Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 35

Trip to Wisconsin, Part 2 (The Rose Report)

One more post and I'll stop prattling on about last week's trip to Wisconsin, I promise, but I just wanted to share photos of some of the roses (real ones and breakable ones) that I spotted on this visit. These were in the lawn next door to my stepdaughter's house, and when I asked if I could take photos, the couple who live there were so friendly and welcoming. I realized years ago that I absolutely love Midwesterners!

The lady of the house loves flowers, and when I saw her husband outside working in the garage and asked to take a few photos on that windy day (I didn't want him to think I was a stalker or something weird), he told me his wife would be thrilled that I admired her flowers so much. That was a win for both of us!

The banner on their lawn looked so inviting that I had suspected I would indeed get to snap a few photos.

The other roses I came across were at the thrift store in Green Bay, and sadly, I just didn't feel I could safely take them all home with me (or burden others with the task!). I left this pretty rose plate …

And this elegant and heavy-as-led glass platter etched with roses.

But at least I did get the pretty tray with the lavender roses that I shared here earlier this week, which will be coming to me in Newnan when our family heads our way at Thanksgiving. Roses always make me happy, and it was so fun to spot some new ones this fall! 

Highlights of a trip to Wisconsin!

Alex and I love to visit Green Bay in the fall, and this time, we were also there to attend grandson Michael's thirteenth (!) birthday party and to catch up with him and Andrew. We love our "Badger Boys" and were so grateful to get to spend some time with them and their parents, Heather and Brad.

This time, I was quite impressed by so many gorgeous flowers that were still displaying their lovely, bright colors. As I told a neighbor of my stepdaughter, Heather, by August, the flowers in Georgia are done, and so are we.

But oh, these dahlias!

And zinnias!

Alex and I both love seeing the beautiful colors of their fall leaves.

And y'all will swear that I forced him to take me to the big St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Green Bay, but it was actually *his* idea! Here, he's checking some prices for me while I'm in a very long line.

If we'd been in the car instead of flying, I would have definitely bought this Lefton China Christmas tea set. The price tag said $69 for all of it!

Instead, I got a few small things that Heather and Brad will bring down (by car) at Thanksgiving, including a $2.13 fallish-looking teapot (it's unmarked, and I suspect it's very old and very English).

I got five charming little cordial glasses (79 cents each) to use for jam and/or cream at teatime.

And I can't resist a $3.57 handled tray with lavender roses. (I got a few unbreakable vintage Christmas items, too, and those went in my suitcase.)

It was a fun trip made extra enjoyable by all the pretty scenery like these leaves and berries, and when we got back to Georgia, it felt more like fall here too!

More teacup ornaments to look for

So I've been stalking Walmart in search of  they are selling this year. This is week two of going to Walmart on the weekend, and I still haven't spotted them, but I did come across two new cup/mug ornaments, and these $1.98 treats were a nice consolation prize after not finding the Santa mug ornaments. (I'm sure I will find them. I just haven't visited enough Walmarts yet, and worst-case scenario, I will order them if they don't show up soon.)

My favorite was actually this "Let It Snow" mug. There's so much detail on the top of what I'm quite convinced is some sort of fancy peppermint tea latte!

And this gingerbread man perched on a red teacup is pretty cute too. I don't recall ever finding tea-themed ornaments at Walmart before, and I've already bought four this year!

A new chintz tea mug with an old chintz pattern

One of my mugs somehow got chipped recently, so you know what that means: I could legitimately say that I *needed* a new one! And I had some money left on a birthday gift card to T.J. Maxx, so when I saw this Grace Teaware chintz mug for $4.99 the other day, I knew it was the one. I've loved chintz for years, and this pattern looked so familiar that I just knew it was a vintage pattern that had resurfaced!

I thought it was a Royal Winton pattern, possibly Summertime, but when I got home and googled that, nope, it wasn't Summertime. Turns out it is James Kent's DuBarry pattern. (The patterns aren't or weren't copyrighted, I guess? Anyone know?) I'd love to have a teacup and saucer in this pattern as well, so maybe the Grace Teaware folks will get to it!

And despite the mug's colorful summery-looking design, I decided I can happily sip from this mug as I enjoy a fall tea like this yummy Organic Cinnamon Rooibos Chai from Davids Tea!

Bigelow's Ginger Honey Tea

It turned cool this weekend, so I found myself reaching for spice-flavored teas that taste like fall. Then when I was at the grocery store, I spotted this Bigelow Ginger Honey Tea and thought that sounded good too.

Of all the spices that have appeared in teas I've tried over the years, ginger is probably my favorite. I like that almost peppery taste you get from ginger, and it's a bonus that ginger is known for so many health benefits, said to help with everything from nausea and PMS to lowering cholesterol and combatting motion sickness. I know all that, but I just like the taste, and this Ginger Honey Tea quickly became a new fall favorite!

An herbal tea, this blend contains ginger, rooibos, fennel, rosehips, zinc gluconate, pumpkin seeds, natural honey flavor, and natural honey granules. In addition to the ginger, the rooibos and honey flavors shine through as well, so this tea is right up my alley! Have any of you tried it?

'Tis the season … to start Christmas shopping!

I know, I know. It's barely October (Columbus Day, actually), and here I am talking about Christmas shopping. Well, there's a reason for that. If tea lovers are going to be first to grab all the tea doodads this Christmas, then they need to know about them, right? And all Christmas mugs are considered "tea mugs" in this house, so I wanted to send out an alert that these cute little plastic tea mug ornaments are just 98 cents at Walmart! I stopped by on Saturday and grabbed these two goodies to go on my tea-themed Christmas tree. I'm actually thinking of putting up two or maybe even three trees this year, so the more teacup ornies the better.

Some of the vintage-Christmas collectors I follow on Instagram have been talking about how the new vintage-style Santa Blow Molds are sold out (already!) at many Walmarts across the country. I've wanted one of these for years now but am too thrifty to pay the hundred (or more) dollars they easily command. This two-foot-tall Santa Blow Mold is just $34, and I was thrilled to nab one of the only two on display at Peachtree City's Walmart. A collection begins!

I kind of wish so many people didn't like vintage Christmas decor, because then I would have an easier time finding it. At any rate, vintage-looking things help me create the look I want, and this $1.98 metal ornament was perfect.

My final Christmasy find on Saturday was this 16-inch melamine tray from T.J. Maxx. I will probably save it for display, not for food use, as I think the vintage Santa design is so cute, and I love that the crimping around the edge makes it look like a giant paper plate. This was a fun $6.99 find. So please know that I am fully here for October, but if you want cute new (or old) things for Christmas, now is the time to think about getting them!

A luncheon for the LEOs

For several years now, I have been a volunteer at my community's Public Safety Appreciation Luncheon. We prepare and serve a hot meal to several hundred of our local law enforcement officers (LEOs), and local citizens donate dozens of homemade desserts that fill table after table in the dining hall at our local fairgrounds. Here I am at yesterday's 25th annual luncheon, where I served alongside friends Pat, Ruth Ann, and Lisa, among many others.

My friend Norma is the ringleader of this event. She's in her eighties and can run circles around the rest of us. She's considered "The Mother of Public Safety" in Coweta County, and several years ago, the local LEOs all contributed one of their official patches so that it could be sewn onto a special apron that she proudly (and I mean proudly!) wears at the luncheon each year.

The meal is always a hit, and this year's menu featured pork loin, mashed potatoes, green beans, squash casserole, macaroni and cheese, and rolls.

The beverage? Tea, of course! (And it's good too. I always go for the sweet tea here because it is so good.)

It is always fun to see which desserts are a hit each year. Last year, lemon desserts were really popular. This year, the most-requested dessert seemed to be pecan pie, and we had whole pies …

As well as some individual ones too! My contribution, which I forgot to photograph, was a Heath Bar poke cake (the kind where you poke holes into a devil's food sheet cake and fill it with sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping before covering it with Cool Whip and Heath Bar bits). I was absolutely delighted when one woman came and asked for a piece of it "because I heard this was so good." Music to my ears!

Many of the officers like to browse all the offerings before making a decision. One rather robust-looking gentleman surprise his buddy by getting just a tiny spoonful of banana pudding. "What are you doing?" asked the man. The big guy responded, "I'm pacing myself." Ha!

Someone had packaged individual banana puddings in cute little plastic cups with "Thank you" stickers on top. What a nice touch!

We always encourage everyone to get more than one dessert, and when one man couldn't decide on a treat, I told him to get a piece of pound cake to take back to the office for his afternoon tea, which he seemed to think was really funny. (If he only knew that I was serious!) I truly believe this annual luncheon is a great idea, and I'd love to see other communities across the country do something like this too!

An insurance commercial targeting … us!

I am not one to mention a lot of commercials on this blog, but I was quite amused the other night when I saw this Allstate commercial featuring a tea lover, and I thought that you might like to see it too! I asked my husband, "Have you ever seen this commercial before?" He watches more TV than I do, and he said, "Oh yeah, several times."
Well, I hadn't, and in case you hadn't either … enjoy! (I should bill Allstate for the free airtime.)

Spilling the tea on "spill the tea"

You know how you get a new car and then suddenly, you see that same car everywhere you go? New words are like that too. And earlier this year, while editing a book for a British client, I came across a sentence about someone "spilling the tea." From the context, I knew that the phrase was not, in fact, about sloshing tea all over the place but rather about gossiping. Kind of a fun phrase, right? Soon after that, I saw a blog post titled "Spilling the Tea," and before I knew it, "spill the tea" was popping up everywhere. This weekend, I was at Hobby Lobby when I saw the phrase on a mug, which of course I had to get (and I used it to celebrate my first cup of The Official Fall Tea of Tea With Friends, Cranberry Autumn by Harney & Sons).

But let's talk about this mug. A) I did not know this mug existed at Hobby Lobby and cannot believe someone didn't tell me about it! B) I'm kind of glad I didn't know the mug existed, because it was on clearance, originally $9.99 and marked down to $2.49. I would have bought this mug even if it weren't on sale, so I'm lucky I nabbed the last one in Carrollton when it was 75 percent off!

And the pretty graphics are on the back side as well, which isn't always the case with mugs like this. But today I'm curious: Have you all heard the phrase "spill the tea" before? If so, do you remember where you first heard it? Unique words and phrases have long fascinated me, and that goes double for "spill the tea."

A scrap of tea history

Last year, I got interested in learning to make junk journals, a new crafting trend in which you take old paper and fabric scraps, stickers, lace, and all kinds of tidbits and turn them into journals. Have I actually completed one? Well, no, but I have several in progress.

So when I came across a whole big packet of vintage junk journal supplies at an antique mall, I was thrilled to get it!

But when I started poring over it, I found a few things that I just couldn't bear to cut up, like this item on "high tea." It says, "Several hot dishes are served at a high tea. A hot supper and a high tea are almost the same thing. The supper may, of course, consist of a greater variety of substantials, and all sorts of water ices and ice creams may be served, also frappé." While I have given up on trying to persuade the world that "high tea" and "afternoon tea" aren't the same thing, that the former is a lowbrow meal and the latter is the fancy one, I still felt rather relieved when I realized this information required clarification even back in the late 1800s.

This page was from an old issue of the  Ladies' Home Journal. It's undated, but one of the items on the back notes that "the year 1900 will not be a leap year," so I'm assuming the publication is from 1899.

I also found an old sheet of recipes that I decided I will not be cutting up. Fudge Squares made with Bisquick? I'll be trying that between now and Christmas.

And one of the most inspiring finds of the whole packet was this tiny little 2 x 5-inch sheet torn out of the pocket notebook of some old saint of yesteryear. I was so inspired by his or her commitment to giving that I started keeping a "self-denial envelope" in my purse so that I will be reminded to think about the less-fortunate and perhaps count my own blessings a little more frequently!