Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 122

A tea party for … Rover?

I keep finding new-to-me tea-related images on the Library of Congress website, but this one (just half of a stereograph, interestingly enough) takes the cake! Copyright 1906, it's titled "Celebrating Rover's Recovery," and I'm not sure all those "Rovers" are having a good time at the tea party, but the little girls sure are.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

The Chai Spiced Vanilla mix goes to …

Donna Z.! And I've just sent her an email, so hopefully I'll have this on the way to Donna's home very shortly. Congrats!

A Teacup Quilt Along that's free!

I've been keeping an eye out for a small fall project to take along on a trip that I'll be enjoying soon, and my friend Joy spotted a link that she passed along to me at the absolute perfect time. The From My Carolina Home blog is hosting an Autumn Jubilee and Teacups Quilt Along, and I love that these patterns are going to remain on the blog and are free!
The first block is featured on page 57 of this Cups and Saucers book, which I realized I have owned for a while but have never used to actually stitch anything. And if you don't have the book but would like to stitch along, you can find the pattern through links on the blog post above.

I'm going to assemble a small baggie of fabrics and take this along on my trip. Surely, surely I can stitch one block a month. Would any of you like to join me?

October Giveaway: Chai Spiced Vanilla

For the October giveaway, I picked up this cute bag of Chai Spiced Vanilla at T.J. Maxx over the weekend. All you have to do is add hot milk, and I've had this type of chai before and enjoyed it when I wanted a hot beverage that was a little thicker than just regular tea. So I'm hoping that one of you will enjoy trying this treat as well!

If you'd like to win the the chai, simply leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Thursday, October 11, making sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!

Nurses at tea … a hundred years ago

"Nurses home, 11th. Street, New York City. Afternoon tea." That's all the identifying information I found with this photo from the Library of Congress website. I love so much about this photo, from the wicker chairs to the radiator in the background and the hat on the woman at center.
And this photo, a gift to the Library of Congress from the American National Red Cross, is from 1918, so I love the fact that we're looking at some of our kindred spirits from 100 years ago!

Herbal Essences Cucumber & Green Tea Shampoo and Conditioner

It's been a while since I've come across any new cosmetics with green tea as an ingredient, but while I was at Kroger over the weekend, I found this new (to me at least) Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner with cucumber and green tea. Since it said "sheer moisture," I was hopeful that the products would indeed moisturize my hair, which seems to have gotten a lot dryer as I've gotten older. I'm happy to say that the shampoo and conditioner not only smell great, with a pleasant floral scent, but they also work great and have left my hair shiny and much softer.
And as I've learned to do, I checked the ingredients list on both products to be sure they actually included some camellia sinensis, and they do! Have you tried this shampoo and conditioner? Or come across a new cosmetic with tea as an ingredient? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Stash Licorice Spice Tea

I haven't bought any Stash tea in a while, but I'd been thinking about it since their attractive new packaging has been catching my eye at the grocery store lately. And because Stash tea was on sale at Kroger over the weekend, that's the brand I tried.

The Licorice Spice herbal tea appealed to me. I like licorice in small doses. If we're together at Easter, I will gladly eat the black jelly beans for you. But I was a little nervous about trying this tea. If it suggested licorice, it would be great. But if it was purely liquid licorice, well … I wasn't so sure about that.


Now I'd be willing to bet at least half of my tea friends are firmly in the just-say-no-to-licorice camp, but for those who like the flavor of licorice, I have to tell you, this herbal tea was awesome! It's really just a spicy, peppery tea, and the warm flavor was exactly the pick-me-up treat I was looking for. It's also naturally sweet enough that it satisfied the sweets craving I was having, and with no sugar added. When I looked at the ingredients, I found that this tea contains licorice root*, cinnamon, orange peel, star anise, vanilla extract, sarsaparilla, orange oil, natural cinnamon flavor, clove bud oil, and cardamom oil. No wonder I found this tea so sweet! (And just as a caution, I should mention that the website notes, "Licorice root is not intended for use during pregnancy and while nursing, or if you have heart disease or high blood pressure.")

So satisfy my curiosity, friends. Licorice—yes or no?

Tea Lovers' Book Club: "A Literary Tea Party" by Alison Walsh

Summary: You have to love a cookbook that was inspired by a blogger (!) who was asked to turn her "Alison's Wonderland Recipes" blog into a book. And if you're a book geek as well as a tea lover, this charming cookbook is a must for your library.
My thoughts: The author has created recipes for teatime foods and beverages inspired by classic literature, including favorites like Anne of Green Gables and The Wizard of Oz and Little Women. For those who enjoy hosting themed tea parties, the author helpfully includes menus for entire themed teas, such as Alice's Mad Tea Party, Aslan's Feast (inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia), and Murder Most Delicious: A Detective Tea Party, which features recipes inspired by Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. As a writer, I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of the author's observations about food in books. She writes, "If we pay close attention, we'll notice that bread in books is rarely eaten alone. Instead, it is almost always shared, be it among family at a dinner table or fireside companions on a lonely trail." She also notes that desserts "are often connected to characters' emotions." How intriguing!
The judgment: This is such a clever idea for a cookbook, and I found quite a few recipes I want to try. The Blood Orange Scones (from "The Five Orange Pips" by Arthur Conan Doyle ) are going to be tempting once blood oranges are in season, and Arrietty's Mini Cherry Cakes (from The Borrowers by Mary Norton) are so elegant (and easy!) that I can already see these on my table at a Christmas tea.
For discussion:
• Do you hold themed teas? I have held seasonal teas and Royal Wedding teas but no themed teas. I'm thinking I need to consider a literary tea. (Possibly soon!)
• Do you find yourself thinking about the food in books? One time, I was reading a book that made some barbecue sound absolutely delicious. Now I'm not a big barbecue fan at all, but after reading about barbecue, I suddenly was eager to visit a local barbecue joint that night. Is it the power of suggestion? Or is it just that we're so easily influenced when we're hungry?
(Special thanks to NetGalley for the review copy of this book!)

Next Month's Book: The Harlequin Tea Set and other Stories by Agatha Christie

The new Tea Time! ornaments from Hallmark

Now that my local Hallmark store has closed and my nearest mall Hallmark store has closed, I find I'm missing the fun of going to the store to see the new Christmas ornament releases. But I did have the presence of mind to remember that I needed to get my order in early for the third release in the Tea Time! ornament series from Tracy Larsen. (Here are the
And happily, these adorable new Nutcracker teacup and teapot ornaments are now available on Hallmark.com and Amazon.com as well, so if I don't come across another Hallmark store soon, I can always go the online route. Maybe you too?
(Photos courtesy of Hallmark.com)

Now that autumn is here …

So Saturday was officially the first day of fall, but here in Georgia, it sure didn't feel like it. Do you know, the weather forecaster the other morning said that this year, we had more ninety-degree days in September than we did in August. I believe it! Still, knowing that it's officially fall gave me the go-ahead to start thinking about fall teas and tea wares. The other day, I happened to notice I had randomly stacked these three cranberry-colored teacup-and-saucer sets near each other in the tea cabinet. The one on the top was a recent find from Rome, Georgia, the one on the bottom was a souvenir from Rome, Italy, and the one in the middle came from eBay.

I've had this Pumpkin Ginger Tea from Republic of Tea on my mind for weeks now, but I didn't actually drink any until the weekend. By the way, do you all enjoy exploring all the new pumpkin-flavored treats each fall? I was in line at JoAnn on Saturday and noticed both Ghirardelli chocolate squares in a new pumpkin flavor as well as pumpkin spice piroulines, those cylindrical cream-filled wafer cookies that are so pretty on a dessert plate or embellishing a scoop of ice cream. But I'm waiting on a review from a friend (maybe one of you?) before I try those!


Even my reading tastes change in the fall, and I'm waiting till I detect that first nip in the air to crack open the most recent Jan Karon novel, the opening scene of which occurs on October 1. Do you pull out the fall tea wares at this time of year? Or have any tea or other rituals that you look forward to in the fall? I'd love to hear about them!