Random

I like it when lids have something printed on the inside.

Spring Yarn and Tea Swap

So here are is how the Spring Swap went down:

My partner sent me all this. Plus more. I always get excited to take the photo and miss something. She also sent me fill-em-yourself tea bags, a hand-painted card, and passes to the San Antonio Zoo!

So I sent her a box with all this.

It was amazing. She sent me a little zippered bag from Pearl River Mart that I had almost bought for myself a few weeks earlier. And I sent her Lacey's cookies, which she apparently knows and loves.

I get excited about the swaps and I've already bought things for the Summer swap, which doesn't start until August probably.

Cupdate

Remember my new cup? Well, here is an updated picture of what it looks like now. At first only the sides were staining, and only the small ginkgo was visible. Now both of them are visible.  I think I might hit up a couple of Goodwills, see if I can find a couple more cups, etch them, then attempt to sell them on etsy.

New Tea Cup

Since my Beloved Dragon Cup broke last Fall I have been searching for a new tea cup. Inspired by these tea cups I decided to create my own tea cup. I bought two standard white mugs at Goodwill: one for experimenting on, and one that would be my final mug--because I loved the shape and size. I experimented using some etching cream that I bought at Hobby Lobby. It seemed to work, but I had to leave it on a long time, and the stencil I bought didn't work/stick very well. I came up with the idea of using some kind of stickers. What sticks really well? Duck tape. They sell it in sheets at the craft stores, so I picked up a sheet.

I have been hemming and hawing for months about what to etch into the cup. A spiral? My initials? A cat? All those things are a little hard to cut out. I was planning on just etching a design at the bottom of the cup and leaving the rest of the cup intact. Today I decided I want a cup! I decided to etch ginkgo leaves into the cup. Then Ross suggested doing the negative--instead of the way I had been thinking before. Brilliant! One of the reasons I hadn't etched the cup was because I was trying to figure out how I was going to stick a flat piece of sticker on the rounded inside of the cup without distorting the shape I had cut out. Placing just stickers and etching the rest of the cup solves that problem.

I traced and cut out two of Gingie's leaves. I peeled off the backing and stuck them in the cup. Then I placed a straight line of tape along the inside of the cup. I carefully rubbed all the stickers down to make sure they were stuck on really well. I slapped on the etching cream--very thickly. Then I took a nap. You see, I always want to take the cream off right away, and I needed to give it time to work. The etching cream was on for about 2 hours. I washed it off--and I could tell that the surface was different. It seemed to have worked so I peeled off the stickers and washed the cup really well.

You can see the shininess of the ginkgo in the second photo. The inside of the cup is very smooth, kind of velvety. I'm going to make a cup of tea now--and start the staining process. I'm so excited!

Cause for Celebration

Yesterday was an awesome day.

It was a beautiful day out. I hung out some laundry and ran my errands with the top down. One of my errands was going to the bank to pay off my car. Yep. Now it's alllllll mine. I'm super happy because now we don't have any car payments. I was ready to celebrate.

When I got back from running errands I found these on the table. Flowers and unsweet tea. My booboo knows what I like.

So yesterday was Valentine's Day. I have plenty to celebrate on this totally kitchy, doesn't mean much to me holiday--and every day. I have a great husband. He puts up with my craziness. He loves me. He supports me in everything I do. All that and he's got the cutest bum ever. I also have Bailey, who comforts me when I'm sick, and snuggles with me--even if it is just to steal my warmth.

So to celebrate the car being paid off and it being February 14th we went to Five Guys. It's just what we do. When we got there we found a line, which was a little surprising. The funny thing was there wasn't much of a line at Amy's and The Cheesecake Factory had a very long line and at least an hour wait. I'm sorry. I'm not waiting in line to eat overpriced, mediocre food. And if I wanted to eat some place that bad, I'd just wait until the next day if I walked up on a line like that. What makes February 14th the Ultimate Day to express your love?

After our burgers and fries we laughed at the people standing in line at The Cheesecake Factory, skipped the long line at Amy's, and went home to celebrate with caramel popcorn. Nom Nom Nom. It was a perfectly sweet and salty end to a great day.

This is what was left:

Goodbye My Beloved Dragon

My beloved cup is dead. As I've mentioned before, my mom bought this for me at CM. It was a good size and I could put it in the microwave. The best part was the handle.

I searched and searched the web, and can't find one like it. Pout. Pout. I have no idea what brand it is.  All I have is the mark on the bottom of the cup. I still have the padded box it came in--no markings. Oh well, time for something new I guess.  I'm really liking these tea cups.

I have no clue what this mark says.....

Happy Hour

Happy Hour at Sonic is too good to pass up.  I can get a Route 44 iced tea for 1.18.  On Friday I was passing Sonic as I was running errands and just had to stop.  I got two iced teas--one for me, and one for Ross.  The cup holders in my car aren't made for American-sized drinks.  I always have to hold the drinks as  I drive.  I stopped off at Ross's office and dropped off his iced tea and some Swedish Fish from IKEA.  Happy Friday Happy Hour!

On a somewhat related note:  This is the first job that Ross has ever had where I can visit him at work.  All of Ross's other jobs have been in a secure area.  I have never seen any of his offices or desks prior to this job.  It is nice to be able to drop in, say hi, and surprise him with Sonic.

Cast Iron Tea Pot

I've been using this cast iron teapot regularly lately.  I like it, but it does dribble if I overfill it.

The Tea

Looking at the tea I bought it doesn't seem that much, but I sure spent a lot of money.

I bought Happy Kombucha Oolong from David's tea.  The man helping me actually made me a cup to go, and I liked the pineapple flavor.

From Imperial Tea I bought Mihong Jasmine--Ross picked this one the first time we went there and it is his favorite.  He really picked a good one--I will always have this one in the tea cabinet as long as they keep selling it.  I also bought Orchid Oolong--one for me and one for Tejal.  I had ordered a sample from them last year and really liked the light flavor--it tastes of Japanese plum.  I also stocked up on  Keemun--getting the Imperial grade this time.  I call Keemun Company Tea, cause that's what I serve when we have company.  Oh, and I got Imperial Milk Oolong.  I couldn't resist the smell.

From Tillerman Tea I bought 3 oolongs: Muzha Tieguanin, Dong Ding Hong Bei Wulong, and Alishan Dong. My tea cabinet is overflowing.  I don't know where I'm going to put some of these.  I need to drink tea more often.  Maybe I'll make a cup right now!

Rainy Sunday in Napa: Oxbow Public Market

It was rainy Sunday morning, so we spent some time indoors at the Oxbow Public Market.  I had sworn off these kind of places because they tend to be the same kind of stalls over and over again and I have trouble deciding what I want, but this was different.  Oxbow Market is small and each stall is different.

Tiffany and I bought specialty salts and spices at Whole Spice Company.

A very nice man at Tillerman Tea sold me 3 different kinds of Oolong.  He didn't look at me like I was nuts when I asked for Dong Ding Oolong--in fact he had many different choices.  Unfortunately they were out of green puerh tuo cha.  I would have bought one.  I could definitely work in a spice shop or a tea shop.

We had lunch from C Casa.  I had a taco with meat that tasted like tamale meat (beef of course) and Ross had a duck taco. I wasn't very hungry--still stuffed with lamb ragout and coffee cake.

Cupcakes at Kara's Cupcakes.  Ross and I split a passion fruit filled cupcake and Ross, Tiffany and I split a vanilla cupcake.  The vanilla frosting on the passion fruit cupcake was like buttah--no grainy sugar at all.  The vanilla cupcake had vanilla-bourbon frosting that was more like traditional butter cream and very flavorful.  I would have liked the buttah texture with the bourbon flavor.

I got a cappuccino from Ritual Coffee Roasters to go with the cupcakes.  Finally got that pretty coffee.  It was amazing to watch the guy pour these.  Ross's latte was pretty too.  I'm going to buy a different milk pitcher and practice making foam and pouring.  I want to be able to make a heart like this or a leaf one day.  Oh, and I had just bought some vanilla sugar at the spice place, so we used that in our coffees.

Friday in San Francisco

I got to San Francisco around lunch time and I took the BART to town. I got off right into the Westfield Shopping center.  I started shopping, but decided I had to eat first.

I ate under this dome, which was beautiful until the light shows began.  It made it look so cheap when it turned red and blue or snowflakes were projected onto the dome.

I had a chicken and mushroom open faced sandwich and only ate two bites of bread.  I totally resisted the pastries at La Boulange (where I had lunch).  It was a miracle.  I had tea instead of coffee.  They gave me a tea bag in a regular glass with warm water.  The coffees looked so pretty, but I got a cup of pale tea.  Oh well.

I did some tea shopping, and waltzed over to Nieman Marcus in the rain to buy something I've been wanting for a while.  I then hopped back on the BART to get up to the Ferry Building.

I walked all up and down the Ferry Building and the smell coming from Acme Bread was killing me.  It smelled so luscious, but I was trying to be good.  Ross met me there at the Ferry Building. I ended up breaking down and getting Mac and Cheese and steamed vanilla milk from Cowgirl Creamery and shared them with Ross.

I also bought lots of tea at Imperial Tea.  And I bought some bath salts to use on the trip.  Oh, my bag when I got to San Francisco weighed 14 pounds!  My shopping added to that and I ended up putting things in my bag in my bag.

I think this is the best photo I took all weekend.

After the Ferry Building it took us almost 2 hours to get onto the freeway.  Rush hour traffic, holiday traffic, and lack of signs made for a grumpy couple heading up to Napa.

Dulce de Leche: Manna from Heaven

On our trip to California Tiffany introduced us to this heavenly caramel. We were devouring it on scrumptious slightly-sweet mini bagels, toast, whatever we could smear it on. Tiffany offered to send us home with a jar, but we didn't want to pay 25 bucks to check the luggage for a 7 dollar jar of caramel. This week I was wandering around Wegmans after picking up my favorite English tea--Typhoo, when I spotted this little gem. It has been opened, and I'm not sure how long it is going to last....now if only I could find those mini-bagels.

9th Birthday in NYC

We took the bus up to NYC to celebrate my 9th birthday. This is a great panoramic shot of the hotel room that Ross took. Man, the hotel was whack. The color combinations were awful, lamps in our room were broken, and the carpet was so ugly. It didn't really matter though. We were just there to sleep. Still, the white patent leather headboard was funny.

Our first stop in NYC was Ess-a-Bagel, where we got some breakfast. I only ate half of my poppy seed bagel with scallion cream cheese because I wanted to save room for everything else I had on my list of things to eat.

This photo is of one of the ceiling paintings in the New York City Public Library. The library was really cool. I like that it isn't just a beautiful old building, it is still in use.

After the libro we had some hot chocolate at Lily O'Brien's cafe. We got a dark hot chocolate and a milk hot chocolate. I think if we had mixed the two of them together it would have been perfect. I think the milk was a little too sweet and the dark was a little too flat. We also got some chocolates in a box to go. I had a ganache last night and it was pretty good.

Still full from hot chocolate we walked back up to Del Frisco's for steak and cake. My salad, steak, and cake were fabulous. As you can see we dug into the cake before I remembered to take a picture. This cake is so good that every time I eat it, I say I'm going to write an ode to it. I need to get around to that. This is my favorite cake of all time. It was wonderful with my cup of tea. I really didn't want to share with Ross, but there is no way I could eat it all myself.

We took the subway downtown after lunch and I bought some flavored green teas at Harney & Sons. I had a couple of cups of their Bangkok blend this morning. Mmmmm. Yummy.

We ate churros at La Churreria after we finally managed to find it. The churros were fresh and came with a chocolate dipping sauce, but I really didn't think they needed the sauce. They were better without it.

Then came shoes. We spent a while at Miz Mooz shoes. I left with two pairs. A pair of short lace-up boots and a pair of flats. I love them both. The boots were on my birthday wish list. I'm so happy I got them. I'll do a separate post with photos of all my bday presents.

Cake, shoes, and tea. I'm happy.

Tea Inventory

I thought I'd make up a tea inventory cause I was thinking of inviting someone over for tea and wanted to be able to tell them what all I have. Geez, I fit a lot of tea into that cabinet.

Loose Leaf
Almond Cake Green
Black Currant
Black Pomegranate
Blooms
Brown Rice Green
Burnside Oolong
Camellia Blossoms
Cherry White
Chrysanthemum
Don Ding Oolong
Earl Grey
Georgian Village
Ginger-Ginseng Tisane
Green Pu-Ehr
Honey Pheonix Oolong
Jasmine
Jin Xuan
Jujubee
Kabuse No. 2 (Green)
Keemun (Company)
Longetivity Green
Masala Chai
Mauritius Vanilla Black
Mihong Jasmine
Moroccan Mint
Oolong (Taiwanese)
Pu-Ehr
Rose
Texas Blend
Thai

Bagged
Alfalfa
Black
Cinnamon
Earl Grey
Ginger
Hibiscus
Horsetail
Jasmine
Sleepy Time
Tut

Drink Much?

I was looking for some pu-ehr tea this morning, and discovered that I had to open a new package and put some in the appropriately-labelled tin. I realized I had a lot of bags from Tea Embassy and a few empty tins, so I labelled the tins and emptied some of the bags into them. The tea cabinet looks a little better, and I found some things I didn't realize I still had.

Do I buy too much tea? I don't think so. I think the problem is that I don't drink enough! Ha!

I'm a chaholic, but I'm a binger (as with everything). I need to drink more every day, instead of just binging and drinking more once in a while.

And why pu-ehr? I read it can be slimming, and I'm desperate. With the discovery that I have a huge bag (that I just opened today), I will be binging on something that might help me slim down (instead of my usual binges).

fyi--this is by no means my entire collection.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Some of my favorite things were gifts, and they all show just how well the people who bought them know me.

Tiffany bought me this electric tea kettle. I love the shape and it works like a dream. I almost had a heart attack once when I thought it had broken. Nope, it is still going strong years later.
Ross's other wife, Tejal, gave me this little brown tea pot. There are so many things I love about it. It is my favorite color, it has an interesting texture, the strainer is metal, and it is the perfect 2 cup size. I know I'll be using this tea pot forever. Thanks Tejal, for not keeping this for your own collection!
I admired this tea cup at CM when I saw it and my mom offered to buy it for me. I protested at first, but eventually gave in. My mom likes to buy me things, and I really did like it. The dragon is like a relief sculpture on the cup and I love the way the tail extends onto the handle of the cup. I'm so glad I let her buy it for me.
I use all three of these things almost every day. I love the simplicity of each one and they each do their job perfectly.

Old School

My tummy has been giving me trouble lately, so I decided to try an old school remedy. I decided to make some gripe water. Mexican gripe water is made with bay leaves. Indian gripe water is made with dill. So----I make it with both. I put a pot of water to boil with some bay leaves and a hefty dose of dill. I let it boil for at least 20 minutes, then strained off the tea. I added a little honey, but I don't usually. It went down just fine, but I don't think it helped at all. I ended up getting out of bed last night to heat up my cherry pillow, take a prevacid, and down some mylanta. I was able to sleep, but this morning I'm still not feeling well. I think I've had the stomach bug that has been going around, but I have a very strong constitution, so it hasn't quite put me down. Instead I feel a little crappy, and very tired. Unfortunately this hasn't affected my appetite at all. Instead I'm always looking for something that I can eat or drink that might calm my stomach. I was actually thinking about breaking the no C and no Corn diet to drink a ginger ale last night. Yeah, tonight I might have to try the old school Honkey remedy: ginger ale and saltines. Ha!

What, Me, Obessed? No!

I consider myself a chaholic. I love tea. I was telling Ross that I saw a mug with Chinese characters on it and I thought it would be great to have a cup that says wuh ai cha and a plate that says wuh ai dan gao. I looked at him and asked Tiffany style, "You make for me?" He ignored me.

This week one of the doctors was talking with the secretary, Amy, about getting an electric tea kettle so we can start having tea at work. I told them I have a tea kettle in my basement office. Really, I do. Amy ordered a tea kettle for the upstairs office area (the exact same one I have in the basement!). I'm all excited that someone else is also into tea. We should have tea parties at work. That's started me back on my quest for tea accoutrements. I search for "noritake tea set" on ebay almost every day (along with a very intricate saved search for a jade bangle). I started looking at tea trios and found the one pictured above (Noritake of course) that I really like. Man, tea trios can be more expense than full tea sets!

Since the conversation with my coworkers about tea parties, I have bought a strainer so that I can brew loose leaf tea, and not just tea bags. I bought a little dish to put the strainer onto (of course!). I also bought ayurvedic tea, green jasmine tea, and Scottish biscuits to take to work. I'm going to take a tea set that my mom bought me into work. I just need to get a small strainer for the pot and some small white plates for tea biscuits.

If the roads have been plowed I'm going to Ten Ren tomorrow to buy some more Dong Ding Oolong Cha. I'm almost out, so I'll buy a big tin for home and a smaller tin for work. I'll also stop by the Asian market for some veggies and see if they have any other tea gadgets I can't live without. Then we'll go to The Luster's for the game.

I really think the world would be a better place if we all stopped in the afternoon and had tea and a snack. Oooh....and a nap. Oh yes, if only the whole world had snap time.

One Dozen

I managed to do the shred twelve days in a row. Yesterday was the first day that I didn't do it. I did exercise yesterday though. I started the day with yoga, walked, and did cardio and ab exercises in the hotel gym, so I'm not very upset about missing a day of the shred.

I'm in North Carolina right now. I have had a great trip so far. I stayed in a really nice place called the Carolina Inn, which is on the UNC campus. There is a boba place right next to the the building where I'm having my training. I am DEFINITELY going there today. I'm not going to pass up a chance for nai cha. Speaking of cha, I had a lovely pot of green oolong tea at dinner last night. Oh, dinner was duck soup. It was very tasty.

Being here in the South makes me homesick. Ross suggested that we go home over my birthday, but I might want to wait until Passover. We'll see.

The Book of Tea

I just read The Book of Tea. It was amusing and very educational. It not only chronicles the history of tea, but how tea has changed the world. It has three sections: Tea Gardens, Time For Tea, and The Taste of Tea, each authored by a different person. I now have a much better understanding of life of tea. My interest in buying a tea set was reawakened, as was my enthusiasm for drinking tea. Maybe one day there will be a Brown Cat Bakery, with an adjoining Brown Cat Tea shop.