The Year Which Leaves Us & The Year Soon Arriving...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,

We wish one and all a Very Happy New Year!  

There Really Is No Place Like Home...

Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
Welcome and Merry Christmas to you all!  We are so happy to have you here with us on this lovely Christmas Eve!  We are still so enjoying our world here in The Tearoom after an extended time away during the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays.  And no one is enjoying their time at home more than our Little Victorienne!  Here she is, posing in her lovely red damask Christmas dress, getting ready for some of our holiday festivities!

There is a lovely warm fire burning in the fireplace...

Little Victorienne asked if we could have a 

whole forest of Christmas trees instead of just one.

Of course!

What a lovely idea!

And she is so helpful when it comes to the decorating!

And here she is, wandering around amongst

the twinkling lights!

But then we hear the doorbell!

Victorienne, I do believe your guests have arrived!

Her new friend Cerfie Blanc is back and this time,

he has brought with him his

friend Monsieur Mignon!

They are enchanted by all of the lovely

Christmas decorations!

Here, Victorienne and her friends are enjoying

big mugs of hot cocoa!

There is plenty left in the samovar and they

would love if you would enjoy a cup

with them!

After Cerfie Blanc and Monsieur Mignon have
 left for the evening and Victorienne snuggles
into her warm bed, trying to go to sleep,
knowing that Santa will only visit once she
is asleep!

We all wish you a lovely Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day!

And we hope Santa brings you all that you wish for!

(Images from iKuPiLLi Imagenarium on
Mischief Circus, The Graphics Fairy and
my own personal collection)

Our Return to The Land of The Tearoom...

Dearest Friends,
I hope you will excuse our recent absence from The Tearoom.  Real Life called us away and we spent several weeks in Colorado visiting the family of Mr. V and our friends there.  But we have now returned and holiday preparations are in full swing!  And yours?

Today, we make a triumphant return by participating in the collage challenge at Collage Obsession!  The ladies there have given us the prompt of "Black Dress" this week.  And since Victorienne is so glad to be back in her home, having tea in front of the fire, wandering the dusty old attic looking for things to make presents and decorations from, helping us to make treats and decorate The Tearoom for guests, such as yourselves, it is only fitting that she should be allowed her other favorite indulgence, dressing up, and be featured in today's collage!

And here she is, dressed in black damask, with a very festive black rose headpiece!  She is posing with her new friend Cerfie Blanc, the white dear she found wandering in the garden of The Tearoom and invited inside!  Who would have thought deer liked tea so much!  It makes him prance all over the room and we must be careful he does not wreck the carefully-placed Christmas decorations before everyone else has had a chance to be invited in to see them. (By the way, keep checking back for your invitation to our Christmas festivities!)

The Giveaway Has...

I am so happy to announce a winner of my giveaway of a year's subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!  The person's name who was drawn from the hat was...

Rachel of Titania's Tea Party

Congratulations, Rachel!!!  

Didn't win, but would still love to savor every minute of this gorgeous online publication?  You can subscribe right here and you can still participate in the great buy-one-get-one free offer and send one to a friend as well!

Thank you so much to Krystal, Editor-in-Chief of Romantic Paris Magazine, for providing me the opportunity to offer this giveaway to you here at The Tearoom!

Happy Halloween!

Hello to you, Dear Friends of The Tearoom!

Happy Halloween week to you all!  When asked what she would like to be for Halloween, our Dear Victorienne answered "The Captain of an airship, like the one we rode in on Christmas Eve last year!"  And, so, here she is, all ready to go out collecting candied apples and popcorn balls, while keeping a lookout for all ghosts and goblins!

Here at The Tearoom, we wish you all a very Happy Halloween!

(Images used in my collage today from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios of Mischief Circus, plus images from my own private collection)

Welcome to The Gothic Circus

Welcome, Dear Friends of The Tearoom

and Happy Halloween to you all!

And, welcome, once again, to my post for 

the wonderful Halloween Blog Party, hosted

by our Dear Friend Vanessa

of A Fanciful Twist!

This year, won't you please follow me,

as we visit a circus of long ago...

Welcome, one and all,

to

The Gothic Circus...

It's a cold and blustery evening

and the dry leaves rattle,

chattering as they stampede in crispy packs,

over your feet and down the road,

as we walk to the circus.

The tents glow warmly...

I look forward to getting there and having

a warm drink...

The last twinkly tinkles of music come from

the creaky old carousel...

We get our tickets from this beautiful lady

and she gives us directions to the snack tent.

The scent of caramel corn

and

hazelnut hot chocolate

lead us there...

Thank you, Miss, for showing us to our seats!

How welcoming all of that plush purple

velvet looks!

This is Madame Bellagia, trainer of bats!

As they swoop and flutter their way

through the hoop, their flight in intricate patterns...

Bobo The Juggling Wonder entertains us

by juggling the strangest pieces of fruit

we have ever seen!

Oh!  How they do stare at us!

Madame Violettina, 

the trainer of The Rare Flying Tyger Saffron,

whispers her polite requests to him

and in return,

he politely complies.

The tiny Princess Peony holds the curtain,

fascinated by it all.

Zizzou and Bizzou,

the zebra twins,

balancing,

dancing

and captivating the audience!

And here is Zizzou once again,

showing us more of his balancing skills!

Mademoiselle Octoberella has a special talent,

training the wild and exotic

Pumpkin Moths.

They listen to only her direction.

The clowns,

Monsieur Intelligentsia,

and The Sisters Rougette and Bleuette

(who are triplets, sister of Madame Violettina),

perform mysterious feats of conjuring...

Mademoiselle Coco, trainer of her

famous Circus Insecta.

What most find creepy and crawly,

she finds adorable.

At night, she tucks them all into tiny,

bug-sized beds.

As we walk away from the Circus,

into the cold, blustery night,

we hope it will stay long enough

so we can come back and visit

once again...

Wishing one and all

A Most Happy Halloween!

Won't you please go visit our lovely

hostess Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist

and the other participants as well?

And just as a reminder,

don't forget to sign up for my giveaway

HERE

to win a subscription to

Romantic Paris Magazine!

The winner will be announced on

October 30th!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week Four

Hello Dear Friends!
We have arrived at that time once again: the final week of one of my friend Bill's fun classes.  This was the last week of his "I Don't Want to Grow Up" Class on his Purple Moose Heart Art site.  I'm sad that it will be over, but once again, I had a lot of fun.  And if you haven't yet taken the class, the fun has yet to begin for you!  You can still sign up and take the classes anytime by going to his site here!

For the final week, Bill talked about graffiti as a positive art form and provided us with pdf files of images of brick walls we could create our own legal and safe forms of graffiti.  I thought it was a very interesting topic and it brought me back to my years in Washington.  Obviously, there were some not-so-positive examples of this in the form of tagging, etc.  But there were some very interesting and artfully-done murals on some walls that I thought added a lot to the visual landscape of the city.

Here is my attempt at graffiti (obviously practiced on one of Bill's images from the class and accomplished without worry of being arrested, sitting at my diningroom table!)

I started out with the word "Create" and added some vines, large leaves and a flame-colored flower, keeping in mind the tropical flowers and plants I loved (and miss) so much in Washington.

Be certain to visit The Tearoom again on Saturday for our post for the Halloween Blog Party at A Fanciful Twist and on Thursday the 30th for the announcement of the winner of the giveaway of a free year's subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!  If you haven't yet done so, you can leave a comment to be entered here!

All the Rage...

Good Evening, Dear Friends of The Tearoom!
It is our prediction that gentlemen of good taste will be sporting hats in the shapes of large cakes and bombé molds this season, worn along with dinner jackets in festive colors and designs, in the manner shown here by that famous photographer, Monsieur Fromage!

(click to see image larger)

This is my collage for the Take A Word Collage Challenge.  The prompt this week was "Masculine".

Images from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios (Mischief Circus) and my own collection.

It Is That Time of Year, Once Again...

Dearest Friends,
As Halloween nears, I love sharing with you my favorite Halloween treats!  And this is one of the most beautiful, spookiest and one of our favorite movies to watch at this time!  I present to you, a clip from the original "Beauty and the Beast" by Jean Cocteau...

A Reminder...

Good Day to you, Dear Friends,
A quick note to you today from The Tearoom reminding you that I have such a fun giveaway going on!  Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win a free one-year subscription to Romantic Paris Magazine!!  It is so much fun to read and Krystal, the editor-in-chief is so very generous to offer it  to my readers!  No need to follow, favorite, anything like that, simply leave a comment here to be entered.  Don't forget to either leave your comment from your blog or leave your e-mail so I can contact you when you win (please notice I said when, not if)!  Of course, none of this information will ever be used for anything except to let you know that you will now be enjoying a whole year of this delightful online magazine!!

The winner of this fun giveaway will be announced on October 30th!

Orange

Hello Once Again, Dear Friends of The Tearoom,

The prompt was "Orange" for the challenge at the Collage Obsession Challenge this week.  

(Click to see image larger)

This is Monsieur Poisson d'Orange.

He resides at the Chateau d'Orange,

near Chambord.

He enjoys spending his days

moving about his beautiful chateau.

Is he swimming?

Is he flying?

Who can say?

All we know is that it is the time

of year when The Pumpkin Moths,

Morti, Mooli and Ming-Ming,

make their yearly visit.

They are so happy you have come

to visit them today!

(Images from my collage today come from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios from Mischief Circus and The Graphics Fairy.)

I Don't Want To Grow Up Class - Week Three

Hello Dear Friends,
In week three of his class, my friend Bill at his Purple Moose Heart Art website had challenged us to write a haiku about the kawaii painting we did for last week's class (if you haven't signed up yet, you can sign up anytime here.  The class is always open!).  This is the haiku I wrote:

And this was how it looked when I put it in my painting:

Thank you, Bill, for your tips this week for getting our minds off things we are tired of thinking about!! It is nice to be able to escape from Grown-Up Life and think like a kid again, isn't it?  (Of course, having taken many life lessons from my Mommy Cupcake,  I learned to be a worrier from her! With lots of hard work, however, I have also learned how to walk away from worries, at least for a while!  (Retreating to The World of The Tearoom helps a lot!)

And, Little Victorienne would also like to thank Mr. Bill for putting the painting of her on the home page of his Purple Moose Heart Art site!!  It was very nice of him!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week Two

Greetings, Dear Friends!
This week, in my friend Bill's class "I Don't Want to Grow Up" at his Purple Moose Heart Art Website, he has asked us to create a Kawaii painting.  In case you didn't know, "kawaii" is a Japanese word meaning lovable, cute or adorable.  So, to encourage our inner child to come out and play, Bill asked us to make a painting with cute characters.  Of course I started out by dressing up our paperdoll daughter Victorienne as a cupcake with a teacup on her head as a hat!

(click to see the image larger)

I painted the back ground in a swirl of red, purple and white, making shades of lavender, mauve and pink.

I then sifted through some of my boxes of bits and bobs in the attic of The Tearoom and found some stickers I had ferreted away...the macaron stickers and the "Miso Pretty" stickers from a stationery set were from Paper Source when I worked there in Washington, and the shiny rabbit stickers were from a shop in Georgetown.

I then added Stickles in different colors (of course!)

Thank you, Bill, for your fun class!   My inner little kid is having a lot of fun!  Would you like to play along?  The class can be viewed anytime, so you can sign up here and do the exercises in your own time!  I highly recommend it!

A Giveaway Here at The Tearoom!

Dear Friends,
As I chatted about here, I have been working on some cross-promotion with Krystal of Romantic Paris Magazine, a wonderful online magazine about Paris!  If you haven't subscribed yet, you still have a chance to take advantage of their buy-one-get-one free sale!  Click here for more information on getting a subscription for yourself and one for free to send to a friend!!

And now, you have another chance to get to see all of the great photos and read the articles in this great online publication by entering my giveaway!  Krystal has so generously provided me with a subscription to give away to one lucky Friend of The Tearoom!!!

The instructions are simple!  All you have to do is leave a comment here on The Gossamer Tearoom Blog!  Just be sure I have a way to contact you if you win (either post your comment from your blog or include your e-mail in your comment here.)  On Thursday, October 30th, I will randomly draw a winner and announce it here!!!  That lucky person will receive a year's subscription to this lovely online magazine!

How exciting!  Whether you will be going to Paris soon and will use all of the great information in the magazine to help you decide which places to visit or if you are an armchair traveller, I'm sure you will find yourself as enchanted by Romantic Paris Magazine as I am!!

(These photos are all from past issues of Romantic Paris Magazine!)

Good luck!!

Tomorrow...!

Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
I hope I can count on your coming back for a visit to The Tearoom tomorrow, as I will be announcing a very exciting...

Until tomorrow...!

Spooky...

Hello Dear Friends!
It is a rainy weekend, here in The Land of The Tearoom, but today, I'm participating in the collage challenge at Sunday Postcard Art, where the prompt is "Spooky"...

(click to see image larger)

That Haunting Fragrance

Wishing all Friends of The Tearoom a wonderful rest of their weekend!

Something New...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
I would like to thank you for a brilliant bit of inspiration I received from the participants of the collage challenge at Take A Word last weekend!  I participated in the "Buttons and Bows" challenge and while working on it, conducted an experiment which has led to my newest collage sheet in Velvet Revived!

In case you missed it, this is a detail from the collage from the challenge (you can see the whole collage here):

I had experimented with scanning some of the vintage Mother-of-Pearl buttons in my collection and then playing with the contrast in Photoshop to enhance some of the lovely, shimmery colors!  So many people commented that they liked the buttons and my explanation of how I came to have them in the collage that I decided to scan more of them this week and design a collage sheet of them for Velvet Revived!

Mother-of-Pearl Buttons Digital Collage Sheet

There are lots of fun things to be done with these digital buttons!!  Of course they can be used in digital collages like how I used them!  But they could be used in scrapbooking, collaging of the cut-and-paste variety or you could print them out (perhaps on glossy photo or brochure paper), punch holes where the buttonholes are and string them on thin ribbon, glitter twine or bakers twine for a super sweet garland like this:

Won't you please consider a return visit to The Tearoom tomorrow?  I will have even more fun collage work for you to see!

Diva

Happy Friday, Dear Friends!
Lots to work on today here in The Tearoom (as always!), but I was more than happy to take the time to do a collage for the Collage Obsession Challenge!  Kirsi provided us with a beautiful vintage image of the opera singer Emmy Destinn and the topic is "Diva".

(click to see image larger)

(Images used in my collage today from ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and Tumble Fish Studios, both from Mischief Circus, and from my own personal collection of ephemera.)

Wishing all Friends of The Tearoom A Very Happy Friday and A Lovely Weekend Ahead!

I Don't Want to Grow Up Class - Week One

Happy Thursday, Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
Isn't the World of the Internet a lovely place to be for artists this week?  After all, this is the first week of my friend Bill's new class at his Purple Moose Heart Art website!  I love Bill's classes because they are so good letting me stretch my creativity!  You can start them anytime you like, so if you haven't signed up for it yet, it's not too late!!  And so, this week in "I Don't Want to Grow Up", Bill had us do a fingerpainting!  This is not something I had done for a very long time!  So, today was the day I did it and here is the result!

(click to see image larger)

Psychedelic Flowers

I think I must have been influenced by my two big childhood influences: Peter Max and Yellow Submarine!!

I can't wait for Bill's second class!!

P.S. Thanks and hugs to Mr. V for taking the picture of my painting today!  I asked that he just take it where I painted it, the funky old 50's formica red table with aluminum legs in the kitchen!

Happiness Is...

Hello to you, Dear Friends!
Today, I'm participating in the collage challenge at The Three Muses!  The prompt today was "Happiness Is...".   After having been away from doing challenges for a bit and then returning, I'm finding I really enjoy it more than I even thought I did before!  So, for me, Happiness Is Just Making Art!!

(click to see image larger)

Happiness is Making Art!

(Images used for today's collage from itKuPiLLi Imagenarium, Tumble Fish Studios (both on Mischief Circus, formerly Deviant Scrap), The Graphics Fairy.)

Keep checking back for updates on what is happening this month in The Tearoom, namely my art projects for my friend Bill's class on his Purple Moose Heart Art site (Have you signed up for his classes yet?), more collages for challenges, a giveaway (courtesy of Romantic Paris Magazine) and, on the 25th, The Halloween Blog Party at A Fanciful Twist!!!!

A Return to The Garden...

Happy Sunday to you once again, Dear Friends!
The prompt for the challenge on Sunday Postcard Art this week is "Hats".  I always love making new collages for each challenge, but today, I hope you won't mind if we visit once again a collage I did about a year and half ago for a Mad Tea Party blog post.

Violetta, Victorienne and Dapple

in the Garden

Buttons and Bows

Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
Due to some recent happenings, I had not had the time to participate in the collage challenges that I love, but I took some time today so that I could participate in the one at the Take A Word Challenge.  The topic for today is "Buttons and Bows".

(click to see the image larger)

Monsieur Fromage is a photographer of great renown.
He has been asked by Madame Pensée

to come take a family photo.

Monsieur is taken aback by how fond the
Famille Pensée seems to be of buttons and bows.
Also, that kitty in the corner appears to be
the largest he has ever seen!

The buttons in my collage today are all from my own vintage button collection!  I decided to experiment with putting some on the scanner bed, scanning them and then playing with the contrast and brightness in Photoshop!  I hope you will enlarge the image and see how many of the iridescent colors came through from these mother-of-pearl buttons!

I think when most people think of "Buttons and Bows", they think of the popular song from 1947.  But I think of a song that my husband Mr. V introduced me to recently.  Give a listen to Long John Baldry and his song "Flying" from 1971 and see what you think!  By the way, anyone who is a long-time fan of Elton John (which I am!) will recognize his amazing work on the piano!

Thank you to Mr. V for all the music he has brought to my world, starting when we met in 1984,  and to our paperdoll daughter Victorienne for posing as one of the children of the Famille Pensée, on a break from the secret project she and I are working on together!

(Images used in my collage today from the following sources:  ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium on Mischief Circus, formerly Deviant Scrap, Tumble Fish Studios on Mischief Circus,  The Graphics Fairy and images from my own personal collection of vintage postcards and ephemera.)

(And since Kirsi of ItKuPiLLi Imagenarium and the Collage Obsession Challenge is getting that challenge started up again after a summer vacation hiatus, she asked if we would link to a collage to test her Linky Party links and so I have linked to that post from this one as well.)

Another Sign of Fall...

Hello to you, Dearest Friends!
Even though we are so very lucky to be having a lovely Indian Summer weekend here in The Land of The Tearoom, we have already had some very cold nights and so, already have quite a few brightly-colored leaves on the trees.  Here is a collage sheet I made and posted up in Velvet Revived this week.  I hope you like it and I hope it reminds you of all of your favorite things about fall!

Autumn Leaves Digital Collage Sheet

And, just as a reminder, if you haven't yet signed up for my friend Bill's class "I Don't Want to Grow Up" on his Purple Moose Heart Art site, it is not too late!  (Also, sending a big "Thank You" to him for mentioning me as one of his online friends who enjoy not growing up and giving a link to my last Mad Party Tea post!!!)  In fact, you can still sign up for his last class "Heal Your Heart With Dollar Store Art", which I can tell you, was so much fun!  I find Bill's classes so good for stretching my creativity and I'm so grateful to have him as a friend!

Please check back tomorrow, when I will be posting my submission for one of the collage challenges!  I haven't had the time to participate in them for a while, due to a big secret project I have been working on the last few weeks involving our Dear Little Sweetheart, Victorienne!  In the meanwhile, she will be happy to appear in my collage tomorrow as well!  Whew!  What a busy little girl she is!

Until tomorrow, Dear Friends!

A New Friend of The Tearoom...

Dearest Friends,
If you have read my blog, followed me on Twitter or Pinterest or looked at any of my Etsy shops, you know I am just crazy about Paris!  So, you can just imagine how excited I was to make the online acquaintance of Krystal, Editor-in-Chief of Romantic Paris Magazine!  If you haven't seen it yet, won't you take a moment to take a peek?   So much great information if you are planning a trip to Paris soon or are just armchair traveller for now!  And the photos!  So lovely!  If this doesn't make you dream of visiting Paris, nothing will!  And if you subscribe now, she is running a great buy-one-get-one-for-a-friend promotion and you can check that out here!

Please check back soon as I will be announcing a giveaway here at The Tearoom, in collaboration with Romantic Paris Magazine!!!