Giveaway: Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice!

I found these cute pumpkin spice–themed teacup socks on clearance at Joann last week, so I got a pair for me and a pair for one of you!

If you'd like to win the socks, simply leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, October 18, making sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!

A visit to the Carolina Parakeet — and a giveaway for one of you!

On Saturday, I had the great pleasure of being the guest speaker for the morning's "Tea and Topics" program at the Carolina Parakeet, a tea shop in Anderson, South Carolina. After corresponding back and forth with owner Donna Siemen for months, I was delighted to arrive there on Friday evening to meet her and look around the shop.

And I must admit I was almost giddy when I saw my name on this sign. This was definitely a first!


This is Donna, her husband, Wolfgang (what a great name!), and me on Saturday, but I loved that I got to meet them both when they welcomed Alex and me to stop by on Friday evening to say hello and set up early if I wanted. That ended up being a great help, and I was so at ease that all I had to do on Saturday morning was arrive and I was good to go!

The Carolina Parakeet is not a tearoom that serves afternoon tea but rather a tea and gift shop that is well-stocked with their beautifully packaged "Tea Bird" loose leaf teas, and later this week, I'll be telling you more about some of the teas I purchased. I know many of you live near tearooms and tea shops, but I do not, so walking into this welcoming shop with its soothing decor and a vast selection of teas and tea gifts was an absolute delight! And in case you're wondering about the shop's name, here's what I learned: "Carolina Parakeet takes its name from the now extinct bird that was North America's only native parakeet. It serves as our reminder for preservation. Our mission is to offer tea instruction and high quality products to our customers that will assist them in preserving a lifestyle of civility, hospitality and health. These things have been associated with tea for many centuries and in many cultures." I could quickly tell that Donna and her husband are all about using the tea shop to promote "civility, hospitality and health," and I knew immediately that I'd made some new friends.

I was also tickled to see my books so prominently on display!

Of course, I had to look around at the displays in the shop, and this terry cloth tea towel with "Camellia Sinensis" woven into the design immediately caught my eye. Pretty!

I loved the shop's tea packaging, and I so enjoyed getting to do a little in-person tea shopping instead of having to rely on mail order, although I should mention that the Carolina Parakeet does indeed offer mail order for those of us who don't live nearby. (Go here to visit their shopping site online.)

Donna had charming and elegant tables set up for the event, using a variety of pretty blue and white china, fresh flowers, and white tablecloths.

So for her Saturday morning "Tea and Topics," Donna provides a treat and some tea selections, and the attendees get to hear about different tea-related topics. This time, she made Higbee Muffins from my book and served an iced peach oolong and a hot peach tea, in honor of yours truly being from Georgia, the peach state. I shared some of the department store tearoom info from my book Dainty Dining, and Kim, the woman holding the book in the photo above, was singing its praises to the others. As anyone with a book will tell you, that's the best kind of endorsement you can get. And at back is Michelle, an old friend from Newnan who now lives in Greenville, S.C., and showed up for the talk and even treated me to lunch afterward.

The guests were all so friendly and gave me great feedback as I asked questions or shared stories during my talk, and it was truly a pleasure to be part of such a fun morning at the Carolina Parakeet!

So since you all couldn't be there, I knew that something from the Carolina Parakeet would make the perfect August giveaway here on my blog. Now my styling isn't nearly as good as theirs, but I'm giving away one of their Camellia Sinensis tea towels and a bag of their delicious Fig Festival black tea, which I'll be sharing more about on Wednesday. So if you'd like to win these treats I picked up just for one of you, leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, August 9, making sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. (US only, please.) Good luck!

April Giveaway: A signed copy of "Emeralds and Envy"

Now here is a giveaway I've been eager to announce, because it's for one of the very first Advance Reader Copies (or ARCs) of my newest book, Emeralds and Envy. So for the April giveaway, I'll be delighted to sign this book for one of you and get it headed your way!

If you would like to win a copy, simply leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, April 12, making sure I have an email address or other way to contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!

(I'm also ordering copies for family and friends later this week, and I'll be getting some extras for those of you who've told me you would like a signed copy, so I'll have that info up very soon. And thank you all so much for your support over the years, without which I probably wouldn't be writing books today!)

March Giveaway: "It's Always Time for Tea" Tea Towels

For the March giveaway, I picked up this cute set of coral and turquoise tea towels at a Ross store over the weekend. There are two of these tea towels in the set, so if you're feeling especially generous, you could even share one with a friend!

If you'd like to win the the tea towels, simply leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, March 8, making sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!

A giveaway in support of a goal!

In my reading and reviewing of books over the years, I have accumulated way too many books, and I've decided it's time to send some of them on to new homes, including a few duplicates and brand-new tea books that I think someone else might enjoy. So to help me with my goal of reducing the number of books I keep (and to make room for new ones), would one of you like to win a new copy of Steeped in History—The Art of Tea by Beatrice Hohenegger? It's a beautiful large-format paperback book with thick, glossy pages and gorgeous photos, and I imagine someone here would enjoy it.

If you'd like to win this book, you can enter simply by telling me what was the first tea you had in 2019! Mine was the Reading Nook Tea Blend from Plum Deluxe, which calls this delicious tea "an ingenious blend of black tea, lavender, rose, and chamomile. Calm caffeination perfect for reading, writing, & lively conversations." I chose this tea just because it was something different, but it ended up being the perfect tea for my January 1 since I spent several hours reading, writing, and planning for the year ahead.

So just leave a comment listing your first tea tasted in 2019 by 7 a.m. EST Friday, January 4, and you'll be entered to win. (US only, please.) Good luck!

December Giveaway: Teacup Socks from the Lovely People of Talbots!

Last month's giveaway of the teacup trouser socks from Talbots proved so popular that I am happy to announce I'm giving away another pair of the socks (my last!) for this month's giveaway. And the story of how this came to be is rather fun. Back in October, I bought two pair of the socks, one for me and one for the November giveaway, and the winner was tea blogger Marilyn. End of story, or so I thought. A few weeks ago, I got a fairly desperate-sounding email from a young man who looked up tea-themed socks online, saw these on my blog, and wanted to surprise his fiancee with a pair for Christmas—a pair she would wear in their wedding. He tried to order them from Talbots online, but the socks were sold out. He wrote me asking if I might possibly know how to get another pair. Alas, I did not (and mine had already been worn and laundered or I would have gladly donated those). So I wrote to the Talbots media office, explained the situation, and told the prospective bridegroom that I hoped they might be able to help him. Before a day had passed, the lovely folks at Talbots had located a pair of the sold-out socks and wanted to send them to the groom, free of charge.

I wrote to the groom and told him I'd found the socks, and I also mentioned that it would sure be fun to thank Talbots by sharing online a picture from the wedding day with the bride in her Talbots teacup socks. Surprisingly, I didn't hear right back from the fellow, but it turns out, he was diligently searching Talbots stores on his own, found one pair of the socks, and even sent me a photo of the giftwrapped socks and thanked me for offering to help locate them. So, a happy ending! But then when I wrote the lovely people of Talbots to explain that the socks were no longer needed, I was told that they wanted to send them to *me* anyway! Now isn't that just an above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty level of customer service? And since I already have a pair of the  charming (and apparently coveted) socks, I am giving away this final pair as a Christmas treat to one lucky winner, all thanks to the generosity of Talbots—and the diligence of a young man who really, really wants to make his bride happy.

So if you'd like to win these treasured socks, simply leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, December 21, making sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!