I am not sure why I buy so much tea when I don’t drink as much as I buy. But I am a sucker for interesting tea blends and even more of a sucker for Halloween. Now give me a Halloween tea sampler and I am like “sign me up”. The internet is a dangerous thing, because you google Halloween tea and all of a sudden you are buying tea left and right.

The first to arrive is Adagio tea Halloween sampler. I mean really, they come in cute tins. I could not resist.

Bat Brew

Fire burn and cauldron bubble, With the Bat Brew you’re sure to guzzle! They have taken the Bat Brew to a new level by blending it with Chocolate Chai, Fiery Cinnamon Spice and a touch of Chocolate Truffle, resulting in an indulgent sweet treat. One sip and you’ll feel like you’ve just raided the trick-or-treat bag… minus the guilt.

black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa nibs, natural cinnamon flavor, natural chocolate flavor, dark chocolate chips, chicory, cocoa & blue cornflowers

Candy Apple

Who needs to go bobbing for apples when you can steep a sweet cup of our Candy Apple Concoction? A taste reminiscent of the trick-or-treating and carnival favorite, making for a decadent treat. You might think that glossy candy coated fruit has fallen right into your cup.

black tea, apple pieces, natural candy apple flavor, cinnamon, natural vanilla flavor & natural caramel flavor

Cat Scratch

No, it’s not witch-ful thinking… the Cat Scratch blend is wickedly delightful! Indulgent and robust, this tea blends Double Ginger, Chocolate Truffle, and our feline favorite… Tiger Eye. WARNING: Don’t steep this tea too late, or you may start to think you’re hearing things going bump in the night!

black tea, ginger, green rooibos tea, cocoa nibs, natural chocolate flavor, natural caramel flavor, dark chocolate chips, chicory, natural vanilla flavor, red peppercorn, natural ginger flavor, cocoa, black peppercorn, blue cornflowers, orange, marigold flowers, strawberries, natural peach flavor, natural strawberry flavor & natural orange flavor

Ghoul Gulp

Here’s a spook-takular tea that is sure to satisfy any ghost, goblin, and ghoul. Perfect for late night hauntings, our frightfully smooth decaf vanilla tea is accented with honeybush and peppermint. The perfect accompaniment after a night of trick-o-treating.

decaf ceylon tea, honeybush tea, natural vanilla flavor & peppermint

Monster Mash

You’ll be screaming with delight over our mischievously marvelous Monster Mash! Combining both caramel and cream tea flavors with bone-chilling candy eyeballs. One cup of this brew and you will feel like you’ve risen from the dead.

black tea, natural creme flavor, natural caramel flavor & candy eyeballs (sugar, gelatin (bovine), modified corn starch, cream of tartar, maltodextrin, artificial colors)

Pumpkin Potion

Take one sip of the Pumpkin Potion and you’re sure to fall under its spell. This naturally caffeine-free concoction contains our ever popular Honeybush Pumpkin Chai with Cardamom Almond Cake. Whip up a pot of this brew in your favorite cauldron for a perfectly spook-tacular treat!

honeybush tea, rooibos tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger varietal, cocoa nibs, safflower, natural pumpkin spice flavor, cardamom pods, toasted almond flavor & white cornflowers

If this was not indulgence enough, I also bought the Autumn Sampler. The box cover of golden Autumn trees was enough to get me to purchase the item.

Is there anything better than crisp air, big sweaters, and pumpkin spice everything? For lovers of all things Fall, they’ve put together a collection of teas to capture the essence of the season. This set contains four sample sizes of loose tea. This set includes:

honeybush pumpkin chai – Masala Chai spices in an herbal honeybush pumpkin base. Beautiful clear and bright cup, and crisp, tangy-sweet flavor. [No caffeine]

autumn mist green – Gently smoky gunpowder combined with bright tangy apples and rose hips, bring to mind a misty morning stroll. [Moderate caffeine]

bonfire – An Autumn medley of hazelnut, cocoa and exotic spices, with a soft note of apples and a hint of blazing hearth. [Trace caffeine]

pumpkin spice – Pumpkin Spice goodness with rich, lively spices for a perfect autumn treat. [High caffeine]

From the reviews most people do not prefer Bonfire. But it is worth doing once.

I have never ordered from Adagio before. They were kind enough to send me a great sample box of seven teas.

Monster Mash
Dont give up the Ship
Mango Green
Rooibus Cinnamon Apple
Blueberry Peach Cobbler Green
Decaf Mango
Gaucho Mate Chai

Each of the tea packs have a date starting October 13th thru the 19th. It is part of their CommuniTea program where you can taste different teas and rate them. How fun is that. I put a reminder on my calendar to start the tea on the 13th and check out their blog. They sell the entire month of teas for $19. I am a bit curious but may try it in December as I am sure they may be a lot of Christmasy flavors.

Their Temperature instructions are pretty clear so I am glad I bought the electric tea kettle tea kettle so I can get the correct degrees of the water. No more microwave tea.

Once the next tea shipment arrives I will do part two.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Many moons ago, I got a several John Derian entertainment pieces that I just fell in love with at Target. I had bought them when I had pool parties as I thought they were whimsical. If I recall correctly I had one or two Apple plates (not the full set), a few red flowers and some green lilies. I even had the set of 4 clover and insect appetizer plates. They are melamine so they are safe around the pool and were rather affordable.

Months later I found out they also released a Halloween line. I was rather sad that I missed it. Every few years I would look on eBay or other places but did not want to pay a ridiculous price for them. I even noticed they had a Thanksgiving collection. Turkeys and other harvest prints. I was like shoot. How did I miss this?

Well Lo and behold I got an email last night from Target stating their Halloween John Derian set was coming out.

The first thing on my Target Shopping cart is the 4 piece 7” Melamine Spider and Web Appetizer Plates. Perfect to hold those Halloween cupcakes I plan on making.

I love to provide Appetizer plates when I have company for some fruit pieces or cheese and crackers. This 4 piece 7” Melamine Whoo’s Hungry appetizer plates are perfect for company. I can mix and match with the other plates. Whhhhhoooooo will get Owls….Whooo will get spiders.

Pedestal platters are great for holding desserts or even a collection of small decorative Halloween decor. Perhaps even spooky cocoa supplies like marshmallows or sprinkles. The Spider and Web melamine dessert stand is perfect for those holiday spooky arrangements.

Below is the 19” x 14” Bone to Pick melamine rectangle serving tray. I anticipate carrying small bowls of snacks, or small appetizer plates. Or perhaps carrying ghoulish cocktails. I picture the butler from the Addams family serving snacks to their unfortunate guests.

I have this thing for crows or ravens and appreciate their clever antics. So when I saw this 15” x 10” Bird Melamine Octagon Serving Platter I had to get it. Maybe a platter of cheese and pepperoni arrangements with delicious crackers for a special spooky movie night. Maybe even cut the cheese slices into raven shaped pieces. Or make a cheese sculpture covered in poppy seeds to make the raven black. So many ideas.

This cute 5 quart Pumpkin Candy Dessert Bowl is perfect to hold all the Halloween candy for the Trick or Treators. Or maybe to hold apples to have with caramel sauce as a sweet dessert.

Of course Mocktails taste better in beautiful glasses. Let’s have a mummy drink in one of these Midnight Dreary Black Bird Highball Glasses. Or maybe a green swamp drink with a cherry on top. Can I say “caw caw” when I turn on Alfred Hitchcocks classic film “the Birds” during cocktail hour.

Because you can never have enough serving platters, this 18” x 13” Skull and Cross Bones Melamine Oval Serving Platter fits right in. Maybe some pumpkin bell peppers served up hot and yummy for dinner. Help yourself but do not starve or you will just be bones like the dude on this platter.

This 90” x 20” Lost in the Woods Table Runner is perfect down the middle of your table scape. With black candle sticks and ghost figurines your table would be perfect. Or if you have a buffet table. This would be perfect for all your Halloween serving pieces.

This 16” x 11” Skelton and Cemetery Melamine Oval Serving Tray is perfect for those mummy wrapped hotdogs I am sure to have one evening in October. I love this design. A good cemetery and skeleton scene on a platters says Halloween.

I really went overboard but since I admire his collection so much I decided to give myself a birthday gift, why not. A girl only lives once! I do wish he had dinner plates and bowls but I am happy with what I ordered. And since it was my birthday Target gave me an extra 5% off. Thank you very much. I did leave some pieces out and maybe I could get some later since I have no self control.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Just on the heels of the summer bucket list (summer be gone) I am rolling out the Autumn/Halloween bucket list. Autumn time is my favorite season. Chilly night, leaves falling, a nice windy breeze, pumpkins on porches, scary shows on Netflix, hot soup and warm tea at night. Ohhhhh my favorite time of the year.

I keep seeing all these cute pictures on Pinterest.

Amen.

But onto the bucket list.

There are a few new items on the list and a few favorites. More crafts this year and less cooking. But that is fine. Gotta mix it up. I will joyfully celebrate the season. I may do things not on the list. Let’s see where this takes us.

Let the leaves fall and the winds kick up and start the bucket list.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

This year I decided to make a patriotic quilt. Generally when I make quilts I tend to lean toward Halloween (of course) and Christmas. So when I saw this pattern I really wanted to make it.

Once I had enough charms I went ahead and started to sew the star parts of the quilt. But once I got to the red and white stripes I ran out of charms. Crap. I dug thru my stash again and hit pay dirt. The quilt sewed up very fast but got a little heavy as I connected the rows together. My sewing area does not have the space to spread out a large quilt so it was a challenge but I did it with a bit of creativity.

Here my brother is holding up the finished quilt so you can see it. If you look carefully at the bottom you can see his dog’s foot. Oh that silly dog has to be in the middle of everything.

Now I have to get it quilted. I was thinking of a bright blue grunge backing. I can get it in the extra wide size so I don’t need to piece it together. For the quilt pattern I wanted something with stars or patriotic looking. I usually send my quilting to Missouri Star Quilt Company and they had this pattern which would work great.

or maybe this one

I am leaning towards the star spangled banner design. Quilting is expensive so I need to budget the cost. I usually put my own binding on to save money but it is not my favorite part of quilting.

I will post a picture of the finished quilt when I get it completed.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

I do not really do anything for Christmas and even more so as I have gotten older. Decorating the house is just too much for me. But I do like the feeling of Christmas so I do little things that don’t require a huge effort on my behalf.

I wrote up this “non bucket list”. Basically meaning maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But it does help me celebrate the season.

I probably spent more time trying to get my old computer to rev up so I could use some of my Christmas pngs to create the art work on this document. Please excuse any misspellings on the document. It fought me tooth and nail that old pile of electronic junk and I ran out of patience trying to get the programs to open and work, more or less typing them out. But I think you get the idea of the things I do during the Christmas season.

Thank you for checking out my blog.

I do not celebrate Christmas like other people do. I do not buy presents and put up a tree. I might on good years make handmade cards but it is getting harder each year to do that. I tell myself to get ready in July so they are good to go in November but I rarely do. Looks like this will be another years without an annual Christmas card. I certainly hope people don’t think I kicked the bucket. It just takes a ton of work.

But there are things I do to get in the mood. I like looking at artwork with Christmas themes. I am a huge fan of Katie Daisy. Her art is so special. Here are some of my favorites.

You can buy her art prints from her Etsy shop or maybe get a set of cards. Her prints are so nostalgic to me. The pint and mint colors and the shiny bright ornaments.

The one year my Grandmother came to stay with us during the holidays and we made a Gingerbread House.

The ribbon candy reminds me of my Grandmother and her bowls of hard candy just waiting for little kids to suck on them with sticky fingers.

Pictures of snow and winter critters with their warm coats exploring their territory with a cold stillness.

Such nice images to bring in the Christmas spirit.

Thank you for checking out my blog.

Today is Thanksgiving and time for the Black Friday sales. As expected I am adding to my Lenox collection. They seem to have less and less special hostess gifts to buy each year. Not sure if I have bought it all or they are just limiting their new releases. But I was able to find 2 pieces to add.

I got the new annual snowman figurine. So now I have 3 to my collection. I have always been a fan of Lenox figurines and have quite a few pieces. That cute round face is adorable.

The second piece goes with my dining/entertainment pieces. It is a salt and pepper shaker set.

I probably would just put them on the table individually versus the tray during the actual meal. I think I have another salt and pepper set but not 100% sure. I really need to go and take an inventory of my pieces.

Until next year. Thanks for checking out my blog.

Well it is that time again.

As I showed you last year, I collect the Lenox Holiday collection.   Such beautiful dinnerware for the holidays seasons.  It is sort of an extravagance considering I rarely use it.   However I collected it when I bought my house and pictured myself having lots of holiday parties.  Back then I had money to burn, now I am on a budget.  But this my Christmas gift to my self.  It is black friday so I got all 4 pieces for $100.  Not a bad deal.

This year I bought the 4 hostess gifts that were a great price.

The Lenox Holiday Lazy Susan Tray.

This will be great for appetizers or a cheese platter.

The second item I got was the bread tray.  Obviously to hold bread, either for the table at dinner or some pumpkin bread in the morning.

Up next is the divided dish.   Since I am not 100% sure of the dimensions.  It can either hold olive/pickles.   Or if larger, two side dishes.  Either way, it will look great on the table.

The last piece I got was the chip and dip set.  Some great dip in the middle with some chips.  Or humus and some pita bread.  You could go crazy and do mashed potatoes and gravy.   Nah, but it could be done.

Because I bought 4 items, I got these bowls for free.  I really anticipate them telling me they are sold out.

Posting these on my blog really helps me keep track of the items I have brought previously.