Call me Bag Lady

Earlier this week, a friend from church, Beth, surprised me with the most wonderful gift! She was on a trip to New York last week and saw this tote bag in a boutique there and thought I might like it. Isn't it charming?

The design looks like a page from an old catalog of china and tea wares, and I just love it!

I was delighted to realize this design is by Cavallini & Co. I used to see their wonderful stationery and aprons and tea towels in boutiques around Atlanta, but all of those stores seem to have disappeared over the years, and I haven't seen that Cavallini name in ages. I looked on Amazon to see if perhaps they have other items with these designs, and indeed they do—a calendar, an apron, and a tea towel. But as much as I enjoy using a cute tote bag, this is the piece I would have wanted most. (And isn't it lovely to know a friend was thinking of you on her travels?)

Publix's Peach Cranberry Chai Bottled Tea

Do you ever have this happen: You go into a grocery store, but it’s not your regular grocery store, so you have to wander around to find things? That happened to me at Publix recently, and it wasn’t my usual Publix, so I was on a search for their Tarragon Chicken Salad, which is one of my favorite of the store-bought chicken salads. As I searched, I spotted this bottled tea.

Has Publix been offering flavored teas for a while and I just didn’t know it? I’m usually a Kroger girl (Alex was a Publix shopper), but sometimes, my local Publix is a little more convenient. At any rate, I certainly was eager to try this Limited Edition Peach Cranberry Chai. To be honest, the combo sounded distinctly iffy to me.

But you know what? It was great! I wouldn’t have ever thought this blend would be this good as an iced tea, but it was delicious, especially with that extra bit of spice from the chai. And oh yes, it’s a sugary drink, to be sure (220 calories and a whopping 52 grams of sugar per $1.79 bottle), but boy, was it worth it. I will try to ignore it next time I go in Publix—but I do think I'll try to concoct an unsweetened version of this tea with my own peach, cranberry, and chai teas!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, who's got pumpkins?

I will be hosting a tea later next week, so I headed to T. J. Maxx this weekend in search of some of those pretty cream-colored pumpkins with floral designs on them. They were all the rage last year, but alas, I didn't find a single one at T. J. So I headed next door to Michaels, and they didn't have any either, but they did have this cute pumpkin-shaped glass mug on sale for 60 percent off. It seems so fitting for my pumpkin spice tea!

Isn't it funny that it's just the middle of September and we've already reached the 60-percent-off phase with the Heirloom Harvest collection at Michaels? With my senior discount, I got both the mug ($5.40) and a cute pumpkin-shaped glass container ($3.60) for under $10, so yippee!

That purple and lime-green Halloween décor isn't anything I can ever imagine using for teatime,  but a glass pumpkin about the size of a sugar bowl? Yes, thank you very much, and I will use it for whipped cream or honey or sugar cubes or something at teatime. Since these are already marked down so much, I wanted to go ahead and mention them now in case you're interested, because you know the Christmas décor will be going up any minute now!

Adagio's Honeybush Pumpkin Chai Tea

Yesterday, I sampled another of the teas that Adagio recently sent me, this Honeybush Pumpkin Chai. These naturally sweet blends always seem to appeal to me during the fall, and this pumpkin-flavored chai definitely hit the spot. In fact, I had picked up some mini pumpkin spice cupcakes at the grocery store, and with this tea, it was just the fall-flavored treat I had been hankering for.

I love the way the loose tea looks, and the smell was delightfully rich. This blend contains honeybush, cinnamon bark, cardamom, ginger root, cocoa nibs, and safflower.

Using an Adagio ceramic mug I already owned, I was grateful for its fine mesh infusing basket, which is perfect for infusing teas with very small particles like those you often see with these chai blends. I so enjoyed sampling another sweet and spicy taste of fall courtesy of Adagio, and you can find this tea and other fall blends here.

The scent of a cozy fall

As I write this, it's a chilly morning here in Georgia, and I'm so looking forward to enjoying sweater weather, the fluffy warm blankets I pull out around this time each year, and lots of new fall flavors of tea as I type away at my computer or read a book. This little vignette perfectly captures my ideal fall scene.

And it's a Wallflowers Fragrance Plug from Bath and Body Works! Have you ever? And with a teacup on the armchair?

I saw this in a B&BW email, I believe, and decided to look for it the next time I was by our local store. It's $19.95 for the wallflower and $7.95 for the refill. Although you can find just about any scent imaginable, I was quite smitten by the thought of scenting my downstairs bath with pumpkin chai, and the fragrance is delightful. Bring on the fall!

New dishes from Daddy!

So the other Saturday night, I was going to visit my sister in Tallapoosa, and when I called Daddy to see if he would be home, too, since he lives next door to her, he said no, he already had plans that evening, but he’d found “some old dishes” he thought I might like and for me to run by and take a look. He said if I wanted them, they could be my Christmas present, and if not, he could "probably find somewhere to get rid of them." Naturally, I was intrigued, and I am now the happy owner of fifteen place settings of Warwick Old Abbey china!

Last week, I was super busy finishing my latest book, which had to be to my editor by that Thursday, so I didn’t even have time to unwrap everything, which was in four banker’s boxes. I waited until my little neighbors came over one day and got them to help me with the unwrapping, and they were great!

How funny that there is fifteen of everything. Did someone drop the entire sixteenth place setting (because you just know there were sixteen to begin with)? And while I have plenty of sets of four plates/cups/saucers for teatime visitors, I have never actually had dinnertime place settings for more than that. I have eighteen turkey plates for Thanksgiving, but if you’re not coming for Thanksgiving or tea, I could only host a small group—until now! I will be hosting a tea for six later this month, and I plan to use as much of this lovely stuff as possible.

I wonder if perhaps someone received these dishes as a wedding gift and never used them. There are no chips, cracks, or crazing, and the gold accents are so perfect that I just don’t think these pieces were ever used. That is going to change. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Daddy said he was at an antique mall where the booth was going out of business, so everything was half off, and he thought I might like these. He was right! (He and my mother used to be antique dealers, so I think he still has a good eye. He's eighty-six and just bought himself a new antique bedroom suite, which is lovely!)

I have: dinner plates, salad plates, bread-and-butter plates, berry bowls, soup bowls, cups and saucers, a creamer and sugar, two oval trays, three oval serving bowls, and eleven butter pats. (Upon closer inspection, I decided the butter pats aren't actually a part of of the original set because the roses aren't the same pale pink and they've got more of an etched design, but they're awfully close, so these are still a treat to have.) So, do fifteen of you want to come to dinner and/or teatime sometime soon? I’m ready!

Pumpkin Spice Tea from Adagio Teas

Yes, yes, I know it's still early September, but Adagio Teas sent along some new Pumpkin Spice goodies to try, and I waited as long as I could to tear open the bag. Actually, I didn't tear open the bag. My (almost) seven-year-old neighbor did when he and his sister came to tea yesterday and I asked them if they'd like to try this tea! This Pumpkin Spice blend contains black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, natural pumpkin spice flavor, cardamom, and marigold flowers.

I think you can spot the marigold flowers! This tea got a thumbs-up from all three of us, and I loved everything about it, from the wonderful scent to the lovely natural sweetness from the tea.

Adagio also sent along some of their Pumpkin Spice Raw Honey, and a tiny spoonful of that made that tea even richer and creamier. I'm greatly enjoying these new "tastes of fall," and if you're interested, too, visit them here to find these and other seasonal flavors.

E. Frances Paper's "Spot of Tea" Little Notes

Do you all like stationery? I *love* pretty stationery, and over the years, I've gone through a lot of it. As a writer, I'm drawn to paper anyway, and sometimes, it's important to have just the right thing on hand. I have plenty of notecards, and of course I love to make my own tea-themed cards when writing someone who is in my "tea circle," but occasionally, I need a different kind of card, and so I want to introduce you to "Little Notes."

I had recently seen an online ad for these blank cards, which are the size of a business card, and thought about ordering but did not. Then, just days later, I was at a crafting event and met a woman who needed my contact info, and that time, I gave her a business card, but the matter really had nothing to do with the fact that I'm a writer and editor, which is what my business card says. "If only I'd ordered those little blank cards," I thought.

Yesterday, I was shopping in nearby Pine Mountain, and there they were, the very Little Notes I'd wished I had purchased! This time, it was a no-brainer, and I came home with a package of 85 Little Notes and 20 of the cute little envelopes as well. I hadn't realized there was a design on the back of the card, too, and I'm greatly looking forward to using these as my new contact cards! There are lots of other designs as well, and you can see them all here.

Happy Labor Day, Friends!