Care for a spot o’ tea?

I have decided to start collecting vintage tea cups.  I know!  Exciting news. 

The funny thing is, I used to collect them when I was much younger and living in Germany, but guess what?  When I grew to be an all-wise and all-knowing teenager, I threw them out because I thought they were stupid. 

I think parents should prevent that sort of thing, and protect important childhood artifacts from snotty teenagers so that, when said teenagers become adults and think “stupid” things are cool again, they can have them back.  (You really dropped the ball on this one, Mom.  My poor teacup collection!  But at least you saved my American girl doll and my stamp collection.  You’re forgiven, I guess.)

Anyway, as I said, I’ve decided to collect old tea cups.  I’m trying to drink less coffee because I think it aggravates my moods… and gives me terrible headaches… and has become a crutch… so I’m drinking tea instead of coffee about 75% of the time now, and I figured it would help me stay motivated if I have lovely tea-related paraphernalia around the house. 

A couple days ago my mom also got me a fabulous tea kettle (I’ve never owned one before), and this morning I used it for the first time. 

To my dismay, instead of the pleasant whistling sound that I expected once the water had boiled, the tea kettle literally began shrieking horribly, kind of like the screeching those scary Dark Riders in Lord of the Rings make.  Needless to say, I was terribly frightened by it, not to mention I had to literally hold back Gracie and Cooper from attacking the stovetop and burning their poor little selves. 

I removed the tea kettle from the burner and must have stared at it, aghast, for a whole minute.  It sounded possessed by Satan himself.

My tea was good though.

So, here are a few pictures of my new antique tea cups (purchased at the Austin Citywide Garage Sale last weekend).  Two were $5 and one was $1.25, though I just realized that the “saucer” beneath the white and gold one is actually an ash tray.  Gross!

  

Aaaaand the scary tea kettle:

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If you’re surprised that  I just devoted an entire post to tea cups and tea kettles, don’t worry.  So am I.  Good material has been scarce these days.  I blame it on the deadening of my mind thanks to what has seemed to be a never ending summer.

Cheers!

P.S. - See that dark gold color in the background of all three pictures?  That’s a wall in our breakfast nook we just painted.  I’m not entirely convinced it wasn’t a horrible mistake yet, but once I finish redoing the room I’ll have a verdict for you! ;)