Teacups and saucers collection at agardencottage

Did you see my vintage teacup and saucer collection lately? I am adding more of them weekly. I love to collect them myself and it is hard to let them go but it feels that I am running out of space. Especially knowing that I can not pass on a new find if I see one :)

Tea cup and saucer Royal Sealy China Japan

Take a look at my collection for sale and find the one that is special for you. They are collectible, great to use or give as a gift and definitely perfect photo props! I love the idea of a tea party involving pretty teacups and teapots, cute desserts and miniature sandwiches. Don't forget the flowers of course!

Tea cup and saucer Paragon England roses & violets 

I have some multiple teacup and saucer sets but many just one of a kind that I find. So please stop by my agardencottage shop to see the selection. I am going to put a new one today or tomorrow.

 

C. Ahrenfeldt Limoges teacup and saucer France deposeLimoges Patented

 

 Shelley England trio tea cup,saucer and desert plate set of 3 mint fruits bone china

A little red fox

A little red fox is my favorite image this December.

I've already went through Pinterest to see the beautiful fox photographs, bought a sleeping fox figurine at an antique shop, cross stitched a cute fox embroidery, and I am stamping my holiday gift tags with a little fox wearing a scarf image. Foxes are everywhere for me this Holiday season!

I mentioned this on our Etsy forum and one very talented artist sent me her fox painting to add to my collection.

What a wonderful surprise! Thank you, Elina from sublimecolors! I am framing it right now and it will be a part of our holiday decor this year.

 

Wait until you see the other images from her shop. The paintings are so beautiful and so colorful. There are stories behind each and all of them! Her images were also put on pillow cases and they are so pretty. I just love Elina's art.

The holidays are almost here and we are very busy with our custom orders this year. We are so grateful to our customers for letting us be a part of their gift giving. Please enjoy our product!   

Best wishes from socksandmittens this holiday season.

Sterling silver earrings giveaway on Irina's Cute box blog!

Aren't they pretty? These earring would go great with an evening gown. Which is always helpful since the winter holidays are not too far.  Stop by, leave a comment and you might be the one who will get these earrings for free.

This giveaway is open world wide and will run until September 7th, 2014. Stop by Irina's blog to sign up!

Strawberry brooch giveaway results

Thank you so much, guys, for participating in our giveaway. Sveta from CherryGardenDolls has announced the winner and it's Julia.

 

The pretty strawberry brooch is on its way from Australia to Belarus, how exciting! Congrats, Julia!

You can never have enough quality yarn

I was searching for more quality yarns another day and found this lovely peruvian shop BelPunto on Etsy. Marisol, the owner of this shop is offering lovely baby alpaca and puma cotton yarns in pretty colors and gladly accepting custom orders to accommodate the customer's needs.

Alpaca yarn is one of the finest yarn nature has to offer and is made from the hair of alpacas, a domesticated species of South American camelid. They are kept in herds at an altitude of 11,500 ft to 16,000 ft above sea level and resembles small llamas in appearance. Alpaca yarn is soft, warm, fire and moisture resistant and naturally hypoallergenic. 

 

Baby alpaca yarn  is the most precious and finest type of alpaca yarn. Alpaca wool is light weighted, stain resistant and durable. What better natural fiber can you think of for a making adult and baby clothing!

I wanted to know more about Marisol and her BelPunto shop so I contacted her to find out more about her. Here is what she is sharing with us today:

"I do not remember the first time I held knitting needles, but I have been knitting my whole life! This is a past time that my grandmother passed to my mother and she did the same with us. When my son Renato was born, and many people admired the clothes he was wearing - made by me and my sisters - we decided to start a baby clothing company, which we called Renattoni. 

I love using these beautiful fibers and am now starting to write some of the patterns, in order to share them... there is only so little we can knit, so much else can be done!!!"

So if you are looking for some quality yarns for your new project please stop by BelPunto shop to see if there is anything for you. 

Or, if you are looking for already made children clothes made with either pima cotton or baby alpaca wool please stop by Renattoni shop. Marisol and her sisters will be glad to help you with your order!

Children with llama

Pretty dolls at CherryGardenDolls shop

The search for Easter party ideas continued. I was looking for some pretty house decor and I found these happy rug dolls in the CherryGardenDolls shop on Etsy.

A couple of these would really add some charm to my home! I was also  wondering about their maker so I contacted Sveta, the shop owner, and asked if she would tell us 3 things  about her. Thank you for sharing with us, Sveta!

1. What is your favorite spring project?

My  favorite Spring project is the preparation of gifts for Mother's Day, because for me it is a grand opportunity to pay more attention to feminine, delicate gift ideas, fabrics and decorative elements.

2. What’s your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job - it is inventing, designing and sewing clothes for dolls. When I was  a child I dreamed of being a fashion designer – so my dreams came true.

 

3. I've noticed you are donating some of your proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund. Can you tell us little bit more about it please.

I write free DIY lessons for people who wish to sew a simple beautiful things and I have created  some products  sewed as examples, I decided to donate the proceeds from the sale of some of them to WWF. I get great pleasure to make these things and somebody  will be glad to receive it as a gift, so two lucky person are very happy to help endangered species together.

More cute dolls and ornaments can be found at the CherryGardenShop on Etsy - please visit soon!

DIY: Polymer clay Valentine hearts

A nicely wrapped packaged is always so pleasant to give and to get. Here is a great idea on how to add some finishing touches to your gift.  Albina Manning (aroundbeads) made this tutorial to show how you can make red and white clay hearts for Valentines Day style tags. You can also use them for any other occasion.

There are 3 different type of tags here: solid color, striped and swirled. Make the one you like or try them all, they all look equally great!

What you need to make these:

Red and white polymer clay

Pasta machine or acrylic roller

A heart shaped cutter

Clay blade

Soda straw

♥ Solid Red Heart:

Condition polymer clay until it’s soft and pliable. Roll it until it is about 3mm thick.  Place a cutter, press and twist slightly the cutter. Using a soda straw, make a hole in the heart.

♥ Striped Heart:

Condition red and white polymer clay.Roll 1/8 block of black and white clay through the pasta machine, using the largest setting. Stack red sheet of clay on white and trim with a clay blade to make 1”x1” square.

 

Roll this sheet through the 3rd largest setting. Cut the sheet in half and stack these halves together, alternating colors.  Now, you have 4 stripes.

Cut this stack on two again, so you have 8 stripes: 4 red and 4 white. Roll 1/8 block of red clay through the 4th largest setting. Using the tissue blade, cut 1/8” (3mm) slices from the stack. Lay these slices, side –by-side, over the red clay sheet.  

Roll this sheet along the stripes. Using a cutter, cut the hearts. Make holes with a soda straw.

♥ Swirl heart:

Use all the leftovers from the striped and red hearts and twist them together.  Roll and fold over and twist again. Keep doing this until you’re happy with the design.

 

Be careful not to do it too many times or it will all just turn into one color.

Roll the clay into the 1/8” (3mm) clay sheet. Place a cutter, press and twist slightly the cutter. Using a soda straw, make a hole in the heart.

Arrange your ready to bake tags on a baking sheet and bake them according to the polymer clay packaging instruction.

Add a nice ribbon to tie your gift with and you are done!

The inspiration is in the Garden

This is citrus harvest time here in Phoenix. The tree branches are heavy with juicy fruits and they look just amazing.

 As always, I am getting so inspired with garden colors that I am looking for similar colors of yarn for our projects. I have already purchased some in orange hues but we are still waiting for these to come. I already had one in an avocado shade so we made this pair:

These gloves are very soft and made with quality blend of angora and acrylic yarn.

The other pair I called Silver Gray is made from extra fine merino wool & angora yarn. It is still a winter and they remind me of frost on a window!

The holiday rush is over and we have time for some new projects. So there are going to be more listings, more new yarns used and more colors. Please visit our shop for quality knits if you are looking for the great gift for your loved ones or for yourself.

Christmas wishes

 The gift of love.
The gift of peace.
The gift of happiness.
May all these be yours at Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

December surprises

Who does not like to get gifts! I certainly do and this December I've received several lovely surprises.

First of all, I won a giveaway, a wonderful necklace made of a recycled computer part from the ReComputing shop on Etsy. 

 

 This necklace became one of my favorites, it is light weighted, pretty and suits to many of my outfits. Thank you Natalka, for this. I received a lot of compliments on this lovely unusual jewelry!

 The second gift was a complete surprise. I received the cutest little ornament for my Christmas tree with my name stitched on. A little lavender sack was added to the package so as soon as I opened the envelope I could smell the wonderful aroma! 

 All my stress is gone with the lavender aroma! Thank you, Lana (bellecoccinelle), for this wonderful hand made gift! It is hanging on my tree right now and it is just glowing with the reflections of the Christmas lights!

  

The third gift was a part of our Christmas gifts team exchange. Love, love, love it!

 All of my favorites are gathered together: a dark chocolate, a bag of coffee, little perfumes and very attractive turquoise beaded bracelet. 

 This is a very thoughtful gift. Thank you, Lena (sfbeads), for getting all these lovely things for me. I am really enjoying the card, too - it's like a little reminder to forget all your worries. 

Thank you so much to all of my Etsy friends, I am really happy that we have met, in person or in virtual reality. Merry Christmas to all!   

Best gift for men

I sold my last pair of black fingerless gloves this morning and noticed this comment my customer made: "I cannot find gloves like this anywhere, and I like to wear them when I play guitar in cold spaces. Thank you!! :)"

So I thought one more time of how useful this type of gloves are. They are great for a fisherman or a hunter,

they will warm your hands up while you are driving in cold weather,

the outdoor photographer will find out that this is a blast.

It was historically used for the sellers of outdoor markets in Europe but it's got a different use now. If you wants to do things outdoors and want your hands to be warm but still need the use of your fingers, these are the gloves for you!

I am not even mentioning typing at a cold office or sometimes just being in a cold house. Have warm hands and a warm heart!

So I went through our feedback just to see one more time what our customers who purchase gloves from us think of them. Here is just some of them:

Super fast shipping. great quality. my husband loves them. thanks!

Very nice gloves - my son loves them! They may have been his favorite Christmas gift.

He loves the gloves and actually wears them! wooot! thanks so much for the awesome work.

These were a gift and my son and he absolutely loved them. Great communication, prompt shipping...the gloves were very well made! Thank you so much!

The men in my family love these gloves.

Thank you dear very much! I bought this gloves for my brother birthday. He is so happy!

Well constructed and warm

Thank you ever so much, Tanya, the gloves are *exquisite* - not to mention the packaging, which was very thoughtful of you. Keep up the great work!

I am one satisfied customer! Beautiful work, lovely packaging, and the personal note was a nice touch! My husband will ove his Christmas gift :)

Lovely service! Prompt service and delivery, packaged well, and they're comfortable to wear!!

These fit really well and the knit is flawless. My husband says they're the best gloves he has ever had! Thanks!

These are JUST what I wanted for my hubby!!! Beautifully crafted, too! Thank you, thank you, thank you :)

Well received by the fisherman! Good fit, and the color won't scare the fish. Nicely knit.

Worth every penny!

We are still accepting the custom orders on men's fingerless gloves. Stay warm this winter!