It all began so innocently. I needed a how-to for an upcoming book project about recycling and up-cycling. I've been making these tea cup "candle-iers" for several years and love making them, but it wasn't my original concept.

The one above is a birthday gift for my "Sipster" Lori. It's made from teacups that belonged to my mom. Lori and my mom had a special bond and I knew she would enjoy this memento.

It all snowballed from there!

A trip to local thrift stores netted several partial sets of beautiful old tableware, much too pretty to never be used again! So, I started combining berry bowls with old sherbets, fruit cups, and candle holders to create soap dishes, such as the one above.

If you don't know me, my design motto seems to be "nothing succeeds like excess." Within minutes, the concept grew to include cupcake servers, such as the one above.

A beautiful clear-glass plate and an old sundae dish turned into this!

A rectangular decorative dish and another candle holder turned into this adorable potpourri holder.

Isn't this beautiful? It's now a footed cake plate with a base that was an old light fixture globe.

Another cake plate with an iridescent sherbet as a base.

These are Noritake from 1940! Carefully selected bases placed these serving bowls at different heights.

Ditto on these butter plates.

And these translucent teacups that now function as candle holders.

Depression glass! Who can leave out depression glass?

Where will it all end? I now have approximately 50 pieces of these beautiful pieces. I'm now have to open an online shop. There is no more room in my china cabinet!!

Can you recommend a good online e-commerce site?