Some new teatime advent calendars to enjoy

A few weeks ago, my friend Marie texted to say that she had ordered something for me and it was arriving that day. It was an advent calendar from Vahdam Tea, and I was thrilled to receive it! In the past, tea companies used to send advent calendars for me to review, but I hadn't seen any new ones in years, and I was delighted to check out this one.

When you open the box, there's a chart that shows you which tea to drink each day. I tend to be a rule follower, so of course I'm drinking them in the prescribed order.

And the teas are nice big tea sachets, each individually packaged, which is lovely.

I kicked off this advent calendar with some spice teas, so it was nice to try their delicious English Breakfast tea yesterday.

A few days after Marie's gift arrived, my friend Lynn came up from Florida for work, and we had arranged to meet while she was in town. She showed up to dinner bearing … another advent calendar! And you know what? This is no duplication at all, as far as I'm concerned. Marie's gifted teas are my a.m. teas, and Lynn's gifted teas are my p.m. teas. 

These little boxes are clearly labeled with each day of the month, so later today, I'll be trying this peach-flavored tea.

And when they're all gone, the boxes can be put back together puzzle-style, so I'll be sharing this box with my young neighbors once I've gone through all the teas. Isn't it lovely when friends know you so well? And who else is sipping advent-calendar teas this Christmas?

A Tale of Two Tea Tins

It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines. But there I stood, in the long, long line at my local T. J. Maxx, and I pondered which of the cute tea tins I should purchase. I had found some delightful Christmas decor and wasn't about to get out of line, but still, I pondered. You see, I have an idea for a craft for next Christmas, and it's a little silver tea shop for which one of these tins will make a great companion, but which one? Will I go with a pastel sidekick since pastels are my default for favorite colors? Or would it make more sense to go with the classic red so that I can use my vintage pieces with it? Alas, I could not decide, and I do not need a total of 200 new tea bags, so … you get to decide! I'm giving away one of these tea tins, and it honestly doesn't matter to me which one.

So would you like to win the red tea tin with Christmas Chai Black Tea?

Or the pink tea tin with English Breakfast Tea? To enter this giveaway, just let me know which color tin YOU prefer, and you'll be entered to win! Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner. I do realize Google sometimes gives us fits if we aren't logged in to our account, so once you leave a comment below, you may want to double-check to be sure it doesn't say "Anonymous." You can also leave your entry (i.e., the name of your desired color) on the Tea With Friends Facebook page here. As long as you comment somewhere by 7 a.m. EST on Friday, December 6, you'll be entered to win. (And then I can figure out my crafting color palette for next year.) Thank you for the assist, and good luck!

Chocolate drinkers vs. tea drinkers

I'm always in the market for new vintage recipes to try, and I found a little booklet of chocolate recipes online that is quite intriguing. It was published in 1909 compliments of Walter Baker & Co., Ltd., the same folks whose Baker's Chocolate we often use in baked goods today. 

Health claims from food manufacturers are certainly nothing new, but these kind of cracked me up: "It is evident that the coming American is going to be less of a tea and coffee drinker, and more of a cocoa and chocolate drinker. This is the natural result of a better knowledge of the laws of health, and of the food value of a beverage which nourishes the body while it also stimulates the brain." If only!

The recipes in the book look pretty tempting, though, and the graphics alone make this worth a look. Interested? Click here to check it out for yourself!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, I'll be preparing the foods I'm taking to my sister's house for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so I wanted to go ahead and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

A fun weekend with crafty friends

I've just returned from my twice-yearly crafting retreat at Lake Hartwell with a bunch of crafty girlfriends, and once again, I had a fabulous time filled with good friends, creative inspiration, yummy meals, and super shopping!

I joined the group through my dear friend Kathy, whom I first met years ago when I interviewed her for a newspaper article about her crafting (Fimo clay at the time, I believe). We bonded immediately and have been friends for thirty-some-odd years now!

These gals are so creative, with expert knitters and quilters as well as paper crafters who've been at it for years!

We always enjoy dining at the area restaurants, and at one of them, I enjoyed a Turkey Apple Brie sandwich with sweet potato fries and mango tea.

We also enjoy visiting the local Dollar Tree for crafting supplies. At this one, my Santa-mug-collecting heart was warmed by these cute platters.

I also found matching treat bags with Christmas mugs, which I will certainly put to good use.

Finally, my friend Vicki surprised me with these dimensional teatime stickers she found for me at a Dollar Tree. So if you haven't been to Dollar Tree in a while, you may want to make a visit soon!

Christmas decor that's right At Home

Do you have an At Home store in your town? We got one a few years ago, but I don't recall ever buying anything there until last week, when I decided to stop by and check out the Christmas décor. And while there were loads of things I liked, I limited myself to just two items on that trip.

First, this teacup, a little larger than a real one, lights up, so I look forward to displaying it at Christmas.

And this 8 x 8-inch frosty piece is just a shelf-sitter, I suppose you'd say, but I am always delighted when I see Christmas décor that is teacup-shaped and not just mug-shaped. I'll decorate with both, but … teacups for the win!

A whimsical new tea infuser

The other day, my friend Deberah asked if I would be home because she had something she wanted to drop off for me. I was delighted to receive a bag of treats that included some of her homemade pumpkin muffins as well as a beautiful new tea tea infuser from her daughter, Amelia, who is also a friend! (Amelia the Friend is not to be confused with Amelia the Niece, although Amelia the Niece is also my friend, but you know what I mean.)

I rarely make tea the same way twice, so my brewing methods each week are likely to include tea bags, a tea infuser basket, a tea ball or spoon, a tea-filtering mug, and perhaps a paper filter tea bag if the loose tea has lots of small bits in it, like a rooibos tea. So I was quite happy to receive a new tea infuser.

Using such accoutrements helps me to slow down and truly savor my tea, and I used this infuser to make some of the herbal tea from Scotland that I received as a gift recently, tea I am absolutely hoarding. With gifted tea and a gifted tea infuser, this cup of tea was one to savor indeed! (Just curious: Do you make tea using one particular way, or do you switch it up?)

Amelia's Bridal Shower

I can't remember who it was, but years ago, some friend of mine suggested that we ought to hold showers for middle-aged women and replace all the goodies we got at our wedding showers. Isn't that a marvelous idea? I couldn't help thinking of that at niece Amelia's bridal shower on Saturday!

I especially loved the idea of giving someone a Merry Christmas welcome mat as a wedding gift, like the one my sister is displaying here. Amelia also got a pretty Christmas plaque for the outdoors and a beautiful Christmas wreath, and she went right home and hung them all up at the newly purchased home she and Korbin will share after their wedding next month. At 19, Amelia has long wanted to be a young bride, and she has owned her own very successful dog-breeding and dog-boarding business for several years. She recently completed an apprenticeship and is now an actual dog groomer, and this dog-crazy niece has made us all very proud.

Her dad pastors the church where the shower was held, and her older sisters hosted. I was asked to bring chicken salad sandwiches, pimiento cheese sandwiches, and cheese wafers, which were easy to make and transport. 

I like to use a cookie cutter to add cutouts to some of the sandwiches. That way, guests know at a glance that they're getting pimiento cheese. (I continue to use the Marilyn Miller Method of freezing the bread beforehand to make it easier to cut.)

They had a ton of food for guests to eat, and these appetizer foods are some of my favorites. In fact, I've wished for years that we could have fast-food restaurants that offered tea and scones as well as nibbles like these!

I was very happy to see the Milo's Tea and lemonade available, so I made my own Arnold Palmer to drink.

Amelia and her sisters, and soon all three will be married!

It was a fun day of watching Amelia get showered with love, and based on the photos I saw on her social media this weekend, she is putting her new gifts to good use as she prepares to set up housekeeping.

I'm so excited for this new chapter in the life of my precious niece!

"Everlasting Hope" for the crafty tea lover

I'm headed to a craft retreat soon, and when I was at Joann the other day, I found the perfect new resource to take along! It's this Everlasting Hope book of stickers and designs by Karla Dornacher. My tea friend Lani in Hawaii first introduced me to Karla's beautiful work years ago, so when I saw her name on this book, I had to take a peek inside. And what was one of the first things I saw?

This page with teacups and Bible verses. Count me in!

There are also some cute vellum designs that can be colored in and glued along the blank borders of those journaling Bibles that are so popular. I have one I've been coloring in for years, and I especially like the fact that Karla prefers to color "around" scriptures and not "on" them in her Bible.

The book even has cute stickers of borders and colorful tabs. I can't wait to use this with my crafty friends, and I think some of you would enjoy it too! Also, while this book is just $12.95 and is available on Amazon at the full price, I got it for 20 percent off at Joann, so be sure to comparison shop if you decide to get a copy!

 

Tea bags and travels

When I went to England for the first time, I remember being intrigued by all the different tea bags I came across in my hotel room and at breakfast. I was sure to try them all, and I even brought a few of the extras home with me. Well, I'm now in a small group at church with a friend who is a Delta flight attendant, and look what she brought me from one of her international trips the other week!

She's happily sharing her extra tea bags with me, and I was quite curious about what all she'd picked up while staying in hotels on her most recent trip. The first one I tried was one I'd never heard of before, Pure tea from Betjeman & Barton.

As I expected from the thick packaging, this was a "high-end" tea bag, and I must say the tea was very good. It was a brisk black tea, just as you'd expect in an "early morning" tea, and of course I was happy to have the others to try as well. I happened to mention them to one of my young tea-loving neighbors, who asked, "Can you share some of them with us?" And yes, I most definitely can. Do you bring home the freebie tea bags when you travel?

A tea celebrating Amelia and her bridesmaids!

My youngest niece, Amelia, gets married next month, and on Saturday, I hosted her Bridesmaids Tea at The Emerald Chandelier tearoom in Griffin, which has quickly become my go-to local tearoom. Amelia is a veteran of teatime, so it seemed only natural to have a tea for her and her bridesmaids!

Here's everyone (except me, the photographer) in front of the tearoom.

And here I am with the honoree!

Those of you who've been reading this blog for many years know that I have three nieces, including Amelia and her sisters Cari (aka Ezra's mom), shown here…

And Madison, who recently had her first child, baby Hoyt.

And three-week-old Hoyt was an angel at his first teatime, here in the arms of my sister, Rhonda!

The girls all seemed to enjoy themselves, and some of them even …

Tried on the hats!

As on my previous visits to this tearoom, I found the food plentiful and had to take some of the sweets home with me because I was so stuffed. I was so busy that I didn't write down notes about the tea as I usually do, but I can report that the favorite savories were the Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup and the bite-sized Pizza Buns, and the favorite sweet was the Apple Scone with Pecans and Caramel. It was a lovely day and definitely my favorite way to celebrate with some of my favorite girls!