Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

#2: Get yourself a piece of cake or some nice biscuits... like HobNobs. Yum!

PS: the chocolate-coated ones are more fun.
PPS: I like that HobNobs have their own Wikipedia entry.
PPPS: If you were super-organised, you could make your own. I recommend this cake, and these biscuits!

Look what I made

I came across this tutorial on the Etsy blog the other week, and thought: teacup painting! Genius! Surely I could give that a try.

So I did, and here are a couple of trial cups and saucers... what do you think?

It makes me happy to drink out of mine (which is the one with the boy and the balloons... ironically, my husband's is the one with the flowers. It just kind of turned out that way, and he didn't want to change).

Should I experiment a bit more, and offer some of them for sale in my shop or at a market stall, perhaps?

Useful things to do while you wait for the kettle to boil

#1: Fold the nappies.

Rainforest Tea Giveaway Winners!

Ok, for their bravery in entering a giveaway for a tea that is evidently too much on the adventurous-sounding side for many people... ;-) I am going to declare that ALL THREE entrants to my giveaway are winners!

Isis, Melanie and Deb, some Rainforest tea will be on its way to you as soon as I can manage it! I'll be in touch to get your postal addresses shortly.

Shop Sabbatical

Just to let you know I am putting my Etsy shop on sabbatical for a week or so. Baby feeding issues are disrupting our family life at present and I need to get this sorted out before I can think about anything else. Wish me luck!

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the giveaway from last week! I'll get to that a bit later today!

True Diversi-tea

Ok, I couldn't resist the pun, but take a look at this anyway... four different kinds of black tea, and how different they all are:

Arya Autumnal Darjeeling

Ceylon orange pekoe

Singbulli STFGOP First Flush Darjeeling

Yunnan Golden Tips

The Happiness of a New Teapot

This is my new pride and joy, a Tokoname teapot that I purchased at Taka Tea in the Strand Arcade in Sydney last weekend. I fell in love with the design of maple leaves (there was also a very nice cherry blossom one) and the fact that it has a built in mesh that stretches almost all the way round the inside of the pot - much better than an infuser basket, but I don't have to use my strainer! It pours like a dream - I wasn't sure how easy I would find using the sideways handle, but it's not difficult at all. It will, obviously, be dedicated solely to Japanese green teas.

 (According to O-cha.com, Tokoname is one of the 9 ancient kilns of Japan, and here you can see step by step photos of teapots being made by the throwing method or the slip casting method - how cool!)

The lovely people at Taka Tea were very happy to spend time talking with me about their teas and teapots (you can check out their online shop here). They also kindly brewed up a small pot of gyokuro for me to sample, which was deliciously light and fresh. I came away with a packet of first flush yabukita* which I haven't yet opened; I'll work my way through a few other things first, but I'm looking forward to it.


*this appears to be a clonal variety of tea bush widely grown in Japan, capable of adapting well to wherever it is planted. Handy!