Yesterday? A day fraught with challenges. For starters, I’m still struggling with this sinus thing and I feel yucky much of the time. Nevertheless, I looked at our upcoming schedule, along with the predictions of a significant snow event Saturday into Sunday and figured it was time to get the Christmas tree. That went smoothly. We had the tree picked out in no time. When we got home, we stopped to have some lunch and then we hauled the Christmas decorations out of the shed, along with the tree stand. Along the way, I realized I had wrenched something in my lower back, which was evident when I was going up and down the stairs. Drat.

Then it came time to bring the tree inside and fit it in the stand. This requires crouching on all fours on my part. Stuffed up head. Aching back. Try as we might we couldn’t get the stand to lay flat. The legs were uneven, which was perplexing as we had used the stand plenty of times in the past. We tried bending them this way and that and eventually Don started putting pressure on the legs with his booted foot to try and right the situation. He didn’t have his glasses on and stomped on a metal leg while my middle finger was still under it. I screeched in pain. There was a lot of bleeding and a chunk of skin missing from the tip of my finger, but thankfully, nothing was broken. It’s painful and my finger is covered in bandaids, making typing a wee bit difficult. Don felt terrible, of course, but it wasn’t his fault. These things happen.

He had to go back out and buy a new stand.

Decorating the big tree will not happen until tonight or tomorrow night. But it’s very pretty. The little white tree, as you can see from the first picture, has been put up and looks lovely.

The other day, my little package from Spain arrived. Spain! How exciting! What was in it?

Be still my heart. Miniature plates made out of ceramic, in the most luscious vintage patterns.

A cup and saucer.

Another cup and saucer.

And a matching platter.

Oh my lord. Clearly the owner of Hummingbird Cottage loves china, especially vintage china. She swoons over beautiful, old-fashioned patterns. She haunts antique stores and flea markets, looking for more china for her collection.

Does that sound like anyone else you know?

I’m not sure where these will eventually end up but I’ve been playing with them.

These pieces are so beautifully done, I can barely stand it. Swoon-worthy. Just as in my life-sized house, there is limited space here in the dollhouse for china.

Will that stop me? No.

These pieces of china came from Sofia’s Etsy Shop – Twelvetimesmoreteeny. She does exquisite work. Stop by and feast your eyes on the loveliness. I could go nuts there.

Happy Thursday.