T Stands For Thanks

 

Today I'm at my dining room table with nary a drink in sight.

I was fairly certain I knew who sent this box of seemingly nothing but peanuts.

I was definitely correct.  The gift was from my friend RO!  I wish I'd known beforehand I shouldn't open it until Christmas.

OMGosh.  A hand blown glass rocking horse.  If you are unfamiliar with my blog (or my obsession), I have collected rocking horses since I was 19.  I have amassed nearly 500 of them, and most are all different.  I have to admit, I've never had one that was hand blown, though.  RO! knows me so well!

 

Oh look!  Another box filled with nearly nothing but peanuts.

I assure you, all that digging was worth it, though.  Look at this incredible beauty, wrapped with care so it would not be broken in shipping.  Can you see the touch of lavender along with the gold?

Sadly this background does nothing to enhance the beauty of this rocker.

Better, but still not where I feel it should belong.

I have decide this is where it will live through Christmas.

RO! named it Regality because I said it looked so regal.  "He" is already making friends and getting along famously with other rocking horses on my sideboard.  The crystal one in front is a stocking holder.  I use my sideboard as a faux mantle at Christmas.  Thank you from the bottom of my forever grateful heart, dear RO!

Of course, we can't have a T party without a drink, can we?

Believe it or not, that was supposed to be hot chocolate in my Christmas tree glass mug, but I didn't add enough cocoa to the mix before I cooked it.  Now it tastes more like warm half & half, than hot chocolate.  

 

I guess now would be a good time to show you an up close photo of my very pale hot chocolate in the glass mug.

As you can see, I have another gift.  This arrived right before lunch and I was thrilled, since I hadn't yet decided what to prepare for my T post this week.  Who do I know in Australia?  Specifically Perth?  It "only" took a month and half to get here.  Lisca, please don't look if you are the jealous type (grin)!  

 

Isn't this awesome? My friend Sami from Sami's Colourful World sent these colorful and precious cancelled postage stamps so I can use them in my collages.  BTW, those are tiny rocking horses on the stuffed tree.  Yes, each one is counted.

 

She also included some cardinal and other birds inspired (wrapping?) paper.

 

LOVE those cats.  Bleubeard does, too.

Perhaps a better photo of the cats and the other stamps.  Thank you so very, very much Sami for your thoughtfulness and kindness in saving these postage stamps that will certainly show in my art in the near future.

 

One more photo of my hot chocolate,

 

and one final image of these wonderful gifts I received.  I thank you both (more than you know) for these gifts you ladies sent.

Now it's time to share your favorite drink with us this week, and we'll be by to visit.  Remember the rules are simple.  A drink, any drink can be represented by art (digital, hybrid, or traditional), a cup, mug, teapot, etc.  Maybe you'll share a scrapbook page, or a favorite movie, magazine ad, drawing, or book that focuses on a drink.  Drinks don't have to be water, coffee, or tea.  You can always go off the grid and drink a glass of buttermilk, eggnog, even hot chocolate like I did, or something we may not have heard of.  All you have to do is link below, so we can visit you, too.  Direct links only, please.  And Bleubeard wants to remind you these photos can be taken at any time, not just on Tuesday or not even this year.

This is also my final day at Art Every Day Month (AEDM).  I want to thank Leah for hosting again this year, but I also want to thank all of my art friends who joined me this month: (in alphabetical order) Alison, Elle, Erika, Nicole, and Wendy.  Monica always joins, too, but everyone else joined because we are either not on any other social media site (like me), or we prefer to share from our blogs. Had you wonderful ladies not joined AEDM this year, it would have been a very lonely journey.  For that, I thank you all beyond belief.

 

Every year in the past, I have created a mosaic of AEDM through Big Huge Labs.  The last mosaic I created was for ICADs in June and July of this year.  It was before the new and not so friendly or improved Blogger took over.  I can no longer create mosaics because blogger now adds a google user tag (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/) at the beginning of all my photos.   Not sure why, because I checked a couple of your blogs and it doesn't seem to appear on Alison's, but does on Wendy's.  Therefore, there will be no more mosaics. 

I also joined Treasure Trovember at Collage Lab.  It's a 30 day project.  I still have one more prompt to receive Tuesday morning.  You add one element a day and don't get the next prompt until you have completed that day's prompt.  I will show the page I finished when I share my calendar next month.  Since I'm not on Facebook or Instagram, I chose to complete the prompts, but decided to only show what I made once.  I will also show the prompts and how I used them at that time, too.

 

Finally, I want to remind you again to be digging up your Second on the 2nd.  It's a post you have published in the past that you are proud of, or one you published before anyone knew about your blog.  The only requirement is, it must have been published sometime in the past.  I'd love to see a nice turnout next month.