Hi Girls! It’s 24°, sun’s just up, blue sky, no wind, but we are on a Blizzard Watch! They are talking 1-2 feet of snow for Martha’s Vineyard, probable power outages! “Crippling Blizzard!” Yikes! But we have MUSICA
I just love this photograph. I took it at the Emma Bridgewater factory, in a very old building in Stoke-on-Trent in England. The factory was so organized (everyone knows where they keep the rubber bands) and no matter where you looked, tea was at hand. It’s an interesting juxtaposition between the hearts and the walls, a little romance can brighten up the darkest spot!
My theme today is Romance. Has to be, because yesterday Joe and I celebrated our twenty-sixth anniversary! This is one of the wonderful postcards in his collection.
Last year at this time we celebrated our 25th by having an anniversary breakfast and inviting all of our friends.
I used champagne corks for place cards, old books, birds and flowers for the table, my Johnson Brothers Rose Chintz dishes, and a little bowl of chocolate kisses, because who doesn’t love a little kiss at breakfast time. ♥ ♥ ♥
We cooked up a storm for this party and had a wonderful time doing it.
♥ ♥ ♥
Cooking is my idea of deep, dark, delicious romance. Romance is all about the five senses and cooking appeals to them all, smells good, tastes good, looks, feels, sounds so good, and cooking includes the 6th sense, the sense of imagination and creativity. These books are my idea of romance novels. I love to read them and be inspired; sometimes Joe and I read recipes out loud to each other, like storybooks. He will say something like, “Listen to this, they’re putting cinnamon in a taco!”
But you can see why — if this isn’t pure romance, I don’t know what it is. And luckily, Joe thinks so too. He is my victim, and I am his.
Making banana fritters is almost as romantic as eating them, especially when playing a little old-fashioned music.
Mmm, saw this picture of cheesecake as I was scrolling by, just had to put it in. Looks very romantic to me!
And then there’s tea . . . and all the romance around this sweet tradition. I designed this tea strainer and Lenox made it …. of course they’re long gone but I still have mine, so I thought I’d show you how cute it was.
Maybe you need some chocolate-chip and orange heart-shaped tea biscuits to go with your tea? So quick and easy, and such a nice way to say I love you. ♥ (I think we still have heart-shaped iron pans in our web store in case you need one.)
More romance, this lovely little embroidered beaded heart, was sent to me by my English Girlfriend Siobhan. It hangs in the kitchen. Love!
Someone wrote the other day, wanting to show my favorite piece of transferware. That’s a difficult choice, but I think this bowl is it! Not very big, but what a cutie. “WOOD” is deeply stamped on the bottom; a very fancy pair of numbers are painted next to the stamp, “24.” That’s all I know about this little pink bowl. I always wish these things had tiny little chip video cameras on them so we could pop it into our computers and see everywhere they’ve been during their lives. I’d love to see the women who bought these bowls, the very first tables they sat on, the cupboards they were kept in, who washed them, and what was in them. Look how lucky the people of the future will be, we have videos of EVERYTHING. But then again, maybe what makes it all so romantic is that it’s gone forever, and we just have to imagine.
So, yes, soon, it’s going to look like this around here! Even more — the weather man just said our storm will be HISTORIC! How exciting!
How romantic!
‘Specially when I look out my studio window and see my guy taking care of things.
Our anniversary was very low key this year, no parties, just us, the kitties, the fire. We’re planning to celebrate everything after the book is turned in and we return to our regularly scheduled life. It won’t be long now!
I ‘m painting like crazy (I keep bits of scrap paper next to the page I’m working on, where I test the paint on my brush, or do quick squiggles — that’s what this is — don’t worry, it’s not going into the book!). Joe is scanning the finished pages and sending them in as they are finished. So yesterday, our anniversary was just a regular day, no special plans, we wished each other happy anniversary and that was about it, a special day, like any other. Then he went to the supermarket for groceries and came home with roses. He surprised me with them, I didn’t expect it, so I was very touched. He is such a doll. It was kind of like that heart cup in the picture at Emma Bridgewater’s — just the littlest bit of romance brightens everything. He also hid a coconut cake in the back freezer. So after dinner, which was ribs and sweet potatoes, he pulled out his surprise cake. ♥
He is taking good care of me as I finish writing our book, and paint titles for the front cover. It was the perfect Anniversary. I could not have asked for any more. ♥ ♥ ♥ So back to work I go. I wrote a new WILLARD yesterday! It’s being prepared now so it can be emailed to everyone. I love writing Willards . . . it’s hard to believe this is my first one for 2013! The Valentine Willard will start going out February 12. You should know, it has little surprises in it just for you. Because Valentine’s Day was invented for women! We need those little surprises! Like roses.♥
I laid out the back cover of the book … then I took it to Joe to ask him what he thinks. We feel so lucky because last year we had a celebration to last a lifetime and since then, we’ve been reliving it almost every day!
Twenty-six years together . . .
Isn’t it romantic?