Sweater Diaries #6 and Christmas :)

Merry Christmas, everybody! And if you’re not celebrating Christmas… happy holidays!

Today was a very exciting day, not just because I got some British presents and tea, but also because I was introduced to an awesome charity.

Kiva is a charity that lets you give loans to people and groups trying to make home improvements, buy a new car, or start up a business, etc. I helped a woman in Jordan pay for home improvements, and a man in Mongolia pay for a new, eco-friendly car. The cool thing is that once the person pays back their loan, you can use your credit to help someone else! My brother and I both got $25 cards for Christmas, and we immediately hopped onto the computer to check out who we could help. I encourage you to check out the website, and maybe even give a $25 card to a family member of friend for their birthday.

Anyways, here are some pictures of some awesome presents I got.

 

Merry Mint Chocolate Tea

Vanilla Rooibos Tea

A LOTTO scratch ticket that won $75 (erm… it’s my mom’s? but she’s giving me the money? hehe)

A teapot shaped like a telephone booth

British shoes

I also worked on my sweater (as always haha)

Almost done with the second sleeve!

Until next time, Em 🙂

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Secret Santa and Delicious Tea

At my school, a yearly tradition is giving another student “secret santa” gifts. This year, the themes are “warm/cozy”, “tasty”, and “first letter of their name”.

For warm and cozy, I made a hat (snowflakes, if you can’t tell):

EDIT: I also knit a cute little bow tie! I’ll post a a picture sometime 🙂

For tasty, I’m giving her Starburst (her favorite candy) and some homemade snicker bars:

For first letter of her name, I compiled a bunch of “spa essentials” from Ulta’s Black Friday Sale (5 for $5) and from Target’s $1 section:

Fairisle socks, snowflake socks, a face mask, red nail polish, a pumice stone, and Frosted Sugar Plum face wipes.

I also made some bags to package the gifts in – and for family gifts also. It was super convenient that Green Club at my school (which I co-lead) had a sewing party today, because I got to make 9 bags today. Hehe.

I’m using the maroon shapes bag, the holiday lights bag, and the green holiday decorations bag.

Also, my dad got me some new tea! This is one of my very favorite teas, Market Spice Cinnamon Orange Black Tea. It’s super cheap when you buy loose leaf, which is great. I found this tea when one of my mom’s friends introduced me to it. Ever since, I’ve been in love with it.

Until next time, Em 🙂

Tea Review #1

Yesterday I received a Very Special Package. The Very Special Package included seven kinds of tea… om nom nom.

I ordered: “Organic Root Beer Float,” “Strawberry Shortcake,” “Birthday Cake” and “Ice Cream Cake” teas.

But guess what? I got three free samples!

I sampled: “Love Tea #7,” “Organic White Tiger” and “Green and Fruity” teas.

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The “Ice Cream Cake” tea includes: Black tea, carob, ice cream bits, white chocolate pieces, vanilla, rainbow sprinkles, natural and artificial flavouring.

The “Ice Cream Cake” tea smells like chocolate and vanilla. It tastes sort of like Neapolitan ice cream – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. It’s a little milder in the cup than in the bag.

The “Love Tea #7” tea include: Chinese black tea, dark chocolate, freeze-dried strawberry, red rose petals, natural and artificial flavouring.

The “Love Tea #7” tea smells like chocolate, rose, and a tiny bit of strawberry. It tastes like chocolate and black tea, with a hint of rose and strawberry. It’s much milder in the cup than in the bag.

The “Organic Root Beer Float” tea includes: Organic: black tea, vanilla, cinnamon, white chocolate, safflower, organic and natural flavouring.

The “Organic Root Beer Float” tea smells just like root beer – vanilla, cinnamon, and safflower. It tastes like hot, flat root beer – a delicious but acquired taste. It’s a little milder in the cup than in the bag.

***All ingredients are copied from www.davidstea.com

I hope you enjoyed my tea reviews! I will be trying the other four teas soon so I’ll upload reviews for them as soon as possible.

Until next time, Em J

Recipe Time: Dublin Fog and Vanilla Syrup

This is a recipe near and dear to my heart. I drink this whenever I want a flavored drink that isn’t coffee and isn’t tea. A Dublin Fog is steamed milk, concentrated tea, and syrup mixed together. Here’s my favorite recipe!

Recipe Time: Dublin Fog

¼ cup hot water

1 Irish Breakfast tea bag (I use Stash Super Irish Breakfast)

1 cup 2% milk

1 tbsp vanilla syrup

1. Take a glass measuring cup and put in ¼ cup of water. Microwave until hot enough for making tea, or use a hot water dispenser.
2. Pour the hot water over the tea bag and let steep 3-5 minutes, depending on the strength desired.
3. Microwave 1 cup of milk for around 48 seconds, using the glass measuring cup from step one.
4. When the tea is done steeping, take the tea bag out and pour in the hot milk.
5. Add 1 tbsp (or as much as desired) vanilla syrup. Stir.
6. Enjoy!

Inspired by the London Fog recipe on wikibooks.org

Recipe Time: Vanilla Syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract (1/2 tsp if a lesser strength is desired)

1. Heat the water and sugar over low/medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the vanilla extract
3. Pour the mixture into a glass jar or bottle and cover. Refrigerate until needed.

Inspired by vanilla syrup recipes on A Beautiful Mess and Annie’s Eats

Until next time, Em 🙂

Vivacious events…

Does that title even work? I feel like the word vivacious can’t describe a noun besides a person, but whatever…

Some good stuff that’s happening this week:

1. Yearbook class! I’m really enjoying making fun layouts for different grades and learning how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to make shapes… it’s harder than it looks.

2. My tea is being shipped! We don’t have very good tea in our house… Irish Breakfast and English Breakfast are good but I get tired of it really fast… currently I’m having chocolate mint tea that expired in August 2010… this is what it has come to.

3. My last barista class! This means I can work at a coffee shop now!

4. Scrapbook club! This already happened, and it was really fun to look at old pictures of me and my family! I also made lattes for some of the ladies there – using an espresso machine – good barista experience!

5. The weekend! I am so sick of school already… and it’s only been a few months. It’s weird, but days seem to go on forever but before you know it two months have gone by!

Until next time, Em 🙂

First time linking up!

I sure love tea…

I’ve had a sudden interest in tea lately. Why tea, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe it’s because I had a spectacular cup of chai tea latte… or maybe because I learned how to make a Dublin Fog. Either way, I now love tea.

My family, though? They don’t love tea so much. My mom likes it occasionally, but in boring flavors like Peach and Earl Grey (who drinks this? I found a bunch of unmarked Earl Grey teabags in our “mystery box” aka our leftovers box and I accidentally had one… ew)

My brother and dad think that we have too much tea… I don’t think that seven boxes are too many. We need some variety.

Because we need some variety, and because I hate Earl Grey and green teas in general, I decided to get some new teas.

Strawberry Shortcake

Organic Root Beer Float

Birthday Cake

Ice Cream Cake

Yum 🙂

And I found some more delicious looking teas!

Adagio has a great selection of blends:

James Potter – Irish Breakfast, Candy Apple, Gingerbread blend

Butterbeer – Caramel, Cream, Vanilla blend (all the things that go into actual butterbeer, which I’ve made before!)

Hello Sweetea – Valentines, Cinnamon, Vanilla Oolong blend with rosehips

Madman with a Cuppa – Rooibos Vanilla Chai, Almond Oolong, Ceylon Sonata blend with chocolate chips

Birthday Cake Tea – Vanilla, Rooibos Vanilla Chai, Honeybush Vanilla blend

Along with some great plain teas:

Valentines (tastes like chocolate covered strawberries)

Christmas

Stocking Stuffers – candy cane, pumpkin spice, candy apple, gingerbread, chestnut and cranberry

Also, my friend is bringing me the

TARDIS Blend – Earl Grey Bravo, Blackberry, Vanilla blend (which apparently tastes like a blueberry muffin)

Until next time, Em 🙂

P.S. ~ A teacher at my school just walked into the classroom I’m doing my homework in and asked me if I was making progress on the History reading… yeah, if you call browsing teas online progress.

Standardized testing is the bomb

Today I have the PSAT test… yep this is going to be a very fun-filled day. Not.

I do, however, have five hours after the test to stay at school and do my history reading (the test is tomorrow)… I really don’t want to do this. It’s called procrastinating for a reason.

Definition according to Wikipedia: “procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time”

Like, browsing tea. I definitely “derive enjoyment” from that.

om nom

Until next time, Em 🙂