Wishing you a Bright and Happy New Year

at New Year and always…

may Peace and Love fill your heart…

may beauty fill your world

and contentment and Joy fill your days…

I wish you happiness and the Brightest of Blessings and good health in 2012…

enjoy your beautiful creative life and thank you for being here OXO

2011 Tea Tuesday Review …

it has been another special year of friendship and sharing with thanks to our T Tuesday host Kimmie of Art in Red Wagons and all of the other participating bloggers each week…

my traveling tea cup got to visit some wonderful places too…

even if you have not had time to comment please know that I really do appreciate you stopping by when you can…

all of you that do comment and share certainly help make Tuesdays extra special…

here’s looking ahead to 2012 for another great year of exploring … sharing … and connecting

“Open your heart – open it wide, someone is standing outside.” ~Mary Engelbreit

a bit of magic…

“What is Christmas?  It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. 

It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.”  ~Agnes M. Pahro

Many thanks to each of you for helping make my world bigger and brighter…

full of creativity…

kindness

 and so much more…

Brightest of Holiday Blessings to One and All ~*~ OXO

here is a bit of magic for you…

*HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE*

Tea with glimmers of Light…

thanks to Photofunia I have a very special virtual cuppa tea…

you too can have your favorite image transposed onto a pretend cup by visiting the Photofunia link underlined above…

little did we know that this photo of my Mutti (Mom) taken at our 2010 Christmas celebration would be her last Christmas…

now seems like a good time to share the last quote of the year from my “Angel Spirits” The Art of Sulamith Wulfing 2011 Calendar:

“Joy often comes in small quiet moments, unexpected, a glimmer of light within the darkness of winter.  When joy comes to you, will you open your heart to receive it?  That is all it takes – the willingness to say yes, the readiness to be surprised by joy.” ~Spirit of Joy, December 2011

wishing each of you a very happy T Tuesday…

may your holidays be filled with many shimmering glimmers of Light and may you be surprised by Joy again and again…

see you next time for tea the day after Boxing Day when I hope to do a sampler of this year’s tea posts similar to what I did last year…

also…the winners of my SEW Somerset Magazine giveaway are here

a winter gift…

in clearing out my parents attic earlier this year we came upon this great old wooden cabinet with a glass door measuring 19″ … 48.26cm tall x 11″ … 27.94cm wide at the widest…

any story that went with it is now lost…

was it a clock cabinet perhaps from my father’s boyhood home in Nebraska…

maybe something he planned to repair…

I had to rescue it…

just because…

there has been a lot of quiet time recently to sit and ponder what I might do with it…

white trees that I dyed in some old loose black tea were a beginning element along with shredded book text…

using Martha Stewart’s Fringe Scissors was good and challenging exercise for my hands…

I tucked in a weathered clock face that my dear friend Lennie Stimpson picked up at The Cottage for me along with an old fan that wants to shatter every time you look at…

back in the day I collected unpainted German pewter ornaments…

I resisted the newer painted versions for the longest while…

I will show you my first painted ornament in a future post

(read in a whisper…it’s a swan)…

back to my altered cabinet…

to reflect the ‘seasons and the passage of time’ I added the moon and stars…

the recycled “A Winter Gift” sign made me think of the many winter birthdays in our family…

the real beauty of this cabinet is that the things I added are temporarily attached…

a reminder of the impermanence of things…

it can be changed with the seasons…

“Lately, the world felt fragile, like a blown egg, as if it might shatter beneath a careless touch.” ~Kim Edwards, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”

a little tree tea …

okay maybe a lot…

my sweet friend Linda Richter got me excited about bleaching trees last year…

I have had some issues with my hands recently and haven’t been around the land of blog much…

a scary reminder to not take anything for granted…

I am beginning to feel better and hope to get my twinkle back soon…

enjoying a cup of Harney & Sons Darjeeling Highlands (to use their words) mellow and light Indian Black Tea…

be sure and visit Kimmie for some really fun tea Tuesday posts…

oh and I am having a giveaway…

if you are interested you can find out more here

**Worldwide Candlelighting*7pm*11 December**

Light a candle to remember all the children …

gone too soon …

7 pm in your time zone on the second Sunday, 11 December 2011…

this worldwide event is held at 7pm for one hour in every time zone to create a 24-hour wave of Light that encircles the globe to honor and remember all children who have died …

as candles go out in one time zone, they are lit in the next creating a virtual 24-hour memorial encircling the globe …

that their Light may always shine …

we Love you Alex …

we miss you …

give Omi a BIG hug for us too

oxoxoxo

it’s my party and a giveaway…

***** the winners randomly chosen for my magazine giveaway are:

trudi and Tricia Leng *****

*************

birthdays in our family can last a nice long while…

to get my party started I decided to give away two copies of the current issue of SEW Somerset…

for your chance to win all you need to do is leave one comment at this post BEFORE 19 December…

everyone is most welcome…

two winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday, 19 December OXO