revealing an exchange . . .

Last fall I participated, for the first time, in a Tea Cup Exchange, hosted by Stephanie, of The Enchanting Rose blog.  It was such a lot of fun and I shared about my experience (and revealed my pretty little gifts) here.  I also asked to be reminded when another such swap began, which it did in March, and I signed up for that one, too!!  Today is the big "tea party" reveal!

My gifter was darling Shellie who blogs at Footsteps of Grace. Her package arrived *early* and really caught me by surprise! 

Oooooh!  I love brown paper packages addressed to me!

It was almost like Christmas in March! LOL! Or an early birthday present . . . or something . . . 

It was exciting, I know that!

What a spread! Shellie was so very generous in her package, with teas, a journal, a terrific devotional (Angela Thomas's A Beautiful Offering), a fun pen, a darling tea bag rest . . . 

And do you see that fun tea cup?

What great, bold, cheery colors . . . perfect for a sip of tea!

And then, of course, as I so frequently do - I forgot to take pics of the goodies I tucked away for my giftee, which was Dee of Traditional Simplicity.  I don't think she's posting to her blog, but she sent a photo of her goodies to Stephanie, so I took the liberty of sharing it here, too.

I had such a fun time putting together a box of tea happiness for Dee!  :)

And yes ... I'll probably definitely sign up for the next one!!

Linking up to the 10th Tea Cup and Mug Exchange Reveal linkie party at The Enchanting Rose!

:)

it's tea time . . .

Guess what today is?  It's the day of the big reveal from the ninth annual tea cup and mug exchange!! Which, incidentally, I participated in for the first time this year. What a huge and fun blessing this exchange was! It's organized and sponsored by Stephanie, who blogs over at The Enchanting Rose (where a link up of all the participants can be found today!).

Being a lover of all things tea, I couldn't resist signing up and joining in on the fun! (And a huge thanks to Sarah for sharing it with me!)

The name I "drew" was Marilyn, from Mountain Top Spice, and it was *such* a pleasure to explore her blog and get to know her a little, so I could find the perfect tea cup to send to her! I forgot to take a single picture of what I sent her ... but she's done a nice job of it here (if you want to check out the pretty little Royal Albert Christmas cup I sent)!

As much fun as it was to shop for Marilyn, I have to say, it put quite a smile on my face to find this huge parcel in waiting for me at the post office! Cindy, who blogs over at Creations by Cindy, was my gifter, and she REALLY outdid herself and spoiled me ROTTEN!

Opening it up, my first thought was "Christmas"!  

Yep, I felt like a child on Christmas morning, coming out and seeing all the packages under the tree. Brown paper packages tied up in string?! Yipppeeee!! I spent the next thirty minutes or so unwrapping each little gift and oooohing and aaaaahing the entire time. By the time I'd finished, there was quite a large little spread of goodies . . .

OH MY GOODNESS! Do you see all this?!  Everything from teas, to cookbooks, journals, devotionals, fat quarters, socks and sweet little treats were in this box. I mean everything! But the focus was this beautiful, beautiful tea cup and saucer:

Wait. Take a closer look . . .

Isn't it beautiful?!  And it's a pedestal cup!  I just adore that! In all my favorite colors and trimmed out in gold leaf -- so, so very pretty.

What a treasure . . . Royal Crown 1969.  Wow! I was really tickled by this darling teapot frame, too:

I am trying to decide what picture I'll put in it. In the meantime, I'll put these two fat quarters to good use -- and in my favorite colors, blues and purple!  Just like the cute little socks!  

Gosh, Cindy really did a great job of filling my box with special treats that were meaningful to me. I think besides the precious tea cup and saucer, my favorite thing was this precious little box:

It's filled with encouraging verses from God's Word!  I just love this and have enjoyed pulling one out each day to meditate on and think about through the day -- Cindy was so creative putting this together, and I really just can't thank her enough for her generosity and thoughtfulness!

I so enjoyed this experience . . . and it will definitely be something I look forward to next year (especially since it all happens right around my birthday-haha-and y'all know how I feel about that!). A huge thank you to darling Stephanie for arranging this so faithfully, for nine years now!

Have a great day; tea is served!

:)