February's Finished Project

Thanks to Pinterest, I was dead-set on sewing some tiny teabags for my niece's 3rd birthday as soon as I saw the tea set on her wish list. Unfortunately, one of my two favorite Pinspirations was in French, and the other had no pattern. With the help of Crafty Mommy, I spent an afternoon making disgruntled noises at a sewing machine and bonding with a seam ripper. But finally, I had four cute little teabags to go with her cute little tea set and a new book, Bunnies for Tea!

Source #1

Source #2

Trial and error all the way through...

I think she likes it!

Between the rainbow tutu and the rainbow cake,
I think my sister-in-law gets the Pin-Win award this time!

Tea Station

It's so nice to have my computer back!  The power supply died earlier in the week, and I've had five days to experience how a smartphone is not a good substitute for a good old-fashioned desktop.  Thank you to my BIL for helping Dave get it back up and running!  While the computer has been out of commission, I received a belated Christmas present from my best friend in California.  Pretty awesome for her first counted cross stitch project, don't you think?  I know exactly where I'm going to hang it, but the problem is, we don't have that space in our current living accommodations.

I found this image of a coffee station on Pinterest a while ago and decided we would make space for a tea station in our next house.  Instead of a Keurig, we'll have our electric kettle, and all of those baskets will be filled with tea.  Heather's cross stitch definitely fits in with this plan--picture it on the top shelf with several of our fancy bed & breakfast mugs!

Original Source: For the Love of Coffee

Counting My Blessings #1

After an emotional rollercoaster of a week, I thought it might be nice to try a new weekly post for me to "count my blessings" instead of getting fixated on all of the unknowns that have been stressing me out lately.  It's a way for me to reflect on the positive things that made me smile this week.

1. Tea time with my favorite youngest sister last weekend and the smell of the new tea flavor I picked up while we were there: Mango Paradise 
2. I'm slowly swapping out all of our brass fixtures in preparation for putting the house on the market, and I managed to purchase all of the replacement light fixtures for inside our house for under $100--yay!
3. Adding a few books to my "to read" pile because of a discussion at Book Club: Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (no, I've never read this classic), Around the World in Eighty Days by Michael Palin (someone who actually traveled the route of the novel), and Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (a fictional account of two female journalists racing to complete the book's journey)
4. Dave finally got his vacation approved!  Now I can actually make reservations at the Eight Gables Inn... if they get some spring specials posted soon ;-)
5. This text picture of my niece puppy, Layla.  I guess she was cold and tired, and I can totally relate!

Mommy, it's past my bedtime...

Benefits of Tea

The Tomato Cafe & Tea Room

Dave and I just got back from a week-long beach vacation in Florida. Using the wonderful TeaMap Directory, I located a tea shop in Havana, about an hour north of our final destination.  We made a late afternoon stop at The Tomato Cafe & Tea Room on the drive down.  Dave tried a Gingerbread Creme black tea, and I ordered the Snickerdoodle black tea.

The verdict: Dave liked his tea, and I really wanted to like mine, too.  It smelled wonderful, but it tasted funny.  I realized the next day that the problem was the Florida tap water when I brewed one of my regular teas for breakfast and couldn't force myself to finish it.  Unfortunately, the Tomato Cafe didn't seem to have tea for sale loose-leaf or in teabags.  This probably won't be a stop on future road trips unless I bring bottled water for them to use for my tea, and sadly this has confirmed that I am a tap water snob...

The Roswell Teahouse

Earlier this month, I discovered TeaMap, an online tea room directory (with an app to match!)  Taking advantage of this new resource, I located The Roswell Teahouse en route to the restaurant where we were meeting Dave's family for dinner.  We arrived shortly before closing, and while I opted to try the iced Vanilla Peach tea, Dave ordered a pot of the Scottish Carmel Puerh.  We both liked his tea, and mine would have been more wonderful if it had been sweetened prior to being iced (unsweet tea, bleh).

The verdict: The price tag for hot brewed teas are a bit steep (around $5 for a one-person pot) compared to other tea shops I've visited, and Dave found the Scottish Carmel Puerh at ZenTea last weekend.  While I would not object to going back to Roswell to sample some of the other teas from their menu, I'm not going to go out of my way for a special trip.

ZenTea's Atlanta Tea Room

This past Christmas, my favorite baby sister gave me some loose leaf tea from the ZenTea tea shop she discovered around the corner from her work. I liked the Iced Berry Wine flavor so much, I dragged Dave to the shop over the weekend to pick up some for a co-worker's birthday.  While we were there, he tried a licorice black tea and I had an Iced Matcha Latte.

The verdict: Cute little shop with an impressive selection of teas and a super-friendly staff; I could definitely spend a happy afternoon drinking tea and knitting or reading in their Atlanta Tea Room!

The only storefront for eZentea.com is in Atlanta.
Like those stormclouds?  We got to watch it pour while sipping our drinks.

We brought home a new tea strainer so both
Dave and I can brew loose leaf tea at the same time!

Tea Problem

Do I have a tea problem or organization issues? Or both? 

The home stash

Dave's favorite: Lipton's Black Pearl

The work stash

My (current) favorite: Adagio's Grapefruit Oolong