Shameless plug......

I entered a tea cozy contest and voting is now open.  If anyone likes my cozy they can go vote for me at The Larkin Tea Co website. There are lots of other really cute cozies too but I obviously am not plugging those.  Mine is called Happy Dancing Sheep.  Click HERE to vote.  I probably won't win but I'm a winner regardless as they sent me a bag of loose leaf tea and a subscription for an online tea magazine just for entering.  I may have to think ahead in case they do this contest again next year.

The cozies all had to be knitted.  Mine was knit out of handspun yarn and felted, then I needlefelted the dancing sheep and flowers on it.  I use it all the time.

It's snowing.........

This is what it looks like out this morning - snowing hard, very cold, very cold this week as in setting record colds. My poor hummingbirds are still around, I have to bring in the feeder to warm up overnight and a couple times a day......not that the house is especially warm......

 

 

On Wednesday friend Kathy and I went to a new tea place in Medford for lunch, Roundtable Tea Company. I am so excited that we have a tea place in the region again - doing tea is one of my favorite things to do. Owners John and Sandra are a delight - Sandra's cooking and baking is incredible and John is an all around expert on teas. Unfortunately we didn't think of snapping a few pictures before we had almost devoured our lunch.....it was yummy.

Here is the tea station in the room we were in - the teapots tip to pour. We got a lesson on each of the teas being served that day.

This is the more casual side of the shop where you can just stop in for a cuppa and scone or meat pie rather than the full high tea - there is also an entire wall filled with all sorts of teas to buy.......and yes I walked away with the Almond Rocker tea which tastes and smells incredible. I will be frequenting this tea establishment as often as possible.

Since today is a snow day and I can't go out like scheduled I will be working on finishing up some gifts to be mailed early next week. Hoping to get to putting together our holiday cards this weekend.

Happy New Year

2012 has come and gone, does time go by faster as we get older? Sure feels like it. It's now 2013, the start of a new year for us all. My wish is that's it's an incredible one for you all. No resolutions from me this year, if you have nothing better to do go read my post of Dec 31, 2011.....ditto what I said then......pretty much the sale old stuff.....good intentions......got side tracked along the way.....but I'm pretty much ok with it.......I did accomplish a lot, learned a lot and enjoyed the year.
 
The waves have been pretty big this past week, even more driftwood, really they're trees from up the Coquille River, on the beach than usual. Tides have been high, even around low tide the waves have been blocking much of the beach coming all the way up to the dunes.

Here is the foghorn we hear at the house

Bailey is saying do we really have to go back home now? Yeppers, time to get back to the every day, every day, orders to ship, scarves to get ready to ship for judging into an exhibit, Sam back to work. It's been a great week on the coast filled with a little rain, quite a bit of sun, reading, relaxing, playing games, a bit of knitting.

 

I have to mention in particular that on Sunday we took a ride up to Florence, it's a quaint little town 1 1 /2 hours north of us. It's always fun to go through the galleries and shops. We love to have lunch at Lovejoys Restaurant and English Tea Room but when I checked the website the night before I saw that they are closed Sunday & Monday. Oh well, what could we do, just find another place to eat, after all the town is filled with incredible restaurants. When we got into Old Town I told Sam we should go by Lovejoys just in case they decided to open since it's a holiday weekend - the flag was out, open sign on the door - whoo hoo. We had the Royal Tea, might as well go all out. If one wasn't interested in tea, scones, savories, sweets there are many other items on the menu, it's not just a tea house. The salmon bisque is worth the trip itself. If you're on the mid-Oregon coast be sure to stop in for lunch. The food is yummy, the owner's delightful. Next time up there we will have to check out the antique shops, a row of them on each side of US101.......and have lunch at Lovejoys.