Finding tea at the coffee shop

During my years as a journalist, I had three women call up and say they wanted to meet me. All three became friends, genuine keep-in-touch, send-each-other-Christmas-cards kind of friends. I find that interesting. Yesterday, I got to catch up with one of them, Amy, at our longtime meeting place, Leaf and Bean (aka "the coffee shop") in downtown Newnan. I arrived hungry, and Amy was first to notice they had a muffin made with tea. I knew immediately that's what I would be ordering!

Oh, and what a pretty thing this muffin was, especially all warmed up and gooey! Actually, this was my second muffin since I killed the first one. I was standing in line balancing purse, my cup of Kyoto Cherry Rose Green Tea, and the muffin when I dropped it, splat, right on the floor. I'm sure the tall, statuesque blonde in the tennis outfit who was behind me in line thought it was God's way of telling me I should have ordered a cup of fat-free yogurt and a banana instead, but I'm no quitter. The clerk told me not to worry about it and she'd warm up another one and bring it to me. Told her I'd gladly pay for it, but she insisted not. (And of course I have enough of my southern mama in me that I've done the mental calculations and realized I need to go by there and purchase about four more muffins to sort of even things out.) At any rate, the muffins were delicious. Amy had one, too, and we both loved the ginger, which we assume was caramelized ginger thanks to those ooey-gooey chunks of warm caramel. Yum.

I should also point out that though I didn't try them this visit, they have macarons in the display case now, so I must go back very, very soon for some of these as well.

So if you're in the area, and especially if you're local, drop by and tell them you'd like to try a delicious Ginger and Green Tea muffin to make up for the losses they suffered because of your klutzy friend!

Harrods English Afternoon Tea

One day last week, my husband I rode over to Pine Mountain, and while I was browsing in one gift store, he went in another and came out with a box of this English Afternoon Tea from Harrods, the legendary department store in London. How curious to find their tea for sale in Pine Mountain!

I was happy to find the box contains individually-wrapped bags since a) I think they keep the tea fresher and b) I save old teabag wrappers for crafting purposes!

And don't you love the artwork on the box? The tea itself, by the way, is precisely what I'd hoped for, a brisk blend that's stronger than we usually get here in the U.S., but steeped for just 3 minutes, it's precisely the strength I like. A year ago this month I was actually visiting Harrods, so it was lovely to find "a taste of Harrods" (literally!) in my own backyard.

"A Teacup Collection" by Molly Hatch

Thanks to an Amazon gift card from my husband, I have added a few new books to my library in the past week, including the very lovely "A Teacup Collection" by Molly Hatch. This is rather like a picture book for grownups who are tea lovers, and I enjoyed reading of how it came about. Hatch, a studio potter who loves history, visited the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 2011 and was smitten with Francine and Sterling Clark's collection of some 270 fine teacups, some of them dating to the 1700s. She got permission to actually handle and study the teacups, and she chose about 100 to illustrate for the book.

In her introduction to the book, Curator of Decorative Arts Kathleen Morris of the Clark Art Institute notes, "Porcelain cups and saucers were made in profusion in the eighteenth century due to the new fashion of drinking the exotic beverages of tea, coffee, and chocolate. All of these were introduced into Europe through trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and had taken hold as fashionable drinks by the early eighteenth century. The raw ingredients of these drinks—tea leaves, coffee beans, cacao beans, and sugar—were all very expensive, so that at first these drinks, like the porcelain they were served in, were the purview only of the wealthy." Sterling Clark, by the way, was one of the heirs of the Singer sewing machine fortune.

The real highlight of this book, though, is all the charming paintings, included in a catalog format and even featuring tiny details from the saucers, which are not pictured. In a book such as this, I love to stop and linger every few pages and decide which cup I find the prettiest, which one I'd choose if, say, the Clark Art Institute lost its mind and had a yard sale.

I was frankly surprised (but very pleased) that a book publisher today would devote an entire book to, well, pretty teacups, but I'm so glad they did! And when I looked online, I was tickled to find a Chronicle Books blog post about the design process for the cover, which I think is simply splendid. If you'd like to see the other covers that were in the running click here, and you can also see some of the interior pages from the book. I highly recommend "A Teacup Collection" and think you'll enjoy perusing its charming pages with a cup of your favorite tea nearby!

A different kind of birthday cake!

My birthday gift from my friend Susan this year was both beautiful AND delicious: a cake she specially made to fit this giant Lacy Owl design cup and saucer, and with icing roses embellished with edible glitter. Oh. My. Goodness! This cup alone is actually more than 5 inches across, so the cake is actually large enough that I got to enjoy quite a few servings and even share with my husband. (A little. A very little.)

Susan is one of the best bakers around, so anyone lucky enough to get one of her treats knows they are lucky indeed. When she arrived at my house the other day bearing a cake box, I knew I was going to love whatever was inside. I still want her to teach me to make these gorgeous icing roses—which she claims are super easy—but meanwhile, I have been delighted to eat the ones on this giant birthday teacup cake! Both cake and icing are simply out of this world. Mmmmmmm …

This time, it's hard to say whether I'm more enamored of the food or the serving piece! This pretty aqua plate from 222 Fifth is the exact shade of turquoise as another 222 Fifth teacup I bought not long ago.

And as Susan quickly pointed out (since we both love lace), the owls are lacy ones! I think this is such a clever idea, but alas, I don't have my friend's skill set to ever make such a specialty cake, though I'm certainly happy I got to eat and enjoy one!

How we spent our birthday money

Saturday was the monthly meeting of my mystery writers group in Smyrna, and afterward, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to hit that great big T.J. Maxx and More I love so much at Cumberland. After buying some new artwork I'd wanted for my bedroom, I had a little birthday money from my dad left over, and I am very funny about gift money and gift cards. I have a rule that such gifts *cannot* be used for any necessities or ordinary purchases and *must* be used for something frivolous. Like more teacups!

T.J. Maxx had a ton of pretty Gracie China teacups on Saturday, and I thought this $6.99 model was one of the loveliest ones I've seen in a while. I liked that it even has that vintage-looking gold trim around the edges. I don't recall ever seeing this vintage style of trim on a new teacup before.

I assumed that would be the only teacup I'd buy, but then I went next door to Marshalls and found a chintz teacup that was just as pretty! I cannot remember the last time I found new chintz at any price, and at $6.99 (and with a little b'day money to spare), I thought this was a no-brainer!

Teatime Tale #19 - The Mother's Day Tea Mug

The Mother's Day Tea Mug

            “Is my nose really this big?”

            I whispered the question to Dan this morning after the boys came in with a tray bearing my Mother’s Day gifts, which included a pottery mug supposedly bearing my likeness that David, my six-year-old, made in school, and the breakfast that Jared, my eight-year-old, made in the kitchen. I’m already self-conscious about my oversized schnoz, and when I saw the one on my mug from David, I was ready to book that appointment with a plastic surgeon.

            Dan assured me he thinks my nose is “cute,” but I’m not buying that.

            A better mother wouldn’t have pondered such things and would have graciously accepted the tray of cereal and burned toast with a smile on her face—which I did—but without thinking, “I wonder how much they wrecked the kitchen?” So I ate the soggy Cheerios, insisted on sharing my toast with Dan, and proved to David that I really did love my new mug by heading into the kitchen and steeping a cup of English Breakfast Tea.

            I don’t know where his teacher got the clay or whatever probably-toxic substance this thing is made of, but it weighs ten pounds empty, and with tea, a solid fifteen. As soon as I finished sipping, I told David I loved the mug way too much to use it every day, and I plucked a hydrangea blossom from a vase by the kitchen window and voila, a new tea mug vase.

            Mother’s Day ought to be renamed National Motherhood Guilt Day. Seriously. Older moms may enjoy this day and bask in the adoration of their successful adult children, but those of us with young kids? We know we’ll never be Mother of the Year. I’m simply trying to get my boys through elementary school without too many more calls to the principal’s office.

            And two nights ago, I had just finished doing laundry when Jared ran in yelling that David had something stuck in his cast and couldn’t get it out. Yeah. As if a cast isn’t bad enough…

            Turns out, David had an itch on his broken leg and wondered if a plastic army man holding a bayonet might relieve his symptoms. He poked the stupid thing so far up his cast that it got stuck and was causing him, apparently, excruciating levels of pain.

            I did not enjoy explaining this to the good people on duty at Emergency Care. One of them remembered us from the night David first broke his leg six weeks ago, but then it’s not every day a kid comes in with a leg flopping out from under his Iron Man costume and refusing to let go of his plastic pumpkin full of Halloween candy. In March.

            My boys are forever challenging me to research new topics that none of the parenting manuals ever address. Forget about the books on teaching kids self-esteem and anti-bullying stuff. I want to see a book for kids with chapters titled “Places You Do Not Poke Marbles” and “Why We Don’t Replace Mommy’s Ocean Scent Body Mist with Windex.”

            This morning before church, I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what Jared did with the khakis I laid out for him yesterday. They were pressed and draped across his beanbag chair when I kissed him good night, but this morning, there was nothing there. Nada. He hadn’t seen the pants. David said he hadn’t seen them either, and just to be sure, I looked up his cast, though Dan said that was overkill. So maybe there’s a pants thief wandering around the neighborhood and I just haven’t read that e-mail from the homeowners association yet, but I doubt it.

            After Sunday School, the boys came out with Mother’s Day cards they’d made for me. Jared’s was addressed to “World’s Best Mom, Amy Simpson.” David’s was a fill-in-the-blank model from his Sunday School book, and it read, “I love my mom because …” and he’d written, “she makes good tacos sometimes.” Sometimes?

            The pastor called on all the moms to stand up and be recognized, and I thought—not for the first time—that a gift certificate for babysitting would be a much nicer gift than the carnation and bookmark they give us Every. Single. Year.

            After church, we headed to Dan’s mom’s for lunch. I called my mom on the way to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. She and my dad are in Hawaii on vacation, and they were about to go snorkeling. Sigh.

            Dan’s mom loves to cook, hallelujah, and the boys gave her the new Pioneer Woman cookbook, which she appeared to love.

            After lunch, we went home, and I got my real gift this year. Dan took the boys to the park for two whole hours. I was going to organize my crafts studio, read my new novel, and wash the boys’ ball uniforms for this week’s games. Instead, I took a nap.

            When I woke up, Dan and the boys were just getting back. He’d gotten a pizza for supper, bless him. A few hours of computer games later, and it was time to tuck the boys in for the night.

            Jared is my easy child and goes off to sleep without a fuss. David, this time, was actually kind of quiet—for him—when I went in to say good night.

            “Did you really like your mug, Mom?” David asked.

            “Sweetie, I love it,” I said. “Didn’t you see me drinking tea out of it this morning and then using it as a new vase?”

            “Yeah,” he said, “but my teacher made all the noses too big. I told her your nose is much smaller than that, and my mug isn’t nearly as pretty as you are.”

            I gave him a kiss, told him I loved him, tucked the Iron Man sheets around him, and headed to the kitchen, where I admired my beautiful new tea mug-slash-vase.

            Happy Mother’s Day? Yeah, it was.

A new-to-me Nippon tea set

I always love it when I receive "old stuff" as a birthday gift, so I was delighted when my friend Deberah dropped by this week with a gift of this beautiful blue lustreware tea set!

Do any of you know if lustreware is even the correct name for this? I know this style when I see it, and it's almost always in peach instead of blue, but I happen to think this blue set is even prettier!

I'm pretty sure she got it at a yard sale, as that is where she has purchased some of my favorite gifts over the years we've been friends.

The bottom is marked "Nippon," and I'm so pleased to have a three-piece set to add to my growing collection of blue teawares!

Hats, lingerie and … tea?

When I was at the Hats and Hooves Derby Affair at the McRitchie-Hollis Museum in Newnan over the weekend, I couldn't resist taking photos of some of the vintage hats they had on display.

Our local museum has always had a wonderful collection of clothing and textiles, and these hats are some of the most gorgeous vintage hats I've ever seen. Many of these hats were donated by State Representative Lynn Smith of Newnan from her personal collection.

The McRitchie-Hollis House also has an ongoing exhibit titled "Naughty Newnan," which traces the evolution of ladies' lingerie.

I so enjoy learning about the history of these vintage pieces, and the exhibit does a fine job of chronicling these undergarments and designer lingerie dating from the 1850s to the 1990s.

I love how the museum has many pieces displayed on furnishings throughout the house.

Some vintage jewelry was included in the exhibit as well.

These gorgeous pastels certainly caught my eye!

There is even a set of lingerie handmade by nuns in New Orleans for the trousseau of a young bride about 1915. If you'd like to see the hats and the "Naughty Newnan" exhibit for yourself, may I kindly suggest you visit on Saturday, May 16, at 2:30 p.m.? Why? Because that's when I'll be there speaking on the evolution of tea in the South! To learn more about upcoming Newnan-Coweta Historical Society programs, click here.

A special birthday tea cozy

Among the birthday gifts I received this year was a charming knitted tea cozy from my tea pen pal in New York, Sandy. She had told me a package of goodies would be arriving, so I was delighted when my mail turned up a wonderful package containing stationery/scrapbooking goodies, a gorgeous red toile apron, a pretty nail file and other treats. But my absolute most favorite item was this floral tea cozy!

The fun thing was, the tea cozy didn't arrive looking like the photo above, it looked like this.

And inside the tea bag envelope, Sandy had sent these brads so I could attach the crocheted flowers to the tea cozy and decorate it as I wished! Isn't that a neat idea? I had so much fun embellishing my own tea cozy, and I thought that's an idea some of you might wish to borrow as well. (Thanks for the gifts and for the fun, Sandy!)

Celebrating Derby Day and supporting a great cause!

Alex and I were among the supporters attending Saturday's Hats and Hooves Derby Affair at the McRitchie-Hollis Museum here in Newnan. This annual event is a fundraiser for Communities In Schools, a highly successful dropout prevention program we are proud to support. We knew we'd have a good time because we know so many of the great folks involved with this program, and I was delighted that about 99 percent of the women there did indeed wear hats!

As expected, there was lots of great food at this event, and of course I was immediately impressed by the tea station, where I happily went to the lemonade and sweet tea dispensers several times to make Arnold Palmers. (Yes, there were Mint Juleps, too, but I've found only one person who actually admits to liking them!)

After I had some of the Shrimp and Grits (my all-time favorite food), I skipped all the other savories and went straight for the wonderful dessert buffet. I was trying to decide what to get when, behind the sweets, I spotted …

Macarons! You don't get these every day! So it was a fun and delicious evening, and I thought I'd share a few of the great hats and fascinators I saw. Did any of you get to watch and/or celebrate the Kentucky Derby on Saturday?

Surprised by a birthday tea party!

Today is my 51st birthday, and I can't help being a little proud that my family actually surprised me on Saturday with a birthday tea party! Because I am suspicious by nature, a mere hint of surprise in the air usually gets my attention, but I had no idea my visit to see my dad on Saturday would involve anything but a normal day of shopping with Aunt Jane.

I did ask why Amelia had a dress on when it was Saturday, and she just smiled and walked into the dining room. That's her above with Aunt Jane and my sister, Rhonda.

Rhonda set the table with some of my mom's Old Country Roses china, and I somehow think our mother would approve!

I certainly wasn't expecting a lunchtime treat of tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, hot tea and …

Daddy's famous coconut cake, the closest thing to the old Rich's Coconut Cake this side of heaven. Oh, is it good! For years now my dad has been the chief cake baker in the family, and he always lets each family member choose the kind of cake he or she wants. His specialties are chocolate cake, coconut cake and strawberry cake, although at my niece Cari's request, he recently added Red Velvet cake to his menu of offerings!

My sister told me even nephew Matthew helped, and although he was away playing (and winning!) a ballgame, he helped assemble the cucumber sandwiches and was very interested in creating patterns with the cucumbers. (Future engineer or programmer, maybe?) We also had egg salad and pimiento cheese sandwiches, all delicious, and I learned my sister puts a little bit of garlic salt and onion in her pimiento cheese, which gives it just a little extra zing that is just wonderful!

Amelia had even written a birthday greeting on a white board for me. It was a great way to kick off birthday week!