Toile Tea Time (or Wishlist, Too)

Bella ceramic tea kettle at Macy's

Today my daughter and I met up at Somerset Mall for a little shop and talk. Our meet-up place is Starbucks, third floor at Macy's. Here, as our tradition dictates, Rachel treats us to a caffeine drink to fortify us for the journey ahead. Today, I had a "skinny" chi latte (which we have found are bit heavy on the peppery spice - it hits you the more you drink).

Anyway, before we even left the third floor to the grand entryway into the mall, Rachel pointed out this magnificent toile tea display. Front and center - a Bella ceramic teapot. It's absolutely adorable and combines two of my favorite things - tea and toile.

But wait! there's more. Macy's had additional black-and-white toile tea accessories alongside the Bella tea kettle. There were toile teapots and mugs  from Certified International Drinkware. To borrow a line from the movie "Funny Girl", my first response was "hello gorgeous!"

  Certified International Drinkware has matching toile teapot and mugs

Rachel asked, "Do you need to make a new wishlist?"  I responded that it might be necessary. As if on cue, she recalled that my birthday is next month. "Would you like something like that for your birthday?," she added. I took that to be rhetorical.

So, when I got home, I searched for "Bella ceramic teakettles" and found reviews on both Target and Macy's websites, all primarily favorable with the most often cited "con" attributed to the weight of the kettle. But there was a consistent message in all the reviews, saying the positives outweighed the negatives. Hmmm. Looking even better.

I also searched a little further on  Macy's site and found the same matching tea toile accessories - the black and white patterned teapot and mugs from CID - that were at the store, but with a bit larger selection. There's also another brand, Homewear, that has similarly patterned tea towels, aprons and tea trays (all on sale right now).

"Hello gorgeous, you are now on my wishlist"

When tea and toile unite, it really is a lovely pairing - and worthy of  inspiring yet another wishlist. Coincidence that my birthday is less than a month away? (I believe that's another rhetorical question).