my friend’s grandparents are renewing their vows this year. it will be a very intimate affair with lots of personal touches. we both agreed there will be lace, there will be soft pastel colored flowers and there definitely will be pearls! here’s an inspiration board to help her plan.

left to right: (top row) flower arrangement via misswallflower, pearl hairpins via lily millicent, wedding ring set via st kilda, vase of hydrangeas via country living, wrapped gifts via youaremyfave
(bottom row) tea cup via iamblessed, bride and groom via ziebrophotography, ballet flats via misswallflower, cake slice via  idoinspiration

Aaaaand now it’s time for a completely random post on tea and tea accessories, inspired by various Christmas gifts exchanged this past holiday season. Yeah I know, it’s kind of late. Everyone’s prepping for Valentine’s Day at this point. But since I have many good friends that I only get to see once in a blue moon, lots of these presents were given out quite late.

Currently, my friend Sanyo, who I met during my 2008 spring semester abroad in Shanghai, is visiting New York City all the way from Southern California. For my birthday last year he gave me a Hagi-yaki tea bowl made by Seigan Deishi, a famous ceramicist:

Hagi-yaki is a type of Japanese pottery that’s made with some weird glaze, and what makes it cool is that every piece is one-of-a-kind, and apparently only 15 out of 100 of these actually survive when they’re baked in the kiln. These pieces change color over time as they’re filled with tea again and again, so the alteration adds to their uniqueness.

When he came to visit this time, he gifted me with a late Christmas present of yet another Hagi-yaki, which I’m even more in love with:

Another picture of them side by side for comparison’s sake:

And another late Christmas present I received was a Chai tea kit from my friend Althea. She found the kit on Etsy (and if you yet haven’t realized how in love with Etsy I am, read my second to last post.)

It’s the cutest idea ever! It comes with six little containers, each holding a different ingredient: Earl Grey tea, cardamom tea, whole cloves, Ceylon cinnamon, whole cardamom, and star anise. There’s also a little scrolled up card inside with detailed instructions on how to make this delicious chai tea from scratch.

I myself also gifted a couple of tea sets this past holiday season. I gave my boyfriend Loren this lovely blue celadon gaiwan:

I gave Sanyo this gorgeous painted plum blossom set:

And while we’re on the subject of all things related to tea, I might as well talk about my current favorites. I will of course forever be partial to Asian teas just because I was raised on them. My parents religiously drink this Dong Ding Oolong tea from Taiwan, and I must confess to being pretty addicted myself. As far as non-Asian teas go, I really love this British Breakfast Black Tea that Loren bought for me as a Happy-First-Day-Of-Work present.

And a close-up on the Oolong:

Yum!

Love Liberty (England 360)

We are just updating our list of our fabulous stockists. They all share our ethos of serving and/or retailing sensational tea to match their other product offerings. Last year, we were so excited (jumping up in the air, kind-of excited) to receive an order from Kate’s favourite shopping indulgence, Liberty of London. And so, in the Summer we launched a bespoke range of Lahloo Tea at Liberty in the award-winning tea rooms.

Almost 4 years ago Kate sat in the tea room at Liberty dreaming of launching Lahloo. Now, in response to their customers, Liberty are retailing a range of gourmet teas and boutique tea infusers for the first time. Liberty tea sommelier, Freya Gabie, said: “Lahloo tea tastes absolutely fantastic. We really appreciate Kate’s connections with tea growers, her eclectic choice and the tea’s superb quality”.

The range includes Taiwanese Amber oolong tea as well as Mr Aoki’s green tea, and our unusual chatjans – South Korean hand-made, palm-size tea cups complete with their own infuser so you can explore different infusions of the same tea leaves.

We’ll be at Liberty regularly this year to help out with their wonderful tea-inspired events. Watch this space…

PS. If you’ve never been to Liberty, it’s a must-visit emporium of all things very special. Next time you go to London, Paris, New York or Dublin and you want to hunt out other unique and indulgent places to visit, my favourite book to pick up is The Goddess Guide by Gisele Scanlon. It’s packed full of inspirational and exquisite people, places and things – Kate loves it.

so we all slept in, and went over to breakfast at our neighbor’s house and my math class got canceled today! yeeees!!

how do you like my new blog header? i keep changing it… but i like this one much more than the last one.

Thought I’d share some photos of some my own vintage little knick nacks

]]> http://gnatj.com/2010/01/31/all-ladies-love-shoes/ Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:15:33 +0000 Gina http://gnatj.com/2010/01/31/all-ladies-love-shoes/

Thats what my mug says!

I attended the first Ladies on Lunch (LoL) event today.  I had such a great time!

I met some Twitter/blog ladies that I follow for the first time face to face and got to chat a little to some of the gals I have already met.

Part of the LoL tradition is to bring a tea cup and saucer or a mug and swap with another lady.

At the end of lunch we all swapped our tea cups/mugs and I got Sally-Jane’s mug…

I love it!

Thank you to Laura and Wenchy for organising!

If you want to find out more about LoL and the next lunch just click on the button on the top right hand side of the page.

Tea on Tuesday

Tea on Tuesday today is Lemon Zinger, hoping that the “zing” will take away the “sting” from my chocolate hangover… which is totally my fault and not worthy of sympathy. I am unfortunately allergic to vanilla which is found in many things including my favorite health food- chocolate, and last night I binged on half a bag of M&M’s ($%?!) argh!!!!

This week RED is featured with her other two primaries blue and yellow. I found this wonderful tea-pot with the apples on it a few years ago, and while foraging for more red cups a few weeks ago I found this mug with the beautiful apple on it.

Phred's Daizies

Here is a close-up of one of my favorite button necklaces made from many buttons given to me by my best friend Phred, who is one of my dearest friends, staunchest supporters, tailor extraordinaire, and all time counter part! This group of lovely vintage celluloid and plastic buttons were gathered from here and there and the white buttons were from his mother’s collection; the center piece is a fur clip with celluloid flowers. I have placed the necklace and bracelets (below) on another one of my vintage handkerchiefs. This one is from St. Louis, it is really pretty with a rounded scalloped edge and I love the berries on the state flower!

Heartfully Rendered

Here is a close-up of the bracelets that I made for the ensemble. The bracelet on the left is made from vintage glass buttons all coming from the Czech Republic, stitched with vintage and new beads. The bracelet on the right is made from vintage and new charms that are attached to a vintage celluloid chain. The earrings in the center are made from a molded material called “Feather Weights”. The felt heart with felt flowers and embroidery was made a very long time ago, but it still looks nice with this group.

Well I am thinking that a little aspirin and a good walk might take care of the chocolate hangover, so I am off for now. Please join Kimmie and the rest of the ladies for a cup of tea, pleasant conversation, and a wonderful day.

PS: I decided to create a digital mosaic image with the picture that I took, just cause it looked kind of cool. Enjoy your day!

I know, I know, you’re busy! But, I also know just how important it is to stay hydrated throughout the day. This year, my challenge to you is to ditch dehydrating coffee or carbonated drinks and to hydrate by drinking Lahloo green teas. Studies show that anti-oxidants in green tea boast myriad benefits including anti-ageing, lowering cholesterol, strengthening the immune system and supporting the digestive system. Sipped in China and Japan for centuries, green tea is an elixir for life.

Utterly revitalising, uplifting and tasty; green tea is quick, simple and easy to enjoy, at home and at work, and just 1 teaspoon of green tea leaves will keep you hydrated and refreshed all day. At just 4 pence per cup* you’ll save yourself pennies too!

So, how do you make green tea? Follow these steps and you’ll soon be enjoying a rare moment’s peace while you prepare and sip your green tea:

♥  use 1 teaspoon of our green tea per person

♥  make your green tea in a mug (good quality leaves will sink to the bottom), a small teapot, in a tea infuser cup or in a pot with a large infuser (a Forlife teapot like this for example)

♥  never use boiling water,  you’ll burn the delicate leaves and get a bitter, unpleasant cup of green tea.

♥  simply infuse using water off the boil (the optimal temperature for our green teas is 70-75 degrees) so the leaves unfurl to release their unique aromas and tastes. This slow unfurling creates the perfect cup of tea.

♥  only infuse the tea for 1 – 1.5 minutes

♥  always refill your teapot/tea cup with hot water and enjoy the multiple infusions our fabulous green teas give you.

♥  to make a delicious, sweet and refreshing iced tea, simply infuse our green tea leaves in cold water for at least 8 hours.

Now you can see how easy it is, I hope you’ll be inspired to take a leaf out of our book and introduce 5 cups of green tea into your everyday life.

I’ve benn drooling for months over all the gorgeous and cool tea and coffe cups at Indiska. ( www.indiska.no )

For christmas my lovely siblings bought me a gift card to the store, and pictures below is what the gift card was used for:

The name of the cup is “Peacock Cup”. Its pretty. And at the moment its full of green tea

I got a new tea cup to keep flowers in! And then my bf brought over a belated xmas present from his dad n partner. She has such great taste! It was a beautiful blue and white tea set from spain – wheres shes from. I love it so much! It takes proud place on my dining room table with my vintage french milk bottle i bought – i still need to photograph that Unfortunately the light in my dining room is pants… so it may not be a great one!

I was reading this on ReadWriteWeb and got quite a shock, Facebook was forcing user to expose all of their private data to the world ! I especially refer to this part:

The question was referencing the changes Facebook underwent last month. Your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List, and all the pages you subscribe to are now publicly available information on Facebook. This means everyone on the web can see it; it is searchable.

Now if you follow the link in the middle over to a previous article from the same ReadWriteWeb, you will see a somewhat different story. There it explains that this is still a user choice and that nothing is imposed ! Quoting the updated content:

Update: Some users are saying that their default options are in fact on “old settings” and not “everyone.” We’re hearing that “old settings” as private is the default for users who have ever changed their privacy settings and set them to private. People who have not changed their settings ever or who have set them to public already, will be defaulted to public.

Well… While I agree that this is probably not the nicest change that Facebook has introduced (NB: I am in total opposition with the view of Mr Zuckerberg, I believe that the respect of privacy is getting more and more rather than less and less important in a world where everything becomes permanent and traces left behind people become impossible to delete or correct) it is still a storm in a tea-cup. Facebook is not forcing anything on anyone as users can still change their settings. I also agree that it would be nice to see them push for more privacy and not for less, but I for one can hardly blame them for trying to make money out of a software that most people appreciate and get for free.

If I have mis-understood or mis-quoted anything, I apologize for this.

GREENS

Once an electric engineer commented:

All these people who oppose dams cannot endure power cut even for five minutes! They will not walk for half k.m. to catch the train. They all want cars. All their cries are false and insincere.

Is he not right?

We cannot live without electricity even for a day. Railways need it . Industries thrive on electricity.

A giant wheel can be connected to a small one. When it moves even slowly, it can produce a large quantity of electricity, like the wind mill you see in Tirunelveli district of Tamilnadu. All idle people may be given wages under NREG to work the wheel. The power generated may be enough for a small village.

 The milk sache is so handy. The nylon rope, plastic combs etc. we accept , while demanding (on paper) ban on plastics.

China is trying to convert poppy cultivation fields in Afghanistan into copper mines. Is it not a good idea?

If we stop mining, the minerals will lie underground, useless for all time.

Even your tea cup uses clay.

We must sincerely answer these questions.

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially tea cups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful tea cup. They said, “May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.” As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea cup spoke.

“You don’t understand,” it said. “I haven’t always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay.” My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, “let me alone”, but he only smiled, “Not yet.”

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel,” the tea cup said, “and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy!” I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.”.

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook his head, “Not yet.”

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. “There, that’s better,” I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. “Stop it, stop it!” I cried. He only nodded, “Not yet.”

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, “Not yet.”

Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, “Look at yourself.” And I did. I said, “That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.”

“I want you to remember, then,” he said, “I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.”

Moral:

God knows what He’s doing (for all of us).
He is the Potter, and we are His clay.
He will mold us and make us,
So that we may be made into a flawless piece of work
To fulfill His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not tempt you beyond what you can bear.

I woke up in the middle of the night, looked out of the window and I saw – Snow!

Do you see it in the background? – Yay!

I didn’t really count on the snow to be still there in the morning. But then I got up today – and I was surprised!

I’m glad I don’t have to drive somewhere today.

No, I’ll just have to make some small snow walk today, and then I can sit in my warm room and enjoy a good cup of earl grey.

It’s from Whittard of Chelsea, I brought it from Cambridge. But it’s only a small tea caddy full – I’ll miss it so much when it’s empty that I’ll have to go to England again. (Haha. Poor excuse.) – Visiting at least two foreign countries is on my list for 2010. (I don’t normally have New Year resolutions, but that’s a good one.) I hope one of them is the UK.

Day4-1/04/10
A peppermint hot cocoa is always nice after moving snow around.
Techincally I took this on the 3rd, but whatever. I’m going to be more relaxed about photos this time around.

- Day 4 -

I’ve been in a funk all day.  I missed Alycia’s last Christmas concert of her elementary school career this afternoon.  The last one. Next year she will be in middle school.  What happened here?  I remember the days (seems like just last month) when we had tea parties at her little white wrought iron scroll tea table, in her pink princess room, with her princess tea cups and plastic donuts and chocolate covered strawberries.  Now, her favorite color is green (which IS a great color) and she uses the flat iron all by herself.  I love the young lady she is turning into, but it’s happening way too fast.  She will be 11 in 7 days.  In case you missed that… Eleven!!  I’m looking forward to all the wonderful/crazy things ahead.. but I wish I could s  l  o  w it all down.

When she drinks tea now, she likes to use this cup.

So today, my craft is for her.  For the memories I cherish and will forever hold in my heart.

A blue felt birdie tea cup with a placemat and pink sugar cookies with white frosting.

If you would like to know the details, just hit me up.  : )

“Did my sister get a baby doll? Did my brother get his bike?
Did I get that red wagon the kind that makes you fly?
Oh I hope there’ll be peace on earth
I know there’s good will toward men
On account of that Baby born in Bethlehem”

You Gotta Get Up by Rich Mullins

This is our favourite design so far!

Our Embossed infuser tea cup (chatjan) has been so popular we couldn’t get any more! So, we have a gorgeous new design handmade by the same designer – Yeo San, Ichun City, South Korea. It is actually our new favourite – we love it!

Comforting and tactile; they fit snugly in the palm of your hand. A gorgeous gift for someone special (maybe yourself!); yet simple enough to enjoy leaf tea everyday at  home or at work.

How to make the perfect cup of tea:
♥ remove the lid, put your favourite tea leaves into the infuser
♥ pour on water, replace the lid and allow the tea to infuse
♥ remove the lid, sit the infuser in the lid and sip away!
♥ repeat with the same tea leaves to explore!

Enjoy!

good morning with tea

thank you to christine for the wonderful suggestion of making a “good morning” piece with tea instead of coffee…love it! and so excited that it is going to have a happy home for the holidays! thank you!!

http://www.zazzle.com/gentlemanscholar

]]>