A new treat and a new pan

I've been diligently finishing up new novels that are coming out this fall and didn't have time to even visit the grocery store last week. One day, though, I was really craving something sweet, so I decided to make a variation* of my Kitchen Sink Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies (recipe here) that you can whip up and bake all at once on a sheet pan.

It so happened that I'd been meaning to try out a new sheet pan I got at T. J. Maxx recently. I actually needed a new sheet pan, and this one was that pretty pastel green that I like—and a generous size. But would that textured bottom really be a good nonstick surface? There was nothing to do but try it out.

And look how cleanly these cookies slid out of the (ungreased) pan! I was impressed, and I will be looking for another of these pans the next time I'm in T. J. Maxx. Since I had a nice big pan of cookies, later in the week, I decided to try a trick I saw online and cut them into small bite-size round cookies as shown up top. (The baker whose video I watched used the scraps in a creamy layered dessert, which I thought was a fun idea.) Wouldn't these little round cookies be cute on a tea tray? But then, I liked them just fine on my tea-and-toast set.

*For this variation, in place of the chips and nuts, I used 3/4 cup reduced-sugar dried cranberries, 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips, and 3 tablespoons cocoa.

When afternoon tea was just fifty cents …

The New York Public Library has loads of digital images you can browse online, and these images of a 1914 menu from the Lord & Taylor Tea Rooms caught my eye.

It's interesting to see the various ice creams named. I could figure out what a Charlotte Glacée was, but the Coupe Julia Marlowe? No idea. (I did learn that she was an English-born American actress and fought for women's right to vote. Maybe the ice cream honored her popularity?)

And while I'd no doubt let them keep the stewed prunes, don't you wish we could still enjoy afternoon tea for just fifty cents?

A teacup needle minder

 

I love it when my interests overlap. Needlepoint is having a moment, and since I've been revisiting some old needlepoint canvases I've had tucked away, I learned that all sorts of new needlepoint accessories exist, including a new-to-me gadget, a magnetic needle minder. 

This one, shaped like a teacup with those famous British "Rich Tea" biscuits on the side, is one I found on Amazon. (The link is here.)

A tiny magnet is on the back of the card, and you use it to attach your needle minder to your needlepoint canvas.

It looks like this when in use, and then you don't have to continuously poke holes in your canvas when "storing" your needle away. Some stitching gadgets are a waste of time and money, but this one? I'm impressed. Are you a lapsed needlepointer like I was?

Bow-Tied!

When I got home from shopping last Saturday, a friend asked if I'd bought anything. I told her I'd just bought two cute coffee mugs with bows on them on clearance at Kirkland's for $3 each. She said, "I thought you weren't buying any more coffee mugs?" That's when I explained that technically, these were Christmas mugs, and I don't put limits on Christmas decorations and tea wares.

You see, last Christmas, I found these darling dinner plates at a T. J. Maxx or HomeGoods, but I wished there had been teacups or tea mugs to match.

Then I found the salad plates that matched the dinner plates. I'm aiming to go full pink with my Christmas decorating this year, so I'm glad I picked these dishes up last year (and I think I remember using rewards points, so they might've been free). While I would like to have found four of either the pink or the green mugs (or maybe both), at least I have two. While I can't stage a full tea party, I can have a friend over for "luncheon," as they used to say on Downton Abbey, and I don't think it's that big a deal that our mugs will be different. (Plus, who even knows what pink tea wares may materialize this Christmas.) And yes, I know it's not even fall yet, but when it come to seasonal décor, you really have to plan ahead!

Honey Lemon Black Tea from Nature's Hearth Tea Co.

Occasionally, I am lured in by a tea's packaging and decide to take a chance on a new tea vendor or tea flavor. This Honey Lemon Black Tea from Nature's Hearth Tea Co. caught my eye at T. J. Maxx last weekend, and the tin was so pretty, I decided I wanted it for décor and would take a chance on the tea (just $4.99 for 50 tea bags).

It's hard to capture in the photo, but the tin is an unusual shape. It's almost a pyramid (or a trapezoid, maybe), and the graphics make me think of fall. With temps in the nineties here in Georgia this week, I am definitely dreaming of cooler fall temperatures and new fall flavors.

And guess what? This tea was lovely! As soon as I opened the foil pouch containing all the tea bags, I caught a nice whiff of lemon. I steeped my tea for about three minutes and got a delightfully lemony brew. Now, if I could just acquire cooler weather as quickly as I acquire new tea!

In praise of a pretty plate wall

This is not a trick question, I promise, but what catches your eye in an antique mall? I mean, teacups and teapots do, I assume, if you're spending some of your valuable time reading this blog today, but besides that? For me, pretty plates are always among the items I notice first. (So my top five would likely include all tea wares, tole trays, rhinestone costume jewelry, Depression glass, and quilts.) Cups and plates and platters are all essential tea wares, so these caught my eye at Apple Barrel in Bremen recently.

A woman (Bessie? Bessie's granddaughter?) was just setting up her booth, so I stayed out of the way, but I was so charmed by her plate wall—and the faux wisteria cascading down—that I asked if I could snap a few photos, and she said sure.

She didn't even get the wall finished before she was selling pieces off of it, which tells me that she had good instincts in setting up her booth this way. So tell me, would you have stopped to look here?

Red, white, and blueberry teatime

Last Thursday, I had my "Grow Group" girls over for tea. We all really bonded while doing a church-based discipleship program together a couple of years ago, and even though we've long been finished, Beth, Paige, Kristi, and I continue to meet up on a regular basis just to check in with each other and see how life is going. I forgot to take very many photos, but Kristi (the tallest of the four) always manages to get a selfie so that we can at least commemorate the occasion.

As you can see, I'm still into my "patriotic summer of 2026" décor, so I decided the foods should follow suit. We had chicken salad served in tiny glasses, star-shaped cucumber cream sandwiches, a Boursin and mozzarella breakfast casserole, blueberry scones, fruit skewers, and gluten-free chocolate cake with chocolate icing from the Publix bakery.

We all agreed the cake is fabulous, especially the cream filling and the ganache, and cut into thin slices, it can work on a tea table.

I also made star-shaped sugar cubes using a star-shaped plastic candy mold I found at Michaels years ago. These are so easy to make. Just pour a cup of sugar into a bowl and add a tablespoon or two of water and mix until the sugar has the consistency of wet sand. Then scoop into the mold, pack down, let sit overnight, and voila, you have sugar cubes when you wake up the next morning. I've also made these with heart-shaped molds and tinted them pink for Valentine's Day.

Beth said she thought these gluten-free blueberry-and-white-chocolate scones were the best yet. Yay!

They also enjoyed the Ginger Sweet Peach Tea from Tiesta Tea that I recently reviewed here, and I was happy that they're always willing to try any tea I serve them and are turning into quite the tea connoisseurs. We used new silver napkin rings and teaspoons thanks to a recent gift from my friend Kathy. I was grateful for the silver touches!

I wish I'd thought to get a few more photos, but I was so excited to see "the girls" that I didn't worry about photography very much. And really, who can feel bad about that!

New jewelry for the tea table

 

I read somewhere that silver is the jewelry of the tea table, so I'm happy to report that I found a new piece of "jewelry" for mine last week! Do you know what this is? Here's what it looked like when I rescued it from the thrift store for $9.95 …

And here it is after a little polishing with Wright's Silver Cream!

It's a sugar caster, so named because back when sugar was considered a luxury, the wealthy could "cast" their sugar onto foods on the table (and it's also known as a sugar sifter). I'd long wanted one of these but never seen one in the wild before. This vintage English one from Mappin & Webb was a fun find!

Ever had Peach Tea Granita?

My gift subscription to Our State—Celebrating North Carolina continues to delight every month, with features I actually read and recipes I actually make. They are always spot-on with their themes each month, including this one, College Towns Roar.

But what I loved most in this issue? An article on sweet tea! Doesn't this photo invite you right in?

I'm intrigued by this recipe for Peach Tea Granita & Cream Parfaits, and it happens to be available online, so you can check it out as well. If I can get my hands on some good fresh peaches soon, I'll be making this! Go here to check it out for yourself.

Another way to make teacup shaker cards

Remember last week when I made that shaker card? I loved the result, but boy, did it take a long time to make. Well, I needed to make birthday cards for two dear tea-loving friends, and I suddenly had a eureka moment and remembered that I bought some teacup-shaped plastic inserts and cards *five years ago* that I had never used. They were too precious to mess up at the time, and I wasn't sure how to use them, anyway. These days, I'm more of the "What have you got to lose?" mindset, so one YouTube video later, I figured out how to use these cute plastic inserts from a company called Jillibean Soup. These cards took significantly less time to make than last year's card, and I'm just as happy with the result!

Here's the pink card I made for the friend whose birthday is today…

And here's the lavender card I made for the friend whose birthday was last week. I was pleased with these cards and decided I'm ready to experiment with the other plastic inserts as well!

Which tea is in the Southern Living Food Hall of Fame?

The new issue of Southern Living has an intriguing list they call “The Southern Food Hall Of Fame: 50 Iconic Foods And Drinks Chosen By Readers.”

I was pleased to see that Luzianne Tea made the list, but I was quite surprised to learn that this was the only tea on the list. (No Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea from Alabama?)

Other surprises: Dr Pepper (from Texas) did not make the list, but North Carolina’s Cheerwine did. And Atlanta’s Coca-Cola, the most famous soft drink in the world? Not on there. (I drink maybe two sodas a year and don’t really have a dog in this fight, but I’m stunned Coke didn’t make the list!) I was, however, tickled to see all of my favorites that did make the list, including Duke’s Mayonnaise, Tabasco Sauce, Ro-Tel, Jimmy Dean Sausage, MoonPies, Lance Peanut Butter Crackers (I once met a member of the Lance family!), and Little Debbie snack cakes. I’m betting you don’t even have to be from the South to appreciate this list (click here to view it for yourself). Did any of your favorites make it on there? Are any of them missing? I’d love to know!

A charming liquid hand soap holder!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad for a charming new Reading Corner Soap Holder at Bath & Body Works. I happened to be near one in another town (which shall remain nameless) and stopped by. Not only did I not see that particular soap holder, I saw only a couple of them at all. They were shaped like pumpkins. Now years ago, you couldn't get within ten feet of a Bath & Body Works store without multiple employees trying to squirt, spritz, or spray something on you and eagerly asking, "Can I help you? What are you looking for today? Do you know about our buy-one-get-one candle promotion? Have you tried our new Beachy Coastal Coconut and Rum Sunset fragrance?" But on that visit, things had clearly changed because not only was I not assaulted upon entering, I couldn't even find anyone at the checkout counter. One girl was stocking products, and when I asked for help finding the metal soap holders, she pointed and said, "They're around that corner." I looked again. No, they weren't. I stepped back around the corner and asked if she would mind showing me. (I just know she was thinking "Boomer," which is fine. I'm older, and I have more insurance.) But then even she realized there were no metal soap holders there. A guy employee in the store was leaned against a display stand, scrolling through his cell phone. "Would you mind helping this lady?" "Oh, sure." He went to the back to check (or at least said he did) but returned to report he'd found none of the metal soap holders like I described. Okey-doke. But if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, right? This week, I did indeed find the cute soap holder!

So if you can track it down (and find an employee to take your $14.95), I'm betting some of you, too, will love this new soap holder, which is in my guest bathroom off the living room. I like their White Tea & Sage fragrance. I was debating whether to go ahead and get five more bottles of it (5 for $28 when I was there) when I discovered the 32-ounce refill is just $13.95. Sold!

A teacup and saucer. Books. Reading glasses. Pencils. I have to say it was worth the effort of finding it!

My first (and maybe last!) teacup shaker card

At the Stamping and Scrapbooking Expo the other week, I was inspired to get some dies so that I could make a teacup shaker card. These are called shaker cards because you insert beads and sequins behind a sheet of plastic, and the recipient, if so inclined, can shake the card and watch the pretty doodads rattle around. I started working on this at a craft retreat over the weekend, finished the card yesterday, and was actually pretty pleased with my first attempt. (It is going to my niece Amelia.)

I enjoyed selecting the sequins and beads to use. I have a big box of beads and buttons that I once used when working on a crazy quilt, but I haven't touched them in ages, so it felt very thrifty to use up some of these items I already had on hand. That said, it took way longer than I thought it would to make this card. If you add up the hours I spent sorting beads, figuring out how to assemble the teacup, cutting out the frame, etc., I'm betting I have five hours in this card, which is ridiculous! My more experienced crafting friends could no doubt knock out several of these in an hour, but … I'm still a card-making amateur.

No quibble with the maker of the dies, though! The Brass & Bliss pieces cut out cleanly every time, and I was very happy with them. I just may not use them to make shaker cards very often!

The sticker book giveaway winner is …

 Loralie! Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy using these stickers!

BAM — A quick lesson in silver polishing!

Every once in a while, I feel compelled to sing the praises of Wright’s Silver Cream. This is one of those times. This week, I was organizing my collection of cute teaspoons and decided to focus on my matched sets. Then I remembered that a year or so ago, my friend Kathy passed along some silver ones that I did not have.

I pulled these out of a cabinet and couldn't help noticing the attractive bamboo-design handles, which made me realize these would be perfect for a mahjong-themed tea party one day. “Bam!” I will declare when I have these on my tea table!

So I whipped out the Wright’s Silver Cream and had these charming spoons go from scruffy to spiffy in no time. Don’t you just love pretty tea accoutrements? (And friends who share them with you!)

Tiesta's Ginger Sweet Peach Tea

I've been drinking lots of ice water and iced tea during this hot summer, and the other day, I realized I was missing my teacups. Oh, they're still there, but I just haven't had a need for them. So I decided to look for a new tea to try, thinking that would prompt a need to revisit my teacups, and before I knew it, this Tiesta Tea had hopped into my Amazon cart and was headed my way.

What does this herbal tea contain? Ginger, apple, hibiscus, rose hip, pink peppercorns, natural flavors, pineapple (pineapple, cane sugar), mango (mango, cane sugar), orange blossoms, rose petals, and peach cubes. Pretty, isn't it?

And oh, is it delicious! On my first sip, I had one word come to mind: "Juicy!" It reminds me of a juicy peach with some friendly, fruity neighbors along. If you like herbal blends, too, I am happy to recommend this one!