Winter whites and aqua blues

Last year, I gave up on the idea of redecorating my little tea trolley each month. I was doing fine until about the 29th day of one month when I got all panicky because I was so busy and hadn't had time to be creative with my teawares that month. I was about to get busy redecorating it when it dawned on me that a) nobody was going to give me an award for decorating the tea trolley each month, and b) if I was knocking myself out to do something I was too busy to enjoy, what was the point? So I stopped my self-imposed rule of redecorating that little surface every single month. What a relief that was! You know, that's one of the great things nobody told me I would enjoy about getting older. I'm much more reasonable with myself than I used to be, and if I can't live up to my old standards, I simply come up with new ones! That said, this month I did have time to toy with the tea trolley a bit.

I love this winter white teapot and use it almost every single year. Interesting that such a plain little teapot holds such charm for me, but it does.

I also wanted an excuse to display the pretty glasses my sister got me for Christmas. When the afternoon sun streams through, that color is just the prettiest shade of aqua you can imagine! And just for fun, I left out my little snow guy with "Believe" in his hands. I am going to "Believe" we'll get snow in Georgia this year and see what happens!

Added to my winter whites was a lovely new candle my friend Susan gave me for Christmas. That jeweled cross in the middle? It's a push pin type piece I can reuse with other candles, and I just love this new line of candle accessories called "candle jewelry." I'd never heard of these before!

Also in the aqua category, a favorite tin (with some of the tea still inside) from Fortnum & Mason in London. Oh, how I want to go back there!

When I'm not making tea in this glass teapot, I've taken to using it purely for decorative purposes. These miniature aqua ornaments inside weren't quite ready to go back into hybernation for the winter.

And neither were my little bottlebrush trees and bell jar ornaments. I consider these my "winter" decorations, not necessarily "Christmas" decorations. But then we've already established that I am making up new rules as I go along! Do you ever make up new rules for yourself?