Tea, Tea, Tea - Craft Cafe Does a Second Round of Tea Blending

 Vanilla Chai, Goji Berry Green, Peppermint Licorice, Blueberry Bang Rooibos, Red Espresso Rooibos, Cougar Tea (a custom Banff blend that pays homage to the animal, or maybe...), Sadie's Chamomint, Jasmin Dragon Tears, Jasmin Matcha, Izu Gyokuro Matcha, a beautiful new locally made mug, an awesome sleek tea cup from Japan... I had been saving up for this latest Craft Cafe and my family is now completely set for winter. Sheena & I once again partnered with Susanne & Siona from the Banff Tea Company, to bring our participants an evening of tea blending. The Banff Tea Company is locally owned, carries over 180 teas, and they always give 25% of their profits to charity!

Even though the weather outside was frightful, it was warm at Wild Flour Bakery, our usual home for Craft Cafe. We were booked to the maximum, only lost a couple to the nasty roads, and my cousin, Maxine, from Ottawa, was even able to join in during her visit. Our evening began with some tea education and tasting. From there, we walked over to the Tea Co, where everyone was able to blend their own flavour of tea to take home. Before leaving we were able to shop for ourselves and for holiday gifts thanks to Susanne offering 25% off anything in the store. I went a little overboard, but I LOVE tea. I recently traded, without even trying, my one large cup of dark roast swiss water decaf with brown sugar, for a morning cup of chai or an earl grey blend. I was like a kid in a candy store...

Thank you to the Banff Tea Co and to everyone who came out to blend tea, especially those who had to drive from afar. The winning tea blends of the night, worth mentioning for the titles alone, were Mint Country and Iron Maiden Tea. Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement for the next Craft Cafe.

Do you have a favourite kind of tea? I would love to know what it is. Please leave a comment...

Tea Cup Gardens - Our Best Craft Cafe Yet!

Last night, Sheena & I had 26 lovely and creative women join us for Craft Cafe! That is a record. We have had close to 20 before, but this was just amazing! 21 people preregistered, something we have been having trouble getting people to do. I am not sure if it is because the weather is getting colder or if it is because the back to school fall rush is over, but I hope it was because of the craft. I have a tea cup fetish, and I love to come up with ways to use them for things other than just drinking tea, partially because I want to collect more of them. When my friends held a blessingway days before I had my second daughter, I made them all soy tea cup candles, you can see the tutorial here. She is 2 1/2 now, and I haven't done much with my tea cups since. I was in the mood, so with Craft Cafe in mind, I designed what I like to call a little tea cup garden. As a master gardener, in what seems like a previous life, I have done my fair share of using non traditional containers as plant pots. From crockery to work boots to tea cups, I have used them all as planters. The thing that was different about my tea cup planter this time is that I incorporated my current obsession of collaging spoons. When I make a wall hanging out of a spoon, I usually use a large real silver spoon. For this project, I wanted to continue with the theme of recycling vintage elements, and to put to use all the vintage souvenir spoons that I find at the thrift store. In some cases I like the spoons as is, but for the most part they beg to be reworked. Their little size, make them the perfect tea spoons to fit with the theme. I decided to make a sort of garden marker, which didn't need to be a literal marker that contained the name of the jade plant, but instead to contain a sentiment, in this case, Grow. I love to use text in my work, and I love it more when it contains double meaning. So, I designed my little demo, put it up on the net, invited our loyal crafters, and they turned out in droves. More than one of them said they came because the craft is "so unique". Yippee!

Below you will see what was made. While the weather was wet and blustery outside, we were warm and dry in the Wild Flour, planting our jade plants, while chatting with friends. Tables of kids, tables of moms and daughters, table of girlfriends, created their little gardens, which were little works of art. One girl used sand on top of her soil and built a little sand castle! The same girl lined her saucer ring with buttons and collaged her spoon with a great pattern, pulling the whole thing together. Other women covered their saucer with little circles cut from collage sheets, vintage flower fairies being the favourite. Which brings me to the side note, I made some of these with my daughters the other day, as mini fairy gardens. We are still working on our spoons, and I will post about it later. For now, check out what everyone came up with, with very similar, and simple materials. Then, go make one for yourself, and a few more as gifts....

A Week of Birthday Posts - #4 - Birthday Party Food and Little Touches

This is post number four in the series on my daughters' birthdays. This one has some cheery photos of handmade details from my four year old's tea party.


As an artist, I pay attention to visual details. I love color and so do kids. My daughter Quin's birthday had a tea party theme, which she chose. In the past couple of years we have attended a princess and pirate party, an art making party, a dancing party, and recently we sadly could not attend a fun crazy hair/make your own pizza party.


Of course, not all parties have a theme but I am always game to work within a theme, so a tea party it was. Each child's place was set with a real tea cup from my collection. They drank fresh squeezed lemonade from them.


I don't go crazy with party decor. I do wish I had had the time to make a cheery banner but we focused on the table. Quin LOVES balloons so we made sure there were a few on her chair. I love the orange polka dot one :)


Colorful tissue paper flowers make me swoon. I stayed up until 2 AM making one for each guest to wear on their wrist as a corsage. And I don't say that like it was work, I love making them so it was fun. I will write a post someday on how to make them, but you can always google it. There are many good tutorials out there. The kids were tickled with their flowers. I showed them to Quin when she came down for breakfast and they made her day! The ones that were not taken home are still on our dining room table and I gaze at them throughout the day and remember the party fun. We made play dough for favors but these made great additional favors for the kids who remembered to take them home.


Tissue paper flowers in a vase...


...became corsages on the day of the party.


One important element, along to napkins, plates, and balloons that I purchased were the party hats, or tiaras. I am going to make each of my kids a birthday crown, something the like the one my friend, Serena, made for her little guy, but it was not to be this year.


We couldn't have a birthday party without a craft...


The kids made bejeweled butterfly place mats. I folded construction paper in half and drew a template on one side of the paper, then had them cut out the butterfly along the drawn lines.


Voila, a blank canvas butterfly, that they covered in jewels.



Only one more birthday party post, stay tuned! Number five will include recipes...