Am I blue?

Am I blue? No, but my newest teatime plate is!

This is one of two I found at Salvation Army while out with Aunt Jane on Saturday. I've never seen these particular designs before, but they remind me of the Capodimonte pieces my mother used to collect.

 The green-edged one has a tiny chip on one petal, but considering what I paid for them, I can touch it up with paint and live with it just fine!

 All these say on the back is "For Decoration Only," so there's no back stamp to investigate.

 My other tea-ish find? A 1999 box of Susan Branch cards. I've long been an admirer of her teatime art, but I've never before seen this design featuring a curate's stand (or tiered tea tray).

It was one of three designs in my $1.59 box of cards (14 of the 18 still present), so I was pretty pleased with my finds. Have you all had any good thrifting lately? (And if anyone can shed some light on the source of my plates, I'd be most obliged!)

More adventures in thrifting … and thrif-tea-ness!

On Saturday, Aunt Jane and I hit up two thrift stores, the Blake House and Goodwill in Carrollton. I didn't find anything I wanted at Goodwill, but the Blake House Thrift Store was a winner. This pretty vintage cutlery holder caught my eye.

 I think the china painting on these old pieces is just so lovely. I did wonder why it was marked "8," though, as I knew it wouldn't cost nearly that much, as I've never paid more than $4 for anything in the store. Maybe it was pricing left over from an estate sale or garage sale?

And when I turned it around, can you believe the monogram I found?

I think it's safe to say this is one of my best thrift store finds of the year so far!

It can happily hold the teaspoons the next time I serve a buffet-style tea!

And in other frugal tea news, Dollar Tree has these two-for-a-dollar calendar sets where you buy the large calendar and get a mini as well.

Now the quality is exactly what you'd expect—which is to say, flimsy and cheap—but I like these small, lightweight calendars to hang on the side of the refrigerator with a sturdy magnet.

And I was happy that my birthday month had a pretty image. If any of you are planning fall or winter teas, it struck me that these might make nice favors or tuck-ins for a bag of goodies, so I just wanted to post an alert so that all the tea lovers can get to them first!