must have Monday - tea in a pill + the best teapot ever

{amazing Lionel Richie teapot by LennyMud}

In case you weren't already aware, I flippin' love tea. I know, I know, British stereotype ahoy, but it's not my fault, I think it's just built in to our genetic make up, what can I say.

Over the last year, Jms and I have amassed quite a collection of teas - about 26 different types - but these are only of the leaf and bag variety...

How convenient would it be if you could get tea in a pill form? Never more would we have to worry about having milk in the fridge - you just add hot water and bingo - nyommy milky tea!

Come on down, Rosy Lee's Remarkable Remedy!

"Rosy Lee’s Remarkable Remedy are soluble tea pills, which were created in order to illustrate the medicinal qualities of tea. Tea is often used to relieve the stresses and strains of everyday life. Rosy Lee’s allows for a quick release in the form of soluble tablets that will dissolve in boiling water to create a relieving brew."

The product was designed by Kylie-Ann Homer, Sadie-Marie Dedman and Senwelo Foster, some very clever graphic design graduates from Kingston University.

What a super concept!

national wear a tea cosy on your head day

{what I wore}

OK, so here I am looking like an idiot in my tea cosy:

However, as much of an idiot as I looked, I raised over £100 for charity, so that's all good! Woo!

While scouring the internet for other people who were doing this today, I came across the Ulster Weavers blog and saw this a.m.a.z.i.n.g picture of the staff of the Ulster Weavers office proudly showing off their tea cosies and it made me a little sad that no one at my work wanted to join me in all the fun. But hey, it's their loss - I had a great time!

a charitea party - a tea cosy hat is mandatory

Yesterday, in my weekly blog trawl, I read a fascinating post on Kathryn's blog, Kat Got The Cream, about National Wear a Tea Cosy On Your Head Day. It rather amazes me that I had never heard of this day before now!

This year it is on Thursday 22nd September - this Thursday! Kathryn had a chari-tea party to raise money for the White Stuff Foundation , and provided her guests with cucumber sandwiches, a Victoria Sponge cake and all sorts of other goodies, including party games and bingo! Plus, of course, she wore her tea cosy on her head with pride.

When I mentioned it to a colleague at school this morning they were wholly unsurprised that it was something I wanted to do, and even offered up their own tea cosy for me to use! As generous as this was, I am actually hoping to make my own tea cosy for the occasion, but if that fails I know where to go.

I've been looking at lots of pretty tea cosies to get some inspiration, and some of them are pretty darn snazzy, I must say! Here are some of my favourites:

{spiky flowers by Cassi} {tiger drinking tea by minouette}

{foxy springtime by Julie} {bright birdy by Mary}

{buttony cosy by Geraldine} {knitted crown by Debi Birkin}

{felted cosy on knitty.com} {liquorice allsorts by Jacky Edwards}

How about some woodland animals, just for good measure:

{brown owl from Periwinkle Park} {pink squirrel by pig and company}

{grey squirrel by Deborah Brackenbury} {run with the hare by Sarah Hancox}

Oh, and just for fun, look what else I spied along the way: 

{Mary Poppins} {matryoshka} {librarian} {nun} all from Handmade Awards

I feel an obsession coming on...

must have - Tunnocks teacakes

I was recently treated to tea and cake at a friend's house. We drank tea and chatted and everything was splendid. And then she pulled out a box of Tunnocks teacakes. I loooove Tunnocks teacakes. If you don't know what they are, they're dome-shaped goodies wrapped in silver and red striped foil. They have a cake-y base with a dome of marshmallow on top, then covered in milk chocolate. Oooh, just thinking about them is making me drool slightly...

Anyway, it seems I'm not the only one with a bit of a teacake obsession, look at these Tunnocks-related goodies I spied on the interwebs:

{Tunnocks teacake cushion by Nikki McWilliams}

{Tunnocks teacake painting by Leigh Mulley}

{sparkly teacake bag by Gillian Kyle}

{Tumbling Teacake I by Nora Reid}

{giant Tunnocks Teacake on Pimp That Snack}

{Teacake owl digital print by Nikki McWilliams}

And now I think I'll put the kettle on and open up my emergency pack of teacakes... nyom!

afternoon tea - Swedish style!

Earlier today I had the pleasure of taking high tea with my friend Sarah of Fingers and Toes - a blog largely about cooking and knitting. This was to be no ordinary high tea though, this was high tea - Swedish Style!

Sarah had very kindly invited me to join her at a pop-up Fika parlour in central London which had been organised by Visit Sweden to promote the area of Skåne in Southern Sweden.

We turned up at 12:30 (in the rain, good ol' Britain) to find that Soho Square had been transformed into a little picnic area, surrounded by a white picket fence, with a large white marquee at one end. Under the marquee there were some handsomely-table-clothed picnic benches, at which we we were invited to sit. We were given a special blend of coffee (courtesy of Swedish roasters Löfbergs Lila) before being brought a beautiful cake stand full of tiny Swedish biscuity treats.

{image source}

The lovely serving ladies, in traditional Swedish dress, told us the history of Fika as we sampled some of the delicacies. The term Fika comes from the Swedish word for coffee, fik. In the early 19th Century, coffee was banned in Sweden because it was too much of a stimulant. This ban was lifted in 1822 and since then it was was even more important to take part in Fika, literally meaning 'coffee break'. Small biscuits were soon added to the tradition, and because the ingredients for biscuits were still so expensive at the time, the larger the selection of biscuits you could offer your guests, the more wealthy you would be thought. There was a lot of competition between hostesses, but the custom is to serve 7 different types of biscuits with your coffee.

The 7 types of biscuits we enjoyed today were made by Jan Hedh, the famous Swedish chocolatier and patissier, in his bakery in Malmö, in the southernmost province of Skåne. His own favourite of the biscuits we were served is the 'vaniljdiamant' (Vanilla Diamond), for which his recipe can be found here. Other Swedish favourites are 'kolabröd', a crispy toffee biscuit, for which a recipe can be found here, and 'havrekakor med russin', oatmeal and raisin cookies, for which a recipe can be found here.

If you're interested in sampling some Scandinavian treats for yourselves, check these out...

Nordic Bakery

Scandinavian Kitchen

Fika

a Guildford-based mini-adventure

vintage book love print by Marianne LoMonaco

Despite Guildford being only 27 miles south west of London, I have never before had a reason to visit. Just in case you're interested, some notable past residents of the Surrey town include: Lewis Carroll, P.G. Wodehouse, and Ford Prefect of The Hitchiker's Guide to The Galaxy (or so he claimed). But it was none of the above who had enticed me to visit.

My friend J and her long-term boyfriend have recently moved there together, and a couple of weeks ago J was taken to hospital and had to undergo surgery. The thing is, J and I are not super close friends, but when I found out about it, the first thing I wanted to do was go and see her and give her a big (gentle) hug and tell her that I love her.

She has had the last couple of weeks off work, and the doctors have signed her off until the end of the month, which should give her enough time to recover properly. But what is it that makes recovery even quicker, I hear you ask? Yep, you guessed it - cake!

I knew J was a fan of the beloved Jaffa Cake, and so my first ever Jaffa Cake Cake was baked especially for her. And my goodness it was good! If you haven't yet committed it to memory, I advise you scribble down the recipe on whatever surface you have handy right now. It was unbelievably delicious. I had no idea that the simple addition of Jaffa Cakes could do so much to a regular chocolate cake. I think I should try adding Jaffa Cakes to all of my meals in future. You'll have to try it to see what I mean (or alternatively, request it next time you visit).

The entire day with her and our friend S was lovely and I haven't giggled so much in ages. It was kinda like the other month when I reconnected with S - it felt easy and natural and I don't know why I hadn't done it sooner. I feel ever so slightly guilty that it took something so serious to happen for me to get my arse into gear and re-connect with her, but I'm very glad that I did. Better late than never, right?

being an artist + the return of breakfast club

I moved to London the year after graduating from art school (after having not lived in London for 10 long years) and found it very hard to settle into a rhythm of post-university art-making. I really needed a "proper" job that would give me enough money to pay my rent but wouldn't suck away all of my time, so I got a job in a primary school, where I worked with a little girl with autism. Although it was nothing like being an artist, it was a very creative environment in which to work, especially as she was such a visual learner. She loved the fact that I could draw, so I drew dozens of pictures of rabbits, tortoises and lions in her Maths book to help her learn mathematical concepts.

Unfortunately, that was the only real chance I had to be creative, as by the time I finished work in the evenings I was so exhausted, physically and emotionally, that the last thing I wanted to do was force myself to sit and draw. It's impossible to make art when you're unmotivated, and unfortunately, for a lot of the first couple of years in London I was very unmotivated. I was no longer at art school, I didn't go to a lot of shows, and none of the people in my immediate social circle were creative, so I felt as though I had completely lost the support network that I relied on at university.

After being in London for a while, a couple of friends from uni who were also living in London decided we should meet up and do some art together. We took turns to host, and as we often met in the mornings, gave our little meetings the name "Breakfast Club".

I loved Breakfast Club, it was the best thing for me at that time - it gave me the opportunity to discuss work with and get advice from people whose opinions I trusted and respected, as well as giving me motivation to make new work, and of course was a chance to see my good friends. There weren't enough Breakfast Club meetings as far as I was concerned, as we all had other commitments, plus I was now working full time so my mornings were not often free to sit about drinking tea and carving lino blocks. It was a real shame, but eventually Breakfast Club just kind of dissolved.

...that is, until last week!

JK was over from the US, where he moved after he married his Californian girlfriend, and was determined that a Breakfast Club reunion took place. It was great to see them again, and although we didn't actually get any art done, we had a great chance to catch up and chat and see how everyone else was doing. Nothing much had changed with me except I'd moved to a bigger flat, got a kitten and now had a proper studio space in which to work! Likewise, things were very similar with the other club members - still working and making art in their free time, though they were also getting commissions and having work in shows. Seeing them again made me realise just how much I love doing this arty stuff, and how much I miss it. Even if I don't get many commissions, and don't have my work in many shows, I am and always will be an artist, and I should never forget it.

Just in case you were wondering, here's some info about my fellow Club members' work...

James has a website and an Etsy shop where he sells cards, prints and postcards of his beautiful watercolour illustrations. He is awesome.

House With Turret Pink House Blue House Fire House
by James Keniston

Lisa has a lovely website and creates the most deliciously sumptuous paintings. She is awesome too.

Cat Looking Up by Lisa Freeman

Now I've just gotta get some of my own work up here... soon, I promise!

a splendid royal wedding

The Royal Wedding this morning was soooooooooo good!

- the dress was stylish and elegant;

- the service was beautiful;

- the cake was awesome (chocolate biscuit cake no less!);

- the bride and groom looked so utterly happy!

I spent the day with my granny and my cousin, and watched the entire thing from 9am until 8pm! We discussed the ridiculous headwear of some of the guests, sat in excited silence through the main ceremony, and "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed in all the right places.

We ate cucumber sandwiches (on white bread, natch), scones with cream and jam, strawberries and cupcakes, and drank Will and Kate tea: a good ol' proper English tea party!

Afterwards, we drank Cava and toasted the happy couple when they kissed on the balcony (twice!) - it was all incredibly splendid!

Did any of you watch it? What did you think?