No Place Like Home # 17

Where we love is home -
home that our feet may leave,
but not our hearts. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Welcome to No Place Like Home, dear friends, and Happy Leap Day! It's the last day of February and Spring is coming! Yay!!

Do you remember this poem from school?

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November;

All the rest have thirty-one

Save February, she alone

Hath eight days and a score

Til leap year gives her one day more.

I think this may be my first leap day party in all my years of blogging parties. 

Tonight I am going to watch Leap Year, a love story that takes place in Ireland. Amy Adams and Matthew Goode star and tradition has it that on a leap day, the girl is allowed to propose to the guy she wishes to spend the rest of her life with. Have you watched it? It's a cute movie with no smut in it. Downton Abbey fans, you may recognize the young man in the movie.

Over the weekend I shared my violets and pansies tea ware at a Lavender and Lace tea. If you missed that post you may find it here.

I also made a batch of blueberry oat muffins and shared the recipe with you. These are wonderful with a warm cup of tea or coffee. You may find that post here.

Last week's party served up a plethora of ideas and recipes. They were all marvellous and thank you so much for sharing. You are a wonderfully talented group of ladies!

I have broken my features down into categories and I hope you enjoy them!

Recipes -

Elizabeth @ The Daisy Fields shared these wonderful heart shaped scones with raspberry whipped cream; yum! Perfect for tea time!

Thelma @ Thel's Kitchen shared a delicious recipe for French Onion Soup. Wonderful on these cold days!

Collections -

Christine @ Christine's Home and Travel Aventures shared her wonderful soup tureen collection above her kitchen cabinets. These are just a few.

Crafts, sewing, quilting, crochet, etc -

Kitty @ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen shared the adorable apron she made from her beloved's shirt. Doesn't she make a cute model?

Mrs. T. @ Across My Kitchen Table shared her wonderful home made table runner. I think it's especially cute because it has a tea theme.

Tea Time/Tablescape -

Sherry @ The Charm of Home shared her adorable collection of Brambly Hedge china. 

Carrie @ Teatime Journeys shared a beautiful Amethyst teatime using her lovely violet inspired china and figurine.

Home Decor -

Amykins @  A Day of Small Things shared her beautiful collection of quilts around her home. I especially love how she did up the bedroom with quilts and pillows.

Congratulations ladies! and thank you to everyone for participating in last week's party.

Now, let's see what you are creating in your home and garden to make it a cozy place to come home to for your family, your friends, and yourself.

Enjoy your day dear friends.


Lord, this humble house we'd keep 
Sweet with play and calm with sleep. 
Help us so that we may give 
Beauty to the lives we live. 
Let Thy love and let Thy grace 
Shine upon our dwelling place. - Edgar A. Guest

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Hello friends! I hope your weekend is going well. I promised you my blueberry oat muffin recipe and here it is.

Made with blueberries and oatmeal, they are hearty and good for you. We all know how good blueberries are because they are full of antioxidants. Oatmeal is high in calcium and potassium and eaten on a daily basis can lower your blood pressure. So do try this recipe.

This is an old recipe. I found it years ago and it is the only blueberry muffin recipe I use.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

1 cup Robin Hood oats
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and well drained.

Combine oats and *buttermilk in a small bowl. Let stand. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and brown sugar. Stir well to blend. Add egg and melted butter to the oat mixture. Mix well. Add oat mixture all at once to dry ingredients. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in blueberries. Fill well-greased muffin cups 3/4 full. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-22 minutes. Makes 1 dozen muffins. Enjoy!

* I make my own sour milk using a cup of milk mixed with a tablespoon of vinegar.

I usually double the recipe for two dozen and then I freeze some. 

Have a lovely Sunday and I hope to see you tomorrow for No Place Like Home. God bless you!

Sharing with these parties~

Bernideen's TTCG Party
Share Your Cup
Home Sweet Home

Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Lavender and Lace

If a kiss could be seen I think it would look like a violet. ~ LM Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea


Welcome friends to a Lavender and Lace tea. 

It is near the end of February and I thought I had better bring out my February teacup. This lovely Royal Albert Violets teacup was gifted to me by my hubby's aunt many years ago.

Do you think amethysts can be the souls of good violets? ~ LM Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables


This is one of only three Flowers of the Month series teacups that I have. Like most of you teacup lovers, I would dearly love to find teacups for all my family members' birthdays but here on the Island they are very hard to come by.

My teapot, Pretty Pansies, you have all seen before and it looks nice with my teacups. When I see a pansy, it always looks like it is smiling; sweet little posies!

These teacups are made by Gracie China.

The matching plate to the teapot is also Pretty Pansies.

These are my Valentine roses which I dried and look what a lovely colour they are! They almost match the purple in my china although the camera has changed the colour somewhat. They really are more of a lavender hue.

The sweet lacy bag which is filled with lavender is as fresh as the day I received it from Kathy at A Delightsome Life. 

Vintage lace and silver.

The cameo I wore on my wedding day. A bit tarnished but dear. That day it was worn on a velvet ribbon around my neck.

I have made Blueberry oatmeal muffins for our tea. These are very moist and healthy too.

Joy is another name for tea at its best. ~ James N. Pratt

Please help yourself to tea and a muffin. A warm blueberry muffin and fresh creamery butter.

 Stash organic Lavender-Tulsi herbal tea.

I made a double batch of muffins so there are plenty. If you would like the recipe I will share it tomorrow.

Thank you lovely friends for stopping by. It's a beautiful sunny day here on PEI and I hope it's lovely where you are. Enjoy your weekend and please join me on Monday for No Place Like Home. Click here to go directly to that post.

I am joining the following parties as well~

Tuesday Cuppa Tea
 Bernideen's TTCG Blog Party
 Tea Cup Tuesday
 Share Your Cup Thursday
 Home Sweet Home


 Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

No Place Like Home # 16

Home is the nicest place there is. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Welcome my lovely friends to another No Place Like Home!

Over the weekend, I shared with you a few photos of winter here on our Island. You may visit that post here.

Brackley Beach 

A little fox right outside our door.

And a simple tea time.

I also showed you Scarlett, my new helper in the kitchen. You may visit that post here.

Last week's party served up a cornucopia of ideas and recipes. They were all marvellous and thank you so much for sharing. You are a wonderfully talented group of ladies!

I have broken my features down into categories and I hope you enjoy them!

Home Decor-
Penny @ Penny's Vintage Home shared her fanciful Spring and Easter decor with a darling horse and bunnies.

Thrifting -
Janice @ Curtains in My Tree shared her fabulous collection of Flamingo plates as well as some Rose Chintz which is near and dear to my heart.

Tea Time -
Trish @ Sweetology shared her beautiful Paris Tea Party. She is very creative in her baking and aren't these gorgeous!

Betty @ My Cozy Corner shared a very cute winter white tea using knitted tea cozies and fun cupcakes.

And Terri @ Artful Affirmations shared a beautiful array of teacups and lovely poetry.

Tablescapes -
Christine @ Christine's Home and Travel Adventures  shared her lovely Valentine's Day table setting. Love her Lladro dancing couple as the centrepiece!

Recipes -
Kitty @ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen shared a wonderful Lasagna soup. Yum! Love her teacup too!

Julie @ Julie's Lifestyle shared a delicious recipe for eggplant pizza. 

And for dessert, Mrs. T. @ Across My Kitchen Table shared her husband's Prize Winning Peanut Butter dessert. Mmm!

Gardening -
Valorie @ Cottage Making Mommy shared how you can grow your own salad bar in flower pots. This a great idea for small spaces.

Congratulations ladies and thank you to everyone for participating!

Now, let's see what you are creating in your home and garden to make it a cozy place to come home to for your family, your friends, and yourself.

Lord, this humble house we'd keep 
Sweet with play and calm with sleep. 
Help us so that we may give 
Beauty to the lives we live. 
Let Thy love and let Thy grace 
Shine upon our dwelling place. - Edgar A. Guest 

An InLinkz Link-up

 Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

Meet Scarlett!

If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~ William Morris

Hello everyone! Hope you're all enjoying your weekend.

As you all know, I do a lot of cooking and baking here at my house and I have never coveted one of those fancy stand mixers because I honestly didn't think I needed one. I was quite content with the hand mixer I had been using for years and years. 

It's funny, a friend of mine always felt the same way. Until she got her stand mixer for her birthday. She claims it has changed her life!

I have been pondering the purchase of one for about six months. Well, the other day, I treated myself to this. And it was on sale!

Meet Scarlett! She and I are going to be spending a lot of time together. I am usually drawn to white for small appliances but this little red beauty grabbed my attention. She adds a little pizzaz to my kitchen and she takes the stress of holding up a hand mixer away. She's easy on the eyes and my arm! Do you use a hand mixer or a stand mixer?


Sharing this with~
Sherry @ Home Sweet Home


Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi

A Little of This and That

I'm so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much. ~ LM Montgomery - Anne of Avonlea 


Hello lovely friends! Hope you all had a good week. 

How many of you viewed Anne of Green Gables on Monday night? I did enjoy it and I also enjoyed seeing the red transferware in Marilla's kitchen! Usually you see brown in a movie such as this set in the early 1900's. It was lovely to see red for a change!

This is some of my red collection above the patio doors in the dining room. And yes, I keep those lights out all year round.

If you visited my last week's tea post, you saw a very sparse red transferware table setting. 

I had all kinds of plans for it. I was going to bring out my ceramic cupids I made and chocolate hearts, the works. But, I was sick! Yes, I was sick the entire Valentine's Day weekend and I forgot most of all the little touches I had planned to use for that tea setting. 

The last two weeks I have been "under the weather" and I actually spent last evening at the ER and this afternoon at the clinic. Hopefully I'm on the mend after this!


We are in the depth of winter here on Prince Edward Island and I thought I would share a few random photos. 

I don't know who took this but I thought it was adorable! If this is your photo, I will gladly give you credit for it. I'm glad I can enjoy chickadees all year round here. I enjoy watching them swoop from the trees behind our home to the feeder. Such entertaining little birds!

The end of December when my son was home for the holidays he went out to Brackley Beach. This is a photo from that day. 

I thought this shot was unique in the way the wind had blown the sand across the snow giving it a marbled effect. Brrr! Not many on the beach that day!

The other day, this sweet little fox had been curled up in the snow just outside our back door. He and his mate made quite a picture. As you can see, we had been heavy with snow here until the past few days when we got a thaw.

My weeping caragana is to the left and a very large honeysuckle with white berries is to the right with pine trees behind.

I took this picture just before Mr. Fox and his Missus walked off into the woods behind our home. They made such a cute pair.

Now, let's go back inside where it's cozy and warm. 

Time for tea!

Because I have been under the weather, it will be a simple tea today. Lemon ginger tea helps to settle the stomach and helps one relax as well. 

I just have to share this darling little teacup Deborah at The Beautiful Matters sent me for Christmas. It is a Martha Cooke teacup. 

She knows how much I love our little feathered friends. Isn't it sweet? Thank you Deborah!

Winter will soon be over so I am sipping tea from my cardinal tea-for-one set. 

There is no mark on this set, just white porcelain adorned with a gold trim, cardinals and pine cones.

I thought my little chickadee and cardinal from my Avon bird collection could join us. 

If you are cold, Tea will warm you.
If you are too heated, It will cool you.
If you are depressed, It will cheer you.
If you are excited, It will calm you. ~ William E. Gladstone

Thank you dear friends for your visit. Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you all on Monday morning for No Place Like Home!


I am joining the following parties as well~

Tuesday Cuppa Tea
Bernideen's TTCG Blog Party
Tea Cup Tuesday
Share Your Cup Thursday
Home Sweet Home

 Sharing from my heart ~ Sandi