Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 47

The tea towel winner is …

 Susan K. Congratulations!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #1

Once again, I'm offering giveaways in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, but first, I wanted to share a few of the tea-themed vintage valentines I've collected since last year! First, this little die-cut piece is charming and appears to be quite old. "To My Valentine," it says.

The back reads, "To Donald Stumpf, From Jennie Patton." The valentine itself isn't part of the giveaway, just a fun visual I like to share each year!

And for today's giveaway, I'm offering a tea towel just like the one I purchased for myself this year! If you'd like to win, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post by Thursday, February 9, at 7 a.m. EST, making sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. (And if you have trouble commenting via Blogger, as I hear sometimes happens, please feel free to email me—angelamcrae at charter dot net—or comment on the Tea With Friends Facebook page so that I can enter your name myself). Good luck!

Paper lace valentines and rose petal tea

 

A heads-up: Valentine's Week Giveaways are just around the corner and will begin Wednesday, so please visit on Wednesday, Friday, and next Monday, when I'll be sharing tea-themed vintage valentines and some fun treats! But first: check out this really vintage valentine I found at a thrift store on Saturday. It is absolutely the most stunning valentine I've ever seen! It's about 6 x 9 inches and has so much detail.

The paper used for the base of the card is as thin as a sheet of copy paper and very fragile but blessedly intact!

It has layer upon layer of embellishments, and I have quite enjoyed studying it.
I'm thinking the blue flowers are forget-me-nots. What say you, gardener friends?

Every time I look at this piece, I see something new, like the garlands along the gold at the bottom.
The timing of this find was interesting. You see, I pull out my vintage issues of Victoria magazine all year long, mainly because they are the prettiest magazines ever published and the content is often "evergreen," meaning it ages well, especially the info on history and collectibles.

The other night, I was perusing the February 1992 issue and came across this feature on "paper lace" valentines. According to the article, for many years, "these froths remained the monopoly of England and France. Only in the 1880s did Americans finally discover the culprit responsible for their inferior product. The reason was so simple! American paper had traditionally been made of wood pulp, but only paper of a high rag content (with its correspondingly stronger fibers) could sustain the clean-cut, delicate incisions necessary to produce fine paper lace." So how 'bout that! My new-to-me piece doesn't list the maker, but the details are so fine that I'm guessing it's English. My valentine wasn't priced, and the thrift shop owner told me to just take it for free, but I insisted he add a little something to my bill since proceeds benefit a local ministry. I got home and started researching these pieces on eBay, and let's just say I should have made a much larger donation!

"But enough about valentines," you say. "Where's the tea in today's post?" Well, here it is. The tea I've been sipping as I prepare for Valentine's Week is this China Rose Petal Leaf Tea from Taylors of Harrogate, found on Amazon.

I do love a floral-scented tea every now and then, and this one was delightful, with just the right touch of rose fragrance and taste. It was the perfect tea to sip while reading such a froufrou magazine about such froufrou valentines. I don't believe I'd ever actually seen a "paper lace" valentine before acquiring this one. Have any of you?

A little bit of positivi-tea arrives in the mail (literally)

Last weekend, I was surfing the internet for new tea-themed stamp-and-die sets, and I came across a design from Trinity Stamps with hearts on it, so I figured that while it was probably too late to arrive in time for Valentine's Day this year, I had to go ahead and order the set since the dies were retiring. One thing I've learned as a crafter is that these supplies don't remain available forever, so if there's something you just love,  you really must get it now!

To my surprise, the "Positivi-tea" stamps arrived on Wednesday! I mailed a business form to someone here in Newnan two weeks ago, and it still hasn't arrived, yet this package from Washington state got here lightning fast. I do enjoy collecting tea-themed stamp sets for my card making and crafting, so if you come across some new ones, I'd love to hear about them! (And I ordered these from ellenhutson.com, if you're into stamps and dies yourself.)

Valentine's Month is here!

The decorating is not finished, but I recently had a wild idea that I should do some valentine decor in the kitchen, so the vintage Christmas cabinet has now become a vintage valentines cabinet!
I didn't think I had enough old red stuff that wasn't Christmas-related, but the idea caught on after I came across this apron at a local antique mall. (The design is printed, so it's not vintage, but hey, it has "the look.")
I've wanted a vintage wedding cake topper for years, and this is the first one I've ever found at an antique mall. (They don't look too happy, though, do they?)
The teapot and teacups are new-ish, but my late mom gave me the teapot, and I found the teacups. A sweet memory!
Valentine candy boxes. Oh, how I love them!
This is my newest one. I believe it dates to the forties, and it is about two inches thick, so I'm guessing it once contained a double layer of chocolates!
And I happened to have a tea towel with red and pink, so it got included too. Soon, I'll be sharing some of my tea-themed valentines old and new. Do any of you decorate for Valentine's Day/Month?

Pink Pepper Citron Black Tea from Biron Herbal Teas

On Saturday, Alex joined me for a trip to nearby Pine Mountain. This tourism hot spot is known to most as the home of Callaway Gardens, site of the state's most glorious azaleas in the spring, but this time, we were there to eat some barbecue and check out the antique shops. While we were there, I came across some new-to-me tea in a coffee shop. These tall, thin canisters of tea immediately caught my eye, and as a fan of pepper in just about anything, I decided to try the Pink Pepper Citron Black Tea.
This black tea is flavored with lemongrass and orange as well as pink pepper, ginger, and cardamom, and that's a combination I'd not seen before. The citrus flavors were subtle and paired nicely with the slightly peppery taste from the pink pepper and other spices, making this a fun new tea and one I'm glad I took home with me.
"Biron Herbal Teas," the tin said. That was a name I'd not heard of before, and a closer look revealed …
This tea is from right here in Georgia—Macon, Georgia, to be precise. I loved knowing this tea came from my home state, and that got me to wondering … have you ever sipped a tea made by a tea purveyor in *your* home state? And if so, do you recommend them? I'd love to know!






 

A fire screen design with teatime art

I am just fascinated by all of the public domain images that can be found online these days. You can use them for crafting, for design work, for projects both personal and professional. And it's free to use them, which is the best part! I was looking up images on Artvee.com and found this image for a fire screen. The artwork is credited to French painter Eugène-Louis Charpentier (1811-1890). What a pretty fire screen this must have been!
With roses, tea wares, books, and needlework, this image is right up my alley.
I'm hoping to enjoy a little creativity this weekend in the form of needlework and card-making. Do you have any creative pursuits planned for this weekend?
 

Tea with a hint of cinnamon

Has your tea ever looked like this?

It would if you were steeping one of these Cinnamon Green Tea Cigars from Kaley Tea!

Late last year, I received some samples from Kaley Tea and was intrigued by their green tea cigars. This cinnamon one has "tea leaves and buds (that) are steamed, panfried, wrapped around a cinnamon leaf and rolled into a cigar." I usually drink cinnamon-flavored teas only in the fall, but I must admit that this tea's subtle cinnamon flavor made this a satisfying and particularly warming green tea on a chilly winter afternoon!

Fun finds and valentines

On Saturday, I had a bit of luck searching for vintage valentine goodies. At an antique mall in Carrollton, I found a red tin full of cookie cutters, a smiling-heart mug that I’m pretty sure I remember from my girlhood, some old cupcake picks, and my third …

Safety pin basket!


I find it so charming that some woman (surely!) took the time to fashion safety pins and beads into a basket.


When I got home, I had an Etsy package awaiting, and it contained the only vintage valentine tin I’ve ever come across, this one marked Mrs. Steven's Homemade Candies.


The doily design on the lid made this an item I had to have, especially since I’m starting to test recipes for that valentine’s cookbook I’ve been wanting to write.

I did buy something new that day, too, and it's something I think some of you might want to be on the lookout for as well. Now as a teetotaler—or "teatotaler," as I like to say—I’m pretty sure I’ve never written about shot glasses on this blog before, but when I saw these at T. J. Maxx in Carrollton, I had to have them!

I can already think of several teatime uses for them. They could serve cream, jam, or lemon curd. They could be vases for a tiny rose or violets. They could be used to make and serve tea-flavored Jell-O shooters or mini cheesecake bites. They could even be individual pitchers for sugar syrup during iced tea season. I’m sure I’ll think of more uses, and since it was just $4.99 for the set of six, I grabbed them. In fact, I looked around for a second box but didn’t find one, so I’ll have to check my own T. J. Maxx this week. So it was a successful shopping weekend for me. How about you? Any tea or valentine’s finds in your neck of the woods?

A Monarch Green Tea Tin

Almost every antique mall I've ever gone into has had some vintage tins, yet I rarely see old tea tins. I found this one last weekend at a local antique mall, Treasures Lost and Found, and it once contained Monarch Green Tea, a brand I'd not heard of before. It's got an interesting design, with a lion's head logo and a background featuring tea fields.

Above the lion's head, the logo reads, "Our Highest Quality."

I found it interesting that the design was copyrighted in 1923, one hundred years ago, and Reid, Murdoch & Co. was established 170 years ago. Isn't it just a little amazing that for $10, I can hold a piece of history that dates back a hundred years? And while I'd never heard of this company, it didn't take too much googling to find a little info about it here. This page also gives the story of a nearby workplace tragedy I'd never heard of, so if you like that sort of thing (history, not the tragedy!), please check it out!