Previewing the Christmas magazines

Yes, it's that time of year when all the Christmas magazines start appearing on the newsstands. Now I *have* to read them because that's where I get lots of ideas and inspiration for my job, so if you're not a magazine junkie yourself, I thought you might like to know which ones I find to be must-reads so far this year. My favorite, by far, is titled Food Gifts, one of the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications. Although it's one of those pricey $9.99 issues, I think it is worth every penny, and if I could buy just one new holiday issue for the year this would be it. Why? It is simply packed with useful, do-able and incredibly creative ideas for packaging gifts (food gifts, specifically, but the ideas could extend to other gifts as well). I love a fun package almost as much as the gift, so I am just bowled over by the ideas in this magazine. My favorite is an old parchment paper box that has been beautifully scrapbook-papered to serve as a presentation box for mini-muffins. Brilliant! Brown paper bags are given a creative treatment with papercrafting punches (I can do that!), and a casserole is given the royal treatment with a pretty holiday tea towel and twine. Love, love, love this magazine! And did I mention it has 150 recipes too? Wow!

And I had to share this one idea for tea lovers: fill an empty glass teapot with Apple Pie Spiced Hot Tea Mix (recipe included in the magazine) and tie with a miniature knit scarf. Wouldn't a tea lover be thrilled to get this for Christmas!

Several Christmas cookie/baking/recipe magazines are now out, but I haven't been impressed with any of them but this one. Christmas Cookies (another Better Homes and Gardens book) is $5.99 and has a scrumptious selection of cookies, with many unique recipes I haven't seen a hundred times before. There are recipes for cookies for those on special diets, and my favorite section features recipes made using lemon curd! This is a great cookie magazine if you're a cookie lover - or giver.

Although I read Southern Lady regularly, I haven't always purchased all their holiday issues. The new Southern Lady Holidays, however, is a beautiful issue and is packed with great decorating ideas and creative color palettes. In fact, I'd say it was the "color" that made me buy this magazine, especially the spreads featuring icy blues and bright magentas. If you're a "tablescape" lover, this is a magazine you won't want to miss. It sells for $7.99.

And finally, this cheery red teacup caught my eye on the cover of the new Holiday Bliss magazine from Victoria Classics ($7.99). The folks at Hoffman Media wisely figured out there are those of us who would love to see more photography from Toshi Otsuki and the other photographers from the early years of Victoria magazine. This issue revisits some of the wonderful old Christmas photos, so Victoria lovers will certainly want to add this to their collection of Victoria magazines.

If YOU have come across any wonderful Christmas issues, please share the titles with the rest of us!

A vintage muffin stand

It was years ago when I first saw a vintage muffin stand in use. A dear friend had invited me over for tea and used her muffin stand to provide more room for tea goodies which were within easy reach of our tea table. Then, I noticed these stands in use at The Tea Room in Savannah. Our server brought one out bearing cozy-covered teapots for me and a friend, and again I remember thinking how great it would be to have one of these lovely collapsible stands for use at teatime. I rarely saw them in antique stores, and when I did, they were typically marked $125 or more. I wanted one, but not badly enough to pony up that kind of cash!

In recent years, I've seen a couple more of these stands, which eBay describes as a muffin stand, pie stand (although the tiers are too small for pies!), cake stand (or "shelf") and even a "tea stand." Inevitably, I would be in an antique store and see a price tag of, say, $40 and get my hopes up, but alas that would be the price of the teapot or teacup on display, not the stand itself, which was going for the usual high price.

So this Saturday, when I was at an antique mall in Marietta, I brushed aside the tags attached to teawares on display and found that this muffin stand was indeed for sale and for just $19! I didn't have to think two seconds about that. I immediately asked a woman if she would place it behind the counter for me, absolutely delighted with this find! (This is what it looks like when folded for storage, although I will probably leave mine out all the time.)

It even has a wooden inlay and painted design, which I found just charming. A little furniture polish brightened it right up, and now I have a new teatime accessory which can display more teawares right now (yay!) and also be useful for serving guests the next time I have a tea. So if you want to look for one of these, I say this: don't give up, don't pay $125, and be patient!

It's "Tea for Two" time

Saturday morning I left early to go to my mom's house, because the last time I went I bypassed about a dozen wonderful looking yard sales and I wanted to have plenty of time to stop and shop! This trip, however, I saw only one yard sale, and it was a dud. So I had a little extra time that morning to stop at the antique mall in Carrollton where I found this vintage "Tea for Two" clock-shaped teapot!

I have two other teapots in this "Brown Betty" glaze color, but nothing whimsical like this one. I thought $10 was a fair price, and besides, this gave me some inspiration to create a tabletop with fall-hued items.

The back of the teapot is kind of fun, and I can't decide whether that's really supposed to look like a smiley face or simply to simulate the back workings of a clock. (What do you think? Both, maybe?) It's marked "Made in England" and "P&K" on the bottom, and I'm really pleased with this little find.

Another treasure was this little wooden tea canister ($4), which was part of a set but they were willing to sell it individually. I was pleased with that, because one can use just so many canisters - but never too many tea canisters! Tomorrow I'll have to tell you about my greatest find of the weekend, a teatime accessory I had been searching for literally for YEARS ...

Tea and Books Saturday #41: "Friendship Teas to Go"

Friendship Teas to Go
By Emilie Barnes
Harvest House, 2006

For some reason, a tea party for 4 or 40 is easier for me to plan than a tea for just one friend. Fellow tea bloggers, I've noted, are much more successful at planning smaller, more intimate tea parties than I am, but I just finished reading a helpful book that's inspired me to "think small," and it is Emilie Barnes' "Friendship Teas to Go: 12 Celebrations You Can Take Anywhere." The wonderful advice and recipes are accompanied by Susan Rios' beautiful paintings, so this would be a great book to give as well as to get!

I think what I've enjoyed most about Emilie Barnes' many tea books is that she has such a start-where-you-are mentality about teatime. If you've got cute paper plates and a Thermos bottle of tea, fine; if you want to pack up the fine china in a picnic basket, that's fine too! You never feel "unqualified" to follow her teatime ideas, and that is a lovely thing. What's also lovely are the thoughtful ways she manages to bring teatime into the lives of friends: a beach tea party with old high school friends, a fun bridal shower tea party to celebrate an upcoming wedding (I should have read this LAST week!), or a Neighbors Tea to meet the women in your neighborhood.

Teatime recipes are included for each of the 12 celebrations in the book, and Barnes also sprinkles it with ideas for decorating and gift-giving. Happily, her tips are quite practical and affordable. At a Christmas tea, for instance, I'd like to use her idea of having some cookie cutters tied with ribbon and allowing guests to choose one before they leave. It would be a sweet, inexpensive reminder of the tea — and something useful as well. My mind is now buzzing with ideas for a few friends who could use a small treat of teatime ... I just need to follow through!

Green Tea & Turkey Chili

There's something about the crisp, cooler air of fall that makes me ready to pull out my soup pot and keep it going all the time! This week I was in the mood to experiment with my old favorite chili recipe.

What if, instead of making chili with Lapsang Souchong as I've done in the past, I added some green tea to my chili instead? Hmm?

And to make it even healthier, what if I substituted ground turkey for ground beef? Why couldn't that work?

This was easy to make and oh so delicious — and it contains the goodness of green tea! I believe I just may start adding a little tea to all my soups!

Green Tea & Turkey Chili

1 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion, diced
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon chili powder (or to taste)
1 green bellpepper, diced
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (14.5-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup strongly steeped Harney and Sons Matsuda's Sencha (or other green tea)

Brown meat and add onion, garlic, spices and peppers. Cook until onions are translucent. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, then let chili simmer on the stovetop for 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Enjoy!

A new "Teashop Series" begins

Some years ago I decided to try my hand at writing an inspirational romance novel built around a heroine and a tea room. It was dreadful, and it is no doubt a good thing that this sad little effort never saw the light of day. Therefore it was with a mixture of both admiration and utter, consuming jealousy that I learned about Trish Perry's new release for Harvest House Publishers, "The Perfect Blend," Book One in her new Teashop Series. I must say it is perfectly delightful, and I'll eagerly look forward to reading other books in this terrific new series!

The heroine of "Perfect Blend" is one of the most accidentally charming characters I've come across in ages. Steph Vandergrift says goodbye to her life in Baltimore and heads to Virginia where she has decided to elope with her fiancé Rick, but she arrives in the small town only to find her man has stood her up and left town with no explanation. She's burned quite a few bridges back home and can't imagine going back, so she ends up crying on the steps of her (former) beau's law office wondering what to do with herself. Fortunately, a kind tea shop owner named Millicent crosses the street to rescue Steph and the story takes wing.

Steph is a bit of a bumbler, the sort of woman who sticks her foot in her mouth and can't quite seem to help stepping into trouble. I love that, because perfect women make me nervous! She decides she'll go ahead and stay in town for a few days at the inn which *had* been slated to serve as her honeymoon spot. Here, the handsome young innkeeper Kendall catches her eye even as she reasons she is in rebound mode and definitely doesn't need to be thinking about another man right now.

Her stay of a few days in this small Virginia town turns into a few weeks. She helps out at the tea shop, makes new friends who become roommates, and bungles her way through a few job tryouts. When she finally remembers she should have been asking God to guide her decisions about the future, things get even more complicated when her ex shows up asking for forgiveness. If you're like me, you'll be rooting for Steph all the way -- and wanting to hear more of her story! The book concludes with six recipes featured in the storyline, and it also has Discussion Questions that would make this a great choice for book groups to enjoy together.

Pink glass discoveries old and new

Now that I've jumped into collecting Depression Glass thanks to my new Tea Room pattern sugar and creamer (shown here), I've been looking for old pink glass everywhere, at home and abroad. After looking for a pink Depression Glass cup and saucer set I could afford, I found this Sharon/Cabbage Rose pattern set at a local antique shop the other day for just $8.99. I celebrated with a cup of a favorite tea, Harney's Cranberry Autumn blend. This tea says "fall" to me!

Aren't the roses on this pattern pretty? I didn't know this at the time I bought it, but this has long been one of my mom's favorite Depression Glass patterns as well. And I always associate this Cabbage Rose pattern with my friend Elizabeth in Arkansas (not the Elizabeth I wrote about earlier this week!). She started collecting it many years ago and had quite a few pieces. This Elizabeth is the mother of a friend of mine, and we share a love of antiques. I'll never forget the time she looked at me over her glasses and said, "Now Angela, when I'm gone, DON'T let Melissa sell this for a quarter apiece at some yard sale, OK?" (I assured her I would not.)


This pretty 10-1/2-inch plate is a piece I already owned, a Christmas gift from my parents a few years ago, and I didn't learn until recently that it is the Depression Glass pattern Old Colony/Lace Edged. I am still just stunned that the glass "lace" border is intact on a glassware pattern made from 1935-1938.

These two sherbet dishes are pieces I picked up at a junk shop near Mobile last summer. I wanted some cute dishes for serving fruit, and these footed ones were just $3. Turns out, these are Coronation pattern Depression Glass pieces, and one source says the name is because a coronation was going on in England when this line was first launched in 1936.


Another Christmas gift from my parents, this Tiara snack set is part of a set of 10 and features a small glass, not a teacup, set into the indentation on the oval plate. Interestingly, I think, Tiara calls this color "peach," but I call it pink. I can remember going to a Tiara home party with my mother back in the seventies -- and wish *those* parties were still going on today! This isn't Depression Glass, but it sure mixes well with my other pink pieces. I'm currently reading a book about collecting Depression Glass, so hopefully I'll learn lots more about this unique glassware very soon!

Let's play tea!

A friend who volunteers with the local foster parent association tells me the group has a huge need for children's toys this Christmas. I'm trying to start shopping now, so when my husband gave me his $10 coupon or "Kohl's cash" he earned for buying some new clothes at Kohl's recently, I used it to buy this sweet little Fisher-Price tea set. It was $23.99 on sale for $16.79, minus the $10 discount, so I got it with tax and all for just $7.27. Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

This set, designed for children 6-36 months, has a lot of bells and whistles and is educational as well as fun. Doesn't the teapot make you smile?

And what sweet little teacups!

I couldn't open it, of course, since it's destined for a child and not myself, but I did peer inside the teapot and was amused to find a "teabag" inside. So here's a challenge to all my fellow tea lovers, no matter where you live. What if as many of us as possible were to donate a tea-themed toy to a local charity this Christmas? Think of all those future tea lovers we could be indoctrinating blessing with these toys! I realize that in this economy not everyone will be able to make a donation, but I wanted to plant the seed just in case some of you feel led to help in your own community. I also learned from my volunteer friend that there is a real need for black baby dolls. They often get white dolls but want to give black dolls to the little girls who are black, which makes sense. So I have purposed to buy at least one black baby doll before Christmas as well. It really *is* more blessed to give than to receive!

A Bridal Tea for Elizabeth

My sweet friend and co-worker Elizabeth is getting married in less than two weeks, so to honor her the ladies of the newsroom (and a few alumni) gathered at my house on Saturday morning for a Bridal Tea in her honor, since the bride is indeed a fan of teatime!

Here she is looking over the tea table.

Our mini-scones were two flavors, Cranberry with Vanilla Icing and then Chocolate Chip. My friend Holly, who came early and saved the day by helping with food prep, made clotted cream to go with our scones. Her recipe: 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 3 ounces cream cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar, a pinch of salt. Yum!

Our savories included heart shaped Cucumber Sandwiches and ...

Salmon and Dill Cream Cheese Tarts. The recipe is from caterer, friend and fellow blogger Teresa of Southern Touch Catering and appeared in Newnan-Coweta Magazine last year. It couldn't have been any easier to make, and although I'd never piped a savory filling before, this was easy as pie. Or tart.

We also had Egg Olive Salad Sandwiches and Waldorf Chicken Salad on Mini Croissants.

Holly made these beautiful, old-fashioned Teacakes in heart shapes just for the tea. And she shared the recipe with me!

We also had Lemon Madeleines (proudly served in the vintage glass compote I bought for 25 cents at a church yard sale a few weeks ago).

And also these White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Balls. These were featured in an early issue of Tea Time Magazine and are sooooo delicious! And I'm afraid I got busy and failed to photograph the corner of the table featuring Holly's Sausage Balls (one of the bride's favorite savories), and also the Teapot and Teacup Design Shortbread and Chocolate Cherry Brownies. But that was the menu, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it!

This was our "tea station" where we served Emperor's Bride Tea (the favorite of many of us) and a caffeine-free Hot Apple Cider Tea, which was also a hit.

I decided to serve this tea "buffet style" since there were eight of us, too many to crowd around my small dining room table, and so it just made sense to use these tea-and-toast sets. These white ones in a moss rose design seemed perfect for a bridal tea.

Our friend Megan brought her daughter Neely, who will be a flower girl very soon. Isn't she adorable? Megan didn't tell Neely she was going to a tea party until the morning of the tea, and she said that as soon as she did Neely immediately turned off Sesame Street and was ready to go! I love that!

Many of you know I work at a magazine that is owned by our local daily newspaper. Well, our magazine's art director loaned me this "Wedding Cake" she once made to appear in a wedding-themed issue of the magazine. Isn't it amazing!

Here you can really tell that it's made from pages of the magazine and newspaper, and since Elizabeth writes for both that seemed like such an appropriate decoration!

And I forgot to get a picture of Liz opening it, but I thought you might like to see her gift from me, a filet crocheted piece bearing her new name. I love making these for special friends, and I was so happy she liked it. And now I can't wait for the wedding!

Tea and Books Saturday #40 - "The Book of Tea"

The Book of Tea
By John P. Beilenson
Peter Pauper Press, 1995

I must admit that the most charming thing about this book is its teacup shape, but even a cute 80-page book can surprise you. I don't believe I've ever heard that the first reference to tea was in a 5th century B.C. poem titled "The Lament of the Discarded Wife." (I certainly hope the tea made the "discarded wife" feel better.) And who knew that at early tea parties in the Netherlands, both sugar and *saffron* were added to the tea. How intriguing!

As a student of tea history, I was happy to see a brief reference to early tea growing efforts in this country when the author noted that C.U. Shepard, "working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, proved almost a century ago that high quality tea could be grown in the United States as well. His tea plantation in Summerville, South Carolina, was shut down, however, in 1916, after 20 years of subsidized production. Apparently, high labor costs made the operation too expensive to compete with Asian growers."

This book was a gift from a friend, and if I were to find other copies I think I'd buy them for gift-giving myself. It includes a brief history of tea in the U.S. and abroad, information on the different types of tea, instructions for making tea, a primer on teawares and accessories, and also a few teatime recipes. But mainly I like this book because, as a dear friend of mine likes to say, "It's just so stinkin' cute!"

Decorating with white

Tomorrow, some of my co-workers and I will be hosting a very special tea for one of our own who is very dear to us. This week I've been gathering some of the appropriate teawares we'll need, and I have often stopped to admire a few of the details in this particular color palette. Like white roses on the teapot.

White crocheted trim on a white tea-themed tablecloth.

White-on-white teacup embroidered napkins.

White pearlized handle flatware.

A white cakeplate, a mostly white tea trivet and a white doily. Can you guess the occasion for the tea we're having? If not, I hope you'll check back Monday to see how it all turned out!