorite movie of mine called Calendar Girls. Have you seen that film? It's funny and wonderful and is loosely based on a true story. This movie celebrates the middle-aged woman, something most films rarely dare to do successfully. (I recently saw the new movie called The Women. Big mistake! It was horrible.)

Anyway, I'm pleased to name Teena as a Kindred Spirit. If you have a moment, please visit her blog or check out her website at teenavallerine.co.uk.

Susan

Delightful Dining

Here's a refreshed room in our home that I've neglected to share with you. Back when we painted our living room last December, we also tackled our dining room.

We removed floral wallpaper on the wainscot and painted the walls the same neutral shade as the living room. It's fairly monochromatic now and I find the space peaceful and soothing.

Most of the furniture is affordable older oak pieces that we acquired many years ago. I've always wanted to paint these pieces white (like the bookshelf below) as I think they have "Shabby Chic" potential, but I never got around to it.

This room gets loads of light and is a great spot for some house plants, gardening books and my white art pottery collection.

Hanging on the walls, below left, is a charcoal portrait of my children when they were little, done by a talented friend of mine. On the right is our Ketubah, John's and my marriage document.

The china cabinet is actually an old oak bookcase. Our dishes aren't precious; they are an inexpensive but pretty floral set from the 1940's. I'm not into "precious" and I never wanted or asked for china or silver as a wedding gift.

I'm pleased with how this freshened-up room turned out. It's simply furnished, uncluttered and inviting; a great place for some delightful dining. Are you free for dinner next Saturday night?

Susan

Once in a Delphinium Blue Moon

Yesterday I stopped by my favorite consignment shop that I hadn't been in for months. It was worth the trip! Look what I found . . .

I'm a big fan of vintage chenille, and this 1950's bedspread is just amazing. The peacock design is spectacular; beautiful bright colors, fluffy chenille and it's in perfect condition. I think this one is definitely a keeper.

The covered pitcher is a Hall water server, part of their Refrigerator Ware line that was made for Westinghouse. I have a book about Hall China and was able to find this piece listed inside.

From the book, I learned that my new delphinium blue water server was made in 1938 and is the earliest line of Hall's refrigerator ware called "Phoenix." This deco-style piece just might end up for sale on my website someday.

I have several other informative books about McCoy pottery, Lu-Ray china, Shawnee pottery, collectible buttons, Fiesta ware and more. Books like these are really useful and help me figure out what something is and when it was manufactured.

Now I'm off to wash the chenille bedspread. I love how durable vintage chenille is and I'm sure it will fluff up nicely. Then I just might give it to Hannah. Her room at home is filled with cozy chenille pieces like pillows, valences and a slipcovered chair. (I'll be sure to share some of those with you in another post.)

Aren't the water server and chenille spread great finds? Every once in a blue moon, I do get lucky!

Susan

Bicycle Friendly

What a busy week! It was the home stretch of the work I needed to do for my new website. I barely left the house so that I could finish designing the last of the site's 24 pages and get them off to Dave who is doing the production of my site. (A few more weeks, and I hope to have it up and running.) And what a lovely week of weather we had, too. So even though I was confined to my studio, I made sure to have my windows open wide to enjoy the fresh, cool air.

When I did need to go out for an errand or two, I hopped on my bike instead of using the car. Luckily the post office, bank and a small neighborhood market are just down the street. It felt good to break up the busy days with a little invigorating exercise.

Along those lines, here's another interesting tip from 365 Ways to Save the Earth . . .

Use public bicycles in your city or create your own program.
For transportation in town, the bicycle has some unique advantages: it is clean, silent, compact, fast, and economical. The city of Rennes in France decided to make 200 bicycles available to its citizens, free of charge. Users must first obtain a magnetic card from the city council, which gives them access to the bicycles between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. The bicycles must be returned after use to any one of the 25 pickup points provided all over the city. The system has been running since 1998 and has some 2,000 regular users.
If you find this idea ingenious and would like to see its benefits reproduced in your city, let your town hall know. It has had varying degrees of success in the United States in Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon; and Saint Paul, Minnesota under the name "Yellow Bikes."

With gas prices soaring, it sure is nice to have an alternate form of transportation for in-town errands. And it's nice to know several cities are becoming more bicycle friendly. I know New York recently added more bike lanes. I've even seen people who take their bicycles with them on the commuter train from here to the city. But I don't have the courage to ride among the crazy drivers in Manhattan. I'll just stick to riding down the road and back!

Susan

Sketch Book Look

At this time of year, many of us have been attending open houses at our kids' schools. Last night was my son's high school "Back to School Night." Isn't it fun to be in the classroom for an evening? Jacob has many fine teachers this year and I particularly enjoyed his art teacher's classroom and presentation. Art was always my favorite subject and I felt so envious when I heard about their sketch books and all of the great projects they'll be working on this semester.

When we got home, I told my son that I would love to be in that art class with him. And then I asked him if his teacher needed an assistant. He shot me a look which clearly said "don't you dare!" But this night back at school got me thinking about the good old days. So for fun, I dug out my sketch book from college and Jacob and I had a good time looking through it.

This book was required as a visual journal of sorts in my Freshman Three Dimensional Design class. Browsing through this old book reminded me that, of all the art classes I had to take in college, this one was my least favorite.

 

I knew early on that I was a two-dimensional kind of gal; I loved drawing and designing on paper and canvas. But creating anything sculptural was always a real challenge for me.

Taking this peek back to my first year of college was great fun. My book is filled with all sorts of artsy inspiration, along with lots of my wacky drawings and silly cryptic notes to myself.

 

 

Some of those notes gave me insight into how I thought as an eighteen year old, which is the same age as my daughter who is in her freshman year. In fact, dropping Hannah off at school a few weeks ago and seeing her dorm and campus brought back so many fond memories of my college days.

The world was our oyster and anything seemed possible. Ah, what a special time those four years were. I do hope these next four years will be just that for Hannah.

Susan

Rummage Reductions

Being so busy lately, I have severely neglected my other sweet little blog, Kitsch Encounter. So sorry!

To make it up to you, I've reduced the remaining items for a couple of weeks before I list some new things in October. Have a look . . .

Susan

Surprise!

Well it's about time, isn't it? After a year and a half, I finally designed a new T-Cozy blog banner! How do you like it?

My banner photo has the look and feel that my new website will have, once it's up and running. I'm chugging along and making progress on the site and I hope to have it up within a few weeks. I'll be sure to let you know.

Enjoy your weekend,

Susan

Cozy Crazy

Here they are . . . I just finished these new tea cozies for my website.

I've never made sixteen at one time before. At first, it seemed a little tedious. But then, I cranked up my iTunes, got in the "zone" and had some fun. It's nice to do something different and get those brain cells thinking in a new way once in a while.

Happy Friday!

Susan

A Tasmanian Angel

Sometimes I prefer to do things the old fashioned way, like writing a thank you note instead of firing off an email, or making a friendly phone call instead of sending a hurried text message. But every now and then it hits me just how amazing technology can be, especially when it allows me to have a lovely encounter with someone halfway around the world.

A couple of weeks ago a sweet lady contacted me about purchasing some Bee House teapots. Her name is Mary and she emailed me about how she came across my site in her seemingly endless search for a perfect teapot for her and her husband. I was happy to oblige, even after she mentioned, "I must tell you I live in Tasmania, Australia and I hope that doesn’t deter you from selling me this beautiful item."

First she sent me a photo of her china so we could pick colors that would match. Then I sent her a photo of some of the pots I thought would look good.

 

She selected the teapots on either end; the blueberry and carrot ones. So off those two little teapots went to Tasmania. They didn't take too long to arrive, considering, and the shipping was a bit steep, but Mary didn't seem to mind as the exchange rate was in her favor. This week I received a nice thank you email along with this photo showing me how the pots take pride of place in Mary's "refreshment nook."

Look how wonderfully organized she is; there is a place for her electric kettle, her loose leaf tea, bread, snacks and of course her new Bee House teapots. We should all have a refreshment nook!

The "worldwide" web can be pretty incredible. To quote Mary, "I love it that we can chat together while we are on opposite ends of the earth!"

Me too.

Susan

It's Sew Time!

I'm making steady progress on my new website. Today, I had to shift gears a bit. Since I'll be offering my handmade tea cozies on the site, it's time to get some sewing done. 

First I needed to decide on the fabrics to use. Aren't they pretty? They all came from the estate I told you about that is slated for demolition.

Next I had fun deciding which Bee House teapots matched the fabric's colorful patterns. I plan to sell the cozies and teapots as sets on my new site.

Now it's time to start cutting out the cozies. Then I'll move over to my studio's sweet little sewing corner.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow; the perfect day to stay cozy inside and sew some new cozies. I'll give you a peek at how they turn out later in the week.

Susan

Saving Water, One Toothbrush at a Time

As we wait for the rains of tropical storm Hanna to approach the Northeast this afternoon, I got to thinking about water. They say we can expect up to six inches of rain. That's a lot of water. But then I remembered something I read in 365 Ways to Save the Earth. I was blown away by the analogy below . . .

Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth.
Earth has been nicknamed the "blue planet" because of its abundance of water. This is misleading, however. If all the water on earth could be contained in a big bucket, the frozen fresh water at the poles and in glaciers would fill a small cup, and all the fresh water available to people—lakes, rivers, and ground water—would fit into a teaspoon. Our natural fresh water reserves are not expandable, and they must be shared among an ever growing global population.
Turning off the tap during the time it takes to brush our teeth saves almost five gallons of water. That is more than an average citizen of Kenya makes do with throughout an entire day.

Turning off the tap . . . it's such a simple little thing! And all of these simple little things can add up and help to save our big blue planet.

Susan

Tied to My Tripod

This past week, I have been "focusing" on shooting photographs for my new website. There is so much to do; it's a bit overwhelming. I've divided up the tasks into manageable chunks, so this week I have been shooting the 100+ shots needed for the "Tea & More" section of my site.

Bee House teapots, tea mugs and lots of loose tea; that's what I've been surrounded by all week long.

I spent the month of August working on my site's new design, so at least that's done and I am quite happy with the look of it. Now it's just a matter of being tied to my tripod and grinding through all of the photos needed. If all goes as planned, the website should be up by month's end. I'll keep you posted . . .

Susan

Settling In

How nice to come home to such nice, supportive comments on my last post. A heartfelt thank you to all those who left them.

What a busy weekend! Our daughter is now all settled in and ready to start her first year away at college. But before we left, Hannah, Jacob and I went on one last summertime bike ride on the route we have taken through Rowayton ever since they were on training wheels. (I've never taken photos while riding a bike before. Luckily I didn't fall off!)

Next, we stopped at our beach for a little rock skimming. It was low tide so there were lots of rocks to choose from.

Our kids are really close and I know they'll miss each other a lot. Jacob is already making plans to take the Amtrak train down to visit his big sister.

Moving in at Hannah's college was a breeze. The Freshmen are treated to white glove service by the upperclassmen who load each students' belongings into large bins and take everything up to their rooms for them. We didn't have to lift a thing!

Hannah's dorm is very nice and she especially likes the cozy nook for her bed. Her style these days is bohemian-chic so she opted for a colorful comforter from Anthropologie. It's nice to know that she has a warm, inviting little place to live.

 So . . . are we sad to see our oldest go off to school? Heck yes! Not having her around will take a bit of getting used to. But she is so ready for this next chapter in her life, she is so happy with the college she is going to, and we are so happy for her.

Susan