Spring 2018 Tea Cup Exchange Reveal!

Oh, my golly, what fun are these teacup exchanges!

Stephanie from The Enchanting Rose painstakingly and selflessly

puts together the most amazing teacup exchange twice a year.

Thank you so much, Stephanie for this fun event!

I was the happy recipient of a box of treasures from Teresa, 

who resides here in my state of Ohio.

Perhaps one day we are lucky enough to meet in person for tea! 

Here are all my surprises all laid out before opening.....

felt like a holiday - and so much was wrapped so prettily!

Here is my chintz Gracie China teacup!

I have actually used it every day since it's arrival!
Here is a shot of my enjoying my tea in the garden.

 Teresa typed me a wonderful note

 on the most gorgeous teacup paper!

I received all sorts of wonderful teas in my package

- most I have never tried before-

and it has been such fun to have new tastes to try!

I received cookies and candies and recipes, pretty notepad,

 tea themed napkins, gel pens (always wanted them!)

 and a beautiful Emilie Barnes Devotional.

I have a friend who has one that I have always admired!

It's so perfect to put in my guest room to share with my

tea sister "besties" when they visit!

I put my yummies on one of my trays to "style" it for the big reveal!

I must confess ate this yummy crunchy honey-crunch candy bar

 before I'd even finished taking pictures!

I love this beautiful pad -

 now I can give my hubs his Honey Do list in style, haha!

Just kidding. It's not long enough-

will have to keep it for my own "to do" lists!

: - )

The paper tea-cup themed napkins will come in handy

 for those little impromptu tea times

 I have for my neighbor Dee when she visits....

we both have a rule to never use linen when it's just us!

(She will like them very much, too!)

I am so excited to have my very own gel pens.

 And the colors are perfect!!!!!

The experts are now saying dark chocolate has some health benefits!

Thank you, Teresa, for caring about my health

 in such a deliciously thoughtful way! 

Chocolate shortbread cookies and tea time = a perfect marriage!

Teresa read up on my blog and knows about my grand daughter -

 and thoughtfully sent a sweet little book for me to read to her.

I couldn't even believe it!

 That was so so sweet! And our sweet girl LOVES it, too!

Teresa said I'd understand why she sent it 
when I got to the last page!

And I sure do!!

Thank you very much, Teresa, and also thanks to you, too,  Stephanie

 for making this spring teacup exchange so very special for me.

In typical fashion I got too excited about putting together
 my package that went out to Jocelyn in Colorado

that I didn't take a single photo of the things I sent.

She has the blog Miss Joss Shabby Life
and you can find her reveal here. 

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

AND in case you missed my last post about our
 garden before/after curb appeal- check it out!

Simply click here.

As always, thank you for your visit!

Please visit The Enchanting Rose 
for Steph's linky party for all the reveals!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Tea in the Garden    *    Share Your Cup   *    Pink Saturday

Before/ After : New Curb Appeal Garden

Hello everyone, and greetings spring!

It's finally here and I am so super excited!

Everything is finally in bloom and is so beautiful!

It was such a long, long loooong winter.

But now that it has warmed up
we were FINALLY able to finish our garden out front.

It was a long process, but we are so happy with it now!

LET ME START WITH A BEFORE PIC..... 

showing our overgrown smoke bushes -

 which (truth be told) we rather liked...

but they very quickly got out of control!

And when we had to heavily prune them

it left the huge cut branches really ugly...
especially from behind them next to the foundation.

I saw them every day when in my home office,

-where one may usually find me-

or at the window in front of my piano... 

I'd sit there and just cringe and wish and hope and wait

 for the day those old and very sad bushes

were no longer part of our garden design!

You can see what we had was just dated, overgrown,
nondescript  foundation garden plots
which were covering up the windows!

Just noticed this really is a "before" because it also shows

our old door and side window panels!

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

And now the reveal: TA-DA!!!!! 

Here is our AFTER!
 Every thing all nice and pretty!

It will take a while for things to settle down
and a few things will bloom - hopefully-
which will make it all much prettier eventually.

Since this pic was taken 2 days ago we moved
a few things around to balance better.

We planted 3 big limelight hydrangea (left),
one gorgeous Weeping Lace Leaf Japanese Maple (right)
3 boxwoods (left)- forget real name but kind that get tall
2 Holly Sky Pencils (both sides)
10 Heuchera Purples (both sides)
14 Big Blue Liriope (both sides)
and one Red Twig Dogwood (right)

Our home finally has a bit more curb appeal.

A couple years ago we planted this mailbox garden.

That's our wee red Mini Cooper in the background.
It's been leaking oil lately - 
so it's banished from the driveway or garage for now.

This is what Lime Light Hydrangea looks like when mature:

It's fun to compare before/after pics.

Those orange things are where I wanted the stones to go.

We shortened both gardens quite a bit
 to make them less weedy and needy.

On the right there's now a nice patch of sod grass
 between walkway and garden.

On left we designed an angle for the natural stone wall.

We are always limited to what we can plant due to all the deer.

The bunnies love the liriope though, so keeping fingers crossed.
I sprinkled red pepper flakes around to keep them at bay.


On the side of the house our Bleeding Heart is still thriving.

A HUGE THANKS TO:



*Sharyn for her awesome landscape designs.

*Andrew for all the intense laborous work,
especially for the fabulous stone walls!

And a HUGE thanks to my wonderful
 hardworking, handsome, awesome husband
 who worked long exhausting hours prepping everything,
 and working right beside Andrew
 lifting and planting and mulching and perspiring
on planting day and earlier 
to help make this dream come true.

Also - a big thanks to YOU for your visit!



If you're ever in the Columbus, Ohio area
I would be delighted to welcome you in for tea.

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Metamorphosis Monday   *   Make it Pretty Monday   *   

Inspire me Tuesday   *  At Our Home   *   Style Showcase   *

Home and Garden Thursday

May the 4th Be With You

To all the Star Wars fans out there....

May the 4th be with you!

Just in case you weren't aware of it,

Yoda lives with us.

(My husband is the biggest Star Wars geek fan I know.)

This particular Yoda dwells under our little bonsai.

He seems quite happily situated there.

That shiny plastic white thing on the left is a dragonfly clip

that I didn't straighten out before taking this pic.

The clay terrapin was made by a friend.

This cute crocheted wee little Yoda

 was hand made by our daughter Evelyn

 as a perfect gift to my husband.

His "light saber" is a toothpick!!!!

Isn't he the cutest Yoda ever????

And yes, my hubs has a Yoda Christmas ornament

that he keeps at his desk.

It's the way it is around these parts.

Frankly I am more a Han Solo gal myself,

but Yoda has the great wisdom.

Here is a link to some of the best Yoda quotes.

Yes, may The Force always be with you all.

As always, thank you for your visit.

♥  Hugs  ♥  

~Michele