Under The Plum Blossom Tree - A CraftStash Affiliate

Hello Friends! Another quick update for you regarding my affiliate program. Under The Plum Blossom Tree blog has been invited to team up with CraftStash, the UK's No. 1 papercraft store and favourite source for craft supplies and inspiration. As a scrapbooker, I am impressed with the selection of name brands that CraftStash carries. CraftStash stocks many brands that I have personally come to know and love over the years such as American Crafts, Echo Park, and We R Memory Keepers.

What this association means is that you will see the official CraftStash advertising banner on the sidebar or within certain posts in this blog. If you click on the link and make a purchase I may earn a commission.

To more fully understand what affiliate links are and how they work, please visit https://paidforadvertising.com/. Also, by law I am required to have a Disclosure Policy which is now posted at the top menu bar of this blog. You will also see my disclosure policy on any blog posts I may write that promote CraftStash products.

Thank you for supporting Under The Plum Blossom Tree! 

Under The Plum Blossom Tree - An Etsy Affiliate

Hello Friends! A quick update for you. I'm excited to announce that Under The Plum Blossom Tree has been approved to be an Etsy Affiliate. What that means is that you will now see the official Etsy advertising banner on the sidebar or within certain posts in this blog. If you click on the link and make a purchase I may earn a commission.

To more fully understand what affiliate links are and how they work, please visit http://paidforadvertising.com/. Also, by law I am required to have a Disclosure Policy which is now posted at the top menu bar of this blog. You will also see my disclosure policy on any blog posts I may write that promote Etsy products.

Thank you for supporting Under The Plum Blossom Tree!

Happy New Year From Under The Plum Blossom Tree And Vintage Tea Treasures

Hello and Happy New Year! Wishing you a joyful and prosperous 2018. Thank you for being here in 2017. I look forward to sharing more stories with you, through my photos and words, in the new year.

Like many of you, I am feeling grateful for all the good things that came my way in the last year. I've been spending the days since Christmas contemplating what my intentions for the next twelve months will be.

It can be difficult to ask yourself such tough questions about life. Here are some things I'm thinking about:

How do I decide the best way to spend my time and energy in the new year? 

How do I evaluate how best to help the people in my life that need guidance and love? 

What are some healthy ways in which I can better care for myself?

I never feel like I have all the answers to these kinds of questions. But what I do know is that a key component in life is to never give up. That it's important to keep going through the self doubt and the unfortunate events.

In order to keep myself grounded in 2018 I have signed up for One Little Word, a year long online class taught by designer, blogger and teacher Ali Edwards. It's going to place me smack dab in the middle of uncertainty and vulnerability. But that's okay because I need to be there. So I'm taking the brave step of showing up to indecision, risk and unpredictability.

Since I'll be creating content for the One Little Word class anyway, I'll also share something I've created for the class here on the blog, hopefully once a month.

As I have in the past, for 2018 I'll continue to share the topics you've enjoyed reading such as vintage finds, seasonal garden photography, vintage home ware design history, DIY, and art history. Something new I'll be sharing is our living room refurbish. If you are looking for an inexpensive wood floor project, James has it figured out and we will be sharing all the details of that project, plus some of the decorating and styling we're working on in that room.

And lastly, in my Etsy shop, Vintage Tea Treasures, I will continue to offer high quality classic, timeless and fun vintage teacups, teapots and dessert plates for your tea time, gifting, collecting and prop styling needs.

Thank you for letting me share. Here's to a great journey through 2018!

Autumn Garden and Embracing Imperfection

Hi Friends! It's been too long since I've shared anything here on the blog. The end of this past summer suddenly brought with it so many duties and responsibilities that it all felt like too much weight. Nothing was fun! I really needed to take a step back, evaluate and allow myself to embrace imperfection - the idea that as much as I would like to, I can't do it all.

I actually went for several weeks without picking up my camera or spending time on my favorite social media platform Instagram. I decided to let all that be and see where it leads.

At first it led to many early evening naps on the couch. You know that feeling you get when your body tells you to shut down and get the sleep that you know you've been neglecting for probably weeks, or even months? That was me.

It's been several weeks now since I allowed myself free time to just let things flow. And I must say it has been a great relief to stare out the window, watch Mother Nature unfold, and marvel at all the color in my garden that I'm sharing with you here. 

As far as this blog is concerned, it is clear from the stats what I should be writing about: Art History and vintage collectables. I've known that for awhile. I think I just needed to concentrate on photography. Meaning I have been rather obsessed with photographing flowers and my vintage finds for my Instagram feed and hosting the #collectandstyle hashtag. And while I have loved doing that and meeting so many incredibly talented women there, the truth is that I was burning myself out attempting to reach my own version of perfection.

I have learned so much about still life photography from both trial and error and from all my talented Instagram friends. There is nothing more pleasurable in life than creating something out of the love that you feel in your heart and sharing that expression with the world.

Giving myself permission to take a step back and disengage has allowed me to feel okay with the fact that in this crazy on-line world, I can't do 'all the things'. Especially since I don't always know what I should be doing next! So, instead of beating myself up for not doing all those things that I think I should be doing, I'm opting for just two priorities for right now - this blog and my Etsy shop Vintage Tea Treasures.

I consider Vintage Tea Treasures my greatest gift from the world wide web. It all started last year when I worked with Numi Organic Tea. They sponsored my Instagram hashtag and my tea ware shop was born out of that effort. (Thank you James for suggesting it!)

From the very moment I started this blog I knew that I wanted a shop of some kind. And then I discovered that I got a lot of pleasure from sharing my knowledge and growing expertise in vintage tea ware. In fact, I would better describe it as a passion that has grown into a calling. A calling that I have been wanting to spend more time on but have felt too stretched thin to be able to accomplish it.

It was for that very reason then, that I realized I just needed to get to work on my shop and make it a priority.

And so for the last several weeks I have been spending my spare time putting effort into growing the inventory in Vintage Tea Treasures. I've been on the hunt for teacups, teapots and dessert plates, getting them photographed and listing them. If there is any lesson I can say I've learned over the last couple of months, it would be that it feels so much easier to concentrate on one large task at a time, and be in it wholeheartedly.

Since taking a break from social media, a few of my fellow Instagrammers have sent me direct messages inquiring about my well being. Thank you! I do plan to be back, but in a more limited capacity. 

So as the clock ticks away on the close of this unusually sunny, warm and long-lasting colorful autumn season here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, with its shorter days, long nights and what seems like endless leaves to rake, my family and I begin to turn inward. To more time spent indoors out of the rain, and leaning into the preparations for our Thanksgiving and holiday season.

Pumpkin pie, anyone?

Happy Holidays From Under The Plum Blossom Tree & Vintage Tea Treasures

Dear Family and Friends,

It is so wonderful that this year, tonight is both Christmas Eve and also the beginning of Hanukkah. No matter what holiday you observe, we here at Under The Plum Blossom Tree and Vintage Tea Treasures wish you a peaceful, joy-filled celebration.

I would also like to extend my deep gratitude to those of you that have taken the time to read this blog and/or visit the Etsy shop, Vintage Tea Treasures.

Here's to a fabulous 2017!

Welcome To The Plum Blossom Blog Redesign

Hi friends! I'm excited to share my new blog redesign with you today. When I started this blog two years ago, my preference was for an easy to use platform, coupled with a clean white background, so the focus would be on the photos and words. And while the first Blogger template I was using did serve those purposes, I found myself wanting a more seamless and consistent look, which would ultimately provide an improved reader experience.   

I found what I was looking for with pipdig, a UK based company which I discovered while reading one of my favorite blogs The Villa On Mount Pleasant. Pipdig offers both Blogger and Wordpress templates at what I think is a reasonable cost.  

Pipdig's install process was way easier than I would have imagined, and their customer service is superb! There is still some final cleaning up to do, which my editor James is giving his usual careful attention to, but for the most part it's done! I hope you like it and will come back and visit again. And if you do enjoy what you see here, you can subscribe via email in the sidebar under my profile picture.

I would love to hear any feedback you may have about the redesign of my blog, so if you want, please leave me a comment!

Thanks for reading!