Snore & Peace Tea

My friend Paige, the flight attendant, came home the other day with another fun new tea for me, this one called Snore & Peace from Clipper Teas. She found it when she ran inside a grocery store in Amsterdam and thought I would enjoy the tea because of its name.

Although I've heard of Clipper Teas before, I rarely come across them at T. J. Maxx or in shops, so I was delighted to receive this box of tea bags as a gift!

And the tea was great! Although I sometimes like chamomile tea in the evening, it can have a slightly bitter aftertaste, but the lemon balm and lavender made this blend mellow out quite a bit, and I've been enjoying it at bedtime. What a lovely treat, and I'm especially honored that a friend thought of me while grocery shopping in the Netherlands. 

Sweet (tea) memories and Father's Day

In my family, any holiday gathering, at any time of year, is going to involve a pitcher of sweet tea, and this weekend’s Father’s Day celebration was no exception.

It’s especially meaningful to me because sweet tea is something I always associate with Daddy. He went to work on the assembly line at Ford Motor Co. in Hapeville, Ga., at a young age and retired there 30 or so years later as a supervisor. Every night, he would pack a lunch for the next day’s commute to work, and that always included a big thermos of sweet tea along with whatever sandwiches and chips he ate. At 86, he golfs several times a week and still plants a big garden, raises chickens, and continues to bake delicious birthday cakes for my sister, me, and the rest of the family! 

Rhonda had barbecue and brisket, baked beans and cole slaw, and I contributed carrot salad, chips, and …

The Pioneer Woman’s Strawberry Poke Cake (super easy and quite moist; the recipe is here if you’re interested).

I enjoyed celebrating the dads in the family, particularly my own, and the other fun thing was that I got to play with my brother-in-law’s newest addition to his man cave, a Ms. Pac-Man game!

Some fun new teas I'm sipping

When my tea friend Susan sent me some goodies for my birthday last month, she included some delightful new teas, and I have been slowly sipping my way through them. She found these charmingly packaged Tea Party Collection teas at Aldi, and I shared them with my little tea friends from the neighborhood, who were as delighted as I knew they would be! I liked the fruity flavors of the ones I tried—Raspberry Cookie and Lemon Macaroon—and they liked theirs too!

I was even more intrigued by these yaupon teas she sent, many of them thoughtfully labeled by hand! (I'm so impressed when anyone takes the time to handwrite anything anymore. The gift of time means more and more to me with each passing year!) The yaupon tea I tried last night was the Dark Blend from Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. in Florida, and I enjoyed its slightly earthy flavor so much!

Once I emailed to tell her my package had arrived, Susan thoughtfully replied with a photo of the beautiful packaging from the ASI Mindful Mint American Yaupon Tea, from the Yaupon Tea Company based in Savannah. According to their website, "Yaupon is a tree that grows native in the southeastern United States. The native tribes of the area made a stimulating tea from the Yaupon leaves, as it was revered as traditional medicine. Yaupon is the only caffeine source native to North America. Yaupon contains anti-oxidants comparable to blueberries, has chlorogenic acid, polyphenols and flavonoids. Yaupon also contains theobromine, the alkaloid found in dark chocolate. Yaupon’s taste ranges from a smooth black tea to a light green tea." Have you tried yaupon tea before? It's been years since I'd come across any, so I was super happy that Susan was kind enough to share these with me!

A straw poll

I would like to have a word with you all about straws, if you please. Now, I love the stainless steel Lilly Pulitzer tumbler I purchased a few months ago, and as a result of having it, I'm sipping more water and iced tea, but it needed a straw, and the only reusable straw I had on hand was a red-and-white-striped Christmas one, and the mismatched straw-and-tumbler ensemble bugged me so much that I headed to T. J. Maxx in search of other straws. Good night, I had no idea there were so many straws to choose from these days: stainless steel, hard plastic, glass, and they also come with cutesy stoppers, rubber and plastic sippers, cleaning brushes, and a partridge in a pear tree. Ultimately, I dropped a whopping $2.99 and came home with these, mainly because I thought the tips of them would be a close match to the color of my tumbler, and indeed, they were.

However, sipping through rubber just felt weird! I think I was expecting the cold hard plastic that I had been sipping from before, but these were the only matching straws I had, so I gave one a whirl, and I’m used to it now. It's held up nicely for several weeks, so we'll see how long it lasts.

Since I rarely used straws before, I can't exactly say I'm saving the planet by using these, but I do believe that I'm drinking more water, and that's a plus. So here's my question. Do any of you have reusable straws? What are your thoughts on them?

Teatime Pillow Talk

One of the nice things about having had a tea blog for the past eighteen years is that I have accidentally created a tea journal for myself. So when I wondered, "Have I ever had a teatime pillow before?" it was easy enough to type in "pillow" in the search bar and confirm that no, I have not. I've found a few mini pillows that were more like ornaments or cutesy decor, but a real pillow? Nope. So when I saw this one last week at Rockin' B, a local antique mall, it was a no-brainer that this needed to come home with me. 

This feather-stuffed pillow feels new (nice and sturdy) and there's no musty smell at all, so I'm assuming this is a piece someone either bought at a good price to resell, or else they got tired of it and were ready to pass it on. At any rate, I love the chain-stitch embroidery on it, especially the Mason jar of sweet tea!

When I looked up the image on Google Lens, it said the pillow was made by Envogue, and I found the same design on a cream-colored background and not the watery blue-green color I bought. I would have bought that one, too, if I'd seen it, but I'm happy to have started my tea-themed pillow collection with this one.

Dolly and Dollar General

I stopped by Dollar General for a few last-minute toiletries before my trip to the mountains last weekend, and I couldn't help noticing that DG had some adorable Dolly Parton kitchen wares for sale. Do you like Dolly? I guess I've been a fan my whole life. I liked her in her country phrase, I loved her in 9 to 5, and when she lost her husband recently, I had Dolly on my prayer list, so I suppose "widowhood" is one of the few things Dolly and I have in common. (I note with interest that she says she's staying busy and that while she misses Carl, she tries not to dwell on it too much. Same, girl. Same.) Anyway: Dolly has tea bag holders at Dollar General!

I thought this one was cute, and if you look closely, you can see the iconic Dolly butterfly logo. Dolly's name is all over the place in Pigeon Forge since Dollywood is nearby. I went there when the park was still known as Silver Dollar City, so I probably need to go back sometime and check it out under Dolly's leadership. Her brilliant instincts as a businesswoman have long impressed me. I'm still astonished that she said no to Elvis recording "I Will Always Love You" because she would have had to give up the rights to the song. Since Whitney Houston went on to record it years later, making lots of money for Dolly, that ended up being a brilliant move, didn't it?

And I adored her in the movie 9 to 5, which is why this Cup of Ambition tea bag holder is my favorite! These were just $1, and they're apparently quite sturdy. The young man who checked me out dropped them both into the bottom of my bag, and when I heard the clank, I took them back out to check for chips, asked for a couple of plastic bags to wrap around them, and they made it safely home. They may just be $1 purchases, but hey, it's Dolly!

A fudge sampler and teatime miniatures

Are any of you fudge fans? I sure am, and when I go to the mountains or Mackinac Island or anywhere known for its fudge, I can’t resist coming home with some. I’m allowing myself only one piece a day of this fudge, which is from the Apple Barn in Sevierville, Tennessee, and of course I'm having it with hot tea since that complements the sweet taste so well. Sevierville, by the way, is perhaps even better known as the hometown of Dolly Parton!

While antiquing in Pigeon Forge, I was happy to come across a booth that had some old issues of Miniature Collector magazine, and this $2 find was one of my favorite “souvenirs” of my trip. I briefly got interested in miniatures back in the early nineties and read a few issues of the magazine back then. After discovering that a new crafting friend was once a miniatures dealer, and after seeing photos of her elaborately decorated dollhouses, I’ve been thinking about decorating a small room box with teatime miniatures. For that reason, this issue with “Tea Time!” on the cover caught my eye.

And oh, all the miniature teapots! I think I’d like to make my own out of modeling clay, but I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled when I’m thrifting and antiquing in the days ahead.

Can you believe someone decorated a miniature tea trolley? This magazine is from February 2001, so most of the advertisers have long since gone out of business, but I looked on eBay and was pleased to see that miniature tea trolleys are still available.

Check out the lemonade set here, which looks right at home among all of that beautiful wicker.

And aren’t these ladies delightful on their own wicker set? I found this whole issue just so charming to peruse. Are any of you into dollhouse miniatures?

A beautiful weekend in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Although I've traveled through it and over it quite a few times, I don't think I've stopped in Tennessee in years, so when my friend Gina asked me a few months ago if I would consider joining her for a trip to her cabin in the Smoky Mountains, I was all in. We went to church together years ago and have kept in touch since, especially since we've both lost husbands in the past few years. She has been a huge source of comfort to me, so I knew I would enjoy traveling with her.

Plus, seeing God's gorgeous creation is always a balm for my soul!

This is us about to leave the cabin after our long weekend.

Gina and I are both crafters, so we enjoyed visits to a scrapbook store, antique stores, some delicious home-cooking restaurants (which happily prepared Arnold Palmers for me), and my favorite, the Moon Pie outlet and bookstore!

A bunch of geese had arrived at the same time we did, and they weren't a bit camera-shy!

You never know what you'll see at an antique store, but at this one, I saw an old mirrored tray that someone had embellished with vintage costume jewelry. Those of you who've read my Junkin' Jewelry mysteries won't be surprised to hear that I plan to let my heroine make some of these trays the next time I write about her!

I came home with quite a few new goodies, which you'll hear about in the days ahead, but after Gina and I returned home on Sunday and I unpacked from the weekend, I settled in with a cup of tea and a mini Moon Pie in the Birthday Cake flavor. It was the perfect purchase to end all of the birthday shopping that I did in May!