The Pleasures of Teatime (and Puppies)

One of my favorite books on the subject of tea is "If Teacups Could Talk" by Emilie Barnes. It's filled with pretty drawings, stories of teatime traditions and yummy recipes. One of the chapters captures my sentiments on teatime exactly:

"The spirit of the tea party is, at least in part, the spirit of beauty. And I am fully convinced that we humans need beauty in order to live rich and fulfilling lives.

People wither when their lives are deprived of beauty.

People grow and flourish when they are able to respond to the beauty around them and create their own forms of beauty.

And the ritual of teatime allows room for both receiving and giving loveliness."

I think this is why I love to create knitted tea cozies. They add such beauty to the lovely ritual of teatime. My love for flowers, especially roses, comes together with my love for tea things when I design a cozy. They just don't look complete to me unless they're blooming!

"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft

And from thy slender store

Two loaves alone to thee are left,

Sell one, and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed the soul." Persian Poet c.1300

Flowers in any form, be they fresh, silk, embroidered, knitted or crocheted, definitely feed my soul! I just can't resist filling as many of the nooks and cranny's of my life with them as possible.

Another favorite table top book I have is a gorgeous copy of "Victoria: At Home With Roses".

It was put out by the makers of Victoria magazine several years ago and is loaded with breathtaking pictures, recipes and all kinds of tidbits about roses. A quote from it states how I feel about roses and why the rooms in my house overflow with them!

"The rose as theme draws everything in a house into harmony, not only visually but spiritually. Opening the door to a house where roses reign is like opening the door on a dream."

The tea cozy pictured at the top of the page is a special order for a customer in Myrtle Beach, where it will be flying off to by the end of the week.

Phoebe update:
We LOVE her more each day. (Jose DOESN'T ~ not yet, anyway!)

Sophie still mother's her but is not as frantic about it as she was at first.

She follows me around the house whenever she's awake crying for me to hold her.

I did get a little more sleep finally last night. We were up only once. However, she still doesn't understand about the whole sleeping in thing! Early morning seems to be her favorite time of day ~ it's NOT mine!

And just like Gabby, she apparently likes a bedtime story.