palepinkandroses

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "Tea For Two And Two For Tea"

Teas can be used to celebrate many occasions. Whether it's a mother and daughter tea party, a bridal tea, a special time with friends or some quiet time by yourself, it's always the right time for a tea party.

First introduced in China, the tea service was elevated to an art form as the Japanese Tea Ceremony in Japan. As the art of serving tea made its way across Europe, tea drinking became part of the way of life in each country. In recent years, tea parties have become more popular with tea rooms opening everywhere. Tea rooms have been are springing up all around us in the United States., and from fine hotels to country inns, tea services are now offered.

Beautiful tea cups, saucers and pots and now cozies, are an essential part of the tea ritual. From fine bone china painted with pink roses or cherries to ceramic cups painted with bumblebees and sunflowers, you can find a tea set that reflects your personality or brings back fond memories of afternoon tea with your grandmother. If you don't have a completed tea set with a matching pot, you can use a mismatched set of tea cups to stir up conversation. To make tea for one, you can use an elegant stacked teapot with spring tulips or pink roses.

Don’t forget the accessories that accompany a tea party. You can display your specialty teas in bone china tea bag holders painted with blue roses. Or rest a tea bag and silver-plated teaspoon on a purple violet spoon rest.  Place loose tea in a muslin tea bag; use a tea infuser to make a cup of tea for yourself, or a tea ball to make a larger pot. You might even want to carry your favorite teacup with you in a tea cup tote, always ready for the opportunity to share a cup of tea.

Whether at your home or at a formal tea service, a cup of tea adds a sophisticated and soothing touch to your everyday routine.

Photo Contribution 1: Sisters Gift Company |  Photo Contribution 2: Sweet Necessi-Teas

 

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ Pretty Pillows And Purses!

If there's anything a girl can't have enough of it's pretty purses by day and pillows at night.

A woman's purse can reveal a lot about her personality. If you're fun and flirty, you might carry a giraffe handbag or a pearl patent purse with pink polka dots.  For the more reserved - a collector of all things pretty and vintage - perhaps a romantic summertime bag with roses and bachelor buttons. You can even show your "green" side with a straw handbag decorated with rescued jewelry, belts, buckles and various embellishments.

You can celebrate the many sides of your "purse"-onality with a purse that allows you to change covers and quickly as you change your mood. Or announce your uniqueness with a one of a kind "little black bag" - a vintage beaded black handbag.

Pillows can change their personalities too, as easily as changing a pillowcase. For sweet dreams, there are sweet heart hand-embroidered pillowcases. Feel nostalgic with vintage cut-work pillowcases. Or create a fun look by layering a bed with lots of pillows covered in different Southern Bell pillowcases.

Pillows make a statement all their own. Rescued vintage needle point pillows grace the finest parlors and boudoir chairs. They can be reminiscent of a special event or a special someone, like a floral monogram pillow with the initial of someone you love. A wedding keepsake pillow made with an antique style certificate or your favorite wedding photograph.  Beautiful pillows made from antique doilies and vintage dresser scarves.

Some pillows are fun and used to make a space colorful and whimsical,like a chocolate dipped strawberry pillow, a blue cupcakes pillow, or a handmade slice of cake pillow with satin pink roses and pink lace trim. A whimsical teapot pillow with Battenburg lace to set on the guest bed or porch swing. You can even grow a garden of pillows with mauve ribbon flower hearts, heart pillows with roses and pink ribbed chenille, and a pink roses throw pillow.

No matter what your style or what mood you're in, you can surround yourself with pretty purses and pillows designed to express exactly what you're feeling.

 

Photo Contribution 1:Mama's Pocketbook  |  Photo Contribution 2:C'est Chouette

Photo Contribution 3: Gail Friend Designs   |  Photo Contribution 4:Janets Creative Pillows

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "A Stitch In Time" ~ All Things Quilted And Stitched

 

Hand-stitched quilts, detailed hand crafts and keepsake needle arts stitch us together in place and across time. Regardless of century, country or kin, we're unified by our love of all things handmade. Stacks of gorgeous quilting fabrics remind me of Saturdays spent with my grandmother, my eager little hands anxious to just touch the color fabrics tucked in every nook and cranny of the small sewing room. I'd watch her hands and as she worked her fabric like magic and turned floral pastels, ticking stripes and colorful plaids into prized treasures. Stitched treasures are beautiful as well as practical. Hand stitched sachets filled with the sweetest lavender - tucked inside a special drawer of an antique dresser or washstand. Whimsical quilts, using the newest techniques mixed with treasured old quilts tattered with age. Each one is beautiful in its own right, but the centuries combine to create something truly exquisite.

 

 

Embroidered table linens can become the finest heirlooms. Many have been passed down from mother to daughter or are looking for new homes to create new traditions. Today, machines can replicate those delicate stitches to create heirlooms for our own grandchildren. Pink flowers embroidered on vintage tablecloths, carefully scalloped edgings, delicate stitches on kitchen towels and napkins.

 

 

Needle points rescued and made anew with beautiful silks, each one with a story all its own, ready to make new memories in a new home. The finest yarns and threads woven, knitted, crocheted into practical and beautiful garments and accessories. A hand crocheted doily paired with silk ribbon flowers to cover a table, beautifully crocheted cushions to rest on a sofa. A handmade shawl whose stitches are eager to warm someone special on a cool summer evening.

 

 

From past or present, near or far, we are united in our love of all things stitched.

 

Photo Contribution 1: The Quilt Shoppe| Photo Contribution 2: Kitty Kitty Designs | Photo Contribution 3:  Beloved Creations

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "An English Cottage"

 

The English cottage was introduced by British aristocrats who admired the simple beauty of the homes of farmers and craftsmen. These nobles hired architects to design similar buildings for them. The English cottage soon became popular with the general population, especially in North America, because its small scale made it more accessible.

Today, the country charm of an English cottage can be created in any home, not just those with thatched roofs and ivy covered walls.

The windows of an English cottage are often decorated with delicate lace curtains or a floral fabric, like cabbage rose print. A cozy window seat provides a perfect place to enjoy a cup of tea in the china cup passed down from a grandmother.

On the walls of an English cottage hang framed nature prints or memories preserved in vintage frames. A bird tin wall plaque, a collection of framed vintage postcards, or a carefully stitched sentiment, are equally at home here. Favorite family photos in antique frames might hang in the hall, a vintage framed mirrorin the entrance way.

The cottage cupboard is an essential element of the English cottage and is used for storage or to display a collection of treasures. On its shelves you might find a glass vase painted with pink roses, an antique English teapot with plum flowers, or a vintage cottage plate. This is the place to store the embroidered tea towels from your mother or the vintage pure white linens you bring out for special occasions.

Outside in the cottage garden, you'll find colorful blooms and roses, or ivy that climbs trellises and arbors. Homemade bird houses wrought iron bird baths, welcoming garden statues, and sweet garden plaques create a cottage feel here too.

With cottage touches in just the right places, the simple beauty of a country cottage can live anywhere, not just in the English countryside.

Photo Contribution 1: C'est Chouette  Photo Contribution 2: Petite Bookstore

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ Summer Porch And Garden

 

There’s nothing more inviting than a summer porch and garden. It can be a source of shade when the temperature gets too warm, a place of shelter during a gentle summer rain, or just a place to sit with someone special on a lazy summer day. It can be a welcoming start your day with your favorite antique tea cup in hand or a front row seat to watch the sunset from the weathered oak rocker, that in it’s day sat proudly in your grandmother’s home.

A welcoming porch and garden can create a friendly entryway to your home. A welcome sign hand painted with pink roses perched against the railing or a lilac berry wreath with a scent as inviting as it looks, letting guests know that you're glad they're here before you've said a word. If entertaining guests, perhaps vintage chairs, refinished and made comfortable with dainty floral needlepoint cushions, or a white painted table set with a vintage lace-tablecloth like your mom and before her - grandmother used.

With the right accessories, a porch and garden can even become an extension of your home. For candlelit evenings, a candle inside a
topiary lantern casting a romantic glow. For lazy afternoons, a daisy metal basket filled with fresh cut flowers, a knitting project, or even as cliche as this sounds, a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and a favorite books. Tucked in the corner, a vintage pink metal watering can kept handy to water the flowers in the window boxes while the lace curtains on the windows gently sway in the afternoon breeze. As much comfort as your home, with the right accessories.

 

You can add a cottage touch to your garden with decorations like ceramic garden mushrooms and inspiring garden plaques sprinkled with just the right amount of glitter. Tea cup bird feeders, handmade birdhouses, and antique iron birdbaths are all welcome sites for feathered friends. Remember to add a touch of whimsy just to make you smile - like a basket of flowers placed on a pink bicycle.

 

No matter what your summer days hold, a porch and garden can provide the ideal setting for friends, family and even a private retreat. Won’t you join me for a cup of tea as we help you design your summer porch and garden.

 

 

 

Photo Contribution 1: Camelia Cottage  Photo Contribution 2: Shabby Shan's Cottage

 

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ Shades Of Red, White And Blue

 

Shades of red, white or blue remind me of 4th of July parties and fireworks and special times with family and friends. Vintage aprons, adorned with red roses against what was once a vivid blue, now slightly worn with time. Blue and white checked linens - once grandmother's finest, still carrying traces of the 4th of July picnics I had as a child. Pale blue Depression glass against the finest white tablecloth, topped with a white milk glass vase and filled with the summer flowers. On the wall, a white French farmhouse shelf displays white china hand painted with red and blue buds Adding a little color to your table, shades of red, white and blue can turn any meal into a celebration. Blue and white Italian place settings against a red tablecloth.

 

An angel food cake atop a favorite white cake stand, topped with fresh summer blueberries and strawberries. Red sugar-coated candies in a white candy dish hand painted with blue forget-me-nots. Hanging nearby, white and blue checked kitchen towels decorated with shiny red apples Placed somewhere you didn't expect, red, white and blue can create a burst of color in any corner. Red roses on canvas and hung on a freshly painted blue wall. A piece of broken china jewelry - tiny blue and red roses against pure white china. A white lace sun catcher, with a red and blue design, hanging in the window. In the guest bathroom, a blue tissue box holder painted with white and red flowers. Tucked into a corner of your purse, a blue hanky trimmed with red and embroidered with white daisies. And dangling from your wrist, a bracelet made of cinnabar, turquoise beads and bone.

 

 

For a special touch of whimsy, plug in 4th of July light bulbs in red, white and blue. Use a white table runner with appliquedéd blue rabbits and red rose buds. Display faux strawberries dipped in white chocolate placed in a blue cake box that looks pretty enough to eat. You can wear a soldered charm of red breasted robins against an azure sky, sprinkled with white German glass glitter or write on the white pages of a notebook decorated with red roses and blue ribbons. With shades of red, white and blue surrounding us, celebrations of life can happen any day.

 

Photo Contribution 1: The Sassy Beach  Photo Contribution 2: Grandma G's Photo Contribution 3: Candy Lights

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "A Rose By Any Other Name"

 

I've never seen a rose I didn't love. From the first blossom of spring, gently swaying in the breeze, to an intricately stitched needlepoint rich in history, I love them all. Silk roses mixed with a bunch of silk hydrangeas, gracing a vase on the mantle. Cabbage roses on a sugar bowl and creamer, brought out for a grandmother's tea. Colorful rose cupcakes scented as beautifully as they look.

Roses represent so many wonderful things and are often used to celebrate special milestones such as weddings, births and anniversaries. We might write a special announcement on stationery with long-stemmed yellow roses lying against a background of a French poem. Use white satin roses to create wedding memories in a vintage box.

Roses have also been used throughout the centuries in home décor. Like wild pink roses painted on porcelain china plates. A crystal bud vase embellished with a pink silk rose, ready to hold a freshly picked rose bud from the garden. A French ribbon rose attached to a crocheted cushion in the living room. Hand built ceramic roses to use as drawer pulls, or as a magnet to hang up a special photograph.

Milliners used silk roses to embellish the finest hats; perhaps one covered with embroidered lace and handmade millinery roses. Seamstresses stitched the richest brocade drapes adorned with roses.  Grandmothers embroidered the most delicate rose patterns on tablecloths and handkerchiefs. Now we can give silky velvet rose pins a special corsage. For everyday occasions, you might wear a vintage pink rose apron or admire a rose-shaped pillow made of hot pink satin.

Throughout the years, famous artists have studied and painted every aspect of the rose. Antique lithographs and post cards from the 1800's grace our homes today with their everlasting beauty. From a rhapsody of roses printed on canvas and hung over a doorway to garlands of decal roses that make favorite items look hand painted, roses continue to gracefully fit every lifestyle and décor.

 

 Photo Contribution 1: Katie's Rose Cottage Photo Contribution 2: The Decal Cottage

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "Favorite Finds"

 

You know that sudden flutter you feel when you discover a long sought after treasure? Maybe it's a piece of faux pastry delicately iced and trimmed with lace satin ribbon that takes hold of your imagination and makes you smile. Or vintage china pieces with hand painted roses that bring back forgotten memories. A cottage frame trimmed in vintage wallpaper to hold a treasured photo. Crisp table linens, reminiscent of special teas shared with Grandmother so many years ago. Hand painted silk roses adorning a beautifully wrapped gift or Cameo soaps, delicately scented to tuck inside a drawer of vintage hankies.

An armful of hand-embroidered pillowcases you can't wait to bring home and show off by piling them on your bed.  A rose scented candle that hides inside a special teacup. Garden party hats with vintage floral brooches and ribbon bands, just right for a party or to dress up a corner of your room. Broken china mosaics on a teapot, lamp or silver plated tray to bring out when company comes.  A vintage rhinestone necklace and bracelet to put on for just the right occasions.

A white painted cottage cabinet to be filled with hand-painted dishes, appliqueéd tea towels, chenille bedspreads or vintage toys. Wrought iron candle sticks that dangle delicate crystal drops. They add an instant aura of old-fashioned romance. Vintage nursery jars to put in your powder room or the master bath, unexpectedly filled with rose-shaped soap petals and lavender potpourri. Hand stitched needle points, rich in history, combined with pastels silks for a treasured pillow. Tea cozies trimmed in Venice lace and satin ribbons and bows - stunning as any china teapot and just right for an afternoon tea party with friends.

Favorite finds of all shapes and sizes, to fill each corner and to suit every whim, wait for you to discover at Make Mine Pink.

 

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

 

Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "Along The Garden Path"

  

Delights and pleasures that make your heart beat a little faster await you along the garden path. Sights and sounds and smells that excite your senses and inspire your imagination. Perhaps it's the purple cone flowers, multicolored morning glories, fragrant angel trumpets, or the lordly foxglove, all grown from seed and tended with love, that line the path and remind you to dream. Or the delicate shadow of a Victoria trellis supporting a new vine that takes you on a new flight of fancy. In the early morning hours, or when the sun begins to set, a verdigris candle holder or metal scroll work lantern might illuminate the garden pathway. But it's the vintage metal buckets painted with floral designs and planted with overflowing flowers, that seem to light the way.

Along the garden path, a cherub garden sculpture, or a vintage cherub planter might welcome you to this less-traveled road. Ceramic plaques engraved with thoughts and sayings to brighten the day remind you of the peace you find when you walk here, and invite you to linger a while. Garden mushrooms greet you, as does the sparrow-song sung by tiny birds that have stopped to rest on bird-feeders shaped like perfectly opened petals and delicately formed tea cups.

A garden tea party...a hand painted table brought outdoors just for the occasion. Sparkling candy lights make this a fairy-tale place in the midst of an enchanted path. A Victorian cake stand filled with roses and sweets takes center stage, the vintage china tea cups and plates are set. In the shade, you can remove the sun hat that was created just for you, in a design that makes you smile whenever you catch a glimpse of it. 

The garden scenery is reflected in a beautiful handmade cushion, stitched from fabric alive with pink blossoms, then placed on a nearby garden chair. A decorative vintage birdcage hangs from a weather hook. On the table lies a gardening book filled with inspiration and ideas to share. Later, you'll remember absent friends and lovingly write to them on note cards reminiscent of a favorite rose garden.  But for right now, you'll celebrate with those who are here, and share the treasures you've found along the garden path.

 

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

 

 

 Photo Contribution 1: Treasured Heirlooms Photo Contribution 2: Caroline Alexander

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Make Mine Pink ~ Pink Friday ~ "Something Old, Something New ~ A Perfect Time For A Summer Wedding!"

 

Something old, something new. something borrowed, something blue. The age old timeless phrase describes the perfect ingredients for a beautiful summer wedding.

Something old symbolizes continuity with the past. Perhaps the  bride will wear a piece of heirloom jewelry passed from mother to  daughter. A necklace your mother wore to her wedding and your grandmother to hers. A vintage piece of delicate lace stitched into  a veil or the edge of a wedding dress, or tucked into an embroidered  sleeve, a vintage wedding hankie passed down from a great-grandmother.

Something new, to show hope for the new life ahead. Whether it be the traditional strand of pearls a new bride wears or rose patterned wedding invitations embossed with the initials of the special couple. A scrapbook uniquely designed to hold the memories of this day. A rose photo frame to hold your memories. A vintage cake topper - new to you - a bride and groom surrounded by vintage daisies and lily of the valley buds. A quilt lovingly hand-stitched for the new couple to treasure forever.

Something borrowed, reminding the bride that she can depend on their friends and family in the years to come. Stepping away from the wedding attire, today's bride and groom often choose blend the old with the new as they plan a more intimate reception using vintage silverware borrowed from grandmother's silverware drawer to serve the reception dinner. The crystal candle holders that sit on the dresser of a good friend. A vintage beaded clutch, borrowed from a mother's closet. A round hanging mirror framed by lavender vintage flowers and ribbon, to lend the bride when she checks her veil is sitting just right.

And something blue represents a love that remains true. Robin's egg blue  thank you notes. Blue forget-me-nots on vintage china to serve the  bridal tea. Unique wedding centerpieces that combine the old and the  new, with a touch of blue for good luck.

The past, the future, friendship, family, and forever love, joined together to create one perfect day.

 

Joyce Lucas, Founder
Make Mine Pink

 

 

 Photo Contribution 1: Misty Moonlight Creations