Angela Webster McRae's Blog, page 49

Friendship gifts of tea!

I am so suspicious by nature that I am rarely surprised. This year, however, I must say that tea friends old and new have greatly surprised and delighted me with some tea gifts that were thoroughly unexpected and thoroughly enjoyed! First, when I met my friend Joy for Christmas tea recently, she gave me this yummy-smelling Southern Sweet Tea candle. I've never seen such a thing!

And isn't the pottery pretty? I love things with a crackle-finished glaze, so I will enjoy using this piece even after the candle is long gone.

Also that day, Joy brought along something that she thought I already had, and she suggested I use it for a blog giveaway. Well, guess what? I did *not* have this lovely Willow Tree Angel of the Kitchen by Susan Lordi, so — surprise! — I'm keeping it. (But I will make up for it by trying to find some really cool things for my Valentine's Week giveaways in 2023!)

Another day before Christmas, a gift from Cara in Iowa appeared in the mail. What could it be? It was something I think is especially divine: Peach Tea Cotton Candy. I haven't had cotton candy very often since I was a little girl, but I have certainly always enjoyed it. Cotton candy is one of the best candy treats ever, and this peach tea flavor is wonderful and really is reminiscent of peach tea!

And look at the design of the lid! Once I polish off the cotton candy (which will occur sooner rather than later), I'm going to use the cute container in my craft room. This thoughtful gift also came with some delicious caramels and Christmas tea bags. What a fun, fun, fun surprise!

And last week, I received a package from Teresa, a tea blog reader from Ohio whom I had the pleasure of meeting during Phyllis Barkey's Southern Tea Tour way back in 2018. Inside was this …

A Santa mug plush throw! Can you believe it? I'd certainly never seen a blanket with my beloved Santa tea mugs or I would have purchased it immediately. What a delightful and well-timed gift! I'm sure you've been reading about (if not experiencing) cold temperatures all across the country, and here in Georgia, we are absolute wimps when it comes to cold weather. Once I got through oohing and aahing and showing off this blanket to my husband, I snuggled right under it, and to be honest, I haven't moved much since (except to go eat some more cotton candy or light a candle, ha!). Lots of tea and hot chocolate have been enjoyed beneath this blanket already!

And last but not least, since my dear friend Kathy recently moved several hours away and is still unpacking, I assumed she wouldn't have time to send her famous handmade cards this year, and that would have been understandable. Then I got *this* lovely card from her in the mail and was so tickled, as I can tell she made it just for me with all the cute pink colors and the sweet mug.
So there you go! I got some truly wonderful teatime treats for Christmas, and I'll bet you all did too. Did friends or family (or yourself) gift you with any tea-themed presents? I'd love to hear about them!

Happy Boxing Day!

Santa isn't the only one who will be enjoying some R&R and a cup of tea today!
 

Merry Christmas!

"For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."— Luke 2:10, 11Merry Christmas, tea friends!

 

Finishing touches …

Last year, I shared my "Santa mug" cabinet with you all and got so many nice comments that I thought I would share this year's version. I've found or been given so much great vintage stuff that now, vintage goodies of every sort fill almost every nook and cranny, including the dancing Mr. and Mrs. Santa that a shopkeeper friend mailed me a few weeks ago. I had seen dancing Santas before, but I never knew he came with Mrs. Claus! The teacups were a tight squeeze behind them, but hey, I got them in, and the pretty green bell at front? That was a surprise gift from my friend Joy last year!

And just this week, I made a porch pickup after a new writer friend told me she had some old pieces that were her mom's, and I could have them if I wanted to come by for them sometime. She sent pix of these three caroling angel bells, and I thought, "Are you kidding me?" These pieces are like gold to collectors of vintage Christmas goodies—if you can find them. I promised her I will give them a good home, and she obviously believed me. When I got home with the bag, she had included the Santa planter behind them too! Yippee!

To my surprise, I discovered I have a boot collection. See the one at left that says "Merry Christmas" on the green band at top? That was once a candy container, and I bought this piece solely (ha!) because of what was on the bottom …

Isn't that delightful?

This year, I also came across (finally!) a few vintage knee-hugger elves. Pretty sure I remember these guys from my childhood Christmases of the sixties.

There's a particular booth that I always visit at the antique mall in Douglasville, and the vendor there clearly loves old ephemera as much as I do. I found some old jingle bells and ornament hangers in the original packaging for just a few dollars, and I love them so much!

Alex and I keep saying we really dislike this old wallpaper in the kitchen and need to have it removed and painted over, but he pointed out that, for once, it actually goes well with the decor! Today, I hope to get those last cards in the mail, deliver a few gifts, then maybe read or take a nap as I shift gears from parties and presents and get ready to celebrate the *real* gift—the baby in a manger! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas, friends!

DAVIDsTea — A Christmas Treat

I don't know how I found this deal, but a few weeks ago, I was doing some online shopping and saw that DAVIDsTEA had a holiday tea sampler on sale for just $12 (usually $29). I purchased it and was soon notified that my order was delayed for some reason, but that was fine since this was just a gift from me to me. And when it came, I was delighted with the packaging and will keep these little tins for storing loose tea when I travel.

This Candy Cane Crush tea, which I've enjoyed before, is a creamy black tea flavored with white chocolate, peppermint bits, and snowflake sprinkles. Another favorite is Sleigh Ride, an herbal tea with cinnamon, apples, almonds, hibiscus and beetroot, and I can't wait to try all the new ones too.

The slide-out box makes for a lovely presentation, again making me wish I'd ordered these as gifts for tea friends. (I did note that they're having an early Boxing Day special where you can buy one and get one free on certain items through December 22, so if you have some after-Christmas gifts to buy, you may want to check these out at davidstea.com.)

I'm spending the week cooking, card making, and wrapping gifts, and with a cold front bringing in temps as low as 11 degrees this weekend (!), this cold-averse Georgia girl will be sipping lots of hot tea in the days ahead just to stay warm. If you've even had a moment to buzz by this blog this week, how are you spending these days leading up to Christmas?

A Christmas Wedding for Madison!

Those of you who've been reading this blog for a while may recall seeing photos of three little girls at tea over the years, my nieces Madison, Cari, and Amelia. Madison married her sweetheart, Logan, yesterday in neighboring Carrollton, and I found myself wondering where the time has gone!

It seems like just yesterday that we were doing this! (Amelia hadn't yet joined the world.)

The venue was a historic home that is now an event center, and it was beautifully decorated for the holidays. They had spacious rooms upstairs where the girls could get ready, and that was where I got a picture of my sister, Rhonda, and niece-bridesmaids Amelia and Cari. I can't believe how grown-up these girls are now!

I got there early so I could a) change into my gown and b) nose around the place. I'm glad I did, because I found an unexpected surprise in the form of some display cabinets with tea wares, like this lovely blue double-spouted teapot …

And some pretty red transfer ware!

I had assumed there would be tea to drink, and there was plenty of it at the buffet-style reception, but when I saw lemonade, too, I knew what I would be drinking: an Arnold Palmer!

Here's my sister's family (minus bride and groom) following the ceremony.

And here are Madison and Logan cutting their wedding cake.

Madison thoughtfully spent time with all of us, and Aunt Jane was obviously very happy to have her photo taken with the bride.

And here I am with my own sweetheart! It was truly a beautiful day, and we're all wishing Madison and Logan a long and happy marriage!

A "Grande" Christmas Tea with Joy

Wednesday morning was a yucky wet one at my house just south of Atlanta, but I was still eager to head north since I would be meeting my friend Joy and five other ladies for tea at the Grande Event Tea Room in Ball Ground! The drive was an easy one with no stalls interrupting my commute—a rarity for Atlanta—and before I knew it, I was being ushered into this beautiful old home-turned-tearoom and enjoying a warm, cozy setting, delicious tea and treats, and soothing Christmas music. If there's a better way to spend a rainy day, I haven't heard of it!

Joy and I are at back (she's in red and I'm in black), and we were joined by her friends Jan, Joan, Debbie, Helen, and Sandy (I hope I spelled their names right; correct me if I didn't, Joy!). I'd actually had tea with Sandy and Joy once before, and Joy had also hooked me up with Helen, who is going to be one of my beta readers for my new cozy mystery series, so I immediately knew half of the group, and the other ladies were just as delightful as I knew they were going to be. One thing I've learned over the years is that if a tea friend introduces me to her tea friends, we're going to like each other. (There may be a bad apple out there somewhere, but I've never met her.)

We began our Christmas tea with a light, refreshing pear salad, which was as tasty as it was pretty!

We all oohed and aahed when the three-tiered server came out, and while I usually like the scones, they have rarely been so good that they were my favorite of all the treats. I must tell you that these Christmas-tree-shaped scones had a great flaky crust and were perfectly soft on the inside, and now I want to go make scones again!

Frankly, I was too busy having fun and socializing with Joy and all these ladies to write down all the names of the foods we ate, but I can say that I enjoyed it all. My favorite tea sandwich was a roast beef one, and while I enjoyed all of these sweets ("cheesecake shooters" was a particularly fun idea!) …

My favorite was these festive and fudgey brownies with sprinkles. You just can't make chocolate too rich for me, so this was a decadent treat—and in just the right amount.

We had jam and cream to eat with our scones, and I couldn't help noticing that it was served on a plate that's the same pattern as my everyday dishes, Johnson Brothers Rose Chintz. Fun!

We were seated in a lovely room at the front of the house, which I personally enjoyed because a) we were warm and cozy there and b) I'm a tearoom busybody and like seeing everyone who comes in and what sort of group they're with. But I had to go steal a peek at the other rooms …

And they were lovely as well! It's been so long since I've been to a tearoom—Joy and I realized that our last attempt to meet for tea was canceled at the beginning of the pandemic—and we truly had a "Grande" time at the Grande Event Tea Room. If you're a local, you can learn more about it here.


 

A cup of Christmas tea

I had a cup of Christmas Tea this week, and it had nothing to do with the Tom Hegg book of that title! I'd been waiting until December to try this Christmas Tea blend I was gifted from Kaley Tea, and I knew I would probably enjoy it since I've rarely met a Christmas tea that I didn't like. I'm using a favorite Christmas teacup, this Royal Dover bone china teacup that fellow blogger Michele gave me way back in 2014. (No, I didn't remember the date. Yes, I looked it up on this blog!)

This Christmas Tea blend contains organic black tea, organic cardamom, and organic cloves, some of my favorite spices of the season.

I love seeing the different bits that make up a tea blend. This one smelled as delicious as it tasted, and I was happy to get two steepings out of a single spoonful of tea. If you're interested in learning more about this Christmas Tea or Kaley Tea's other offerings, go here.

Tea wares, tea memories

Christmas decorating is going to be a December-long process this year, apparently. Over the weekend, I realized that I now have so many collections that I'm having to get creative about how and where to display them. I'm not through with the kitchen cabinet displaying Santa mugs and all that kitschy stuff I love (though I hope to finish in a day or two), but I did accomplish a few other things. First, I decided it was time to relocate my fancier Christmas teapots from above the kitchen cabinets and let them feel "special" for Christmas, so I took all the china and glass out of my great-grandmother's old secretary, no small task, and substituted Christmas wares. 

These include a Spode Christmas teapot that I remember buying with my mom one year …

And a matching Spode tea-for-one teapot.

There's this Christmas chintz teapot I found at T. J. Maxx years ago, probably my favorite Christmas teapot.

And then there's the "Cup of Christmas Tea" teapot that so many of us have. I remember so fondly how I first heard this tale at a friend's Christmas tea many years ago, so I think of her when I pull out these pieces.

And on the key to the cabinet, a teapot ornament from Joy just because it looks cute there!

And you know how I shared my white tea-themed Christmas tree last week? I really like that tree, but I briefly had the thought that it didn't seem quite as full of ornaments as it has in the past. Oh well. Then I kept pulling out boxes this week and couldn't remember what I'd stored in a certain square box I came to. I removed the lid. Oh! The rest of my tea-themed Christmas ornaments!

So here's more of the tea-themed tree, part two! All of these ornaments below were gifts from blog readers over the years, and for that reason, they are especially dear to me. Do you have Christmas decorations that are dear to you because of the memories? Or do you just decorate with whatever strikes your fancy that year?

Tea & Miscellany

I am so enjoying my Tea Advent Calendar from Adagio Teas, and it's fun to discover some new flavors, like Blake Forest Cake and Earl Grey Bella Luna. This week, I was drinking out of a new mug I found at Big Lots the other day. As a cozy mystery author, I am keen to find *anything* with the word "cozy" in the title so that I can use it for book promotion purposes. I hoped to use this mug in a Facebook ad…

And I did. This is how it turned out (and FYI, if you haven't read my cozy mysteries but are a subscriber to Kindle Unlimited, you can now read them for free here).

But enough of that. The *real* reason I went to Big Lots was because my friend Kathy sent me a cell phone pic last week showing a vintage-looking reindeer mug she found there. I have wanted one of these for years! The truly vintage ones have proved impossible to find, and the reproduction ones I've found online are $20 + shipping. I was seriously considering splurging on a new one when Kathy sent the photo saying these were on clearance. I didn't even ask what the price was. I just got in my car and headed to Big Lots. They were $5.99 marked down to $3.59, so I bought four and was thrilled! (You have to be careful actually drinking out of these, though, because those reindeer antlers will put your eyes out if you're not careful.)

And you will be shocked to hear that I've started a new collection! The die-hard vintage Christmas collectors have known about figural Christmas light bulbs for years, but I had not. And I wasn't going to pay $10 + each for an antique light bulb. These, however, were just $4 each at a Hogansville antique shop.

If I add just a few each Christmas, I should have a colorful collection in a few years. And if you're intrigued about figural Christmas bulbs, you can learn more about them here. What do you all collect in the way of Christmas decorations? Anything offbeat? I'd love to know!