Teacup love

I must admit that the Tea in Coffee Tea Books and Me has been sorely neglected.  Now that the temperatures are cooler, tea time has returned in earnest although not at the proper afternoon time.  My tea time is most often after finishing the dinner dishes each evening.

I usually brew either Earl Grey Green, Candy Cane Lane, or one of my other favorite teas.  However, if tea is taken earlier in the day, I have been loving Twining's Chai French Vanilla.  Christopher brought it home earlier in the year and it is truly delicious... most like coffee house chai that I've ever tried at home.

Of course, you know my obsession affinity for teacups and teapots.  All pictures shown today were taken in the recent past since I still do not have camera batteries (the budget is being tweaked to add them as a priority).

This picture is showing the bottom shelf of my corner china cabinet.  I always place favorite teacups there which have an inside print just as beautiful as the outside (since one is looking down on the teacups).

This is a view of the top shelf.  It contains many hodge podge teacups and I often place those which were pretty but did not have a saucer.

Both of these tea cozies came from the same thrift shop.  I use the cute blue tea cozy a lot, I love the whimsical cozies and was thrilled to find this one (I think it was a quarter).  The tapestry tea cozy was much pricier, it was an entire dollar.

This picture shows off my favorite teapot (which is often displayed on the buffet, too.  It was my first "English" teapot, a gift from Stephanie while still in high school I think.

While I love teacups and teapots (and what I've shown is just a small part of my collection).  I also look for other pieces of china and crystal at garage sales, thrift shops, etc.

These gorgeous dessert goblets were 49 cents each ($3.00 for all six available at the thrift shop).  I later found similar water goblets for the same price, I use them a lot for special dinners and Holidays.  Similar water goblets were on a blog pic of an antique show for nearly $70.00.

I know there are many who share my fondness for china and half the fun is finding such beautiful items so cheap!  :)

Oh, I can't remember who it was but someone asked awhile back what Johnson Bros. patterns I am always on the lookout for... here is one of them but I love to mix and match similar patterns.

The silverware shown is also thrifted, found at a garage sale... service for at least eight with serving pieces.  I think it was around $30.00, which included the beautiful storage box.  These were once collected a piece at a time from grocery stores!  My mother's everyday china was purchased in the same way.  :)

Last but not least... here is a picture I took a couple years ago of my teacup collection I keep in the drawer of the breakfront (hutch).

Sometimes they get switched out with those in the china cabinet.  Those I always have "washed and ready" for visitors are kept in this drawer, too.