Victoria Day Tea With Royal Albert

"May your life always be like a teapot...overflowing to warm the soul." ~ Irish Blessing

Welcome to my Victoria Day Tea dear friends! What an amazing weekend we've had! The weather has been fabulous and yesterday we celebrated our son's graduation from College.

{This is a longer than usual post so please pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee and settle in for your visit.}

The whole family chipped in on a wonderful Canon Rebel T5i 18-135 kit for him and was he surprised! We held a pot luck dinner for him after the ceremonies with lots of family and friends in attendance.

Here in Canada we are celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday today. Many of us have fired up our barbeques and are enjoying what we consider to be the first long weekend of the Summer.

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Queen Victoria was instrumental in bringing to her fellow countrymen and the world so many lovely fashions and mannerisms. 

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Her beloved husband Prince Albert also has an honourable mention today as our beautiful Royal Albert china bears his name.

English bone china has always been admired for its beauty, its translucency and pearly white quality.

"the tea-cups are particularly fine-lipped,
a feature much loved by the ladies"

A travelling reporter for the Pottery Gazette of 1898 commented - Gleaned from the Internet

In honour of this gracious couple, I was going to bake a sponge cake which was Queen Victoria's favourite but Hubby came home from work with a home made coconut cream pie which some one had made him for his birthday. He is so spoiled!

So this week, we will enjoy pie instead of sponge cake with our tea.

I have brought out all of my Royal Albert teacups and teapots. Some patterns, I have more than one teacup but I will only count the one. I will feature ten teacups because otherwise, this post would be too long. Almost every teacup I have is vintage.

I have been wondering how many RA teacup patterns I have and now I know; eighteen. I also have three RA teapots!

I have an American Beauty saucer without its mate. Someday I hope to find the teacup too.

The majority of my china was either passed down to me, gifted to me, or was found at thrift and antique shops. You will notice most of my teacups are adorned with roses and that I have a lot of pink.

On Mother's Day I was given two dozen lovely white tulips.  One dozen was from Hubby and another dozen was from my son. These will grace my table today.  

Please make yourself at home and I'll pour you a nice cup of tea. You are welcome to a slice of  Hubby's pie. He really doesn't mind sharing. 

My first teapot is of course Old Country Roses and it was a birthday present from my family.

The matching OCR teacup was a gift from my hubby in remembrance of my father who loved this pattern.

Here we have Old English Rose. I have two in this pattern. This one is in the Montrose shape and the one behind it is in the Avon shape. 

Happiness is sharing tea with a friend.

This charming teacup is called Summer. Love the cottage landscape and the soft pink border!

This aqua rose beauty is Veronica and was a gift from my mother many years ago.

This is Friendship with its unique shell design and Cosmos.

You all know Lavender Rose. The entire set of Lavender Rose was passed on to me by my mother. I had started it for her when I got married.

I also have the teapot.

“I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday sweet and fragrant, between its leaves.” ~ LM Montgomery, Anne of the Island

This pretty yellow rose teacup called Tea Rose was a thrift find.

This gorgeous set is Lady Carlyle.

And this pretty set is Serena.

I had found the teacup at a thrift shop and Bernideen @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog surprised me with the matching plate.

This is my New Country Roses teapot which was a Christmas gift this year. I love the soft pink with roses.

And this sweet needlepoint set is Petit Point.

"Serenity is a solitary cup of tea; pleasure is sharing it with another." ~ Victoria magazine

This pie is so good! A lovely cream filling in a home made crust and topped off with toasted coconut.

Earl Grey is in my cup.

Like most of you who collect teacups, I have other makers too. But today's Royal Albert is in honour of Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my collection. Did you pick a favourite?

If you have a teacup or coffee cup, a teapot/coffee pot, a tablescape, a newly discovered tea, or a trip to a Tea Shop, please link up below and I will be happy to come and visit you. 

Have a beautiful day everyone and God bless you!

Peace be to you, and peace be to your house,
and peace be to all that you have. ~ The Book of 1 Samuel


I will be joining these parties as well ~

A Return to Loveliness ~ http://www.adelightsomelife.com/
Tea Cup Tuesday~ http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/
Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/
Friends Sharing Tea~ http://blog.bernideens.com/
Share Your Cup Thursday~ http://jannolson.blogspot.com/
Home Sweet Home~ http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi

A Red Rose Tea

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." ~ Marcel Proust 

Welcome to my Red Rose Tea, dear friends! I hope all you moms enjoyed your Mother's Day weekend.

My mom is in a Nursing Home now and they held a Mother's Day Tea on Saturday afternoon which Hubby and I attended. My niece joined us also which was lovely and it certainly made my mother happy! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.

Hubby gave me a dozen beautiful red roses for our Anniversary last week. I split the bouquet in half and made two arrangements.

"An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joy of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow." ~ Unknown

My favourite rose is white or soft pink but he couldn't find any so he brought home red. He went to two shops looking for my favourite colour, bless his heart! I love how much trouble he went to just to please me for our special occasion!

These roses are in my Skye McGhie Florence vase.

The velvety petals of these gorgeous red roses were the inspiration for my tea today.

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

   That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
   That’s sweetly played in tune. ~ Robert Burns

So, please do come in and join me in the living room.

 It was a bright sunny day when I took my pictures.

"The world becomes a lovely thing!
There's beauty as you'll see;
All because you briefly stopped
To brew a cup of tea." ~ Traditional verse

I mixed and matched some of my red transferware for this tea.

I don't know the maker of the teapot, only that it has a coat of arms on the bottom.

The teacup...This teacup also has the coat of arms on the bottom. I don't have a complete set of transferware teacups in red and I would dearly love to find one. I am marrying this cup with my Skye McGhie Cream Lace saucer.

The creamer is Antique Reflections.

And the wonderful porcelain tea tray holding the  teapot and teacup also bears the coat of arms.

My tea today is Red Rose, an orange pekoe tea, a favourite of my hubby's.

Red Rose Tea is a beverage company established by Theodore Harding Estabrooks in 1894 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It is considered an iconic part of Canadian culture and many Canadians have a strong emotional attachment to the brand. Its orange pekoe tea is said to be made from only the top two leaves of each tea plant sprig, thus ensuring the best quality.
Red Rose's old commercials introduced the catchphrase, "Only in Canada, you say? Pity..." (The catchphrase was transformed by Canadian popular culture to, "Only in Canada, eh? Pity...") Another slogan was "Red Rose Tea is Good Tea." ~ Info gleaned from the Internet

Do you remember those playful chimps that did the Red Rose Tea commericals?  I found this on the Internet as well. Sure brings back memories!

I hope you enjoyed my Red Rose Tea and I am delighted you could visit today. Have a sweet day everyone!



I am joining the following parties as well~

A Return to Loveliness ~ http://www.adelightsomelife.com/
Tea Cup Tuesday~ http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/
Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/
Friends Sharing Tea~ http://blog.bernideens.com/
Share Your Cup Thursday~ http://jannolson.blogspot.com/
Home Sweet Home~ http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi