Tomatoes and Tea Cups

Hi everyone,
Now that’s a strange title, isn’t it? You’ll see in a minute… but first I wanted to share how heartbreaking and tragic and vulnerable so many of you were in what you shared about your families. I can’t imagine what some of you have endured and are still in the thick of things even today. I’m so sorry and my heart breaks for you.

I’m glad the comments ended on some wonderful thoughts from Dorothy about what she did… going out with friends for tea and then sharing stories and memories of their mothers. I would LOVE to have done that with my sisters… We have lots of stories we share about my mom and they never seem to get old no matter how many times we tell them.

Okay, today… tomatoes and tea cups… what in the world?

Well, my hubby’s hands are featured in the “tomatoes” portion of this post… he didn’t want to be in the pictures at all, but I thought it would be okay just to show his hands. He has been working a little at a time trying to get his garden ready to plant what he wanted in it.
This year he said he only wanted to plant tomatoes and Japanese cucumbers… (or maybe it was English cucumbers… I can’t remember!)

He likes to plant them in 55 gallon drums he cut in half so they are off the ground and much easier to tend to. This is what they look like… back by the hens.

He has his own concoction of potting soil and mulch and lime for each drum.

He planted his tomatoes on the west side and the cucumbers on the east side… he’ll add the fence grids once the cucumbers get a little bigger… You can see them in that first picture.

So this is what they looked like after he had the plants planted…the hens were curious…

We usually have tomatoes by July, so we’ll see…

Okay… now the tea cups part… actually it’s just ONE tea cup…

The other day I was in Goodwill again and they had some pretty little tea cups and dishes on display for Mother’s Day. I saw this one and thought it was awfully sweet… and then I had this thought… “That looks like it would fit Ten Pings head.” I guess I can’t ever look at dishes and cups without thinking of my dolls.

Well, it was only $1.34 and I thought if it didn’t sit on her head right, I could return it.

I came home and “tried it on Ten Ping’s head” and thought it would work…

You go by the inside measurements, not the outside… unless you need it to be bigger… and then you put your hat braid on the “outside” of the cup, and see how that works.

Well, by looking at the tea cup sitting on Ten Ping’s head, I was pretty sure it would be fine… for a bucket hat like I recently made for the Little Darlings…

…and then decorated for Emmie…

Here is another look at the tea cup on Ten Ping’s head.

So I added some saran wrap to the inside of the cup and started pressing some air clay in the inside portion of the cup… all the way up to the brim…

I’ve had it in the tea cup for a few days and just took it out tonight… it’s still a little soft on the top of the hat mold, so I’ll let it get some air and dry out on a table…

When it dries completely, I’ll sand down those little heart impression where the clay poked through.

When it’s all dry, I’ll see if my vision for a hat like this will work for Ten Ping. I might have to make her a dress for tea, since the idea came from a tea cup!

We shall see…

See you all tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne