Just popped in to do an update about bees! I have a new roommate, Britta, and she is in love with bees. She has inspired a bee obsession in me. Britta just got a bee tattoo from local tattoo artist JK5 at Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg.
I love these bee and bear illustrations by my friend and Portland artist, Julianna Swaney. She has several other bee inspired illustrations for sale at her Etsy shop, Oh My Cavalier. These ones are not for sale at the moment. You can check out what she is up to at her drawing blog, Oh My Cavalier.
Britta does facials at a spa in Manhattan and has her own space doing natural facials using raw and edible materials! She highly suggests manuka honey face masks. Spread it on your face, licking the spoon when you are finished, and rinse off after 15 minutes. Honey is a natural antioxidant and manuka honey is so powerful you can use it on burns and other wounds. I did one just the other night and my skin feels great!
Internally active manuka honey is used for Gastro-Intestinal Disorders, such as Acid Reflux, Esophagus Ulcer, Heartburn, up-set Stomach, Stomach Ulcer, H. Pylori (helicobacter pylori), Gastritis, Duodenal Ulcer, Diverticulitis, Ulcerative Colitis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Externally active manuka honey is used for Wound Care such as Burns, Wounds, amputation stump wounds, Ulcers, Diabetic Leg Ulcer, Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Sores, Bed Sores (pressure sores, decubitus wounds), Scars, MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staph Auereus) infected wounds, post-operative scar wound healing.
Manuka Honey has an antibacterial effect 4 times greater than standard Antiseptic (minimum 18% carbolic equivalent)
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is one of my favourite girlie books! About four years ago I convinced my book club NOT to read this book. I picked it up last year after repeated recommendations and fell in love with it- instantly feeling embarrassed for eschewing it at the book club! If you were in my book club and my superior debating skills convinced you not to read this book, I TAKE IT ALL BACK. Read it!
Bonus: While it is a fictitious book, it is full of really interesting facts about bees.
Pick it up at Amazon for $0.01 (YES ONE CENT) with $3.99 shipping
Prologue: Being Canadian I feel like I was raised semi-British. We have very strong ties with the British! It was always - would you eat like that in front of the QUEEN!?! I think not! Along with Royalty I associate tea with the British and my up bringing. My grandparents, whose parents descended from Britain, had tea every day at 4 on the dot their entire lives, and again after dinner! My grandmother on my other side took us to tea houses every summer when we would visit. There was a lot of tea in my life!
However, as much as I love tea culture... my palate will not accept tea! I have tried tea with honey, sugar, without sugar, with milk, soy milk, no milk, many different types of tea... alas, I cannot taste it for anything other than murky water with leaves in it- very similar to my distain for lemon in water. It's watered down lemonade! Anyways, It is so sad that I don't like tea because I love everything tea related. So with this post I will leave out the taste factor of tea and present to you tea related thingies!
I love love love love love Sea Spray Blue's art, as featured twice last week! This tea cup print is so gorgeous, but sold out : ( Please print more! Too Many Teacups, Sea Spray Blue, Dresden, Germany District Thirty from Vancouver creates this hand pierced and cut tea pot necklace that I believe would be a perfect addition to any jewelers collection - including my own!! I especially love their giraffe necklace titled "Look Up, Way Up" after a very old Canadian TV show, The Friendly Giant. Thanks for the reminiscence! Is that a word? Tea for Two, $48, District Thirty, Vancouver, Canada
This has nothing to do with Tea and everything to do with District Thirty reminding me of the Friendly Giant. If you want to hear the world's most soothing voice, press play:
I told you I was loving Yellow! This teapot has such a perfect design to it. To me it is all that entails gorgeous design, and guess what? It's only 8 bucks... Do I need to buy this too!? I can't buy everything I blog about!! Check out her shop because she has a lot of other neat vintage finds.
This teapot design was screenprinted using a hand-cut paper stencil. It is printed in purple on to 90gsm Recycled Ribbed Kraft, and mounted on a 220gsm white greetings card. Comes with a bright orange envelope. I love Lucy's bio on her Etsy store: This shop is the result of a Graphic Design student with a long summer ahead of her. A few months off from uni gives me the chance to do some self-directed design, just for the sake of it - playing around with ideas I don't have time to explore during term time (More of my design work can be found here And I've just started a blog) too!
These tea tins and the pot that inspired them from Nigella Lawson are so affordable and adorable! I love the colours, they go perfectly with my kitchen colour scheme. Red, baby blue and white. Thanks NIgella for creating such beautiful things for our kitchens! She also creates tins with sugar bowls on them. eek!
I Love Sparklebean's Etsy Store. Love. With a capital! Remember the ice cream sandwich earrings!? She sells the Cutest (with a capital!) jewelry this side of cutesville. Think of anything cute and she has it in the form of jewlery - miniature pan of cupcakes as a necklace? √ poodle earrings? √ berry pie earrings? √ ice cream hair pins? √ my business? √ Well this time she has tiny tea cup rings! cutiepie!
I'm throwing this in the mix... anyone else play with this tea set growing up? I did!!! Get it for you or your kids, or nieces, or nephews! right here on ebay.
Hennie Haworth. Another artist I could go on and on and on about. She has amazing illustrations at her website, including this tea infused one. Get it? Infused! oh man. Here is a bit about her in some amazing type:
These tins are so neat - they actually probably appeal to me so much because they remind me of Hennie's Tea Print. Since I don't actually own or store any tea in my house I would use these to store many of my other necessities: stamps, buttons, stickers, markers, etc. Available by emailing Accord Tea or visiting their Website.
New | Old Tea Sets by Christine Misiak
According to Misiak: Basically I take old, worn forgotten tea sets and give them a new lease of life. I find the old battered metal tea sets at car boot sales or flea markets.
The reason why these tea sets are cast away and end up on Ebay is probably due to the reason that they are deemed un-cool or unfashionable, however another reason may be because of their dated styling and colour. Also the condition of many of these tea sets means that they cannot be used; silver plating has often come off, surface is dirty and unpolished, dints and scratches are present on the surface.
Therefore the idea of reusing these old things acts as a way of giving them a new lease of life. Reusing and reinventing old tea sets to make them more current and fashionable for today’s market."
The Green Sets: The silver metal parts I have taken off old sets, and cut them off the originals then cleaned them up and made new bodies for them out of metal. Then the components are all permanently fabricated together, then the whole thing silver plated, then the parts I want green are sprayed green (the green sets are prototypes that I am developing and seeking to get manufactured). So its a mixture of old and new, and mixing of the eras.
The Orange Set: When I sourced this set at a car boot sale the previous owner snapped off the metal handle and so no one would want a broken tea pot, so I bought the set, cleaned it up and made a new wooden handle for it, then powder coated the whole set to make it usable and desirable again. The same applies with the black set.
The Black Set: When I sourced it at a car boot sale it was in extremely bad condition. The surface finish was rusty, dirty and scratched, also the inside of the tea pot was very unappealing. Moreover, one of the little legs on the sugar bowl had been snapped off by the prior owner, therefore it had really reached its end life.So I cleaned the set up and applied black to it, and now the surface finish is glossy and smooth and the set can actually be used again. The imperfection with the broken sugar bowl leg is still there, but it acts as character and the set aims to celebrate the imperfections.
Huge thanks to my Source of this interview with Christine, Dezeen.
Repurposed Teacups and Teapots are amazing! Especially when they are used by Raylene Sutton to make miniature worlds. I love miniature things! I couldn't find much else about Raylene, but she does show her miniatures in the Miniature's Club of B.C. (Source)
If you would like to find uses for all those gorgeous or chipped teacup/pots you have either in your (or your grandma's!) home or that you see in thrift stores, follow Martha's lead! Turn them into candles or use them as drawer organizers!
She has a step by step guide on turning your teacups into candles at her site. It looks really simple! A commenter suggested using an old tea pot as a double boiler for your wax so that you dont have to search Martha's Housekeeping bible to figure out how to get wax out of a $100 all-clad pan. Thanks! You can also melt crayons into your wax for colour! awesome! Clicky Clicky.
Epilogue: Just a reminder, anyone can leave comments- blogger registered or not, anonymous or leave a name and website, your choice! I love hearing from you and your opinions and additions to my posts! I so appreciate the folks leaving comments, so this is a little shout out to you guys! thanks! People read my blog! sorry about the "!!!'s" I have warned you about my excitement over little things before! ♥
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