Tea with my favorite transferware pattern and my 1st GIVEAWAY!!!!!

A new week, a new teascape and a new thing for me to do...host my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!!!
 How about I give away, hmmm. ummm, let me think, uh, well...let's just say $100 gift certificate to English Transferware, my Etsy shop?  Sound good?  Well check the details at bottom of the post because you can submit several entries...just follow the simple rules! 

This week I'm linking up with some of my favorite tea and table memes.  I'm featuring my very favorite transferware pattern.  It's by Spode and called Byron.  If any of you have read my first post I wrote about how I started collecting and then selling transferware.  As my collection was growing and I was on the lookout for pieces to trade up to, buy and sell I ran across a platter in this pattern.  It was one of those things where I knew I HAD TO HAVE IT.  It was on an Ebay auction and I was bound and determine to win...and I did!  I bought my first piece in this pattern from someone in Australia, and often I still buy from there.  It seems to be more readily available there and in England than other places I've found.  The first piece I purchased was this large serving platter:

I fell head over heels for the bucolic scenery in the platter.  It appears that the sale of a cow is taking place as women and the dog look on while a child plays at the feet of the buyer.
I was so excited when this arrived and I displayed it proudly in my kitchen, and still do.  I scour online marketplaces to find additional pieces in the pattern all the time.  Most every piece has a different scene, usually pastoral in nature, reflecting early English farm life.  The brown transfer is handpainted in various shades of blue, pink, taupe, rust, brown, green and gold.



Today I'm serving tea and my Coconut Cream Cheese frosted Lemon Cake using some of my Byron collection.

I used a single, lace trimmed gold window sheer slightly gathered atop my heavy marble chest.

I fanned vintage, embroidered napkins at one end and laid my Barenthal cake forks atop.  I just got this set of French Mabre flatware and I love it!  It normally sells at $125-165 for a 20 pc set for four. I got two sets for $125!  I bought two extra sets in this same Bordeaux color as well as Vert which is a marble green (about the color of my marble on the table).  If anyone wants these they're yours for $67.50 plus $12.49 shipping for a 20 piece service for four set.   Just send me a separate email if you'd like to purchase.   It's hand washable but that's fine with me.  I love the marble look of the handles and the ornate detailing this offers. 

  I've always loved this large figurine of a boy and his dogs and his attire seems to fit right in with that of the  people seen on the Byron pattern.  I placed him next to a fruit topiary I made a loooong time ago...boy do I need to dust that sucker!  Please don't blow this pic up and see how dusty it is!

I always have these tortoise shell amber lamps on this table.  They cast such a soft glow and add an almost candle like ambiance.  They are wrapped with an oil rubbed bronze finish and leaves that wind up and about the shade from the base.    I really like just about anything amber.

Here's one of my Spode Byron teapots.  To give a bit of height I placed it on a candle stand meant to hold a large pillar.

Creamer and Sugar on a handled tray.

Isn't this a sweet scene on the dessert plates depicting a young mother holding her infant child, their dog at foot and a modest cottage in the background? 

I added some candles...these are my favorite barley twisted candlesticks...I tied a shimmery gold organza ribbon with a beaded tassel around them.

As before mentioned, Byron is one of, if not, my all time favorite pattern.  There's nothing I dislike about it.  I'll be doing a large dinner table some time down the road but wanted to tell you a bit about J. C. Horsley.  Mr. Horsley is the artist who painted the scenes for the Byron pattern, which were engraved to copper plates and thus transferred to the pottery.  He was an English academic painter (1817-1903) and is very well known for having designed the first commercially produced Christmas card, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole of London in 1843.

Mr Horsley was also the designer of the Horsley envelope, a pre-paid envelop, the precursor to the stamp!

John Calcott Horsley 1817-1903

COCONUT CREAM CHEESE FROSTED LEMON CAKE

1 box lemon cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 C vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 C Mountain Dew

Frosting:
1 stick butter
2 1/2 cups coconut, flaked
1 8 oz. bar softened cream cheese
1/2 cup Mountain Dew
3 1/2-4 Cups powdered sugar

Mix cake ingredients well and pour into well greased and floured cake pans, bake 20-25 minutes at 350

For frosting, melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, add coconut and cook until it is slightly golden.  Remove from heat and add cream cheese.  Mix.  Add Moutain Dew. Mix.  Add powdered sugar and mix well.  Frost cake. This is yummy!  You can also substiute orange cake mix for lemon and orange juice for the Mountain Dew in both recipes for an orange flavor. 

MAY I HAVE A DRUM ROLL PLEASE?.........ANNOUNCING A

GIVEAWAY

WHO?  Me, Nancy

WHERE?  Nancy's Daily Dish 

WHAT?  A $100 gift certificate to English Transferware.

WHY?   Because I want to!

WHEN?  Winner will be announced Monday, April 12th 

HOW?  Read on my fellow followers, bloggers, Twitter pals, FB friends, etc. you know who you are.

Ok NOW for the giveaway rules.  Each of the following will count as one entry.  Do one or all five for more chances to win!

1)  Leave a comment on this post for one entry

2)  Blog about this contest...come back and leave another comment with your blogs permalink where you've bogged about the giveaway.

3) Tweet about the giveaway (you can follow me on Twitter too... I'm Transferware or click the link on my sidebar.  Come back and let me know you've tweeted this (please leave your twitter username)

4)  Visit my Etsy store and tell me by commenting on this post what you'd spend $100 on if you win. 

5) Become a follower and then leave a comment to let me know you have done so.  If you're already following leave a comment to let me know you're a follower.

The winner will be randomly selected by a numeral generator.  I use  http://randomizer.org/

 

Note:  Shipping cost is included anywhere in the Continental United States.  All bloggers in the universe are welcome to enter but keep in mind that a portion of your winning certificate will go towards shipping if you reside outside of the U.S.  I will pay 1/2 the shipping cost to anyone outside of the United States and the other 1/2 will come out of the gift certificate so the winner will NOT be out any money at all...unless of course you decide to spend an extra thousand, or five.  heehee.  Ok that probably wasn't funny to some of you.  sorry.

Let the entries begin!

A tea thought:

Gladstone (1865) Victorian British Prime Minister
If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.

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