Part of getting old seems to be seeing the things you love become extinct. Tea cups and saucers, clocks, books, hand sewing and embroidery, hand written letters, postcards, birthday cards, silver sets, so many things disappearing or becoming unwanted by the younger generations as they come along with new technology.
But, I notice the old things I love still last longer than the new things coming along. Maybe not in purpose but in strength and durability. New technology is made to break and be replaced. Can it be loved like the old things when it isn't made to last? I don't think there is enough time before a new one is needed and the old hits the landfill.
A group for collectors, dealers, and auction houses to further knowledge about antique and modern silver.
This group looks like it needs more members to get it active again. If you found this post while looking for information about siler, in Canada, contact the Society, even just to say hello.
Meanwhile, I have my Great Aunt Alice's tea set really needing a polish. (My Mother's Mother's Sister, Alice).
I don't collect silver, intentionally. It can be beautiful, but it does need maintenance. Not a chore to do but after using the chemicals to shine it I'm not so sure about actually using the tea set. Besides I'm not a tea drinker unless tea is one of few alternatives.
My Grandmother was a tea drinker. She liked old teapots, fancy teapots and vintage teapots but then she would put them on the stove to warm up her tea and, in the end, each pot would end up cracked from the heat. So, she ended up with a lot of broken teapots. She could have used a teapot cozy. I know she had at least one. My Mother would knit them for her.
I don't drink a lot of tea but I love the look of the teapots and teapot cosies (or cozies, however you spell it). They have a romantic image. Some of them are so pretty and girlish that you almost want to become an avid tea drinker.
What are your tea drinking traditions?
I don't love tea. It's not so much a part of the traditions and history of Canada as it is in Britain and Japan. But, we do have tea parties, simple and down-sized though they are by comparison. I like Earl Grey tea and I love the smell of Lipton's caramel tea (which they don't seem to sell any longer). My Mother likes to get jasmine tea when we go to a Chinese/ Oriental themed restaurant. I like the ginger tea, the odd time they offer it.
Tea has some part of everyone's family history it seems to me. Even if we don't make and drink tea on a daily basis, it's there. A gift from your Grandmother, an impulse purchase you made yourself, or just something you keep around for company who don't want coffee or hot chocolate.
Kind of nice, when you make tea for someone, to be able to pull out a nice teapot and have the finishing touch of a pretty tea cosy to top it.
I found so many wonderful tea cosies when I began looking for them, I couldn't decide which I would like most. I'm not a knitter so patterns for knitted tea cosies are a bit out for me. Unless I get someone to make it. But, it's never really, truly your very own tea cosy if you paid for it. There's something special about the tea cosy (like any craft project you make yourself). For one thing, you're the only one who knows about that glaring error which you somehow managed to conceal with a bit of extra thread or yarn...
One of my favourite tea cosies was knitted (plain knitting luckily) underneath and the top was decorated with exotic looking crochet flowers. You can find the instructions for it in the links below.
