Tea goodies from Alabama

On Saturday, my husband humored me by coming along for a little antiquing at an old favorite antique mall, Angel's Antiques in Opelika, Ala. As you can see, I had quite a fruitful day, with my favorite find being the $10 teacup stand!

Those of you fortunate enough to own teacup stands probably know by now to hang on to them. I have been looking for one for at least two or three years now. I do see them in antique malls occasionally, but they always, always have a tag that proclaims in unfriendly lettering, "NOT FOR SALE — FOR DISPLAY ONLY." I personally think that is not very nice of the sellers, to tempt us shoppers that way, but what's a girl to do? I always look for those pretty white teacup stands, but when I saw this black one I decided a) it's a teacup stand, hoorah! b) I can paint it if I decide to and c) doesn't this look like Mary Engelbreit's designs? And if it's by Mary, it would be a sin to paint it.

Other fun finds included this wooden wall hanging. Frankly, it's a little country cutesy/rustic for my taste, but it was a very reasonable $1.50, and I thought it might serve as an accent in the tea garden one day.

Vintage cookbooks are always fun, and here I have one full of maple syrup recipes as well as the Kitchen Scrapbook on top, which has a terrific bunch of handwritten recipes. This little book was a real treasure to me, and it'll get its own blog post somewhere on down the line, I'm sure.

Finally, I was delighted to find a boxed set of what I call rosette or timbale makers. The Swan House in Atlanta serves its chicken salad in the flaky little pastry shells you make with these things, and I've long wanted a set.

I liked the assortment of shapes that came in the box, and I was also pleased the original recipe pamphlet is there as well. Hopefully one of my tea room cookbooks will turn up a recipe I can use these with. Did you find any tea or cooking goodies this weekend?