Spotting tea at a quilt show

On Saturday, my friend Gina and I headed up north of Atlanta to the Sewing and Quilt Expo in Duluth. Gina and I enjoy paper crafting together, but we are both into sewing as well (she sews bags, I attempt to quilt), so we were seeking inspiration and found tons of it. She met up with an old crafting friend who was working the show, and I met up with my church friend Ann, so it was quite a fun and social occasion. Still, I was surprised not to see a tea-themed quilt at the show, and just as we were about to leave, there it was!

I'm sorry I forgot to snap a photo of the maker, but I think this was in the booth of a Georgia embroidery guild, which would make sense because there are so many embellishments on this quilt.

While this is beautifully quilted and embroidered, what I like most about it is the fact that it was a nontraditional design.

The free-style embroidery greatly appeals to me, so I took lots of photos for future inspiration.

Another of the quilts I just loved was this one. I've seen this kit in my quilting magazines, but in person? Wow!

Those of us who enjoy cooking and baking have to love all the details in this quilt, including the cute aprons in the border.

And I found a few more tea-ish things at the show as well, including this pouch that was displayed near the sewing machines …

And this cross-stitch piece! I bought a chart to make this design myself. Jane Austen and tea? What's not to love.

And I can't pass up a fat quarter of any tea-themed fabric, so I bought this for my stash. It was a fun day full of lots of creative inspiration!

"A Dark and Stormy Tea" by Laura Childs — the audiobook

In searching through my old blog posts, I was surprised to discover that I've never written about audiobooks before. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, because while I love podcasts, I find audiobooks hard to follow. But I realized last week that I am several books behind in Laura Childs's tea shop mystery series, and I have to read them in order, so I decided to cheat and try an audiobook.

This was a different experience, and there were things about it that I liked and disliked. First, I find that audiobooks drag too much for me, so I listen at 1.2 times the normal speed, which perks things up. I liked the narrator and thought she did a good job with most voices except for that of Delaine Dish, the shopkeeper friend of our heroine, Theodosia Browning. That exaggerated drawl is like nails on a chalkboard, so I was glad that Delaine didn't have too much dialogue in this book.

The story kicks off with Theodosia witnessing a gruesome murder near a local graveyard, then we get word that a serial killer may be on the loose in Charleston. That was clearly the "dark" in this "dark and stormy tea." I found that a bit too dark for a cozy mystery, so I didn't enjoy this book as much as I have the others. And as usual with audiobooks, I sometimes let my mind wander and had to reread (or "relisten to"?) a few pages.

What I enjoyed most, as always, was the description of the tea shop's daily goings-on as well as the special tea events hosted by the Indigo Tea Shop. Childs always does a great job of describing the linens, the tea wares, and the decor, and I found myself really tuning in when the tablecloths and dishes came out. Haley and Drayton and Miss Dimple are like old friends, and scenes with them are always my favorites.

I had a hard time distinguishing a few of the new male characters early on in the book, but as the story progressed, I found them easier to follow. The revelation of the killer was such a surprise that I wondered how I'd missed so many clues, but then I thought, "audiobook." Finally, it was a surprise to hear the recipes with their ingredient lists being read at the end of the book! 

So I think I will stick to the print books from now on, though I'm glad I gave this audiobook a try simply for the experience of it. Do you listen to audiobooks? And have you kept up with all of the tea shop mysteries, in print or audiobook?

"The Soulful Cottage" by Fifi O'Neill

With spring on the way, I've been adding more rose decor at my house, and for inspiration, I ordered a copy of Fifi O'Neill's The Soulful Cottage. I've seen her work in lots of books and magazines over the years, and I've always loved her French-Chic-meets-Shabby Chic sensibility.

It's funny how one simple photo can inspire an idea. I have never accessorized a chair with a tea pitcher, but why not? I probably wouldn't use my most-treasured piece, but yes, I would give this a whirl.

My eyes naturally went straight to the pretty rose glasses in this photo because I have some just like them!

And all the roses in this charming decor? I'm here for it. I should also mention that when magazines are going for $14.99 these days, it's not a hard decision to buy a hardback book for $20, especially one as lovely as The Soulful Cottage, and I'll bet some of you would enjoy it too!

First tearoom of the year: The Emerald Chandelier

Late last year, my friend Cheryl and I agreed that we needed to schedule a teatime to have something to look forward to after those long gray days of winter. When it came time to get the event on our calendars, we quickly decided on the Emerald Chandelier in Griffin and went last Thursday. This was Cheryl's first visit there, and she enjoyed it as much as I did!

Since the tearoom's menu changes every two months, I was eager to see what they would be serving this time, and the offerings included Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup, House Scone with Devonshire Cream, Raspberry Scone with Lemon Curd, Pepperoni Rose, Mushroom-Gruyere Tartlets, Matcha Chicken Pesto Puff Pastry, Cucumber Salad Tea Sandwich, Tiramisu with Petit Four, Lemon, Honey & Almond Cake, and Dark Chocolate Strawberry Fudge.

These were some of the best savories I've had in a while, and I would be hard-pressed to say which was my favorite, although I'd probably go with the Matcha Chicken Pesto Puff Pastry (at top right) because it was so delicious, and the pastry was hot and flaky.

I hadn't had any rich chocolate in a while, so I devoured the Dark Chocolate Strawberry Fudge and also the Tiramisu with Petit Four, which was cleverly served in a small stemmed glass.

I sipped their Snowflake Black Tea, and Cheryl had the Berry Limoncello Green Tea, and our server was great and checked on us regularly to be sure we had all we needed. It was a beautiful afternoon with a fun friend (among her many gifts, Cheryl is an absolutely fabulous storyteller), and I'm so happy to have a nice tearoom nearby where I know we'll always dine well!

A stylish lady with her teacup

When I was in college, a girlfriend was in cosmetology school and asked if she could practice styling finger waves on my hair. I said sure, but I wondered who in the late 1980s was requesting this style. "No one," said my friend, yet she was required to learn this technique all the same. I don't recall my hair cooperating with this particular styling effort (I've always had strong-willed hair), but when I see photos of a woman with finger waves, I do recall that the style was popular in the 1920s.

So when I saw this photo on the Library of Congress web site (a photo cleverly titled "Woman holding tea bag above cup"), I was fairly certain I could date it, and indeed, it dates to 1929. Through a little online searching, I learned that Max Mayer Co. was located at 2 Park Avenue in New York City. I didn't learn much about the business, but I was happy to see that the building, developed from 1926-1928, still stands in Manhattan. A fun bit of history!

The new issue of "Daphne's Diary"

I had to visit a couple of Barnes & Noble stores before I found a copy of the first issue of Daphne's Diary for 2025, and it is a keeper! First, I think the blue-and-white designs on the cover are just lovely!

Once I started perusing this issue, I found an article on making a tablecloth from vintage tea towels. That's an idea I've not heard of before.

Since this is the January/February issue, it featured some recipes for hot drinks, most of them made with tea.

And there's even a specialty-paper page with a teapot design to cut out. There are also articles on vacationing in a country house in Italy, a Dutch artist who turns old books into works of art, and some clever sewing ideas. As always, there are lots of art pages, stickers, and other "gifts" inside the magazine. If you're a fan, too, this issue is not to be missed!

A new cozy read: "Death Among the Stitches" by Betty Hechtman

So if an uncle died and left you an old schoolhouse and cottage in another state, would you keep it or would you sell it? That's the question facing Annie Sara Hart, a young woman who lives in a studio apartment in LA that is owned by her father, an agent with some superstar movie clients. Never having owned property herself, Annie Sara wants to at least see what she's inherited before she sells it—and thus she finds herself headed to small-town Franklin, Indiana.

There, she discovers she's just become the owner of an old schoolhouse that was home to the town's only yarn shop, a gathering spot beloved by the locals, who are disappointed to hear that she intends to sell it. She learns that the woman who owned the yarn shop died inside the place, but the townsfolk seem to have conspired to keep her from figuring out why. After discovering an old cottage behind the schoolhouse, Annie Sara decides to stay in town for a while and tidy everything up before she sells.

There's one small problem, however. Annie Sara works in a boutique owned by the shiftless LA-princess daughter of two movie stars, and their loyal agent happens to be Annie Sara's father. The daughter, Gray Hanover, can't seem to function in life without Annie Sara as her sidekick, so Gray ends up going to Indiana and becoming a partner in the yarn shop and perhaps opening a new business its former owner had considered—a quaint tearoom in part of the old schoolhouse. The idea certainly has its charms, but why won't the local knitters and crocheters spill the tea on what happened to the previous owner?

Death Among the Stitches was a pleasure to read, and it had touches of all that I love in a good cozy—flaky town characters, an overzealous cop, and other female entrepreneurs. I was particularly pleased that at the local bakery, the owner gets help with the baking from her son, who has Down syndrome. This book was a fun debut to a new series, and I look forward to seeing more of these characters in the future.

(Book courtesy of NetGalley)

Taylors of Harrogate Blackberry & Raspberry Tea

Years ago, when Holly Cottage Tearoom was still operating here in Newnan, I became acquainted with Taylors of Harrogate since the company's teas were served there. I've enjoyed their loose tea and tea bags many times since then, and this week at Marshalls, I came across a new-to-me variety from Taylors.

This blackberry and raspberry blend is just the sort of thing I enjoy each February. In honor of a month I think of as "pink," I sip lots of berry blends, and I was happy to find some berry-flavored tea bags since I can take some with me (if there are any left) on some spring trips I have planned.

And the taste? Excellent! Many berry blends have this tart and vaguely berry taste that could be anything: strawberry, blueberry, whatever. This tea has the distinct flavors of blackberry and raspberry, and the combo was brilliant. Wishing I'd bought another box. Are you familiar with Taylors of Harrogate?

Heart-shaped cake and tea bread

So here's the deal. Those lightweight copper-colored Jell-O molds are a fixture in every thrift store I've ever been in, and though I haven't made a Jell-O mold in, well, ever, I love these molds! I loved them even more when I discovered they can also be used as cake pans. That's why I have about a half dozen of them now, and I seem to find a new heart-shaped one every year around Valentine's Day.

This one was my latest find. Because it came from an antique mall and not a thrift store, it was a little pricier, $5 instead of $1, but was still quite affordable. What I wanted to know was this: Can you bake a loaf of tea bread in one of these things?

And the answer is yes, yes you can. I didn't overfill it, using three small heart-shaped pans to make mini tea breads with the excess batter, but I think it worked out well. The design would be more pronounced with a batter that didn't have so much stuff in it (this is my Christmas cranberry bread because I had leftover cranberries in the freezer), but I'm still impressed with the amount of the scalloped design you can see. So, have you ever used one of these molds to make a cake? Would you?

A Valentine's Day dessert — for anytime!

Last week, I was busy sharing vintage valentines, but before February is over, I wanted to share the recipe I featured in my column for this month's issue of The Coweta Shopper. It's such a quick and easy recipe to make. Also, I served it in tiny glass goblets as a "two-bite dessert" last week to my little neighbor friends, and they loved it (and asked for seconds), so I may be adding this to my next tea party menu as well!

Pie Filling Cobbler


1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1 (15-ounce) can pie filling (any flavor)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a 9 x 9-inch baking dish (I used a heart-shaped baking dish of a similar size). In a small bowl, mix sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder. Add milk to the dry ingredients and blend well. Pour batter over melted butter in pan. Add pie filling over the batter, dropping it by spoonfuls and evenly spacing it over the batter. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until golden brown.

The gift card winner is …

 Susan in North Carolina! Congratulations!

The winner of the tea-themed napkins is …

 Mary Boley, via the Tea With Friends Facebook page! Congratulations!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #3

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! The final tea-themed valentine I'm sharing this week is technically a "flash card" I found at an antique mall last month, so the back is blank, but I still think this is a cute design. 

And for our final giveaway this week, I'm offering a $25 Amazon gift card so that you can buy whatever gift you like! (Tea-themed gifts are encouraged but not required!) If you'd like to win, just leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST tomorrow, February 15, and you'll be entered to win. Good luck!

The winner of the tea infuser is …

 Natosha! I've just sent her an email and will soon have this headed her way. Congratulations!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #2

This is another of the tea-themed vintage valentines I've found since last year, and it's one I've never even seen before. It reads, "If you'd be my valentine, we'd have 'barrels' of fun!"

On the back, someone has helpfully noted that this card from Susan L. dates to 1953. Sweet!

For today's giveaway, I've got some of the same cute paper napkins I picked up for myself at Michaels a few weeks back! Would you like to have these for your text tea party or picnic? Just leave an "Enter me" to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, February 14, and you'll be entered to win!

Valentine's Week Giveaway #1

As longtime readers of this blog know, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays, so I like to share some of my vintage valentines *and* host a few small giveaways each year around this time. Today, I'm sharing one of my newest vintage valentines, and while it's not dated, I suspect this ship-shaped valentine is one of the older ones in my collection, maybe from the thirties or forties. I love that the young man is serving this passenger her tea from a teapot with a heart on it! It reads, "My heart is anchored fast. It's yours, Dear Valentine."

Maybe this was a card given from one classmate to another since it reads To Birkley Bush frome (sic) Bruce Smith. I think the brad on the back is supposed to make some of the pieces on the front jiggle, but I'm trying to be careful with that to avoid tearing them.

And for today's giveaway, I'm offering a hot-pink heart-shaped silicone tea infuser! I think it's a cute piece of décor even if you don't decide to use it! To be entered in the giveaway, just leave an "Enter me" comment to this post between now and 7 a.m. EST on Wednesday, February 12, making sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner, and you'll be entered to win. You can also enter on the Tea With Friends Facebook page here if you like. Good luck!

The Pagoda Blue Tea Set

I guess you could say that a funny thing happened on the way to Wormsloe. I'd already breezed in and out of six state park gift shops by that point, but as a popular tourist stop, Wormsloe has a magnificent visitor center and gift shop, and this blue transferware tea set immediately caught my eye. I loved the shape of the teapot and that tray best of all but figured they would be too pricy for me. A teacup, maybe? I picked up one and it said $31.99, which seemed a little much for a single teacup. Then I looked again and realized it said $131.99. For a teacup? Have they lost their minds? But then I realized that was the price for the whole set! I stood there and dickered over it and decided I would make up my mind as I toured Wormsloe. And you can see what I decided, especially after finding that blue teapot in the Wormsloe museum.

Blue-and-white tea wares never go out of style, and every Fourth of July, I wish I had more. Plus, I'm planning to write a cookbook about all the patriotic holidays, and every piece in this set could make an appearance next to one of the vintage recipes I'll be including. I loved the shape of this sugar and creamer.

The teapot lid was a real "wow" item for me.

And my favorite piece is the tray. The full set is too small to display on the little skirted table where I set it for this photo, so after Valentine's Day, it may end up on a sturdy table in my living room. It's the perfect memento of my visit to Wormsloe, but more important, it's also something that will be quite useful in my work in the years ahead. And when I got home, I looked online and found the set available at several sites but never for as good a price as I got. So I'm choosing to see this not as a splurge but as an investment! (And a beautiful one.)

Finding tea wares at Wormsloe

I was in college when I first visited Wormsloe, a famous historic site in Savannah. I remember this because our journalism advisor on the trip, Joe Cumming, who had served as Atlanta bureau chief of Newsweek, made us go. Joe loved history and thought we should too. And he laughed when I told him I liked the name because I imagined those worms were low. (I've apparently been taking words literally for a long, long time.) So I remembered that incident when my friend Tammy and I took a tram to the property on Saturday morning. The gate here is an iconic Savannah image.

So is the avenue of live oaks, which is simply a spectacular view. You can get a nice hike in while exploring the area as well.

We drove to the museum on the property, and the first thing that caught my eye was … a blue teapot! Now that's my kind of historic artifact.

Of course I had to snap photos of that as well as the tea information.

I'm very drawn to tabby for some reason, and the home Noble Jones built at Wormsloe in 1793 was made of tabby. Its tabby ruins are said to be the oldest standing structure in Savannah. And if you're not familiar with it, tabby is "a cement made of lime, sand or gravel, and oyster shells and used chiefly along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the 17th and 18th centuries," according to Merriam-Webster.

As I checked out this display in the museum, I was delighted to learn that portions of blue china have been found in the tabby.

And check out this handleless teacup and saucer! I wasn't expecting to find tea wares at the Wormsloe State Historic Site, but surprise, I did! On Friday, I'll share why that blue teapot at Wormsloe influenced my decision to buy a new tea set while I was there.