Tea With Friends

Talking tea and books in an Irish pub

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

The Senoia Variety Club, a women's group in nearby Senoia, asked me to come speak to them about Dyeing for Attention, my newest book, and last week, I was happy to do so. Over the years, I've become known as a "tea lady" locally, which is fine by me, so organizers told me they were encouraging their members to wear tea party attire if they liked. The meeting was held at Maguire's Irish Pub, a great restaurant there in Senoia, and when I arrived early to set up my books, I couldn't help noticing that they were placing vintage teacups on the tables, along with tea lights and some candy. I thought that was such a fun and simple way to "tea-ify" the space, and of course I had to go check out the teacups, like this one with a basket of roses on it.

This one whispers "spring" to me, and that pretty yellow handle sure caught my eye. I've never seen a teacup like this before!

The striking blue coloring of this teacup caught my eye as well. I'm betting it's very old.

As the fifteen members began coming in and greeting each other, I couldn't help noticing they had a good mix of older and younger ladies, which certainly bodes well for any club. And see that lady in pink with her back to the camera?

That would be my friend Alice Ramsey, who is legendary in this neck of the woods. She's retired now, but Alice was still a flight attendant with Delta when she got diagnosed with breast cancer, and after her treatment and recovery, she became quite the advocate for other women going through breast cancer. One day about twenty years ago, she decided to ask Delta's CEO if the flight attendants could wear pink uniforms each October to help raise money for breast cancer awareness, and he said yes! Whenever I fly Delta in October and see the pink uniforms and ties, I smile, knowing that my friend Alice started it all (her original pink dress now hangs in the Delta Flight Museum). She also heads up a local group called the Pink Posse that serves those going through cancer treatment, and whenever you see a flash of pink around town, it's probably Alice, up to something to raise awareness!

Teatime accessories: A (brief) style report

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Despite what you good friends may think, I do not buy everything I come across that has a teapot on it, however tempting it may be. My Facebook algorithm, however, knows my weaknesses, so when I saw this beaded tea-and-books purse advertised at Walmart, I made a point of visiting their accessories department the next time I stopped by.

Cute design, isn't it?

But … it sure wouldn't hold very much. I don't think I could squeeze in my iPhone and wallet. Also, this struck me as a little fancy for everyday running around, so I left it, even though it was just $23.

What I did get, though? The cute little bag charm/keychain from the same collection. I love the design, I actually needed a new keyring, and the $10 price tag was, as Goldilocks would say, just right. I wondered whether I should have gotten the purse, though. I mean, what if I *need* a small beaded purse one day?

Well, it turns out that I came across this one on clearance at T.J. Maxx last weekend ($24), and this struck me as a great accessory for fall. Plus, my new book mentions quite a few pumpkin spice lattes (the ones made with chai, of course), so I thought that was a sign.

Long live pumpkin spice lattes! (And cute fashion accessories.)

Two new teatime ornaments from Michaels

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

I am not trying to rush you into thinking about Christmas, but I do want to let you know that Michaels has two new teatime ornaments. I was in the store last weekend to find a replacement for my favorite crochet hook, which is getting a little shabby, and while they didn't have the crochet hook, the consolation prize was that I found these two glass ornaments! They're regularly $9.99 each but are currently 30 percent off. And you know Michaels—they'll be discounted even more closer to Christmas, but if you want to be sure you get them, I would advise acting now. (Also: I happily accept the senior discount that seems to be built into my Michaels Rewards account.)

I won't know for sure until I pull out all the ornaments after Thanksgiving, but I don't believe I've had a "tea tin" ornament before. And this one is so cute!

As is the teacup ornament with the pretty frosted design. Cheers!

A fall palette of tea wares

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Have you ever seen this design before? It's called "Tea Drinker," and it's a transfer ware pattern from the Netherlands. This design was on a beautiful plate that my friend Nancy gave me as a gift when I spoke in Auburn for my book launch last month.

And I was happy to be able to go into my garage and unearth a small cup and saucer that matches it! I found this years ago at an antique mall in Florida, and while the cup is cracked, I had to have it anyway because I had never seen this pattern before. I was, of course, delighted to receive the plate from Nancy as a gift!

Also in the brown range is a new-to-me teapot that a friend gave me last winter alongside a pop-up teacup card that a friend sent in the mail last month.

This small teapot is another brownish piece that I like to decorate with in the fall as well. I love the little teacup on the lid.

I haven't lucked up on finding any new brown tea wares at antique malls this fall, so I'm just holding out till November when I can display a vintage turkey sugar and creamer and other turkey ceramics!

Yesterday's Public Safety Luncheon

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 9 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

I don't volunteer a lot because I'm still working pretty much full-time, but I do serve on the local Public Safety Foundation, and it is an honor to help support our local law enforcement officers. We use the funds we raise to buy things like protective vests and drones and special equipment that our LEOs don't have monies for. So it is great fun for me to serve at the annual Public Safety Luncheon like the one we had at our fairgrounds yesterday. Here are the folks running the serving line, which featured a delicious meal of pork loin, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and rolls. (That's our former police chief, now retired, on the end. He didn't let a recent surgery keep him from serving!)

My friend Pat is the CEO of our group, and it takes a heap of work to bring this luncheon to pass each year. My hat is off to her!

Our sheriff, at left, who gave the invocation, and Newnan's mayor were among those on hand. (The mayor is new, and I don't know him, but I did know his late mother, who taught me my first card-making class years ago. Small world!)

Here's the tea station, and I meant to ask what brand of sweet tea they make, because it is delicious, but I forgot to ask.

And my job? I help serve at the dessert table, if you can believe it! As usual, we had dozens of homemade desserts this year, ranging from about six different kinds of banana pudding to pound cakes, chocolate pound cakes, German chocolate cakes, a coconut cake, pecan pies, a key lime cake with cream cheese icing, an apple spice cake, pumpkin rolls, several varieties of brownies, layered cookie bars, cobblers, dump cakes, an upside-down pineapple bundt cake (that was a new one on me), and several strawberry cakes. Every year, we servers try to figure out what will be the biggest hit with law enforcement. This year, it was the banana puddings. One year, everybody was into lemon-flavored desserts. What would you have chosen?

We interrupt the fall flavors …

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 7 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

I'm all about the fall flavors, and so far this fall, I've had a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, apple cider cashews from Aldi, and of course, lots of spice teas. But go figure, I wanted a cup of tea one afternoon and thought, "Hmm, a cup of green tea sure would be nice."

I looked around the tea cabinet and found some packets of iTeaworld's Jasmine Bi Luo Chun, the hand-rolled tea that is said to look like tiny snails. And indeed they do. So much so that I had to swirl the leaves around and make sure there were no snails in there!

This tea was such a lovely departure from what I've been drinking, and this tea can be steeped multiple times, with the first steeping just 20-30 seconds! Are any of you drinking green tea this fall?

The very happy camellia sinensis

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 5 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Some sixteen years ago now, I met up with a fellow tea lover from North Carolina, Lynn, who was visiting Atlanta. We'd corresponded by email but had never met in person. On that visit, Lynn gifted me with my very own camellia sinensis, the tea plant, which I promptly planted in what I loftily called my "tea garden." The plant has been thriving on neglect ever since.

And I mean that literally! I babied it at first, and definitely should have cut it back over the years, but it's now probably twelve feet tall—and I'm still just thrilled it's there. Lynn sent me a photo of her plant in bloom last week, which reminded me to go check on mine, and it was covered in blooms as well!

Some of the blossoms had ants wandering the petals (I read that this is probably because there are some aphids nearby), and it's suggested that a mixture of water with a little Dawn dish soap in it can be sprayed on them to help get rid of the pests. I'm going to give it a try. Maybe I'll get brave next spring and even cut my plant back. Meanwhile, if you live nearby and want a cutting sometime, just let me know. I'm not sure I've ever had a plant make it sixteen years before!

A new restaurant with some tasty new teas

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 2 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0400

This week, my friend Gina and I met for lunch at a new-to-us restaurant near our homes, Ponko Chicken. If you're like me, you want to call it "panko," like the bread crumbs, but it's Ponko, a chain known for its Japanese-American fusion chicken, and I was so pleased to learn that they also offer some specialty teas that you won't find anywhere else. This is the Sweet Almond Peach Tea, and they also offer a Matcha Green Tea Lemonade and a Ponko Palmer, which I assume is their version of an Arnold Palmer. The almond and peach flavors are quite pronounced in the tea I tried, even more than the sweetness of the tea itself, and I loved it. Unfortunately, Ponko doesn't have nutrition info on its website, so I have no idea how much sugar this has! (But once in a while, I'd order it anyway.)

Ponko's display cards on the tables tout the benefits of its rice bran oil. I'm going to have to read more on this topic, as lately, I've been reading that seed oils are going to kill us and we should stick to olive oil. I do use olive oil exclusively for cooking, though for baking, I prefer to use butter.

And Ponko's food? Dee-lish! My panko-breaded chicken fingers were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and for my side, I got their sweet potato fries, which I absolutely loved. That made everything in this bowl look the same color on my iPhone photo, but I can assure you it was good—and too much food, as I couldn't eat it all, and since I wasn't headed home afterward, I didn't bother with a carryout. Have any of you eaten at Ponko? If so, have you tried their other teas? I'd love to read a review!

A new journal that is, quite literally, my cup of tea

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

There was a time when I had so many journals that I had to institute a moratorium on acquiring any new ones. But the other day, I completely filled up my Bible study journal and had to start a new one, and I've got just a few pages left in my everyday journal, so … yeah, it was time for a new journal! (And a new pen. I did not realize Barnes & Noble had such a great selection of Zebra's Sarasa Japanese pens. The gel ink dries fast and doesn't skip, and this one had blue-gray ink. The ink color is very important to me, because when I'm working on a book, I write different notes in different colors.)

But this journal, y'all! Isn't that the prettiest cover with those lovely ranunculus and pansies? I'd never heard of this artist before, Nancy E. Mink, but I sure love her artwork. And I'm glad the price sticker came off without tearing the cover. Wouldn't you think a bookstore would know better than to do that? Oh, and if you like college-ruled journals, as I do, this one has those thin lines—another plus!

A new tea and an old teacup

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year for gallivanting, so after I went to a friend's 90th birthday celebration on Saturday, I headed over to see my friend Nancy at her Carriage House shop in Senoia. I had a feeling she might have some new fall teas, and she did, so I got this Cranberry Black Tea from M21 Luxury Teas.

While the Cranberry Autumn loose tea from Harney & Sons will probably always be my favorite fall tea, I do like to have tea bags on hand for a quick cuppa, and these did the trick and had a nice light cranberry taste. I was also excited when Nancy told me that she will be getting in some literary-themed "book teas" before Christmas (I think they look like actual books, maybe), so I will have to visit her shop again soon.

I've really just started to decorate for fall, and this brown cup and saucer is one of the few earth-toned pieces that I own. I picked this up on a trip to Huntsville, Alabama, years ago, and all I know about it is that it's marked Charmstone Chin Hung and is Korean. I'm trying to fill up a display with fall-toned pieces before the week is out, so wish me luck!

The signed copy of my new book goes to …

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:01:55 -0400

Ginger! Congratulations, and I'll have this headed your way shortly!

A book launch in Auburn, Alabama

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

On Wednesday, I had the great pleasure of traveling an hour or so south to Auburn, Alabama, where I had a book launch at a ladies luncheon with my friend Nancy, formerly of Newnan, and the friends in her neighborhood. I last spoke there three years ago and was tickled to be invited back.

They have such a beautiful clubhouse, and I had to stop and snap a few photos of the flowers before I went in!

My new book features a main character who is an Auburn grad and includes a bit of football rivalry with her University-of-Alabama-grad sister, so when Nancy asked whether it would be appropriate to work footballs into the decor, I said yes! Only she could make footballs look pretty.

There was a football banner too!

But my favorite decoration? Nancy said that in honor of my love of teatime (and there is always some tea in my books), she had to include some teacups, so she displayed these under glass. They were near the desserts…

And the ladies sent me home with several of them. Yum!

My lavish to-go box also included some of the fresh flowers accenting all of the tables.

As the ladies were busy setting up the delicious lunch of a cranberry-apple salad, mini cornbread muffins, and a creamy chicken-and-rice casserole, I asked if I could help. They told me everything was taken care of and to just feel free to make myself at home, so I wandered into this room to sit and enjoy a few quiet moments as I prepared to speak. Aren't the furnishings lovely?

After the ladies ate lunch and selected their desserts, I told them about Dyeing for Attention and some of the real-life scenarios that inspired scenes in the book. They were a fantastic group and had so many kind comments afterward (and went home with books, which is always nice). It was such a fun way to kick off the new book, and I couldn't be happier that I actually got to do it in Auburn!

A "vintage" way to save recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Speaking of books … I do plan to have a Silver Sisters Christmas novel out by December 1 as well, but I realized I will simply not have time this year to complete the vintage Valentine's cookbook I've been working on. Still, two new books out in a year is pretty good for me, so now I will have an extra year to make the Valentine's book as good as I want it to be. It will feature a lot of "berry" recipes, and I bought this vintage recipe organizer from eBay simply because it includes a recipe for something called Frozen Cranberry Velvet Pie. "Cranberry velvet." Doesn't that sound yummy? I plan to give it a try around Thanksgiving when all things cranberry are in fashion.

I just love this old notebook!

It didn't actually have a lot of recipes inside and has lots of blank pages in the back, but it does have pockets with each section divider, and I will enjoy using it in my kitchen.

And it has a teakettle in the cover's design! I do have a nice wooden recipe box, but I tend to use cookbooks more than recipe cards. I fear that we're going to lose a lot of recipes one day when they're all digital and we forget to share them with others. How do you save recipes? (Or do you?)

Giveaway: A signed copy of my new book!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

I'm happy to announce that Dyeing for Attention, Book Two in the Silver Sisters Mystery Series, is now published, and I'll be giving away a signed copy to one lucky winner on Friday! To enter, just leave a comment before 7 a.m. EST on Friday, September 25, and answer this question: Are you a fan of pumpkin spice? Yes or no will do! You can leave your answer on the Tea With Friends Facebook page as well. Contest open to US residents only. Good luck!

And here's the synopsis of the book:

The big day has finally arrived at Silver & Salvage, a combination junk store and antiques shop in Redbud, Alabama, and sisters Carolyn Hopeworth and Nan Padgett and their shopkeeping sidekick, Kitty Monroe, couldn’t be more excited. The editor and photography team from Junky Chic magazine have finally arrived for a long-awaited photo shoot, but from a dangerous gas leak to a broken sidewalk, downtown Redbud endures one catastrophe after another. Then the merchant overseeing the weekend’s beloved Harvest Festival confesses they may be forced to cancel all the festivities.

While the locals fuss over festival plans, LA magazine photographer Rox Greene swans around the small town like the snoot he is, criticizing everyone and everything in his path—until he’s silenced by someone who didn’t seem to appreciate his particular gifts.

After offending about half of Redbud, Rox has few defenders in town. Nan and Carolyn had fretted about the state of their graying locks and how they would look in the magazine photos, but that worry ends up being the least of their concerns. Instead of their shop getting good press, someone seems determined to stop the press—permanently.

The winner of the fall tea towels is …

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:28:05 -0400

Jenny Young! If you'll send me your snail mail address (to angelamcrae at charter dot net), I'll get these headed your way. Congrats!

On clipper ships

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

This week, I was busy editing a client's thriller set in and around London, and to my delight, she included several scenes set around the Cutty Sark, the world's last surviving tea clipper. As often happens when I'm editing, I find myself googling little details about the topic, and that's how I ended up finding this brief video about the ship, a vessel I actually visited when I went to England for my birthday years ago. It was stunning to stand aboard the actual ship that once raced across the waters while transporting tea!

Maybe I've subconsciously had ships on the brain, because I happened to find this pretty brown transfer ware plate at our Habitat for Humanity thrift store the other day, and I decided it would be nice to include it in a fall display. I rarely find brown plates, so when I spot one at a good price, I get it.

And isn't this ship majestic? I love the flag waving in the breeze!

I learned even more from the back stamp, and now I'm thinking I'll need to include some of this "ship" stuff in a book one day!

An Ollie's shopping alert

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

So I ran in Ollie's to grab some toothpaste since I can get in and out there faster than I can at the grocery store, and as always, I had to buzz by the tea aisle. And I found—duh, duh, duh, DUH—some Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Green Tea! And I do mean "some," because the sighting made me check out the entire food section, and this was the only box I found (just $1.99). Was it on the shelves early in the season, or is it close to its expiration date? Well, the box says it expires in January 2027, so it's nearing its sell-by date, but the tea I bought tastes as yummy as it always does, and as fast as I drink this tea, using it up before it expires will not be a problem. Candy Cane Lane has a bit of a cult following with peppermint tea enthusiasts, so … be advised to check your local Ollie's if you're a fan as well.

In addition to the tea, I found this Dove Spiced Chai Latte hand soap. Now, I like "food" scented hand soap only in the kitchen, and I was pleased that this soap has such a light hint of spice, not something heavy that will follow you around all day like the musky hand soap I used in a gift boutique's restroom last week. (If you sniff just right, you can probably still smell it there at your house, wherever you live.)

Ollie's is such a fun discount store because you never know what you'll find there, but I have learned that I can always find tea!

Giveaway: Some fall TEA towels!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

One day last week, I went to my car after having lunch with a friend, and the car's thermometer said it was 109 degrees outside. I felt every single one of them, so when I stopped by the grocery store and saw humongous boxes of pumpkins on display, I wasn't exactly feeling the fall vibes. Still, I believe based on past experience that fall will indeed arrive in another month or so, and for that reason, I was happy to find some honest-to-goodness TEA towels at T. J. Maxx the other day.

Sometimes I'm stretching things to call any fall cup a "teacup," but check this out: a tea bag hanging out of this fall cup!

And a teapot! Obviously, I needed to liberate both these sets from the store (one for me and one for you). So if you'd like to be entered to win this set of two fall TEA towels, just leave an "Enter me" type comment to this post (or on Facebook) between now and 7 a.m. EST on Friday, September 18, and you'll be entered to win. US only, please. Good luck!

A new use for an old thing

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

A few weeks ago, my oldest niece was working on a plate wall for her kitchen and asked if I might have some extra small plates she could use to help her fill in a few spots. Did I have a few extra plates? Um, yes. So I sent her this photo to show her what I quickly gathered from a shelf in the kitchen, and she said she had room for only three, so she chose the chintz one at top left and then the first two on the second row. As I was looking at those plates, which included one smaller dessert plate, it dawned on me that I had been looking for a saucer to use as an underplate with a giant breakfast cup I got at an antique mall last year.

First, I tried this small blue plate from the grouping I’d offered my niece. While the roses and the blue were a good match, it just wasn’t quite large enough.

Then it dawned on me that I should try this blue dessert plate that I found in Wisconsin years ago. I love the pattern and the blue, but that lime-green swirl just never quite seemed to go with anything else I owned, but I think it suits this cup just fine. So now I have a new home for a Christmas cactus a friend gave me that I’m trying to keep alive, and it was delightful to be able to “shop my home,” as they say, for new ways to use some old things!

It's time to talk about Tea Time

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 9 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

As Joan Rivers used to say, "Can we talk?" My new issue of Tea Time came in the mail last week, but I wanted to give everyone who subscribes a few days to get their copy in the mail before sharing any comments, as I have lots of thoughts about the magazine's new format. When I got the letter earlier this summer saying they were going to produce just three issues a year but in a larger format, my immediate thought was, "Uh-oh." Print magazines have been in decline for years, and with costs of salaries, paper, printing, and postage going up, up, up, I've wondered how long they could hang on. Some of you will remember when I was editor of our local magazine before I left the news biz thirteen years ago. Well, when I went to the plant in Kentucky to watch an issue of our magazine get printed one time, I was delighted to discover that many of the Hoffman Media magazines were printed there too. Upon leaving journalism, I seriously looked into starting my own regional magazine, had a designer mock up a cover and everything, but just couldn't make the numbers work. The biggest obstacle: the cost of postage. And with the USPS in such disarray today, my prediction is that one day, any remaining print magazines will be delivered by Amazon and/or drones. (And maybe they should be.)

So my guess was that Tea Time was trying to save money on postage yet remain a print product, and since I as a general rule do not like change, I was prepared to thoroughly dislike the new format. Plus, I'd been looking for a preview of the new issue online, and when I learned it was selling for $25 per copy (discounted to $60 for a year's subscription), I thought, "Well, that's it. It's toast for Tea Time. Nobody's gonna pay that."

Ah, but then I got my magazine in the mail, and I just love it! It truly does feel quite substantial, and based on page count alone, you can't argue that it's not like getting two magazines at once. The question is, will most readers go for that? I will, but I'm still in the working phase of life and have a little (a little, I say!) disposable income every month. Online, I've seen older readers on fixed incomes say they can no longer afford it. I definitely understand that. My last subscription invoice was $18 for a year of Tea Time, and to have it increase to $60 is a huge jump. I happen to think it is worth that $60, based on what I've seen so far, and time will tell if other readers agree.

Here, by the way, is Issue #1 of Tea Time. If memory serves, I was shopping at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta one afternoon in 2003, ducked into their ritzy little book shop, and was perusing the magazines when I just happened to spot this premier issue. I had already gotten into teatime thanks to the many features in Victoria magazine over the years, and my heart was racing as I snatched up that issue. A whole magazine devoted to tea? Yes, please. And I hope they'll be around for many, many years to come. If you've gotten your new issue, either on the newsstand or in the mail, what are your thoughts?

Happy Labor Day, friends!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 7 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

A fun find at an antique mall

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 4 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Earlier this week, I was returning home from a day trip and decided to stop by an antique mall in LaGrange, a town about 40 miles south of my home in Newnan. I had less than an hour before the store closed for the day, so I quickly zipped through the shop. In one room, some china and ceramic pieces were actually tucked beneath a dresser or some piece of furniture (risky, I thought!), and that’s where I spotted what I immediately recognized as a vintage chintz piece.

This heavy tray, which was marked $25, is designed to hold a breakfast set. I’ve never owned a vintage breakfast set, one of those charming pieces with a small teapot, teacup, sugar and creamer, and toast rack. But not long ago, I read online about a woman who collects these sets inexpensively by gathering them a piece at a time instead of spending hundreds of dollars on the completed set.

The pattern is by Wade Heath of England, and as best I can tell, it’s called Butterfly Chintz. The only matching piece currently on eBay is the small teapot, but it’s in Canada, where the shipping and import fees make it out of my budget. But that’s okay, because I think the tray is pretty on its own, and I’m curious to see how long it will take me to collect all the pieces that go on it. Fingers crossed!

A cute presentation idea to tuck in your pocket

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 07:00:00 -0400

When it comes to serving treats, I am always up for a cute presentation, and last week at mahjong, my friend Deborah ("Deborah of the new dishes") had prepared a tray of mahjong-themed paper napkin "pockets" holding cookies.

Is this not the cutest thing? I happen to have some mahjong-themed napkins myself (thank you, T. J. Maxx), and Deborah showed us how easy it was to fold them into pockets for the cookies.

I just knew there would be a YouTube video showing the process, and there is, right here. Have any of you tried this presentation before? I think it's charming!

Here's a story … of some new dishes …

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Here’s a story

Of some new dishes

Did I need them?

Why, absolutely no.

I was minding

my own business

there at mahjong,

when Deb said we could go…

To her garage

and check her cabinets

for the chargers

And candlesticks galore.

She had stacks and stacks

Of all these

pretty dishes

But one set made her sore.

Didn’t like 'em.

Wished she’d not bought 'em.

We’ve all been there

And surely understand.

Then my mouth piped up and said,

“Well, I just love them.”

And that’s when Deb put these new dishes

In my hand.

It’s not my fault

That’s the way these dishes

Entered my dish vault!

Royal Mail by Myott Staffordshire, some of the eight dinner plates and bread-and-butter plates rescued from my friend Deborah's house when she hosted mahjong last week. Up top are some of the pieces I'm auditioning with this fabulous gift of transfer ware!

Goodbye, Dolly

noreply@blogger.com (Angela McRae) — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Like many of you, I'll bet, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time this week looking at old photos and video clips of Dolly Parton. I was so stunned at the news of her death on Tuesday. Dolly always seemed so vibrant and larger than life that it just never occurred to me that she would pass away during my lifetime. Once I heard the news, I reached for the Dolly Parton tea bag rests I found at Dollar General last year, which are undoubtedly the only Dolly-themed tea wares I own.

Many of you will remember me writing about my Aunt Jane over the years until she passed away in late 2023. Aunt Jane was a huge Dolly fan, and whenever Dolly had a new CD out, Aunt Jane wouldn't let it rest until one of us took her to Walmart or Target in search of the CD. And Aunt Jane was very, very proud of that CD player of hers. We often gave her picture books about Dolly Parton, and my aunt loved them. One of my nieces and I find it quite interesting that Dolly passed away on Aunt Jane's birthday. I like to think that my "special needs" aunt had a "special" guest show up at her birthday party this year!

There will never be another Dolly, and I have been heartened this week to discover that, by golly, there IS one thing Americans can agree on, and that is the near universal respect for the country superstar and philanthropist. From her book donations for young readers to the band uniforms she funded for high school students, seems like everyone has popped up with a story to share about this gifted child of the mountains who made it big and never forgot where she came from. RIP, Dolly.