The winner of the "Vintage Tea Party" book is …

Joanie! I have your address already, Joanie, so I'll get this packaged up and headed your way. Congrats!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #5

This is a vintage Valentine I found last year, but I categorize this one as newly vintage, because this is the sort of Valentine that I would have sent as a child in the late sixties and early seventies! I love the cute little children having tea.

Tea in all its glory is definitely the theme of today's giveaway! There's a tea clipper pictured on the tea caddy on this tea mug …

And tea accoutrements are featured all around this mug, which I happened across at T.J. Maxx last week. If you'd like to be entered to win, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST tomorrow and you'll be entered to win. U.S. residents only. And please make sure I have a way to get in touch with you if you're the winner. If you don't have a Blogger profile and don't want to post your e-mail address, just let me know that you're "Angela M. in Georgia," for instance. Good luck!

P.S. You do NOT want to miss Saturday's giveaway! Actually, today's giveaway was supposed to be Saturday's giveaway, but then I got something in the mail from a new tea company this week that was just crying out to be the final "Valentine's Giveaway" for 2015. You are going to love it! Well, one of you is going to love it, but trust me, it's one of the best giveaways we've ever had here!

The winner of the tea infuser is …

Daniele K.! Congrats, and since you included your e-mail address, I've sent you an e-mail so I can see about getting this headed your way. Congrats!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #4

"I'm a good 'waiter' when I'm waitin' for you — Valentine," reads this vintage Valentine, but when you raise the teapot lid …

It reads, "You suit me 'TEA-TOTALLY.'" Now how could you not love a sweet mechanical Valentine like this? By the way, Joy asked where I find these vintage Valentines, and the vast majority of them came from eBay. I look for them all year long, because the prices shoot WAY up each January!

The back of the card says "To Mildred Knott, From Florence." Don't you just love those names, Mildred and Florence? Reading the signatures on these cards is one of the things I like best about collecting vintage Valentines.

I know a lot of us love all things vintage, so for today's giveaway, I'm offering a copy of the book "Vintage Tea Party" by Carolyn Caldicott. If you'd like to be entered to win, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post by 7 a.m. EST tomorrow. Also, if your "Blogger" profile doesn't link to your contact info, please make sure to include your e-mail address so I'll have a way to contact you if you're the winner. Good luck!

The winner of the kitchen towels is …

Dah! I believe I have your correct snail mail address, but if you'd confirm that by contacting me via the e-mail button at right, I'll get these cute towels headed your way. Congrats!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #3

I thought I had collected just about all the vintage tea-themed Valentines out there, but then this year I came across a couple I had never seen before, so perhaps we'll have another year or two of these Valentines after all. This is, I believe, the first one I've found that has glitter on it. (It almost makes up for it being unsigned!) I love this cute little guy sitting atop a teacup with hearts and flowers floating around in it. Do you like the idea of flowers floating around in your tea?

I hope so, because this bright pink "Bloom" tea infuser is today's giveaway! If you'd like to be eligible to win it, just leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST tomorrow and you'll be entered. Good luck!

The winner of the journal is ...

Sandy M.! Sandy, I have your snail mail address so I'll get this journal sent your way right away. Congratulations!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #2

This vintage Valentine is so cute it has me whistling, especially with the steamy little tea kettle and that perky percolator!

The back of the card is signed "From Susan (Evenson)?" Is that close?

For today's giveaway, I'm offering a set of terrycloth kitchen towels just like ones I gave away last year. I don't think I've ever seen a towel design on sale for two years in a row, rarely for two months in a row, but lo and behold, Ross had these towels the other day just as they did last year. I decided the "Love You A Latte" towels qualify as tea-ish since they feature a teacup, and besides, we DO drink chai lattes sometimes! To be entered to win, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post by 7 a.m. EST tomorrow, making sure I have a way to get in touch with you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. U.S. entries only, please. Good luck!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #1

As longtime readers know, I love celebrating Valentine's Day each year, and I like to celebrate all week long here on the Tea With Friends blog by featuring some of my vintage tea-themed Valentines. This one features a little girl holding a tea kettle, and the card reads, "I'm all 'steamed up' over you … Valentine!"

The card was given "to Linda W. from Warren." When I see a card signed like this, I always wonder if Linda W. and Warren ever got together!

I also like to thank my readers by hosting a week of Valentine's giveaways here on the Tea With Friends blog, and today's giveaway is this pretty pink spiral-bound journal. Maybe you'd like to keep a diary while you enjoy a cup of tea, or maybe you'd like a new journal in which to record teas you've tried or tea rooms you've visited. If you're the winner, you can use it however you like. To be entered to win, just leave an "Enter me" type comment to this post by 7 a.m. EST tomorrow, making sure I have a way to get in touch with you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. U.S. entries only, please. Good luck!

Teatime Tale #6 - Shattered

Shattered

            There was always something about that boy that Ellen didn’t like.

            The day Sarah Grace came home with Josh, Ellen told her husband, “Ed, I’m worried about this one. Sarah Grace has a certain look on her face when she’s around him and when she talks about him. I’ve never seen that look before, and there’s something about that boy that doesn’t seem right.”

            Ed said, for the thousandth time, that she was imagining things. After what happened last week, he knew she had been right, but it was small comfort to her.

            Josh asked Sarah Grace to marry him last year on the Fourth of July, and she accepted. Their wedding was supposed to be a romantic, over-the-top, all-pink extravaganza set for Valentine’s Day, but Josh broke up with her the night of the Super Bowl. He sent her a text from Arizona and said being with his buddies made him realize he wasn’t ready for marriage. He was breaking it off, as he put it, “because I think it’s best for both of us.”

            Sarah Grace was understandably devastated. While a part of Ellen was glad her daughter wouldn’t be marrying any boy stupid enough to leave her, Ellen’s heart was breaking for her little girl.

            Sarah Grace was twenty-five and plenty old enough to be getting married, but to Ellen, her only child would always be her little girl. Ellen absolutely despised having to watch Sarah Grace live through the humiliation and hurt of a broken engagement.

            Her daughter returned to the classroom the Tuesday after the ballgame. Ellen knew Sarah Grace would teach her heart out to that class of third graders just as she always had, heartbreak or no heartbreak.

           

            Ellen still could not believe Josh broke up with Sarah Grace less than two weeks before their wedding.

            Ed continued to stew over all the money he’d lost, which Ellen thought was just like a man. He threatened, “I’m going to send Josh’s family a bill for the wedding dress, the caterer, the photographer …”

            “You’ll do no such thing,” Ellen said. “Consider it money well spent for getting that boy out of our lives.”

            Ed didn’t see it that way, but he hadn’t said any more about it.

            Ellen, however, kept thinking about Sarah Grace and how hard the past two days had been for her. It wasn't easy to call your best friend and seven other bridesmaids to tell them those three-hundred-dollar pink organza dresses would not be worn on February 14 after all. Ellen took care of as much of the unpleasantness as she could, but she quickly learned that some things simply couldn’t be undone. Wedding invitations couldn’t be unsent. Gifts of wedding china couldn’t be unopened. A photographer couldn’t be unbooked, but at least this one said his deposit could be applied to any future nuptials.

            Ellen knew that her aggravation was nothing compared to the heartbreak her daughter was living through. Sarah Grace had always been so tenderhearted, so trusting. Perhaps she’d been too trusting.

            And then came Josh the Jerk, as Ellen now called him.

            Once, he went to Washington, D.C., for a conference, and while there he bought Ellen a teacup at the Smithsonian. It was a nice Russian teacup with a floral design, but Josh apparently hadn’t noticed that she collected only vintage English teacups with roses on them. For Sarah Grace’s sake, Ellen displayed the teacup in the dining room with all the others, but the gaudy colors stuck out like a sore thumb.

            As Ellen turned the situation over in her mind that morning, she walked into the dining room, picked up that Russian cup and saucer, and decided to have a little fun. First, she found some old T.J. Maxx bags under a kitchen cabinet and rather unceremoniously dropped the cup and saucer inside one. Oops. Is that the sound of china banging together. Too bad!

            She walked out to the garage, home of Ed’s tools and her own pink-handled tool set. She opened the case. Good. Ed hadn’t swiped her hammer this time.

            Ellen didn’t want any of the neighbors watching what she was about to do, so she walked around back to the patio. The concrete patio.

            And oops again—What a klutz I am this morning!—she dropped the bag containing the teacup and saucer right onto the concrete.

            Gripping her hammer, Ellen bent over and started beating the daylights out of that teacup. She didn’t normally have a violent nature, or at least she didn’t think she did, yet she wielded that hammer like a crazy woman. And she enjoyed every minute of it.

            A hammer, it turned out, was a dandy tool for smashing teacups.

            “This,” she said, quietly and firmly, “is for breaking up with my little girl.”

            Wham.

            “And this,” she said, “is for doing it in a lousy text message!”

            Wham!

            “And THIS,” she said, “is just because I never liked you anyway, loser!”

            WHAM!

            She hammered the teacup again and again, stopping only when the bag split and shards of china began to spill out. Ellen briefly had the thought that she could use them for a mosaic project, but she decided she didn’t want anything that reminded her of Josh in the house and took them to the trash can in the garage.

            That afternoon, Sarah Grace dropped by to report on her day at school. She entered through the garage, and Ellen had to compose her face when her daughter held up a shard of china and asked if it came from the teacup Josh had given her.

            “Yes,” Ellen said. “It got broken, and I had to throw it away.”

            “Oh.” Sarah Grace fingered the remnant of the teacup and tossed it in the kitchen trash. “Good. I’m glad it got broken.”

            Ellen relaxed for the first time all day. “Me, too, honey. Me, too.”

Pickwick's Mango Tea

Thanks to tea friend Donna in California, I received a lovely package of treats in the mail this week that included this box of Pickwick's Mango Tea. Searching through my old posts, I found no mention of "Pickwick" anywhere, so I can only assume this is the first time I've had the opportunity to try this brand of tea from Holland!

And while you don't often see this, I *love* tea boxes that have a hinged lid! It's by no means a necessity for my tea-drinking enjoyment, but it's a nice little plus when I find one made this way.

The teabags are individually wrapped, too, which is another feature I like. (These have the bonus of being pretty, which means they may find themselves in a future teabag-wrapper decoupage project.) So how was the tea? I'm happy to report it was a delightfully fruity mango tea! I'm a huge fan of mango flavor anyway, but some mango teas are extra mango-ish, and this one falls into that category. Thanks, Donna, for a fun new teatime flavor!

2015 Flea Market Gardens magazine

I have been reading Flea Market Gardens magazine ever since the first issue came out in 2011. I usually saw it on the newsstands each January, and when my repeated checks at the newsstands this January never turned up a copy, I was sorely disappointed, assuming the magazine was no more. Then, I found the new issue at Kroger this week and was so happy, especially because this issue has more "tea and gardening" ideas than ever.

This is the spread featuring the cover story on building a garden shed in a weekend. Did you notice the teapot and teacup garden stakes on the cover photo, at right in this spread? I've got some teacup garden stakes, but I've never seen a teapot garden stake, and I love having the two next to one another.

Assuming my hens and chicks are still alive (I haven't checked lately), I think I will plant some of them in a tiny teapot like this one.

And when fresh flowers bloom, I can't imagine what could be lovelier than displaying them in teawares. There are lots of other great ideas in this issue (they used vintage tablecloths for chair covers, for one thing!), and even if you're not a gardener, I can guarantee you'll find some decorating ideas to love in this pretty garden magazine.

Catching up on "Christmas" with a tea friend!

Holidays are very fluid things around here. I celebrate Valentine's "Day" pretty much all of February, and last week I was celebrating Christmas with my fellow tea lover Maureen of the Tea and Talk blog. We had talked about getting together at Christmas, but with my crazy schedule at the end of the year I just wasn't able to make it happen. And we're also hindered by the fact all the tea rooms near us have closed, so we simply agreed to meet at Olive Garden! We had a great lunch, and I was so tickled when Maureen handed me a pretty toile bag of Christmas goodies containing a book, bookmarks, a teapot drip catcher, and some Scottish Breakfast tea, all in a lovely Christmas box!

"The Simple Joys of Life" is a great little devotional type book full of Bible verses and inspirational quotes. I like this one by Lucy Maud Montgomery: "Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we knew all about everything." Isn't that true! It also wouldn't be so interesting if I had tried all the tea in the world, and since I have not, I was more than happy to try this Scottish Breakfast tea from Earth Teaze. It was a nice brisk breakfast blend, and I've been drinking it like crazy ever since Maureen gave it to me!

And of course I was thrilled to find the best gift of all, this gorgeous card that is cross-stitched for some of Maureen's lucky friends each Christmas by her husband, Don. Maureen and I had a great time catching up (yes, even at a non-tea place like Olive Garden), and we capped off our day with a fun visit to the HomeGoods and Marshalls stores across the street!

A Lavender & White Tea Gift Set

I don't often splurge on bath products for myself, but when I came across this set on the clearance rack at Marshalls last week for just $8, I decided to indulge. Why?

Well, I genuinely needed some new bath products, for one thing, but also because this gift set was marked "Lavender & White Tea."

Now I've had this happen enough times that I should've known better, but I got home and realized that none of the ingredient panels actually list camellia sinensis as an ingredient. (Insert *sigh* here.) And yet, I've learned that white tea is sometimes included among the fragrance ingredients, so that's a possibility I suppose. At any rate, the light lavender scent is quite pleasing, and considering I got a cute metal container, a shower puff, body wash, hand and body lotion, and body scrub for just $1.60 per item, I don't guess I can complain!

The "Tea Pleasures" magazine giveaway winner is …

Erin! Erin left her "Enter me, too, please!" comment on Saturday at 4:22 p.m. EST. So Erin, if you'll send me your snail mail address via the e-mail button at right, I'll get this headed your way. Congrats!

A Valentine's vignette

Last year I didn't meet my goal of creating a new vignette on the tea trolley each month, but this year, I'm happy to report, I'm 2 for 2! Of course my love for Valentine's Day is one reason it's so fun (and easy) to pull together a pink and red vignette each year.

I don't normally display matching teacups on one of my teacup stands, but this time it struck me as right.

I bought the teacups last year (at Ross) because they matched this teapot, a Valentine's gift from my late mother one year. My mom poured her heart into her family throughout her whole life, but it's nice to be reminded that she once gave me the other kind of hearts at Valentine's, too.

And speaking of my mom, I'm wondering if it was she who gave me this tablecloth. I came across it in the linen closet over the weekend, and I honestly don't remember ever buying it. One year my mother gave me a big pile of vintage linens as part of my Christmas gift, and I'm thinking that perhaps this was in that stash. At any rate, I thought the white on white embroidery was so pretty and well-suited for a Valentine's display.

I love to pull out my vintage Valentines each February. Why, oh why, can't they make pretty honeycomb Valentines like these today? (They're called honeycomb because of the honeycomb-like design of the folded tissue, by the way.)

Here's an old tea kettle Valentine I found in a tiny little antique store years ago.

This porcelain rose seemed a good fit for Valentine's decor as well. Local folks will remember when The Alamo, an old theatre in Newnan, was converted to a wonderful gift shop many years ago. I bought this at The Alamo back then and, knock on wood, have managed to keep it intact. Even the thin green stem is porcelain, but it must be sturdy because it has survived a move and numerous changes in decor!

Here's another rose, this one a Fitz and Floyd sugar bowl that matches a teapot I have. (I don't yet own the creamer. If you ever see one, holler!)

This old rose picture is another piece I found at an antique store years ago. For some reason, I love that it is weathered and water-stained in one corner. Isn't that a crazy reason to like something?

So that's how I said hello to February. Will you be doing any Valentine's decorating at your house?

Teatime Tale #5 — Outbid!

Outbid!

         Laura told herself not to get her hopes up.

         She had wanted one of those lovely old-fashioned tablecloths for years. She had never learned to crochet as both of her sisters had, so instead she prowled flea markets, yard sales, and eBay looking for pretty old linens since she didn’t know how to make them herself.

         A few years ago, she was searching eBay when she’d come across the prettiest tablecloth ever. Pristine white and made of fine linen, the cloth was an elegant square trimmed in a filet crochet edging that depicted a teapot, teacups, and sugar and creamer. In mint condition, it was the prettiest teatime tablecloth Laura had ever seen. Unfortunately, the eBay buyers thought so too and got into a bidding war over it. The price ultimately shot up to more than a hundred dollars, so Laura didn’t win it. Ever since, she’d watched eBay looking for a similar tablecloth.

         A week ago, Laura got an alert from eBay in her morning e-mail noting that another of those beautiful tablecloths had just been listed. She was thrilled. This time, she was not going to let the tablecloth get away. Still, she knew she needed to exercise caution.

         “Just because that pretty tablecloth showed up on eBay doesn’t mean it’s mine,” she told herself. “Every tea lover out there seems to want one of these. Sure, it’s got the filet crochet edging of teapots and teawares that I’ve been trying to find for years, but that still doesn’t mean it’s mine. I won’t get too attached to it until I win the bid.”

         Laura had often wondered why she was so attracted to old linens. Maybe it was because they were vintage. Maybe it was because of the delicate needlework. Maybe it was because she liked to imagine the woman who once made the piece. And maybe it was a bit of all of that.

         Laura had been watching the tablecloth auction on eBay for a solid week, and no one had even placed an opening bid of $19.99. In her mind, it was already “her” tablecloth, and she had a hunch the bidding would turn out differently this time.

         The auction went off at 3:16 p.m. on Friday, and by 2:16 that afternoon she was in the living room staring at the laptop screen in front of her. Watching. Waiting. She couldn’t wait to win “her” tablecloth.

         At a quarter till three there were still no bids. Then, at 3:01, they started to appear. First came the $19.99 bid. Then the price of the tablecloth quickly shot up to $25.99, then $27.99, and $29.99. Soon, the bid was $44.99, and then $57.99. Laura did not like the turn the bidding had taken.

         The bidding was already at $86.99, and there were 13 minutes left in the auction. When the bid got up to $101.99 with 10 minutes left, Laura closed her laptop, sighed, and went into the kitchen where she made herself a cup of plum-flavored tea. Clearly, she wasn’t meant to have this tablecloth.

         It had been two years since she last saw one of these gorgeous cloths listed on eBay. At this rate, it could be another two years before one even came up for auction again. Maybe she just needed to learn how to crochet and make her own tablecloth with the fancy crocheted edging.

         But no, that would never work. She didn't like to stay indoors very long, and once gardening season arrived, she would be outside separating the irises and pruning the rose bushes. It was time to forget the tablecloth and move on.

         The next morning, Laura decided to stop by her Aunt Carolyn’s house before going grocery shopping.

         “Hey, hon,” Carolyn said. “Come on in and have a cup of tea.” Her aunt could always be counted on to offer a cup of tea.

         Laura headed into her aunt’s kitchen to turn on the stovetop tea kettle, and her aunt walked up behind her and handed her a wadded-up Walmart bag.

         “What’s this?”

         “Just something I found at a yard sale yesterday. Looked like the kind of old linens you like,” she said, heading back to the living room.

         While Laura waited for the water to boil, she looked in the bag and couldn’t believe what she saw.

         “Aunt Carolyn!” she called in the direction of the living room. “Where did you find this?”

         “Got it at that yard sale off First Street yesterday,” she said. “Why? Don’t you like it?”

         Laura unfolded the pristine white square of fine linen and studied the immaculately crocheted edging of a teapot, teacups, and sugar and creamer.

         “Oh no, I absolutely love it,” Laura said. “Truly, I love it.”

         “Good,” Carolyn said. “I paid three dollars for it. You don’t think that’s too much, do you?”

         “Oh no,” Laura called back. “I don’t think that’s too much at all.”

         “Glad to hear it,” Carolyn said. “I figured if nothing else, you could sell it on eBay and get a few dollars for it. I hear people pay outrageous prices for some of that junk on there.”

            “So I hear, Aunt Carolyn,” Laura said, still fingering the beautiful, lacy edging. “So I hear.”

January giveaway: Tea Pleasures magazine

Goodness, I almost let January slip by without offering a giveaway! Now I should have done this one earlier because I know many of you already have a copy, but if you don't, I'd love to give one of you a copy of this new special issue from Victoria Classics, Tea Pleasures.

If you'd like to be entered to win, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post between now and 7 a.m. Monday, February 2. (U.S. and Canada only, please.) Good luck!

A fun puerh tea tasting courtesy of Teavivre

Puerh, I’ll admit, is a tea that’s not to everyone’s liking, but I enjoy it. It’s got an unmistakably earthy taste that is quite different from the girly, frou-frou flavored teas I normally enjoy. This tea is produced in Yunnan, China, and after production the leaves go through a fermentation process and are often made into “cakes” of tea. As you can see here, this sample of puerh tea was originally part of a cake.

I recently received a package of puerh samples from Teavivre, and I was intrigued to note on the packet that some of the samples arrived “raw,” in cake form, and some are in pyramid tea bags.

The first sample I tried was the cake form on the left, Menghai Golden Buds Tribute Ripened Puerh Cake 2009. The package said to brew it at 212 degrees for 3-10 minutes, and I opted for the 3 minutes. I loved the extra earthy taste of this puerh. I like the flavor of puerh anyway, but this one had a richness to it that I especially enjoyed. Later, I tried the pyramid tea bag containing Ripened Loose Puerh, and I noted it said to steep it at 212 degrees for 9 to 12 minutes. Okay, I thought. We'll see … But you know, after 9 minutes I had a tea that looked as dark as coffee and another great, earthy tasting puerh, not oversteeped and not bitter at all. I still consider myself quite a puerh novice and haven't yet developed my palate enough to call these teas anything but "earthy," but I do recommend trying any tea at least once. These teas are very different from my usual flavored teas, but it's nice to shake things up once in a while, and I'm grateful Teavivre allows me to do just that!

Got an extra $26 million lying around?

I was looking up some interior design articles online when I happened upon a real estate listing in Washington state that caught my eye. It was for this $26.8 million home on Mercer Island, Washington. It's huge and gorgeous, naturally, but what most intrigued me was the next to the last line in the description: "Scone and tea room by the putting green." Now that's a luxury I could live with!

If you click here you can see the gallery of photos, but unfortunately the individual photos are not labeled. Now I am quite eager to know which one is the scone and tea room. It's the one "by the putting green," but I see lots of photos that I suppose could be by a putting green. (Any golfers reading today?) I'm guessing it's one of those pretty white rooms, but I don't see teawares or tea-themed art in any of the rooms to help me out here. Your thoughts?

Please let me know if you figure it out. Or if you decide to buy the house!