#5 A Few of My Favorite Things - Dresses

#5 A Few of My Favorite Things

Dresses

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore dresses.  I particularly love vintage 1950's styled dresses.  So this year I have added a few to my closet and yes I wear them.  

The first one I am sharing is my favorite.  It is a silky dark blue dress with flocked lace at the top.  It features 4 layers under the full circle skirt bottom.  It fits me beautifully and it is hands down my favorite. 

Layers!!!

Here are a few more of my favorites.

This is a lovely ivory colored dress with lots of layers and details.  The only reason it is not my favorite is because it is a little tight and I don't wear it as well as I do my blue one.  

and last...

This is a beautiful blush pink dress.  This one is lace with silver threads in it and lots of layers as well. 

Dresses just one of my favorite things...

Tis The Season,

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties

Happy Thanksgiving with One of My Favorite things - Nilla Banana Pudding

Happy Thanksgiving

with

Nilla Banana Pudding

One of my favorite things for sure...

As a child I grew up eating homemade banana pudding.  It was a recipe handed down from my grandmother to my mother and then to me!!!  The recipe was eventually placed on Nabiscos Nilla Wafers boxes.  I am not sure if my grandmother's recipe was exactly the same but I can tell you that they taste the same.  This is a delicious dessert and one I make every year.  I wanted to share it in time for Thanksgiving.  If you have never tried it, I think you will love it.

In years past I have made them for our family members.  My father-in-law, mother-in-law, my neighbor and one for us.

Here is a link to the recipe by Nabisco.

http://www.snackworks.com/recipe/original-nilla-banana-pudding-165157.aspx

To make it easy I will post the recipe here as well.

Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1/3 cup flour

dash salt

3 eggs, separated

2 cups milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

45 NILLA Wafers, divided

5 bananas, sliced

Instructions

HEAT  oven to 350°F.

MIX  1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water 10 to 12 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

RESERVE  12 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard onto bottom of 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover with layers of 1/3 each of the remaining wafers, bananas and remaining custard. Repeat layers 2 times.

BEAT  egg whites on high speed of mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over custard, sealing well to edge of dish.

BAKE  15 to 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool slightly. Top with reserved wafers just before serving.

What special dessert will you be making this year? 

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. 

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties

#4 A Few of My Favorite Things - Boxes and Tins

#4 A Few of My Favorite Things

 Boxes and Tins

 I love paper and tin products.  I especially love these shabby chic items we have found here in Korea.  There are so many to choose from and they are not expensive or hard to find here.  The boxes and tins are typically used for gift giving.  Each one comes decorated and ready to use. 

The roses in the pictures are soap roses that we also purchased here in Korea. 

These are all tins

Large tin about the size of a cookie box. 

Two small 2 section tins

Pencil tin that I use to hold my make up brushes

The large one is perfect for so many things. 

I am using it for hair bows

Here is a close up of the smaller tins.  

Love the little round one.

Sections of the small tins. 

A large matching box

Here is another set of boxes. 

I love the vintage paper doll.

Sorry these images did not come out well.

Sections in the paper doll box.

There is all sorts of stationary items that match any set of tins and boxes that you might like. 

Tis The Season, 

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties

#3 A Few of My Favorite Things - Pink Shoes

#3 A Few of My Favorite Things -  Pink Shoes

Mojo Moxy

Hampton

These are my favorite pair of shoes for this year and I got them at a fabulous price.  I am a bargain shoppers so I rarely pay full price for anything that I purchase. 

 I am not good at walking in heels but I still love all the high heeled shoes.  These happen to only be about 2" and it is a good solid heel that you don't have to balance.  They are made of leather so they are comfortable enough for me to wear them several hours. I think they are perfect not to mention they are pink!

Tis The Season,

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties 

#2 A Few of My Favorite Things for 2015 - Fur Collars

#2 A Few of My Favorite Things for 2015

Fur Collars

One of my very favorite things here in Korea have been the fur collars.  All things warm and cozy are not only beautiful but necessary here in Korea.  When soft fluffy snowflakes are falling to he ground these are my favorite things to keep me warm.    

My beautiful vintage dress form traveled to Korea with us and she is proudly wearing my collars. 

And I even found a thrift store fur collar.  This one is real fur and although I would never buy a new fur that might promote the fur trade, I will purchase a vintage one,  

Close up

Can you believe this was a thrift store find and it was only $12.00. 

Lastly, although I did not find this in Korea and I purchased it online it has become my go to favorite. 

This one is faux fur and the ties are sweater material!!!!

Be sure to drop by and see what I am sharing next. 

Tis The Season, 

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties

#1 A Few of My Favorite Things for 2015

#1 My Favorite Things for 2015

Bake ware - crystal nonstick inside and teal blue outside.  

Perfect for my vintage styled kitchen. 

With Christmas and the end of the year fast approaching I decided to share some of my favorite things form 2015.  Living in Korea is both exciting and amazing and there are so many places and things to see.  I was surprised when we arrived to find that the market was filled with my favorite Shabby Chic styled items.  Everything form pink roses to soft blues can be found everywhere.  The products here are as varied and fabulous as the country itself.  Asian cultures appreciate cute and/or pretty things and therefore many of their products are very pretty and even cute.  

Pink pots and pans with heart handle, also crystal nonstick surface. 

One of my favorite products here has been the cookware.  The cookware here in Korea appeals to me because it is so pretty and it is high quality.  Two examples have been my new round cake baking pans and my cookware (pots and pans).  

These photos were taken after I had actually used my new cookware so they stand up to use very well and clean up so easily.  

I plan to get the rest of the teal blue baking set while I am here in Korea.  There is an entire line of everything you could imagine in this set.  I wanted to try them first to see how well they perform and clean up. 

Korea has some of the nicest cookware I have seen and it just so happened that I donated or threw out most of my old beat up cookware before we came to Korea.  We had decided that we would buy new cookware when we arrived here. 

Be sure to drop back by to see what I am sharing next from my favorite things of 2015.  I will be posting them on random days and in between I will share more of our Holiday decorating, crafts and cooking.

Tis the season,

Beverly 

Tea Cottage Pretties

Christmas Decorating 2015

Christmas Decorating 

2015

My thoughts this year are for HOPE.  Without hope there really isn't anything is there?  Hope is what keeps us going and it helps us believe that anything is possible.  I even hung hope on my Christmas tree this year. 

This year I got into a festive mood early.  Being in an area that has all four seasons has brought about these feelings in me early.  I was so blessed to see Summer fade into Fall and enjoy all the colors of Fall.  Now Fall is heading into Winter and the weather outside just speaks to me of all things Wintry and Christmassy.  

Our Christmas Tree.  

A Dove

A bottle brush star

A vintage jewelbrite snowman ornament
I have 2 boxes of these vintage ornaments.  I have Santas, snowmen, an elf, angels and more. 

A vintage paper mache bell

A beautiful indent ornament

Pink beaded dream

Love

A vintage angel

and another

and one more...

There are many more but these are just a few of our ornaments for this year.  I found this little deer and I had to bring him home.  I gave him the teal blue bow.  Then I remembered there is a doe that is teal blue.  I guess I am heading back out to the store so I can bring her home. Hope she is still there when I get there.  

Our Christmas tree.  It is still very hard to capture photos in our tiny villa.  The light just does not enter our villa very well so please excuse the photos. 

Next I will be sharing other decorations from around our home.  

I am also going to be doing a series of some of my favorite things. So be sure to come back and visit to see what I share.

Tis the seasons,

Beverly

Tea Cottage Pretties