Turquoise and the tea trolley

Much as I love pink, I had grown weary of seeing the same pink rose tea wares on the tea trolley and decided to give it a makeover this weekend.

I was also reorganizing my office and realized I was using a vintage tole tray to hold scrapbooking papers, but it's really so pretty that it ought to be out where I can enjoy seeing it. So I started looking for turquoise things and had enough to pull together a new look for the tea trolley, which *almost* felt like shopping.

Have I ever mentioned what hangs over this tea trolley? It's a large framed picture of Alex's late uncle Roy Green, who I gather was a character. I have always loved this antique photograph of him as a child, and that's probably because of the turquoise tint as much as the image of Roy himself.

On a practical note, I also needed a place to plop the avocado plant I've been growing for almost a year now! Last year, I made some loaded guacamole around Cinco de Mayo, and I'd been rooting the pit in the kitchen windowsill. Over the weekend, I tried to find a pot with drain holes so that I can water this periodically, but all I came up with was an old plastic pot from the nursery. I really want a simple clay pot with a liner, but until I feel it's safe to go out and about again (and I'm not there yet), I'll make do. At least I had a teacup planter on hand!

It turns out I had more than enough turquoise teacups to fill the teacup stand. In fact, I have another one left to drink out of!

Now I had been thinking of sending this particular teacup on to Goodwill, because it has a manufacturing flaw near the rim (looks like lipstick up top, but that's paint). Lately, though, I've been watching the Instagram videos of Shabby Chic founder Rachel Ashwell, and she has reminded me that there is beauty to be found in imperfection, so I decided I liked this teacup once again. It reminds me of a saying that a friend shared when we were in junior high, and it went something like this: "If we cannot have what we like, then maybe we can learn to like what we have." A good motto for anytime, but especially right now, eh?

And see these dried flowers? When I spoke to the Marietta Daisies Garden Club back in February (which seems like a *lifetime* ago now), they gave me one of their live floral arrangements in a pretty yellow teacup. That arrangement lasted for, like, two weeks or something, and when I finally took it out because I wanted to use the teacup, I realized the dried flowers were still quite lovely, so I've been letting the things traipse from teacup to teacup. I'm sure I'll toss them one day, but not yet.

My favorite tea tin happens to be turquoise, this Celebration Blend Tea tin I got at Fortnum & Mason on my 50th birthday trip to Europe almost six years ago!

I was surprised to realize I don't own a turquoise teapot (yet!), but a cream one will always serve me well. This is a little cheap one I got years ago, probably at T. J. Maxx, and I still love the roses on the handle and lid.

The jury's out on whether that avocado plant gets to stay there, but I'm enjoying the new color palette. Have you done any reorganizing and/or redecorating while we've been staying at home? I hear it's a popular pastime!