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.