DIY Gift for Mom!

Wow! It's been a really long time since I blogged. It is completely my fault and I promise to not do it again (for awhile). K and I are still transitioning to our new lives of commuters and spend about 4 hours in the car each day. Sometimes that goes up to 5+. SO, we are searching for apartments, which is harder then it sounds in Chicago. We have our eyes on two in particular, so fingers crossed we will have one of these as our new home soon.

Anyway, because I have been so busy I thought I would come back with a good Mother's Day Gift tutorial. My dear friend April, made me a jar of Bourbon Vanilla Tea Bags and a bag of Birthday Cake Tea Bags for my birthday. It was a such a sweet and tasty gift, so I did some digging and found out how to make my own teabags for all my loose leaf tea. Of course, April made hers way better then mine, but here's my tutorial below.

What you need:

• Coffee filters
• Loose leaf tea- do NOT use cut tea bags, usually those leaves are too small
• Cardstock
• Scissors
• twine
• stapler

So here's how!

Cut the filter paper so it makes a rectangle.

Put two small scoops of tea in the rectangle, with space in the middle. Then fold up both sides of the rectangle to the middle, so the tea is closed in.

Once you fold both sides to the middle of the rectangle. Place your finger in the middle of the two tea piles and fold the ends up to the top. (Can you see the tea forming now??)

The tea should be pretty secure with all of your folds, so fold the open top into a triangle. Then fold the triangle down so that it lays on top of the teabag.

Cut a fun shape with the card stock. Attached twine by tying then stable to top of the teabag.



I made my teabags out of apple cinnamon chai and gave them to Keith to take to work. I'm sure he loved all the hot pink hearts I made for the tags.

Happy crafting! :)
 

Travel bug and tea cocktail recipe

Recently, I have been feeling the urge to travel. It's getting bad enough that I am daydreaming and planning these trips that we can't really afford to go on  right now. You know, a whirlwind four week vacation around the UK and Ireland. Not going to happen any time soon. I suppose it's because I have been reflecting a lot about my 20s, with a "big" birthday less then a week away. One of the highlights was my bout in Scotland. I adored it and now I want to go back and see more of the UK, and especially Scotland. And I want to go back with Keith.

I started drinking tea while I worked at a museum there. It was a nice way to stop what I was doing and take a quick break with some co-workers. So, I got to love black tea with cream and some sugar. Since leaving, I only drink black tea now- nothing added. I drink tea everyday, and I just adore it so much. The other day, I wanted some tea with an extra kick- so I tried this recipe. and man, did it not disappoint.

I give you: The Tea Cocktail

First things first- cut up about 5-7 strawberries and put them in a mason jar. Add one cup of vodka and give it a quick shake. Add a teabag into the strawberries and vodka- any flavor. I used black tea one time, and the next time I used cinnamon and vanilla black tea and it was delicious.  Let this steep for about an hour. 

Once that hour is almost up, start juicing some lemons to make freshly squeezed lemon juice. You need one cup, which turned out to be 2.5 lemons, although that might vary. Pour the one cup of lemonade into a pitcher and add 1/4 cup of sugar to sweeten. Stir.

After the hour of brewing, remove tea bag and throw away. Then pour the vodka/tea/strawberry mixture into the pitcher with lemon juice and sugar. Stir to mix everything up. Pour over ice and then add seltzer water to top off the drink. This mixture should make four cups.

This drink is good. Very refreshing. The tea is very tasty and perfect for a tea lover. But it is a bit strong, just remember to drink responsibly.

Happy making!