Dear Friends and Teashop Girls,
Are you excited for Thanksgiving? I know I am, because I love PIE! I hope you have a wonderful day with your families.

I’d like to share a special recipe to help put you in the holiday spirit. It’s my mom’s delicious pumpkin quick bread. You can make it in little loaf pans or in cupcake tins to make yummy muffins. I hope you enjoy it! I just made these two weeks ago, and they disappeared quickly.

PUMPKIN BREAD
1-1/2 C Sugar
3/4 C. vegetable oil
1 can pumpkin (16 oz size)
4 beaten eggs
2/3 Cup Water
3-1/3 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 C. raisins (I soak the raisins in very hot black tea–try chai!– for about 15-20 minutes before adding them to the batter. They plump up-yummy!)

Mix sugar, oil, pumpkin, eggs and water. Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased bread pans. (usually 3 small loaves or one muffin tin) Bake 50 min at 350; makes 12 large muffins or 3 loaves.

The next order of business is holiday gifts. I know some of you readers are super-organized and probably already half-done with your shopping. Great job! Can you come to Wisconsin and help me with mine, please? Anyway, I am selling signed copies of both The Teashop Girls (in paperback) and The Secret Ingredient (hardcover) for gifts this year. I will tie the books up with a pretty ribbon and pouch of tea and send it right to your door. Here is pricing info, including shipping costs:

Both books: $25
The Secret Ingredient only: $18
The Teashop Girls only: $10

E-mail me to make payment arrangements. If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to introduce your friends to the world of the Steeping Leaf, this is it!

Now, more big news before I sign off to drink some Vanilla Thrilla rooibos tea and bake some PIE. I have a new book out! It’s a novel for older teen readers and adults. It is called NOTES TO SELF, and it is about a girl with a traumatic brain injury who lives in Florida. I plan to release several new books for teens and adults under my new pen name Avery Sawyer. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Notes-to-Self-ebook/dp/B006AY9UGK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322062755&sr=8-1. Thanks for looking, but remember…only purchase the book if you’re in high school or older. Yay new books!

I hope you and your family have a tea-rrific holiday tomorrow.

All my very best,
Laura

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Laura Schaefer
Author
The Secret Ingredient
The Teashop Girls
www.teashopgirls.com

Founder and Publisher
Planet Explorers: travel guides for kids
www.planetexplorers.webnode.com

As most of you know, there is an IvyKeep shop on Etsy while we get our move to our spiffy new website all figured out. I love buying handmade and would like to share some of the other shops you can find on Etsy.

This Etsy Shop Hop is sponsored by HOST (Helping Others Street Team) please visit their store and help other Etsy members in need:

My favourite item in their shop right now? This one:

A pair of White Crochet Dishclothes

Something else I found during this Shop Hop:

A very nice necklace by SlenderGrasshopper. Check out her stuff!

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Looking for a little bit more exposure for your ownEtsy Shop and Blog?

Why not join our Etsy Shop Hop?  Here is how to participate.

1. Add your shop Avatar to the list below and use your etsy shop URL for it..
2. In a blog post on your blog, link to your favourite items from the two shops ahead of you on the list.
3. Add the Shop Hop code to your blog with these same instructions.
4. Post your blog URL below in the comments.

So – when this is done, not only do you get at least two new links to your items from another blog which helps you be found, but you also might get more followers to your blogs and visits to your shops.

It’s worth a try anyhow.