Cari's Birthday Tea!

My sweet niece Cari turns 13 tomorrow, and on Saturday we celebrated with a Birthday Tea at my mom's house!

In addition to the ladies in our family and her 4-year-old brother Matthew, Cari was joined by three girlfriends who decided to don formal gowns for the occasion.

My mom's formal dining room was the setting, and with one wall dedicated to Old Country Roses dishes, it has a nice "tea room" feel to it.

The decor included some of her collection of ladies head vases.

I love these—and Cari does, too. Incredibly enough, Cari as a very little girl convinced my mother to let her play with these vases, and we were astonished at how carefully she always played with them. She never hurt a single one of them!

I always love seeing how everything comes together!

Cari's favorite colors are pink and green, so we tried to include them in the decorating as much as possible, including with these Chicken Salads served in egg cups. (More about these tomorrow!)

Strawberry and Lime Macarons worked with our color palette, although my six-year-old niece Amelia told me they looked like "little hamburgers." And I guess she has a point!

Cari requested Red Velvet Cupcakes from her mom, my sister Rhonda, so she made them in cute floral cupcake papers.

And Daddy is the birthday cake baker in the family, so Cari's request this time was his famous Strawberry Cake. (And boy, is it good!)

Also on our menu: Olive Egg Salad Sandwiches and Cucumber Sandwiches cut into teapot shapes.

And Nut Bread Sandwiches.

The macarons were on a tiered server along with chocolate fudge bites.

Amelia wanted to play waitress, so she got to carry this tray of Cranberry and Double Chocolate Scones. (The pretty rose glass tray is something *my husband* picked up for me at a thrift store last week!)

Soon it was time to tackle the gift table, and Cari opened presents including a new purse and shoes, some Auburn goodies and that most welcome gift for a teenager, cash!

The girls enjoyed posing outdoors at my mom's, and when I packed and left after the party, the girls—still in formals—were flying around the property in my parents' golf cart! Tomorrow: A few behind-the-scenes tidbits about the tea!

Teatime Giveaway #15 - A new tea mug, teas and filters

The winner of the napkins from last week is Marilyn of the Heart Song blog in Colorado. Congrats, and if you'll send me your snail mail address via the e-mail button at right, I'll get these headed your way! This week, we have a fantastic goodie box courtesy of a generous friend who has donated everything you see here!

First, we have an elegant, handleless tea mug, perfect for sipping your favorite tea. I love the classy stripes on this piece!

The winner will get to try these boxes of Yamamotoyama Tea in Jasmine and Oolong flavors. I was given boxes of these too, and they are great! The jasmine tea has a very subtle jasmine flavor, not overly floral at all, and the oolong had that nice woodsy scent and taste I enjoy.

And when you decide to make loose tea, you'll have new filter bags in two sizes to help prepare your tea. Oh, and don't forget you'll also get to sample the tea flavored chocolates I wrote about yesterday! What a great gift, and I'm so pleased to be able to share it with you. (For this week's giveaway, U.S. entries only please.) To enter, just leave a comment between now and noon EST Friday, April 20. Good luck!

Sampling some tea-flavored chocolates!

A friend recently surprised me with a gift of some matcha-flavored chocolates, and I was so excited to open the box and find them!

I'd read about, but never actually sampled, green tea Kit Kat bars. Well, the new flavor from Nestle Japan is not just a chocolate bar with green tea on the inside. This one has a green tea flavored chocolate coating on the outside! (And boy, is it good, with a nice, lightly sweet and green tea taste.) With my treats came a fun article explaining that Kit Kats in Japanese are pronounced Kitto Katsu, which means "You will surely win," so parents and children in Japan buy Kit Kats on test days and game days!

I also received a package of the fun Matcha Latte flavor of Aero chocolates. The Aero candies are so named because if you let the aerated chocolates melt in your mouth, you can feel the bubbles melt!

I hope I never get too old to enjoy trying new candy, especially when it combines chocolate and tea! And guess what? I saved a couple of each to go in this week's Saturday giveaway, so be sure and check back tomorrow! My friend says if you want to try these yourself, look for an Asian market with a Japanese proprietor. I can promise you'll be glad you did!

Studio Oh! Mini Box of Recipes for Tea Time

Don't you just hate when you're out gift shopping for someone else and end up getting a gift for yourself as well? But, I ask you, who could possibly resist this adorable little Mini Box of Recipes with a Tea Time theme from Studio Oh? It had me at hello!

Inside the 4 x 3 x 2-1/2 inch box were 20 thoroughly delightful little recipe cards, unique in that they have pretty graphics on the front, then open to reveal such recipes as Green Tea Ice Cream, Thai Tea, Shortbread Bars and Jasmine Tea Cookies.

The designs are absolutely charming, and you can see another view of them in the last photo here. I got mine at a local gift shop, but I see they're on Amazon as well if you care to order a box as a gift—for yourself or someone else!

"Fancy Nancy Tea for Two"

I know I'm not the only one here who enjoys collecting children's books about teatime. Word came that a new one was out, Fancy Nancy Tea for Two, based on the creation of Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser. I found my copy of this one at the grocery store for just $3.99. Another children's book about teatime, Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson, was also illustrated by Glasser, and I very much enjoyed reading and looking at both of these books.

In Tea for Two, a little girl named Bree invites Nancy over to her house for tea. Bree has some very special teawares given to her by her aunt, and she is excited about using them at tea with Nancy. So Bree and her doll, Chiffon, are soon enjoying a lovely tea with Nancy and her doll, Marabelle. Nancy finds herself getting jealous for the opportunity to reach for the teapot and play hostess. "Then," as the book says, "something horrible happens." I won't give away the plotline here, but I'll bet you can guess what happens! There's definitely a nice lesson here about sharing and forgiveness.

How charming it was to see a little white girl and a little black girl enjoying tea together in this book. My friend who spearheads the Christmas toy collection effort for local foster children has opened my eyes to the very real need for black baby dolls, and I found myself pleased to see the white and black dolls and their respective mommies in the book. That's when it occurred to me this would be a great book for me to give away this Christmas—along with dolls in various pretty colors. As we all know, there's not a little girl out there who couldn't learn to love teatime!

Lipton Harvest Strawberry & Passion Fruit Tea

So, I'd been meaning to audition some strawberry tea since my niece Cari has requested that (along with green tea) be served for her upcoming Birthday Tea. The first one that caught my eye at the grocery store the other day was some Harvest Strawberry & Passion Fruit Tea from Lipton.

Now I've been so busy drinking up the Lipton teas the company was kind enough to send me last fall, I have not had to buy any tea for a long while. So I was rather shocked, really, to find that this box of Lipton's lovely pyramid tea bags was just $1.99. Wow! And how did the tea taste?

I'm happy to report that the tea did indeed have a nice, gently sweet berry taste. I was even able to steep the teabags twice, and I'm still just astonished at the great (and everyday) price I found on these pyramid tea bags. I've heard tea described as a "cheap luxury," and this $1.99 treat certainly fits that description!

First estate sale of the season

Last Wednesday I went to my first local estate sale of the season, and the preview photos online told me there were lots of things I'd be interested in: garden accessories, linens, china, glass, silver. I don't like to go when the initial rush of shoppers arrives at 9 a.m., so I waited 'til my lunch hour and headed out. Of course you take a risk that way, but sure enough some of the very items I'd been hoping for were still there!

My favorite item was this 3-inch tall ruffled glass vase. I'm trying to root African violets in the kitchen window, and I'd been meaning to get to the dollar store in search of a small glass vase to root the leaves in. This little number is even better, and the price was right!

The item I was most surprised to find still there was this Royal Winton dish in the Old Cottage Chintz pattern. The tiny handles are so fragile, I'm rather at a loss for what this piece actually is. A candy dish, maybe?

And yippee, lemon forks! (Well, I've learned they are really seafood forks but I'm using them as lemon forks because they're so pretty!) I'd been wanting some of these, and a hasty polish of one of them proved these will clean up right nicely. I plan to use these for serving lemon slices at my niece Cari's big Birthday Tea coming up this weekend. Can't wait!

Finally, I couldn't resist these old cookbooks. The green one is from the Montrose Garden Club in Montrose, Ala., and the well-loved one on the right is from a beloved downtown church. I recognized many of the family names I found in this one and enjoyed seeing ads from local businesses of yesteryear. Are estate sales popular where you live? If so, what's your advice for shopping at estate sales?

Teatime Giveaway #14 - Set of 4 Sweet Violets napkins

The winner of the macarons book is Lelo. Congratulations! If you'll send me your mailing address, I'll get this book headed your way. (Italy, right?) And this week I realized I haven't yet given away any teatime linens, so I'm offering this set of four 19-inch cotton napkins in the Sweet Violets pattern from Waverly.

The napkins are a yard sale find, old but in new-with-tags condition. Want these for your springtime tea table? Just leave a comment by Friday, April 13, at noon EST. Good luck, and Happy Easter weekend!

Easter Greetings

Hope you can see the words "Easter Greetings" in the upper right corner of this vintage postcard, because that's what I want to send your way as many of us prepare to celebrate this weekend. Happy Easter, friends!

Some cute new teatime stationery

Because I don't visit Michaels on any sort of a regular basis, only when I need something, I was happy to get a shopping alert from Janet in Texas. Michaels has new notecards! New memo pads!

I had precisely 7 minutes to get in and out before meeting a friend for lunch, so I'm not at all sure I grabbed *all* the tea-themed designs, but I am sure I love the ones I got!

Alas, Michaels' "dollar bins" are now their "dollar-and-a-half bins," but at $1.50 these designs are still quite affordable. I just don't buy 10 at once anymore! I go through tea-themed cards like crazy, and if you do as well, you may want to look for these goodies.

Taught & Toned with TimeBalm & Tea!

Are you loyal to your skin care line? I generally prefer Clinique, but every now and again I see a new skin care product that turns my head. In this case it was TimeBalm's "Taught & Toned" set made for normal to dry skin and containing white tea, a set I found at T.J. Maxx for just $14.99, significantly less than the price of any individual product at retail! (Go here if you want to learn more about the TimeBalm skincare line.)

The Rose Face Cleanser comes in a nice pump bottle and dispenses just the right amount of product. I liked the clean, fresh scent (not overly floral) and the way it made my face feel after cleansing.

I was equally pleased with the two moisturizing creams, the Cranberry Invigorating Eye Cream (and I don't really fool with eye creams all that often) and the Apricot Skin Renewal Cream, which I use at bedtime. I've been enjoying these new products, especially knowing they are a) all made with camellia sinensis leaf extract and b) bargain-priced!

And in only semi-related news, T.J. Maxx also has these cute terrycloth dish towels for $1.99. Just thought you'd like to know!

Numi's new flavored puerh teas

The folks at Numi Organic Tea asked if I'd like to sample some of their new flavored puerhs, and of course I said yes. My observation is that tea drinkers either love or hate the rich, earthy flavor of puerhs, and I happen to fall into the "love" category.

Here's what Numi says about puerhs: "Puerh is an ancient healing tea picked from 500-year-old organic wild tea trees in Yunnan, China. Unlike traditional teas, Puerh undergoes a unique 60-day fermentation process resulting in a bold flavor with hints of malt and an abundance of healthy antioxidants. Puerh can be compressed into bricks and aged, like fine wine, for months, years or even decades. This increases its value, health benefits and premium taste. In addition, studies in China and France show that Puerh can also reduce cholesterol, improve digestion and metabolism, and can aid and support healthy weight loss." The five flavors are Jasmine, Coconut, Cardamom, Ginger and Basil Mint.

I couldn't imagine that jasmine flavor would even register in a puerh tea, but to my amazement it did, and it was great! I enjoy jasmine tea anyway, and it was nice to think I was also getting the benefits from the puerh tea.

The coconut puerh was pretty good, but I didn't get a nice opening whiff of coconut as I'd hoped for. The flavor, however, was spot on, and I enjoyed it very much.

Basil Mint sounded like a most interesting flavor combination in a tea, and I am here to tell you it is divine! The scent and taste of these herbs instantly recalled past visits to an old plantation home's herb shoppe that used to operate here in my town. I really felt like I was *sipping* the aroma of a good old-fashioned herb emporium, and this happy flavor brought back many wonderful memories. I still have two more puerhs I'll sample later on, and I fully expect I'll enjoy the rest of these great new teas from Numi. Readers, do you drink puerhs? Let me know and if so, I'll include some samples of all these teas in this Saturday's giveaway!