Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you a very merry Christmas. I leave you with a sweet blessing that I
saw this summer while visiting in Ireland. This old sign was in an authentic, restored
thatched roof cottage and I think it's message is beautiful!



Christmas Blessings!~The Sweet Tea Cottage

Byers Choice Carolers

Now that we are entering the Christmas season, I thought I'd show you the
precious Byer's Choice displays that I snapped the last time my friend Becky and I attended Atlanta market.
Their showroom was so cute and magical! I couldn't believe how many characters they had!
Enjoy! Maybe it will put you in the mood to decorate for Christmas if you haven't started yet!
Blessings~ The Sweet Tea Cottage




Don't you want to just go and visit "Byer town" for a day? The folks there look so
friendly and they certainly know how to create a cozy Christmas feel in their little village!!

(Not to mention it looks like they have some great cooks and bakers around town!)
Oh! Why do I always have to make it about the food?
Why couldn't I just be content with "the cozy Christmas feel"? :)


I think the way they cut the white felt to look wavy like snow is cute on the table don't you?
I'm not a "snow village" or any kind of "set up a Christmas Village" type of gal....
for one thing...I don't have the room and for another......it's just not my "thing"....
It'd take me six months to set up these wonderful, elaborate villages that some people set up....(and during that time no laundry or cooking would get done :)!)
for another thing...I'd much rather just go look at and admire someone else's weeks of hard work...
but for anyone who does snow villages or has a collection of these adorable Byers characters and houses.....I think the "snow" felt topper is really a great idea!

The "Greening" Continues!

Yes...the tree is up....you'll notice it has to be kind of tucked behind

the sofa because of space issues. Isn't a major deal to figure out where
to place the tree? It is always a challenge but it always works out and
once those lights are twinkling who really cares if things are a bit crowded?

This arrangement on our coffee table was a gift I received several
years ago from a sweet friend, who is a very talented floral designer.
I added some fresh greenery and berries and one would never know that it isn't totally fresh arrangement.

OK...not to brag...but this arrangement below is the one I am most proud of!
A few weeks ago, Mr. Sweettea was out in the back yard pulling down this vine that was wrapped around one of our giant cedar trees.
He proudly showed me the vine he was yanking out of the tree when I suddenly screamed!
I realized it was a vine of bittersweet! I LOVE bittersweet! I pay good money for dried bittersweet vine!
In fact, I had my brother buy some for me last year at the craft fair and 
he was shocked at how expensive a dried up old vine was!(What is it about these guys that they don't appreciate fine things like bittersweet?)
Last year, after I was through with the vines, I threw them out in my back yard and I guess a bird or the wind carried some of the berries up under one of our cedar trees
where it proceeded to grow into a lovely vine. Mr Sweettea wasn't too happy that his "vine destuction" project was called to an abrupt halt and his new instructions were to carefully retrieve it for me.
But I convinced him that we were growing a "high dollar crop" and that if he didn't pull it up by the roots we would have a bumper crop of bittersweet in a few years!!
Below in the vase is the first bunch of our soon to be bumper crop of bittersweet!!


"I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I
in him, He will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."

John 15:5 NIV

The Hanging of the Greens

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING POST!
Besides being A.D.D., I am seriously "tech" challenged!! The mere fact that my blog is up and running is a minor miracle! The fact that some photographs are also included is another miracle! The fact that some of these pictures below vary in size from huge to mini are beyond my tech reasoning! Believe me when I tell you that I am not the sort of housekeeper that would deliberately enlarge a picture to such a degree that you can probably see the dust bunnies on and under the furniture! I have worked and worked to correct the situation until I convinced myself there is no such thing as "blogger's jail" and I would just live with it! I hope you will too! (Besides, it might make you very happy to find dust bunnies all around my house!) Someday, when I am a world famous blogger :)....and have "peeps" to do all my postings, ect. :), and actually own a camera that costs more than $99! :) ..... I will look back at these early blogs and laugh at them! For now....I will humbly ask you to pretend that these are all very high tech, expertly obtained pictures!! :) Now...on to business!

Oh how I love the Christmas season! Of course...it always seems to be here before I am prepared! The Hanging of the Greens had to begin immediately after Thanksgiving since I am hosting a little gathering of a girl's supper club that I'm in. We generally meet around each other's birthdays and have great fun talking, eating and mostly laughing!  It's a laid back group...which always makes it so much fun....we can wear what we want, cook what we want and say what we want! Anyway...I knew if I hosted it in early December we would be motivated to at least begin our Christmas decorating. I say "we" because Mr. Sweettea loves plays a large roll in the Hanging of the Greens... the all important task of getting all the boxes down and hanging the outdoor wreaths. Here's a peek of things so far.....

There's nothing like a little fresh pine, magnolia and cedar arranged thrown into a cachepot to say Merry Christmas as you enter the front door!

More fresh greens in a little cherub vase

Another cherub hung over a boxwood wreath that hangs over a mirror. I hung the wreath (a gift from my sweet friend SuSu) last Christmas and just couldn't ever bear to take it down! It is now a permanent fixture but I will remove the cherub after Christmas, though I really love her! You can tell that I really have "issues" with paring down my clutter....which is a BIG no no in the design world these days!! In the design world, now is the time for just a very few large, fabulous things on a table....clean and pared down! And I really love the look. So, clutter is "OUT" but my own home hasn't received the "design memo" quite yet!

Even the bunnies hold Christmas greens....


This bunny holds two vases and a candle on top! He is a multi tasking bunny!
I love and use him too much to only put him out in the spring. Besides, if I put
him away, I would probably not find him again for five years! I wish this picture
showed the pretty brown "log" candle on top before it burned down to a brown
and beige puddle! (Use your imagination!) Anyway...I really love to have tiny vases
around to hold greenery and flowers. It gives the same feel as having a large vase
of fresh flowers and greenery without all the time and expense.



More tomorrow...I'm tired! :)
Happy decorating to you and yours!~The Sweet Tea Cottage

God Bless America

Please remember to pray for the troops, families and community of Fort Hood.
Also, pray for our brave men and women serving our country all over the world.

More Hand Sewn Goodies

Ok...I promised y'all more pictures of the wonderful hand sewn
pieces that my friend Annelle has made
for my sweettea grands over the years.
Here are a few....there will be more to come so stay tuned!!

I love this sweet day gown because it's made out of the softest flannel!
It was just snuggly just like the little sweettea snuggle bug who wore it!



Notice the little finishing touch of the blue rick rack matching the monogram?


This is the day gown that same little snuggle bug wore home from the hospital.
He looked like such a sweettea in it!

Sweet Tea Treaters!

OK...I am the first to say....I am not a big fan of Halloween!
But I think the sweetness of innocent children asking for treats is precious....
I just don't like how it has evolved.....I don't like the emphasis on the scary things.
I guess what I'm saying is I don't like the dark side of this day.
But......we love seeing the children's excitement and
enjoy what I like to call "harvest celebrations"!
Here's some of our visitors from this evening.....This shy little trickster is
appropriately dressed like a little cow......
appropriate because he takes great interest in milk!!!!
Someday he'll "love him some sweet tea" but for now...
it's all about the milk!


More sweettea tricksters...one is heading to
a cotillion costume party while the other one
will go out daddy and friends.

This neighbor friend planned on trick or treating until she saw the rug and decided "not so much"..... it was just too much trouble!!

Now...the only problem is what to do with all that leftover candy! Hmmmmm...
Be safe all! The Sweet Tea Cottage

What a cute spider tee!

Look what my talented friend made for my sweettea grand!
She made one for one of her sweettea grands too!
She found these organic cotton tees at Wal Mart.
Annelle is incredibly talented. She is a master seamstress
specializing in french heirloom sewing for children.
I cannot begin to tell you about the beautiful clothes
she has made for my grands throughout the years.
I tease her that if I were really rich, I would hire her
to sew an outfit every week! I will try to show you some other
things she has done for the grands in future posts.
But for now....take a look at the fun tee that she appliqued.
Here's a close up so you could see the cute details.
Notice how she even embroidered little orange shoelaces?

Thank you Sweettea Miss Annelle, from all of us! Love, The Sweet Tea Cottage

Wanna cup of coffee?

Good Morning! I thought I'd share some of this darling, yummy
coffee with you this morning.
It claims to be so good that it "lives up to your silvuh!"......

now, that is quite a confident claim, don't you think?

I have to look out the window again and peak at a turning tree....you know, this beautiful
fall display of God's handiwork doesn't last very long!
Enjoy your coffee and have a blessed day! The Sweet Tea Cottage
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

The leaves are turning!

I don't seem to be moving very fast today....... I keep wanting to just snuggle up on the sofa,
look out the window and watch the leaves turn!


"You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing." (Psalm 65:9-13)

Carpet

My client and I have been shopping for carpet for her guest room.
Isn't this a pretty pattern? I just love the colors on this board!
This picture doesn't really show the true color. It is a beautiful robin's egg blue!
Have a colorful day!~ The Sweet Tea Cottage

Kitchen equipment!

Now...about that new beater attachment I mentioned in the last post.....
it's called scrape -a- bowl. It's a mixer attachment that scrapes the entire
bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer. It makes all that stopping and scraping
the bowl unnecessary.
I got mine at Williams -Sonoma with a gift certificate my brother gave me.
It works great with cake batters. It is not to be used with heavy batters, like
cookie batters......but for lighter batters, I really like it!
Happy mixing!~The Sweet Tea Cottage

Fall, pantries and canned pumpkin!

Hi y'all! Welcome to fall at The Sweet Tea Cottage!

Fall is such a wonderful time of the year! Fall is football, school activities, crisp cool air, apples, pumpkins, craft fairs, trees blazing with fiery colors and the clearest, bluest skies of the year ! To me, it's a season that creates a yearning to nest, to gather, and to make our homes ready for the coming winter months. Now, realistically, most of don't have to "gather" the harvest as our grandmothers did in "times of old"......but doesn't it seem to bring a certain nesting, comforting feeling to stock our pantries in anticipation of cold winter nights and the coming holiday celebrations?

Speaking of "gathering" and stocking pantries....we have a normally common, but now "hard to find" item at our local grocery stores! Would you believe that we've had the hardest time finding canned pumpkin? The grocer said they have had a hard time getting it and when they do get in a small shipment, it has immediately flown off the shelves!

Now...I realize that this canned pumpkin shortage does not constitute a national emergency....but it was a reminder to me of how much I take it for granted that an item will always be available whenever I need it. I was so thankful to find at least one can buried in my pantry. The moral to the canned pumpkin story? A full, stocked pantry is just a very good thing to have.....but beware, you have to keep on top of it or you will find yourself with expired, therefore, wasted items! (Not that it's ever happened to me! ;)

O.K.....now that I have everyone running to their grocery store for canned pumpkin.....how about the easiest and most delicious pumpkin dessert you could ask for? It's called Pumpkin Pie Cake. Some even say they no longer make pumpkin pie because this is soooo easy and soooo good! I really thought everyone had this easy recipe until I took it to a friend (who's a great cook with a library full of cookbooks), and she said she'd never had it before and she loved it!

Gather all of your ingredients together, measure everything, crack the eggs, ect.....
The French call this preparation (as my "grand" chef,  Miss B has already learned)
"mise en place" (pronounced "meese au plas") meaning everything in its place.
It makes cooking so much easier, right Miss B? Although.......I am sure a French cook
would not be impressed with a recipe that dumps everything in a baking dish and
throws cake mix on top of it! Sorry Julie and Julia...we like it! :)
Mix all the filling ingredients together. (Remind me to tell you about this new beater
attachment in another blog!)
Pour the batter into a 3 qt. baking dish or divide into two smaller dishes if you wanna
share :). Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the top.
Pour the melted butter over the top of the cake mix.
Sprinkle pecans over the cake mix and put in preheated oven.
When it's golden and set, place on a rack to cool. Our screened porch was the perfect place
for me to let these cool.

This one is half pecans and half plain because it's going down the road
to the grands!
Now....if only I could find someone to clean up my mess! :)

PUMPKIN PIE CAKE
Filling:
1 29oz can pumpkin (or one jar of Williams-Sonoma butternut squash)
4 eggs
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Topping:
1 box yellow cake mix (or spice cake mix)
2 sticks melted butter (I use only 1 and 1/2 sticks...it's still good!)
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix filling ingredients together. Pour into buttered 9x13x2 baking pan. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Pour melted butter on top. Bake in preheated oven 350 for about 45 minutes until set and golden. You can serve this with whipped cream or ice cream but it's wonderful just all by itself!