Tea Time Tuesday

It's my favorite day of the week! Tea Time Tuesday!

Today is a mixture between a tea review and some new tea storage. The first is the tea review. This is an Israeli Tea that I received in the mail via Israeli Post (which was totally awesome!!). It's called Wissotzky Tea. I got the Classic, which is just a straight forward black tea, however they have all sorts of different flavors and teas. 

This particular tea is great for blending with other flavored black teas to give an extra kick. I frequently mix this tea with the blackberry sage tea I reviewed last week. It gives just an enough of an extra kick without losing the blackberry flavor. 

As a side note to go along with this post, the tea storage has changed and moved! It is not in our dining room on a small table. I am still working the final storage and display of all the tea items, but this is getting closer. 

Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning everyone! Happy Monday! 

This morning's quick tip is all about paper. Paper has a way of getting put into piles and then piling up really quickly. Not only does this lead to the feeling of disorganization, but it also leads to clutter. If you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about having an incoming box to help weed out the piles, but what do you do when you have the incoming box and still feel like everything is piling up? Start by trying to figure out what you have piling up. Is this bills? Letters? Magazines or catalogs? Once you figure out what exactly is in all of the piles, you can work at getting rid of the piles.

If the piles are bills, is there a reason that you are keeping them? Do you have or prefer a wireless option? A lot of companies have bills and statements available online or via email rather than mailing a statement. Is this an option for you and your family or office? If you still prefer to have a paper statement or bill, why is it still in a pile? Has it been paid? Is it waiting to be paid? Or has it been paid and is simply needing to be filed? When you sit down to work on paying bills, try and handle everything at that time, from reviewing the bill, to paying it, to then either filing or shredding the bill. That way it doesn't get put into a pile to be handled again later. 

If the piles are magazines or catalogs, they can be purged as well. Determine why you are keeping them. If it is a magazine is there an article or picture in it you like? If so, pull the picture or article out that you like, and toss the rest of the magazine. Store the articles and pictures in either a notebook or expandable file folder in order to keep them organized and put away. 

These are two easy ways to avoid having paper start to pile up and become cluttered. 

Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning everyone!! I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Today's quick tip is simple but needs to be said. If you are in a relationship and you are living together,chances are part of the space that you are organizing and re designing will contain your partners things.

The best option, is obviously to be able to sit down and organize together, but that doesn't always get to happen. If you are not able to get it done together, don't put it off until you can! You are able to get a lot done without your partner (probably more then you think). Go through the space (or small chunk of the space) and do everything that you can. If you stumble on something that your partner will need to decide on set it in its own pile. By the end of the session you should have majority of the space organized so that once your partner is able to go through their pile, the space is set and makes it easier for them to sit down and get their pile done. 

This method works really well if you have a partner who isn't totally on board or is a little more hesitant. Once you show them how great the space can look, they will get on board and get their part done! 

Tea Time Tuesday

Good morning everyone!! I've got some good news...it's not Monday!! That's cause enough to celebrate, but here is another reason...it's Tea Time Tuesday!!!

Today's review is one of my recent favorite teas. I actually drink this particular tea everyday, it is that good. 

Republic of Tea Blackberry Sage. So delicious. First off, when you open the tin the smell just flows out. It smells fruity with a small hint of something floral. It's soft and dainty yet not soft and dainty. Brewing the tea puts of the same smell and once you are able to start drinking the tea, magic happens. 

This tea tastes best combined with a straightforward black tea that gives it a little more robustness (is that a word?) or "kick". However this tea tastes good on its own as well. Pictures below from my afternoon tea (including the yummy treats I had to go with my tea). 

Monday Morning Quick Tip

Good morning everyone!! It is the start of a new fresh week! Hope everyone is doing well. 

This mornings quick tip is all about purging. When you come to a point that you are ready to get organized, you may also decide that it is time to get rid of things as well. There are three questions you should ask yourself when you are going through your items:

1. Do I want/like it?

2. Do I use it?

3. Do I need it? 

This will help you evaluate what items to keep and what to toss or donate. If the answer to two out of the three is no, the item goes. If you are not totally sure, then stick the item in a "maybe" pile and come back at the end of your organizing session. 

What questions do you ask yourself when organizing/purging? 

Flowering Friday- Gerbera Daisy and Stock Flower

Good morning everyone!! This weeks flowers were all about continuing with the bright spring colors. While the daisy's may sometimes be more of a late summer/fall type flower, I love how the colors really popped against our home and the blue vase!! 

Tea Time Tuesday!

Good morning everyone!!

Let's talk about tea kettles. I firmly believe in having a stove top tea kettle :) I have one currently sitting on my stove top in my favorite color.

There is just something about having a tea kettle on your stove and then using it. This particular tea kettle is the Kitchen Aid 2.0 Quart with Full Stainless Steel Handle and Trim Band in the color Cameo Blue. It is so nice! The whistle is very loud and very not expected. It will certainly let you know when the water is boiling. I haven't had any problems with the handle becoming too hot or the spout dripping water everywhere.

Now, I know that a tea kettle is not for everyone. I have two other options for hot water. One is an electric tea kettle. I have one that is currently at my office so that I can easily make a cuppa during my busy work day. The electric tea kettle is a great option as well, it doesn't have a whistle (or at least mine does not) and it fits just under 2 quarts of water. I have the Hamilton Beach 40870 Stainless Steel 10-cup Electric Kettle (which I don't have a picture of, because it is at my office :)). You simply press the button down to boil the water and it clicks off when it is done. The heating element is hidden underneath the kettle. It is a good reasonably priced tea kettle and gets the job done quickly.

Now, I also use a Keurig on occasion (mostly on the rare times that my husband and I are both home and he is sleeping), but it is not my favorite way to get hot water. It certainly heats the water and does the job, but it just isn't the same. I highly prefer using my stove top tea kettle.

Next week, I will have another tea review up for you! Until then, enjoy a nice cup of hot tea!

Flowering Fridays- A new look, Hyacinth and Daffodils

It's Friday! Congratulations on making through another week! As a reward, I have a post full of pretty flowers for you to look at!

This week, I continued with the spring colors as the weather continued with the clouds, rain, and gloominess. I picked up some pink Hyacinth bunches and some daffodils. I still had the english cottage roses, so I kept those as well. I love the contrast with both the pink hyacinth, yellow daffodils and blue mason jar as well as with the white roses in the large jar.

This provides the perfect touch to our entrance table!

The pink hyacinth provides a good contrast to the white roses.

Tea Time Tuesday- Tea Storage

It's a happy day today! It isn't Monday (that is over and done with for this week) and we get to talk about Tea! 

Today, as promised, I will go into my tea storage. I have two different storage options (well really I have three, but the third is simply a drawer for my "secondary"tea that isn't my favorite but isn't bad). 

First off, the way I have my tea stored right now is not my ideal or favorite option. At the moment, and in this house, it is about the only option I have. It is on a shelf below my mug and teacup storage. I have one section for my loose leaf tea and another section for the bagged tea's that I have. 

Lots and Lots of Tea!!

For my loose leaf tea I generally use tins to store the tea. I collect the tins and then place a label on the bottom of the tin with what tea is in each tin. I am still getting tins as I go along. The big thing about storing tea is that you want it to be air tight. My favorite tins to buy or the Teavana one's (the red, green and bronze tins), they are cute and have a rubber seal under the lid so they stay air tight.

Tea Tin from Target

For my bagged tea, which side note is mostly Twinings tea, I have a tea chest. This chest holds all the bagged teas and keeps them fresh. It is able to be closed but since the bags that I have are enclosed in their own individual bags I leave the chest open so it can be displayed. This is one of my favorite purchased in terms of storage. 

Well, there you have it. That is my tea storage at the present moment. It's not my favorite. I feel like it is a little cluttered and not set up as well as I would like. I am looking for a separate chest or cabinet that I can have all of my tea stuff displayed. Once I find it, I will definitely be sharing!!

Monday Morning Quick Tip- Magazines and Newspapers

Good morning! It's a new week and for me this week is going to be full of some changes to my routine! Going to be changing and adding things all throughout this month for a continued healthier lifestyle.

This mornings quick tip is all about those pesky magazines and newspapers that get piled up. Magazines and newspapers get saved for all sorts of reasons, maybe there is an article that you wanted to save or a design that you kept to implement in a room in the future. The problem comes from keeping the entire magazine. A lot of times when we find something in a magazine or newspaper we will keep the entire paper or magazine just for a couple of articles, or we get it in the mail and haven't read the magazine. They then get piled up in the corner and collect dust and make a room look cluttered.

Magazine's and Newspapers should be purged about once a month (or bi weekly depending how many magazines or papers you get). What I normally do (picture above) is pull my stack of magazines and papers and start pulling out any pictures or articles that I want to keep. I normally do this in our living room and have the tv on or a movie (this time it was Harry Potter :) ). I then take the article or picture that I have pulled out and put it in a notebook using some Mod Podge to glue it in. That way everything that I wanted to keep is in a central location. You can also use a binder with page protectors or a expandable file holder if either of those will work better for you.




This will look better and be less stressful in the long run to have everything in one location and tucked away rather than that stack of magazines piling up.