Shopping alert: New teapot shopping bags

I learned years ago that when I spot those pretty 99-cent shopping bags with teapots on them, I need to grab a handful. They're useful not only for toting things around but also for gift bags for large gifts: puzzles, fleece throws, and pillows are just a few of the things that I've "wrapped" in these bags over the years. So when I spotted these at T.J. Maxx this week, I grabbed five. I may grab five more next time I see them!

The teapots caught my eye, of course.

And the Staffordshire dogs and other china pieces are cute as well. So if you like to use such shopping bags as gift bags, too, I just wanted you to know about these so you can run get them before the non-teapot-appreciating public gets their grubby little hands on them. Have a great weekend, friends!

Checking out a new coffee (and tea) shop

I'd been seeing the sign above a shop in neighboring Peachtree City, so last Saturday morning, I packed up a journal and some pens (I've been in a writing mood) and headed to Beignets & Brew, which promises "New Orleans–style beignets."

I tried the Turtle Beignets, which were covered in caramel, cream cheese, chocolate, and pecans. While these were nothing like the beignets I remember eating at Café du Monde in New Orleans on my honeymoon, they were nonetheless quite decadent! (I recommend skipping a meal if you decide to order these.)

And for sipping, I ordered the Sugar Cookie Chai, which was delicious even though it made me think of a Christmas treat (and this was still March). The beignets were something I would order again if I had a girlfriend along to share them, and the chai was something I would definitely order by myself. Have you heard of Beignets & Brew? If so, any favorites?

New tea-themed kitchen towels

Over the weekend, I was at Marshalls buying a gift for a friend when I came across some cute new pink kitchen towels. I thought it was just one or two, but when I pulled these out of the packed-to-the-max rack of towels hanging there, it was a package of three, and these are those nice thick ones!

I often see these with teapots and teacups on them, but teakettles are kind of different!

And it was just $9.99 for the set of three, so I thought these were a really good buy if you happen to be looking for some new kitchen towels. And while my Easter decor will again be mostly vintage stuff, I wanted to let you know that Marshalls also had an Easter bunny *snow globe* in a pink teacup as well as a stack-of-teacups figurine with a lamb popping out of the top teacup, so if you're in the market for some cute new spring decor, you may want to pay a visit to Marshalls!

New artwork that I just love!

I promise that I won't share every single drawing my little neighbor makes for me, but when she rang the doorbell yesterday and handed me this and a hug, I was delighted! (And I love her "so! so! so! much!" too.) I'm pretty sure that word in the middle of the drawing means "color."

And I strongly suspect these are the M&M cookies from our tea party earlier in the week. What a sweet way to kick off the weekend!

Experimenting with gluten-free flour

At Christmas, a new friend came over for tea and cookies, and I was horrified to learn she eats gluten-free and that I had only one type of cookie she could eat! I hope to have her and a few other friends over for tea again this spring, so I decided it was time to experiment with making some gluten-free cookies. I also wanted to use up these pastel M&M's so that I'll quit eating them, so I made gluten-free M&M Easter cookies!

Another friend had recently told me about this King Arthur gluten-free flour, and while a bag of it isn't cheap (about $10), it was a must.

I used a favorite sugar cookie recipe and quickly plopped some M&M's on top after they baked. All the online reviewers of the M&M cookies said it's hard to get the candies to stick, and that was indeed the case. So I made only a few of the "bunny ear" cookies and just went all lazy on the others.

When my little neighbor friends came over for tea yesterday, I got them to be my taste testers, and they liked the cookies, although both of them promptly plucked out every single one of the M&M's, ate the cookie, and then ate the M&M's. Any tips on baking with gluten-free flours? Any recipes I should check out? Advice would be most welcome!

Crafting and a fun new tea!

Friday and Saturday were my crafting days with the local Lutheran ladies who welcomed me into their (crafting) fold last year, and I managed to finish the felt Easter egg I *should* have finished last year. Here, I have my Tervis tumbler full of Earl Grey tea. I love to take a Tervis when I travel and plan on sipping tea away from home, as it's so handy, unbreakable, and keeps my tea hot.

So I finished stitching the lavender egg and will hopefully embroider a mint-green one before Easter!

While I was there, a dear friend gave me several surprises, including this tea with a fun backstory. Her brother is an actor, and fellow actor Pierce Brosnan served him this tea, and when she heard about it, she decided to get some for both of us!

Huckleberry-flavored tea is a new one on me, and it was as delicious as it sounds! Some call huckleberries "wild blueberries," and the taste was indeed reminiscent of blueberries but with a softer, less-tart taste, and the Nilgiri tea itself seemed to stand out most. What a fun surprise!

A simple coffee shop solution for tea!

My friend Joanna and I meet up every few months at a local coffee shop, Foxtail Coffee, and when we met this week, I ordered my usual: a chocolate croissant and some tea. This time, it was their Southern Peach Tea, described as "high-quality black tea from the Assam Valley of India blended with ginger, peach, flower petals, and dried apricot pieces." It was delicious!

I love this coffee shop, but as so often happens in such shops, they steep the tea and leave the tea bag in the cup. This time, I was delighted to find my tea was double cupped. I don't know whether this was by accident or by design, but once I realized my tea tasted just right, I plopped the tea bag into the second cup. Problem solved. From now on, when I order tea in a coffee shop, I am going to ask for a spare cup so I'll have somewhere to place the tea bag!

"A Cup of Love" — The kids' verdict

 

The preschool at my church held a book fair recently, and I heard about it and wandered downstairs prior to our Wednesday night prayer meeting two weeks ago. While the cup on the cover didn't necessarily look like a teacup, I decided this might be a fun book to read to my little neighborhood friends when they come over for tea. It's a sweet tale in which the mom and dad are going out for a date night, and the little girl wants to go, too, because she'll miss them, but of course she must stay home. Dad uses a pitcher (representing him and Mom) and four cups (representing the little girl and her three siblings) and explains the importance of pouring into others the love God has poured into us. Then he prays with his daughter as he tucks her into bed. I thought the message about relationships with family and with God was just lovely.

So my little friends, ages seven and six, came over yesterday and requested more of that blueberry rooibos tea we had the other day, and I happily obliged. Then I asked if they would let me read them a story and see what they thought about it. My prediction was that the little girl would love it and her little brother would get antsy.

I sat between them and tried to use my best reading voice, making the characters sound interesting and eager as I performed the voices. When I was finished, I asked my little gentleman friend what he thought. "Cool! I liked it!" he said. (He'd really been into the book, studying the cartoonish designs on each page.) Then I asked his sister, and she just shrugged. So I pressed. "You didn't like it?" She seemed as if she didn't want to hurt my feelings (and I wasn't particularly invested in the outcome), then she said, "No, not really."

So I just found that interesting! I still think it's a good book with a godly, wholesome message, but it did strike me that while the one who liked it most is just six, his sister is almost eight, and I'm betting this book was a little too simple for her. Still, it was an interesting experiment, and I'm glad to have another nice book about "cups" to add to my collection of children's books.

New tea-themed stamps and dies from Honey Bee Stamps

What an interesting Saturday! The weather forecast said we would definitely be seeing downed trees and probably some tornadoes, so I spent Saturday making sure I had flashlights and candles out, all the laundry done, and some bottled water and crackers in a bag in the downstairs bath in case I had to hide there and the house got blown away. I'm ready to meet the Lord whenever he chooses, yet still, it's interesting to think about what you would do in the case of a truly life-altering event. So when only some heavy winds breezed through that night, I was thrilled. I bounced between the local weather forecast and Hallmark mysteries, and while I waited, I colored!

A few weeks ago, I found these teapot and teacup stamps and dies from Honey Bee Stamps online and knew immediately that I would get a lot of use out of them. The black-and-white-teapot sample card they showed reminded me of those pretty Mackenzie-Childs wares, and other cards they showed are frillier and have rhinestones and pastel coloring.

I also want to make a card with this cute tea bag stamp, but Saturday night, I just colored flowers for the teapots. I didn't want to bring a whole bunch of supplies downstairs for the night, and hallelujah, the weather ended up being much milder than expected. Happily, I have some new cards to show for it! Did you have bad weather over the weekend? Since my town had so much damage this time four years ago, my heart goes out to those who were affected by the weekend's storms!

Blueberry Rooibos Tea from True Honey Teas

 

At last weekend's sewing and quilt expo, I was quite surprised to come across a tea vendor at one of the booths! True Honey Teas was a new name in tea to me, and happily, they had huge urns of all the flavors so that we could sample the teas. I picked up a bag of the Blueberry Rooibos and was surprised at what a heavy, thick bag it was. I decided to have a sip of that particular tea, and oh my goodness, it was bursting with the flavors of blueberry and honey!

So naturally, I bought a bag to take home with me.

The tea bags contain Blueberry Honey Granules (Blueberry Juice, Cane Sugar, Honey, and Citric Acid) and Organic Rooibos. They are super thick, several times the size of a normal tea bag. I wondered what the tea inside actually looked like but decided it would be ridiculous to cut one apart just to see. I mean, how nosy would you have to be to—

So anyway, once I cut it open, this is what I saw. It looks like a bunch of purple pellets and rooibos tea. No wonder they prefer to package it in tea bags!

But again, the tea is so yummy. In fact, I debated whether I wanted to share any of it with my seven- and six-year-old neighbor friends, and I finally decided that yes, it would be selfish to keep this deliciousness to myself. You should have seen their smiling faces after they took one sip of this tea! They said it was the best tea I've ever served them, so again I say: Yum. The sweetness from the honey and the rich blueberry flavor made this a rather decadent treat. The tea has 50 calories per serving, so I won't be having more than one cup per day, but it's a blend that I'd not heard of before, and I'm sure glad I tried it. And when I run out, I was happy to learn that I can order more at truehoneyteas.com.

It's Coffee & Tea month at Alex and Ani

Last week, a Facebook ad targeted me oh so well. You see, I've been a fan of Alex and Ani jewelry for years. Alex used to buy it for me because he thought the name was "Alex and Ange" to start with (he sometimes called me "Ange"), so we both laughed about that and called this my "Alex and Ange" jewelry. Well, who knew they have a symbol of the month, and it's Coffee & Tea for March. That's the good news. The bad news? I immediately ordered and immediately got a message that the order was canceled. Huh? Apparently, the Facebook sales platform has a blip sometimes where it times out, but it took several days for the Alex and Ani folks to respond to my email and explain all that. Normally, I'd say "Forget it," but I had to have this jewelry! So the next day, I ordered straight from the Alex and Ani website, and that worked. (I tell you that only to say that if you see their Facebook ad, you may want to avoid the impulse to buy the jewelry there. Plus, I found a coupon code online and saved 20 percent by waiting a day, so there's that.) Anyhoo … my jewelry arrived yesterday!

This Spill the Tea bangle bracelet is my favorite. Alex bought me a lot of the bangles (all silver), but I don't mind mixing metals, so I'll happily wear this with my others from him.

Because of the current popularity of the "Spill the Tea" phrase, I knew this design would sell out (the reason I had to order ASAP), and it did. I think the little tea bag is made of Lucite or something. It is so cute!

And the teapot locket was still available as of last night! Isn't it pretty?

What I love is that it has a hidden tea bag charm inside that reads "have a cuppa." So I'm sorry the bangle sold out so quickly, but I thought some of you might want to know about this line of jewelry too!

Spotting tea at a quilt show

On Saturday, my friend Gina and I headed up north of Atlanta to the Sewing and Quilt Expo in Duluth. Gina and I enjoy paper crafting together, but we are both into sewing as well (she sews bags, I attempt to quilt), so we were seeking inspiration and found tons of it. She met up with an old crafting friend who was working the show, and I met up with my church friend Ann, so it was quite a fun and social occasion. Still, I was surprised not to see a tea-themed quilt at the show, and just as we were about to leave, there it was!

I'm sorry I forgot to snap a photo of the maker, but I think this was in the booth of a Georgia embroidery guild, which would make sense because there are so many embellishments on this quilt.

While this is beautifully quilted and embroidered, what I like most about it is the fact that it was a nontraditional design.

The free-style embroidery greatly appeals to me, so I took lots of photos for future inspiration.

Another of the quilts I just loved was this one. I've seen this kit in my quilting magazines, but in person? Wow!

Those of us who enjoy cooking and baking have to love all the details in this quilt, including the cute aprons in the border.

And I found a few more tea-ish things at the show as well, including this pouch that was displayed near the sewing machines …

And this cross-stitch piece! I bought a chart to make this design myself. Jane Austen and tea? What's not to love.

And I can't pass up a fat quarter of any tea-themed fabric, so I bought this for my stash. It was a fun day full of lots of creative inspiration!

"A Dark and Stormy Tea" by Laura Childs — the audiobook

In searching through my old blog posts, I was surprised to discover that I've never written about audiobooks before. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, because while I love podcasts, I find audiobooks hard to follow. But I realized last week that I am several books behind in Laura Childs's tea shop mystery series, and I have to read them in order, so I decided to cheat and try an audiobook.

This was a different experience, and there were things about it that I liked and disliked. First, I find that audiobooks drag too much for me, so I listen at 1.2 times the normal speed, which perks things up. I liked the narrator and thought she did a good job with most voices except for that of Delaine Dish, the shopkeeper friend of our heroine, Theodosia Browning. That exaggerated drawl is like nails on a chalkboard, so I was glad that Delaine didn't have too much dialogue in this book.

The story kicks off with Theodosia witnessing a gruesome murder near a local graveyard, then we get word that a serial killer may be on the loose in Charleston. That was clearly the "dark" in this "dark and stormy tea." I found that a bit too dark for a cozy mystery, so I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have the others. And as usual with audiobooks, I sometimes let my mind wander and had to reread (or "relisten to"?) a few pages.

What I enjoyed most, as always, was the description of the tea shop's daily goings-on as well as the special tea events hosted by the Indigo Tea Shop. Childs always does a great job of describing the linens, the tea wares, and the decor, and I found myself really tuning in when the tablecloths and dishes came out. Haley and Drayton and Miss Dimple are like old friends, and scenes with them are always my favorites.

I had a hard time distinguishing a few of the new male characters early on in the book, but as the story progressed, I found them easier to follow. The revelation of the killer was such a surprise that I wondered how I'd missed so many clues, but then I thought, "audiobook." Finally, it was a surprise to hear the recipes with their ingredient lists being read at the end of the book! 

So I think I will stick to the print books from now on, though I'm glad I gave this audiobook a try simply for the experience of it. Do you listen to audiobooks? And have you kept up with all of the tea shop mysteries, in print or audiobook?

"The Soulful Cottage" by Fifi O'Neill

With spring on the way, I've been adding more rose decor at my house, and for inspiration, I ordered a copy of Fifi O'Neill's The Soulful Cottage. I've seen her work in lots of books and magazines over the years, and I've always loved her French-Chic-meets-Shabby Chic sensibility.

It's funny how one simple photo can inspire an idea. I have never accessorized a chair with a tea pitcher, but why not? I probably wouldn't use my most-treasured piece, but yes, I would give this a whirl.

My eyes naturally went straight to the pretty rose glasses in this photo because I have some just like them!

And all the roses in this charming decor? I'm here for it. I should also mention that when magazines are going for $14.99 these days, it's not a hard decision to buy a hardback book for $20, especially one as lovely as The Soulful Cottage, and I'll bet some of you would enjoy it too!

First tearoom of the year: The Emerald Chandelier

Late last year, my friend Cheryl and I agreed that we needed to schedule a teatime to have something to look forward to after those long gray days of winter. When it came time to get the event on our calendars, we quickly decided on the Emerald Chandelier in Griffin and went last Thursday. This was Cheryl's first visit there, and she enjoyed it as much as I did!

Since the tearoom's menu changes every two months, I was eager to see what they would be serving this time, and the offerings included Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup, House Scone with Devonshire Cream, Raspberry Scone with Lemon Curd, Pepperoni Rose, Mushroom-Gruyere Tartlets, Matcha Chicken Pesto Puff Pastry, Cucumber Salad Tea Sandwich, Tiramisu with Petit Four, Lemon, Honey & Almond Cake, and Dark Chocolate Strawberry Fudge.

These were some of the best savories I've had in a while, and I would be hard-pressed to say which was my favorite, although I'd probably go with the Matcha Chicken Pesto Puff Pastry (at top right) because it was so delicious, and the pastry was hot and flaky.

I hadn't had any rich chocolate in a while, so I devoured the Dark Chocolate Strawberry Fudge and also the Tiramisu with Petit Four, which was cleverly served in a small stemmed glass.

I sipped their Snowflake Black Tea, and Cheryl had the Berry Limoncello Green Tea, and our server was great and checked on us regularly to be sure we had all we needed. It was a beautiful afternoon with a fun friend (among her many gifts, Cheryl is an absolutely fabulous storyteller), and I'm so happy to have a nice tearoom nearby where I know we'll always dine well!