Teatime accessories: A (brief) style report

Despite what you good friends may think, I do not buy everything I come across that has a teapot on it, however tempting it may be. My Facebook algorithm, however, knows my weaknesses, so when I saw this beaded tea-and-books purse advertised at Walmart, I made a point of visiting their accessories department the next time I stopped by.

Cute design, isn't it?

But … it sure wouldn't hold very much. I don't think I could squeeze in my iPhone and wallet. Also, this struck me as a little fancy for everyday running around, so I left it, even though it was just $23.

What I did get, though? The cute little bag charm/keychain from the same collection. I love the design, I actually needed a new keyring, and the $10 price tag was, as Goldilocks would say, just right. I wondered whether I should have gotten the purse, though. I mean, what if I *need* a small beaded purse one day?

Well, it turns out that I came across this one on clearance at T.J. Maxx last weekend ($24), and this struck me as a great accessory for fall. Plus, my new book mentions quite a few pumpkin spice lattes (the ones made with chai, of course), so I thought that was a sign.

Long live pumpkin spice lattes! (And cute fashion accessories.)

Two new teatime ornaments from Michaels

I am not trying to rush you into thinking about Christmas, but I do want to let you know that Michaels has two new teatime ornaments. I was in the store last weekend to find a replacement for my favorite crochet hook, which is getting a little shabby, and while they didn't have the crochet hook, the consolation prize was that I found these two glass ornaments! They're regularly $9.99 each but are currently 30 percent off. And you know Michaels—they'll be discounted even more closer to Christmas, but if you want to be sure you get them, I would advise acting now. (Also: I happily accept the senior discount that seems to be built into my Michaels Rewards account.)

I won't know for sure until I pull out all the ornaments after Thanksgiving, but I don't believe I've had a "tea tin" ornament before. And this one is so cute!

As is the teacup ornament with the pretty frosted design. Cheers!

A fall palette of tea wares

Have you ever seen this design before? It's called "Tea Drinker," and it's a transfer ware pattern from the Netherlands. This design was on a beautiful plate that my friend Nancy gave me as a gift when I spoke in Auburn for my book launch last month.

And I was happy to be able to go into my garage and unearth a small cup and saucer that matches it! I found this years ago at an antique mall in Florida, and while the cup is cracked, I had to have it anyway because I had never seen this pattern before. I was, of course, delighted to receive the plate from Nancy as a gift!

Also in the brown range is a new-to-me teapot that a friend gave me last winter alongside a pop-up teacup card that a friend sent in the mail last month.

This small teapot is another brownish piece that I like to decorate with in the fall as well. I love the little teacup on the lid.

I haven't lucked up on finding any new brown tea wares at antique malls this fall, so I'm just holding out till November when I can display a vintage turkey sugar and creamer and other turkey ceramics!

Yesterday's Public Safety Luncheon

I don't volunteer a lot because I'm still working pretty much full-time, but I do serve on the local Public Safety Foundation, and it is an honor to help support our local law enforcement officers. We use the funds we raise to buy things like protective vests and drones and special equipment that our LEOs don't have monies for. So it is great fun for me to serve at the annual Public Safety Luncheon like the one we had at our fairgrounds yesterday. Here are the folks running the serving line, which featured a delicious meal of pork loin, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and rolls. (That's our former police chief, now retired, on the end. He didn't let a recent surgery keep him from serving!)

My friend Pat is the CEO of our group, and it takes a heap of work to bring this luncheon to pass each year. My hat is off to her!

Our sheriff, at left, who gave the invocation, and Newnan's mayor were among those on hand. (The mayor is new, and I don't know him, but I did know his late mother, who taught me my first card-making class years ago. Small world!)

Here's the tea station, and I meant to ask what brand of sweet tea they make, because it is delicious, but I forgot to ask. 

And my job? I help serve at the dessert table, if you can believe it! As usual, we had dozens of homemade desserts this year, ranging from about six different kinds of banana pudding to pound cakes, chocolate pound cakes, German chocolate cakes, a coconut cake, pecan pies, a key lime cake with cream cheese icing, an apple spice cake, pumpkin rolls, several varieties of brownies, layered cookie bars, cobblers, dump cakes, an upside-down pineapple bundt cake (that was a new one on me), and several strawberry cakes. Every year, we servers try to figure out what will be the biggest hit with law enforcement. This year, it was the banana puddings. One year, everybody was into lemon-flavored desserts. What would you have chosen?

We interrupt the fall flavors …

I'm all about the fall flavors, and so far this fall, I've had a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, apple cider cashews from Aldi, and of course, lots of spice teas. But go figure, I wanted a cup of tea one afternoon and thought, "Hmm, a cup of green tea sure would be nice."

I looked around the tea cabinet and found some packets of iTeaworld's Jasmine Bi Luo Chun, the hand-rolled tea that is said to look like tiny snails. And indeed they do. So much so that I had to swirl the leaves around and make sure there were no snails in there!

This tea was such a lovely departure from what I've been drinking, and this tea can be steeped multiple times, with the first steeping just 20-30 seconds! Are any of you drinking green tea this fall?

The very happy camellia sinensis

Some sixteen years ago now, I met up with a fellow tea lover from North Carolina, Lynn, who was visiting Atlanta. We'd corresponded by email but had never met in person. On that visit, Lynn gifted me with my very own camellia sinensis, the tea plant, which I promptly planted in what I loftily called my "tea garden." The plant has been thriving on neglect ever since.

And I mean that literally! I babied it at first, and definitely should have cut it back over the years, but it's now probably twelve feet tall—and I'm still just thrilled it's there. Lynn sent me a photo of her plant in bloom last week, which reminded me to go check on mine, and it was covered in blooms as well!

Some of the blossoms had ants wandering the petals (I read that this is probably because there are some aphids nearby), and it's suggested that a mixture of water with a little Dawn dish soap in it can be sprayed on them to help get rid of the pests. I'm going to give it a try. Maybe I'll get brave next spring and even cut my plant back. Meanwhile, if you live nearby and want a cutting sometime, just let me know. I'm not sure I've ever had a plant make it sixteen years before!

A new restaurant with some tasty new teas

This week, my friend Gina and I met for lunch at a new-to-us restaurant near our homes, Ponko Chicken. If you're like me, you want to call it "panko," like the bread crumbs, but it's Ponko, a chain known for its Japanese-American fusion chicken, and I was so pleased to learn that they also offer some specialty teas that you won't find anywhere else. This is the Sweet Almond Peach Tea, and they also offer a Matcha Green Tea Lemonade and a Ponko Palmer, which I assume is their version of an Arnold Palmer. The almond and peach flavors are quite pronounced in the tea I tried, even more than the sweetness of the tea itself, and I loved it. Unfortunately, Ponko doesn't have nutrition info on its website, so I have no idea how much sugar this has! (But once in a while, I'd order it anyway.)

Ponko's display cards on the tables tout the benefits of its rice bran oil. I'm going to have to read more on this topic, as lately, I've been reading that seed oils are going to kill us and we should stick to olive oil. I do use olive oil exclusively for cooking, though for baking, I prefer to use butter.

And Ponko's food? Dee-lish! My panko-breaded chicken fingers were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and for my side, I got their sweet potato fries, which I absolutely loved. That made everything in this bowl look the same color on my iPhone photo, but I can assure you it was good—and too much food, as I couldn't eat it all, and since I wasn't headed home afterward, I didn't bother with a carryout. Have any of you eaten at Ponko? If so, have you tried their other teas? I'd love to read a review!

A new journal that is, quite literally, my cup of tea

There was a time when I had so many journals that I had to institute a moratorium on acquiring any new ones. But the other day, I completely filled up my Bible study journal and had to start a new one, and I've got just a few pages left in my everyday journal, so … yeah, it was time for a new journal! (And a new pen. I did not realize Barnes & Noble had such a great selection of Zebra's Sarasa Japanese pens. The gel ink dries fast and doesn't skip, and this one had blue-gray ink. The ink color is very important to me, because when I'm working on a book, I write different notes in different colors.)

But this journal, y'all! Isn't that the prettiest cover with those lovely ranunculus and pansies? I'd never heard of this artist before, Nancy E. Mink, but I sure love her artwork. And I'm glad the price sticker came off without tearing the cover. Wouldn't you think a bookstore would know better than to do that? Oh, and if you like college-ruled journals, as I do, this one has those thin lines—another plus!

A new tea and an old teacup

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year for gallivanting, so after I went to a friend's 90th birthday celebration on Saturday, I headed over to see my friend Nancy at her Carriage House shop in Senoia. I had a feeling she might have some new fall teas, and she did, so I got this Cranberry Black Tea from M21 Luxury Teas.

While the Cranberry Autumn loose tea from Harney & Sons will probably always be my favorite fall tea, I do like to have tea bags on hand for a quick cuppa, and these did the trick and had a nice light cranberry taste. I was also excited when Nancy told me that she will be getting in some literary-themed "book teas" before Christmas (I think they look like actual books, maybe), so I will have to visit her shop again soon.

I've really just started to decorate for fall, and this brown cup and saucer is one of the few earth-toned pieces that I own. I picked this up on a trip to Huntsville, Alabama, years ago, and all I know about it is that it's marked Charmstone Chin Hung and is Korean. I'm trying to fill up a display with fall-toned pieces before the week is out, so wish me luck!

The signed copy of my new book goes to …

 Ginger! Congratulations, and I'll have this headed your way shortly!

A book launch in Auburn, Alabama

On Wednesday, I had the great pleasure of traveling an hour or so south to Auburn, Alabama, where I had a book launch at a ladies luncheon with my friend Nancy, formerly of Newnan, and the friends in her neighborhood. I last spoke there three years ago and was tickled to be invited back.

They have such a beautiful clubhouse, and I had to stop and snap a few photos of the flowers before I went in!

My new book features a main character who is an Auburn grad and includes a bit of football rivalry with her University-of-Alabama-grad sister, so when Nancy asked whether it would be appropriate to work footballs into the decor, I said yes! Only she could make footballs look pretty.

There was a football banner too!

But my favorite decoration? Nancy said that in honor of my love of teatime (and there is always some tea in my books), she had to include some teacups, so she displayed these under glass. They were near the desserts…

And the ladies sent me home with several of them. Yum!

My lavish to-go box also included some of the fresh flowers accenting all of the tables.

As the ladies were busy setting up the delicious lunch of a cranberry-apple salad, mini cornbread muffins, and a creamy chicken-and-rice casserole, I asked if I could help. They told me everything was taken care of and to just feel free to make myself at home, so I wandered into this room to sit and enjoy a few quiet moments as I prepared to speak. Aren't the furnishings lovely?

After the ladies ate lunch and selected their desserts, I told them about Dyeing for Attention and some of the real-life scenarios that inspired scenes in the book. They were a fantastic group and had so many kind comments afterward (and went home with books, which is always nice). It was such a fun way to kick off the new book, and I couldn't be happier that I actually got to do it in Auburn!

A "vintage" way to save recipes

Speaking of books … I do plan to have a Silver Sisters Christmas novel out by December 1 as well, but I realized I will simply not have time this year to complete the vintage Valentine's cookbook I've been working on. Still, two new books out in a year is pretty good for me, so now I will have an extra year to make the Valentine's book as good as I want it to be. It will feature a lot of "berry" recipes, and I bought this vintage recipe organizer from eBay simply because it includes a recipe for something called Frozen Cranberry Velvet Pie. "Cranberry velvet." Doesn't that sound yummy? I plan to give it a try around Thanksgiving when all things cranberry are in fashion.

I just love this old notebook!

It didn't actually have a lot of recipes inside and has lots of blank pages in the back, but it does have pockets with each section divider, and I will enjoy using it in my kitchen.

And it has a teakettle in the cover's design! I do have a nice wooden recipe box, but I tend to use cookbooks more than recipe cards. I fear that we're going to lose a lot of recipes one day when they're all digital and we forget to share them with others. How do you save recipes? (Or do you?)

Giveaway: A signed copy of my new book!

I'm happy to announce that Dyeing for Attention, Book Two in the Silver Sisters Mystery Series, is now published, and I'll be giving away a signed copy to one lucky winner on Friday! To enter, just leave a comment before 7 a.m. EST on Friday, September 25, and answer this question: Are you a fan of pumpkin spice? Yes or no will do! You can leave your answer on the Tea With Friends Facebook page as well. Contest open to US residents only. Good luck!

And here's the synopsis of the book:

The big day has finally arrived at Silver & Salvage, a combination junk store and antiques shop in Redbud, Alabama, and sisters Carolyn Hopeworth and Nan Padgett and their shopkeeping sidekick, Kitty Monroe, couldn’t be more excited. The editor and photography team from Junky Chic magazine have finally arrived for a long-awaited photo shoot, but from a dangerous gas leak to a broken sidewalk, downtown Redbud endures one catastrophe after another. Then the merchant overseeing the weekend’s beloved Harvest Festival confesses they may be forced to cancel all the festivities.

While the locals fuss over festival plans, LA magazine photographer Rox Greene swans around the small town like the snoot he is, criticizing everyone and everything in his path—until he’s silenced by someone who didn’t seem to appreciate his particular gifts.

After offending about half of Redbud, Rox has few defenders in town. Nan and Carolyn had fretted about the state of their graying locks and how they would look in the magazine photos, but that worry ends up being the least of their concerns. Instead of their shop getting good press, someone seems determined to stop the press—permanently.

The winner of the fall tea towels is …

Jenny Young! If you'll send me your snail mail address (to angelamcrae at charter dot net), I'll get these headed your way. Congrats!

On clipper ships

This week, I was busy editing a client's thriller set in and around London, and to my delight, she included several scenes set around the Cutty Sark, the world's last surviving tea clipper. As often happens when I'm editing, I find myself googling little details about the topic, and that's how I ended up finding this brief video about the ship, a vessel I actually visited when I went to England for my birthday years ago. It was stunning to stand aboard the actual ship that once raced across the waters while transporting tea!

Maybe I've subconsciously had ships on the brain, because I happened to find this pretty brown transfer ware plate at our Habitat for Humanity thrift store the other day, and I decided it would be nice to include it in a fall display. I rarely find brown plates, so when I spot one at a good price, I get it.

And isn't this ship majestic? I love the flag waving in the breeze!

I learned even more from the back stamp, and now I'm thinking I'll need to include some of this "ship" stuff in a book one day!