Updates...

Dearest Friends,
It makes me so very happy to know that I have such lovely friends out there in the Aether! Thank you to each and every one of you that takes the time to stop here, wether you leave a comment or not. Of course I love to read your comments, but anytime you would like to come in, quietly have a look around and a cup of tea and leave, that is perfectly OK!

Updating what has been happening in The Tearoom, my tea review from my last post was enjoyed by Lili and Kedra of Opus Oils, they posted a link to it in their news section and Kedra blogged about me on her beautiful and creative blog, Scents of Imagination! She used the very cool picture I have added above in her post about the review, which I re-post here with much gratitude!

Now, when you visit Mirabella Morello, you will be greeted by the cheerful, twinkly sounds of music boxes:

Moonlight Sonata Music Box Works

Braham's Lullaby Music Box Works

Happy Birthday Music Box Works

There has been much to keep me busy in my little vintage shop! I have so many new lovely things to list that I can barely keep up! But I can tell you that the very newest items there are for your creative art projects! I have listed only the first batch of sweet little music boxes! Also, I have just finished some tiny projects that I am using as examples of how to use some vintage shorthand pages and 1950's road maps, now on sale in the shop. They are perfect for your altered art and collage projects!

Jar decorated with paper from vintage shorthand magazines





Card and envelope made using paper from a vintage road atlas

I have so much more coming up...rubber stamps....lovely teacups....sweet cream and sugar sets....more music boxes....

And there are even more projects to come, in case you are worried that The Gossamer Tearoom Shop is being neglected...

But on a sad note, a very dear friend has closed her blogs, due to theft of her artwork. Karma plays a big part in how this blogging/online art world works. My heart is sad for her at the contamination of her sacred art space and for her followers.

Won't You Please Come In and Browse?

The following are images from the opening day of my new vintage shop Mirabella Morello, just next door to The Gossamer Tearoom:

















(All the background images I am using are from digital collage sheets from my creative Etsy friend Josie from Charmed Memory Collage.)

Thank you for shopping at Mirabella Morello!
I hope to see you again soon!

Valentine Cream Tea Deluxe

Welcome, Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
It is so very nice to spend time with you again!! A Most Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Won't you please have a seat? For a lot of us, it is still cold and for some of us, there's a lot of snow where you are (for others like me, a lot more!!). I have hung tapestries around the room to make it cozier for us!



And to remind us that spring is only around the corner, I have placed a fountain with a profusion of violets growing around it, in the middle of The Tearoom!


Today, we are having a traditional British cream tea (with just a few revisions of my own)!

Of course we start with lovely Devonshire scones,with clotted cream and jam. Traditionally, scones are served with either strawberry (or occasionally, raspberry) jam or lemon curd. But who can say no to a bit of Pierre Hermé's Ispahan Confiture instead, his beautifully passionate red jam made of two layers, rose-scented litchi and raspberry, which you mix upon opening the jar? What a romantic combination and entirely appropriate for our Valentine Tea, don't you think?


And we must not have a Valentine's tea that does not include some sort of macarons! Here are some very interesting ones from a patisserie in Paris called Acide. These are fraise/poivre (strawberry/pepper)! Just imagine that sweet, yet slightly hot flavor! I would definitely try these, should we find ourselves in the 17th Arr. in Paris!

From the House of Ladurée comes a religieuse griotte (sour cherry religieuse).

And you must try the Black Forest Cheesecake from the blog Tastes of Mine!

To pair with all of these beautiful red flavors of raspberry, rose, strawberry and cherry, I thought it best to have a black tea, which should also go well with the pepper in the macaron and the chocolate in the cheesecake, perhaps a Ceylon from Kusmi or an Earl Grey with Blue Flower Petals from Monsieur Hermé. Do you take yours with cream?



To end our lovely party, won't you please have some beautiful chocolates from Rococo Chocolates in London? They must be as yummy as they look. One of these must be the favorite you didn't know you had yet...

...Jasmine tea, Manjari Madagascar, lychee rose and raspberry, Irish coffee, sour cherry with dark chocolate, and Jivara marc de champagne, passionfruit and mango, crushed lemon praline with milk chocolate and these four very special flavors, invented just for this collection:

And, because I can never spoil you enough, I have added Acide in Paris and The Cake Opera of Toronto to the ever-growing list of beautiful sweets and teas to peruse in the "Tea and Sweets" links to the right!

Please keep checking back as I have many new projects coming up including the opening of my new vintage shop just down the rue d'Etsy from The Gossamer Tearoom, called Mirabella Morello and new collections of silk brooches just for spring!!


I wish you all A Most Happy Valentine's Day

For a really beautiful description of a proper cream tea, please read Nigel Slater's excellent description in The Guardian, complete with recipes for scones and plum jam.

Surprise Treats for Us!

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
The time of the Valentine Tea draws near....

But in searching out only the best treats for our Tea in the Aether, look what I have found! The House of Ladurée has updated their site (at least the French part, so far!). You can spend a great deal of time browsing and dreaming here (just click the package to open it!)!



There are beautiful new charts of religieuses (like the one above), macarons and even a very cute video!

This "carte" above just makes me so happy! We get to see some of the religieuses they have not pictured on the website before. Here are the flavors shown, left to right, top to bottom:
-Rose, Violet, Chocolate
-Caramel, Pistachio, Strawberry
-Sour Cherry, Orange Flower, Raspberry Anise
-Mango Caramel, Passionfruit Pineapple, Apple Cedar Lemon

Hint: (if you don't read French): Anytime you see the phrase "en savoir plus", click the link to see more information.

I am currently scurrying about The Tearoom, from attic to cellar, with multiple projects! You have The Valentine Tea to look forward to, but also, a new Etsy shop! In the meanwhile, don't forget to shop The Gossamer Tearoom shop to "ooooh" and "aaaahhh" over the new brooches to be found there!

Because Everyday of Your Life is Valentine's Day...

Dearest Friends of The Tearoom,
I try very hard to keep our little tearoom as our imaginary salon of escapism, but sometimes I have to come back to real life. I am posting a new collection of my silk brooches in my Etsy shop this weekend, and I have created two brooches in honor of "Wear Red Day", which is February 4th. Starting today and throughout all of February, I will be donating 50% of the proceeds of the sale of my red and black anatomical heart brooches to The American Heart Association.

If you aren't aware of it, "Wear Red Day" brings more attention to the issue of heart disease in women. Contributions assist with continuing public education. Many people do not know that heart disease is the number one killer of women and you do not have to be older for heart disease to affect you. I had my first heart attack at 38. On Christmas Eve, I quietly celebrated my 10th year of survival. My most recent incident happened this past May (I blogged about it here.) At that time, they implanted a stent into my heart and they do not expect me to have any other problems.

Because so many women miss their symptoms, and they are often different in women than they are in men, here are some of the ones you might not expect:

-Shortness of breath
-Dizziness or lightheadedness
-Sudden pain in your jaw, back, arms or stomach (mine starts in my jaw, but quickly moves to a heavy, painful pressure in my chest, followed by severe pain and tingling in my arms and hands.)
-Nausea and/or cold sweats (one of my hospital room-mates thought she had the flu)
-Depression, anxiety and very often, an impeding sense of dread (Is this our intuition speaking to us?)
-Sudden and unexplained fatigue
-Increasing or worsening bouts of heartburn.
-Sleeping difficulties (many middle aged women experience this, but when it occurs when other symptoms, you should take it as a warning.)

You do not have to be overweight, you do not have to have a high cholesterol reading, you do not have to have any sort of sugar problem, you do not have to be older and you do not have to have previous family history.

If you experience these symptoms, call 911 IMMEDIATELY. I felt terrible in a way I had never felt before, but it can be much quieter than that. DO NOT drive yourself to the hospital and do not let someone else take you. The EMTs have treatment they can administer even before you reach the ambulance.

Stay alert. Stay alive.

(There's great information at the Livestrong site too.)

And what will I be wearing on February 4th? I will be wearing this t-shirt. I got it in Paris when Mr. V and I were there for our first anniversary. If doctors hadn't known how to help me 10 years ago, so many things in my life wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have been married. And I wouldn't have gone to Paris at all.



Everyday with my love Mr. V is Valentine's Day for me.

A Day of Surprises!

Dear Friends,
You may wonder where I have been hiding. I have been tucked away in the Attic of Creativity, away from The Tearoom, but now I am back! I have some surprises for you!

First, the most recent edition of "Belle Inspiration" will be published tomorrow. For those who don't know, it is published by Mimi, of the "Bonjour Romance" blog in Paris! "Belle Inspiration" is the online magazine she publishes and she is graciously running a tutorial that I wrote in the newest edition!! I am so honored! In the tutorial, I explain how I have made a "We'll Always Have Paris" banner to decorate your home! I have so much fun creating art projects like this and I am just so happy to share my ideas with you! If you haven't yet, you can order your copy of "Belle Inspiration" here. It is just so beautiful and so much fun! I love looking at it, sipping a cup of tea, making note of all the great recipes and ideas from it that I will try.

Second, I have also been busy creating a new line of items for my Etsy shop (which is also called "The Gossamer Tearoom", in case you haven't visited yet!). In the past, I have mainly made cards and cardsets, bookmarks, calendars and a few small collage sheets. But what I have been working on recently is something completely different! I have created a line of beautiful brooches made of silk! I have many images to choose from (and I'm creating more all the time), but if you have an image that you would like to have made into a custom design brooch, please contact me, either through e-mail or Etsy convo. Also, if you happen to want to buy them without the pin backs, I am happy to sell them to you! They would make the sweetest little pillows in a dollhouse or vignette! These silk brooches are beautiful and unique. The images are gorgeous printed on the silk and they are so soft!

Below is a very brief video preview I made of some of the designs I will be offering in my first collection. (The music is "Burnout Eyess" by oOooo.) The new collection will debut tomorrow in my Etsy shop!





It is so nice to see you all again, Dear Friends and thank you for stopping in to see what is new in The Tearoom!

Introducing The Dada Dolls. . .

Dearest Friends,
Recently, whilst preparing for our Tea Party of Great Madness, I have also been busy working on a rather extensive altered book project. From that project were born some new friends. These tiny pictures are just the first of what I hope are many projects I will do about them.

This is Blanc de Rose.

This is her twin sister Rose de Blanc.

And this is their baby sister, Rose Lapin,
who dresses like a rabbit most of the time!

Together

They can be found on my Etsy shop here.

I do hope they will stop by again soon so we may have tea with them!

A New Etsy Item . . .

Dearest Friends,
Mr. V and I were recently wandering around the cemeteries near where we live, gathering something there that might surprise you. We were gathering letters for an alphabet! After taking some very cool photos, I have made them into a series of digital collage sheets that I am now selling on Etsy! I posted the first one today, which includes the letters A through L and you can see it here. The example above is just one idea of how they could be used in art projects (and by the way, the very cool background is from Jerry of Shadowhouse Creations. Thank you, Mr. Jerry!)

New Etsy Items

Dearest Friends,
Please won't you take a moment to take a look at the new items I have made for the Etsy shop (also called "The Gift Shop" because if I went to a place like The Gossamer Tearoom, I would want to take home souvenirs!)



Some while ago, I started to make tags that I thought would be used as gift tags. I gave some to friends and the first thing they did was use them as bookmarks instead! Clever them! So, they can be used as tags or bookmarks and just maybe you have even more ideas for them! Please let me know if you do! I called them the "Chapeaux des Gateaux" Bookmarks/Tags (that's Cake Hat in French!) because with my handy computer, I stacked desserts, teacups and fruits on top of these ladies heads (and they wear them very gracefully, I might add!). The two pictures above are close ups of these lovely, glittery tags!

I have also been hard at work on another item. It is a note card/gift tag set called "Midnight in Paris". All the images are rubberstamped on black cardstock and then embossed with metallic copper embossing powder, so they shine just like new pennies! There are three cards and four gift tags per set, plus the set comes packaged in a small portfolio with a metallic pen for writing on them (and then using on other correspondence when you have used all of these!). The cards include an eye and the word "Bonjour", a strawberry and the word "Merci" and Cupid asleep in a comfy chair with "Je t'aime" underneath! The gift tags are an art deco hotel sign, a vintage French postage stamp, a bottle of champagne and a teacup with the words "Tea Party" dangling from it. All of the tags are tied with pretty metallic copper twine. A close-up of the Merci card is shown below.


Thank you so much, dear friends, for taking a look at the things I have fun making!

Betty

Don't Forget to Treat Yourself!

Dear Friends,
I have made the nicest discovery! I have found a wonderful Etsy shop called 5 Dollar French Market! These ladies make very sweet glittered, rubber stamped and tea-stained handmade items and everything in the shop is just $5 (plus a small amount for postage)! This is what I got from them . . .


. . .Five yards of gorgeous ivory seam binding, hand rubber stamped with French text. It comes on a tea-stained, hand-stamped tag. There were also very sweet surprises in the package and each item was packed in stamped glassine bags! In addition, the order was shipped very quickly! What fun!

I think that the next time you are not having the best day in the world (or even to celebrate if your day is going great!!), I would recommend ordering a little something for yourself! The prices are great and the minute you open the package, you can feel the love these ladies must have for making things!

Look for another post later today with my big news . . .

And also tonight. . .

A new item in The Gossamer Tearoom Gift Shop, the second set of Women in the Moon notecards. This is an all new set, with completely different images from the first set. But like the first set, a very nice quality silver pen is included in your order, for writing on your cards and envelopes in suitable, ethereal fashion.

Mademoiselle Moon Just for You

A new item I just posted to The Gossamer Tearoom Gift Shop (aka my Etsy site)!  Mademoiselle Moon awaits your visit in all her full-moon glory...

New item for The Gossamer Tearoom

Good Evening!  There is a new item for the Tearoom tonight, one of two new cards I have made for my Etsy site.  This one is called "Macaron Card".  Please visit the Etsy site (http://www.gossamer531.etsy.com) for more information.