Friends, my husband's hospital stay ended with him moving to Heaven, and while I'm very, very sad for me, I'm overjoyed for him and know I'll see him again. Just wanted you to know it'll be a while longer before I'm blogging again, but so many of you have become true friends over the years that I wanted you to know. Please remember me in your prayers! Here's his obituary: https://www.mckoon.com/obituaries/Alex-Mcrae/#!/TributeWall ..read more

Friends, my husband, Alex, is in the hospital, so I'll be taking a blog break for a bit. Hope to be back here again soon ..read more

On Monday, my friend Kathy, who often texts shopping alerts, notified me that Bath & Body Works had a teacup-shaped fragrance plug, and I hightailed it over to my local shop to see if they had it. They did! Now, I've never had a fragrance plug and don't even know how the things work, so for the first time in my life, I actually *asked* for a B&BW employee to help me with something. (Back when stores used to offer customer service, B&BW was known for having a dozen of their employees assault you with fragrance samples and sales announcements the moment you walked in the store. I ..read more

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was inspired to purchase a magazine full of nothing but recipes, but when I saw the lavender madeleines on the cover of Spring Baking the other day, I had to get it! This magazine definitely met my rule of "must have at least three things that immediately catch my eye." First up: these Phyllo Apple Roses. I've seen rose-shaped treats like this before, but this recipe sounded quite doable, so I'm going to give them a try soon. And Two-Bite Lemon Tarts? If those aren't designed for a tea tray, I don't know what is. Are you a fan of honey? I am ..read more

Here's an oldie but goodie—an old advertising label from the Great Overland and Pacific Tea Co., and it's one of my favorite vintage Easter images because of the cross, so central to the Easter message for those of us who are followers of Christ. I hope you all have a very Good Friday and a blessed Easter weekend ..read more

On Saturday, Alex and I made a brief stop in Eufaula, Alabama. It's just about two hours south of Newnan, and I was surprised to see how "pink" the town was with all of the azaleas already in bloom! We also did a little shopping at the downtown stores, including Superior Pecans & Gifts, where I bought some tasty Cinnamon Spiced Pecans as well as some Skirted Soldier teas from a female-veteran-owned company! I got the "Colonel" and "Battle Buddy" blends. I've tried only one so far, and I was amused that each package is said to contain "two preloaded tea bags." Ha! The Colonel blend ..read more

Since my husband's birthday is March 21, he is rather annoyed that the first day of spring was March 19 this year instead of on his birthday as it often is. Actually, he didn't quite acknowledge yesterday as the first day of spring, but I did, because I like for spring to arrive as soon as possible. Also, it's the day I first pull out my Welbeck chintz tea wares each year! This spring, I've added a vintage Easter tablecloth from a local antique mall, so it's quite sunny-looking in my little dining room. I will always love chintz teacups, and I can't imagine a more appropriate pattern for s ..read more

Do you remember macramé? And do you remember when macramé started coming back a couple of years ago? I wasn't wild about the craft the first time, and I wasn't any more enamored of it the second time around. That's how I feel about today's mushroom trend too. No offense if you're a fan, but you can have ALL the mushroom art that's out there. That said, can you believe I just bought a new tea mug with dried flowers in it? Are you diggin' it? I'm laughing at myself here, because I was so tickled by this $4.99 T. J. Maxx find over the weekend that I had to have it. Plus, I awarded points fo ..read more

Last summer, I came across a new tea magazine, Tea Parties, that was published by the same folks who publish Woman's World and First for Women magazines. Well, I just found another new title by them at Barnes & Noble, Tea Lover's Handbook. And the cover says display until March 11, but B&N rebelled and had several copies on display on March 12, so I would suggest getting to a store ASAP if you'd like a copy! I haven't even had time to read through the whole thing yet, but I could immediately tell that I would enjoy this issue. There are articles on different types of tea, and I t ..read more

I had not watched Antiques Roadshow in years, but the other night, I was looking for something to watch on Amazon Prime, just some nice background noise while I surfed Instagram or something. I saw that the new season of Antiques Roadshow was up, and Season 17, Episode 1 featured finds from Corpus Christi, Texas. Learning about any antique object or artwork is interesting to me, but I was delighted to see a teapot appear on screen (this is a screen grab from my computer). According to this lady's aunt, the teapot was brought to Holland by the Dutch East India Company and was said to be a ..read more