No Place Like Home # 20

Having a place to go - is a home.
Having someone love you - is a family.
Having both is a blessing. ~ Donna Hedges

Happy Spring! and welcome my lovely friends to another No Place Like Home where you are invited to share your tea time, collections, home and garden posts.

I am so happy that the winter is behind us and we can look forward to lovely warm days and fields of flowers, birdsong, and getting our gardens prepared for the season.

This is what the little garden outside our side door looked like last week. You can't tell by the picture but the bed is heart-shaped. There is very little snow but it will be a while before I see any life in it. I stays rather cool here until May, sometimes even June.

And this is what it looked like this time last year. Quite a difference! That bank of snow was over your head and almost three-quarters of the small pine tree was buried in snow. The little garden is buried completely under all that snow. Brrr! We had a much better winter this year for which we Islanders are all very thankful.

We are getting a Nor'-easter today but that shall soon pass. It doesn't look like it today but Spring is here!

On the weekend I celebrated Spring in a post featuring my Rose Chintz dishes. If you would like to see that post, just click here.
My dishes make me happy just looking at them. Do you have a pattern that makes you smile? 

 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! 

Crochet/Knitting/Quilting/Sewing-
Janice @ Mz. Witherspoon's Cottage shared some lovely crochet work. 

Cathy @ My 1929 Charmer shared the adorable Spring bunny she knitted. 

Collections-
Jann @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson shared her 'accidental' collection of lovely blue and white transferware. Love it!

Teatime & Recipes-
Sherry @ The Charm of Home gave a review on a lovely book, Tea With Jane Austen. Her post included a teatime accompanied by a sponge cake which was one of Jane Austen's recipes. 

Tablescapes-
Pam @ Tea In Texas shared a wonderful St. Paddy's Day Tea including a darling St Patrick's nutcracker. I've never seen a nutcracker like that before.

Gardening- 
Thelma @ Thelma's Days shared pictures of her beautiful garden. 

Thank you everyone for participating last week. As a courtesy, and if you would like to be featured, you should have a link back to my party. Now let's see what you are creating in your home 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

Welcome Spring!

"It is spring again.

The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Hello dear bloggy friends! I hope you have all had a wonderful week. Some of us celebrated St Patrick's Day with our green and Irish treats.

The teacups are from left to right, a Claddagh cup which was a gift from my son, a lovely green Colclough, and a hand painted one created by an artist blogger friend.

A dessert made with pistachio pudding and St. Paddy's Day cupcakes with shamrock sprinkles.

I have been counting down the days till Spring for a while and happy days are here again because it's this weekend. Yay! Today I am celebrating the splendour of springtime. Won't you join me?

Spring is a glorious season of renewal and soon all the songbirds will be back and I look forward to hearing their birdsong in the trees behind our home. Another thing I especially enjoy is the sound of the those little tree frogs called spring peepers singing.

Soon bright flowers will be putting on a show in their beds and the grass will turn green. The trees will be showing off their lacy boughs and bees and butterflies will be flying about.

You know Spring is here when you see new lambs skipping about in the fields and the cattle are grazing again. It's a wondrous and magical season and I thank God for it.

The little bird's nest you see is one my son brought home to me.

I can't think of a pattern more fitting for springtime than my beloved vintage Rose Chintz made by Johnson Brothers in England. Any of you who have been following me for any length of time know this is my signature pattern and why I love it so much.

It is so pretty and girly and whenever I look at it, it reminds me of my childhood and visits to my Auntie P's home in New Brunswick, Canada. 

This is a pattern I fell in love with at an early age. The big pink roses and blue forget-me-nots made me happy just to look at it. I love the little sprig of forget-me-nots and a little rose bud inside the cup.

Most of my china came from my beloved Auntie P who passed it on to me when she was down-sizing. I cherish it and her of course, as she is one of my dearest friends.

So please join me for a cup of tea. The lavender doily you see beneath the cup is one of a set of doilies sent to me by a blogging friend. 

I am using my coffee pot instead of the teapot because it holds more. 

I have been sipping gallons of lemon water and lemon ginger tea this week because I have been down with a nasty cold/flu. Do you like tea when you're under the weather?

But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea. ~ Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Now, tell me what you love most about springtime.

Thank you for visiting and have a beautiful weekend. The Lord bless you! 


For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass so fresh and sweet;
For song of bird and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear and see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee! ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson



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