Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Being Tired Is Contagious, it seems

In spite of my best efforts to sleep, I haven't been very successful. Turns out I just had my pillows arranged wrong, and I was hunching forward in my sleep instead of draping myself over the mound of pillows for optimal airway opening...

Of course, I didn't figure that out until about 3am, so I'm a little sleepy today.

And I'm not alone! Everyone I've talked to today has been tired, including the cool person who cashiers at the local Food Service. Even the cat has been tired, lurking beneath blanket forts or sitting pointedly in front of the bathroom closet in the vainest of hopes that we'll break and allow her to coat our bath towels in fur.

So what I'm saying is: today is a sleepy day.

I still went for a walk, I still wrote a little in my manuscripts, and I still poked around at my art supplies to see if anything popped into my mind as inspiration (it hasn't...), but mostly I've just wanted to take a cool shower and rest.

I've managed to take that shower now, and I'm currently relaxing in my room with both fans running and another itch.io game in another tab.

Caffeine-wise, I did way better today than yesterday. Yesterday I had, I believe, around 6 cups of coffee. I know. Believe me I know how stupid that was.

Which is why today was 2 cups of coffee, one can of Coke and the rest of my drinks have been either Meyer Lemon tea that Z got me for Christmas a couple years ago or pure water. I strongly recommend the water option.

I also recommend dressing in natural materials when the weather hits about 80℉/26,7℃. Cotton and linen are your best bet. I can vouch for the fact that light linen trousers are even more comfortable if you're in the sun than shorts. Covering your skin is good for you in direct sunlight! I have a mole I've been keeping an eye on for years on my neck, so I've taken to wearing a cotton bandana over it to keep the sun off. I've also had less heat/sun related illness this year than in other years (though it still got me once!).

The plan for this week is as follows:

• Art for Thursday (there's still time to buy me a coffee and pick a theme!)
• I'm playing an incremental game for Saturday
• Hopefully I'll have more progress on that strap for Monday, though I might miss it, since it'll be Independence Day here in the USA.
• Next Tuesday I'll blabber more!

If you're planning on buying me that coffee, remember that the themes are:

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Location
• Geometric

And leave a message with your donation stating which one you'd like! If you buy me 2 coffees, I'll even let you pick whether it's Digital or Traditional!

I think, though, that that'll do it from me today.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Made A Sketch

Thursday again, and all I wanted to do today was sleep. I think I've had enough coffee to kill a small yak, but I'm very sleepy. I've been in relatively good spirits, however, so I managed to will myself to make a fun little sketch of the Four Pillars of Casual:

"Four Pillars of Casual"

The Four Pillars are, of course:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Snacks
• Books

That's supposed to be a book the coffee (left), tea (right), and English Muffin (center) are on top of lol.

I'm planning on expanding this idea in other mediums (markers, crayons, pencils, maybe even paint, digital) but for now it's just a little scribble. I even had the date wrong at first lol!

Despite my lack of motivation, I've gotten a little writing done today, too! Not... not much, but about a paragraph isn't too bad for someone who wants to sleep and eat popcorn.

I'm going to go back to my manuscript in a moment, but just wanted to update you on the bonkbubble piece I'm doing digitally!

I'm up to 22 colors now from my original 16, and my secondary palette may be limited, but it's still kind of pleasant to look at... except the first color which is a combination of Arylide Yellow and Purple Navy...

Secondaries:

• A7A25E (167, 162, 94)
• E48888 (228, 136, 136)
• DB984A (219, 152, 74)
• ED5A6C (237, 90, 108)
• 34333E (52, 51, 62)
• 777C47 (119, 124, 71)

I'm gonna go back to writing now, folks.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

TEA REVIEW: CHOCOLATE MINT

 

In Which I Tried New Tea!

I do not shop often in the current climate (not that I shopped often before...), but every so often, I am invited to pop downstairs and tag along with my mom when she's heading out. this time, we went to one of the great local chains that really hasn't updated its inside look since about 1999 (which I view as a 100% positive feature), and we picked up some gifts for the niblings (gender neutral term for the children of siblings, if that hasn't crossed your vocabulary yet!) and eventually wandered down the tea aisle.

We weren't in the mood to dilly dally, obviously, and I was limited to one box of tea, so when it came down to the wire, my choices were for a lemon tea and a chocolate mint tea. A close third was a holiday themed chocolate tea, but I wasn't sure about "chocolate with lavender and mint", so I stuck to the other two. In the end, I knew that I could find a lemon tea in a local shop or just... order it easily off of Amazon or something, so I chose the chocolate mint tea!

The Tea in Question

I brought the tea home (along with a cheap pound of packaged mill ends of yarn for Christmas present creation) and immediately decided to make a cup.

The first thing I noticed was how heavy the teabags are compared to my chamomile tea bags. The second thing I noticed was that you get two less bags than with the Bigelow chamomile, which... bummer. The ingredients are nowhere near as simple as the single-ingredient chamomile, either! This tea contains: oolong tea, cocoa powder, peppermint, natural chocolate flavor, and carob powder.

It smells... divine. It smells like Andes' Candies or Thin Mints.

I was so excited to try it that I slammed the kettle on and grabbed a mug. I could've run upstairs for the teapot, but... I just wanted it that badly. I chucked the bag in the mug and that's when things got... spicy.

The cup and the culprit

Turns out, the tea smelled so good to the cat that all she wanted to do was bat the tag around! I couldn't take any more pictures because she was going bananas over it and I had to hold the string against the cup lip to keep the teabag from being yote across the room by an overstimulated tabby. It was in this flurry of movement and stressful time that I may have made an error.

The steeping time recommended for this tea in 8oz of hot water is between 3-5 minutes. I have no idea if I let it sit in the water too long or not long enough, but... well... despite having a rich dark hazel color (dark brown shading to almost a greenish brown along the edges - the mint?), it was quite faintly flavored. At first.

You see, after removing the bag and leaving it for the cat to buffet around, taking the mug of tea upstairs, and then getting into an in-depth conversation with someone, I had let the tea cool a bit after that first sip. My second sip was a bit more flavorful, so let me tell you how a slightly-cooled cup of this tea tastes.

You could tell there was chocolate in this tea because it smelled like chocolate and there was a faintly bitter taste I recognize from cocoa powder, but there was also an odd sweetness that I think came from both the "natural chocolate flavor" and the peppermint. It wasn't bad at all, just a strange taste. I could taste the oolong, which had its odd, round, vaguely herbal essence, and it all finished with a gentle, cooling sensation from that peppermint.

I was, of course, slightly disappointed that the chocolate flavor wasn't more pronounced. I don't need it to taste like a Hershey bar, of course, but a touch more chocolate punch would've been appreciated. I have to wonder if the subtlety was caused mostly by me either not steeping it properly (I did not check the temperature of the water, did not heat the cup first, and didn't time the steep!), or perhaps it requires milk to be added to have the full chocolate effect?

I will have to investigate this tea further, much like the Morning Thunder.

Thanks for dropping by to hear me blather about tea!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

ps: the "something" this week is... possibly the best advertising for tea ever?

Fiber Monday: Cozy and Scrappy

 

In Which I Made A Thing

I have probably annoyed you all at this point with my repeated harping on my recent descent into tea drinking, but here's the thing...

It's getting cold, and I hate cold tea that isn't supposed to be cold.

Solution: Tea Cozy!

But there's one other problem - my teapot has a vertical handle, and 99% of the patterns I've found for tea cozies are for pots with handles on the side, not the top. 100% of the vertical-handle patterns I did find and could read needed money, which I respect, but could not afford at the time!

New Solution: Make my own pattern!

So I now present to you - possibly the ugliest tea cozy on earth.

Made with leftover yarn I cannot identify

Here is the free version of the pattern:

TEA COZY

MATERIALS

• Yarn (any size – pretty sure mine was DK/Light/3)

• Hook (I used a 3mm)

• Yarn needle

• A ribbon or other closure (optional)

STITCHES (US TERMS)

ch = chain

sl st = slip stitch

sc = single crochet

hdc = half double crochet

dc = double crochet

INSTRUCTIONS

START: Ch as long as you need to go around the narrow bottom of your teapot, sl st to first chain to form a loop, trying not to twist. I needed 90 chains – yours may be different depending on hook, yarn, and teapot!

Round 1: Ch1, sc in each ch, sl st to first sc

Round 2-?: Ch1, increase around evenly (so if you have 90 ch, you sc in the next 14 sc, then sc twice in the next sc, repeat around), sl st to first sc of each round, ch1 to start the next.

When your sc increase rounds reach the bottom bulge of your spout, we’ll switch from crocheting in the round to crocheting in alternating rows!

Remember to fit to your teapot constantly so that you don’t get any nasty surprises at the end like “oops, too small, no cozy for you!”

Pattern Rows

Row 1: ch1, sc across

Row 2: ch 1, turn, sc in first sc, then alternate dc and sc stitches around, making sure the dc stitches pucker outwards like a bobble or popcorn stitch! My pattern was sc in first sc, *dc in next, sc in next 2 st repeat from * until last 2 stitches, then dc, end with sc. You may want to have more or less sc stitches between your dc stitches, depending on how wide your rows are.

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc across

Row 4: ch 1, turn, hdc across

Row 5: ch 2, turn, dc across

Row 6: ch 1, turn, hdc across

Row 7: ch 1, turn, sc across

Repeat from Row 2 until you pass the top of where your spout attaches to the pot

When you pass the top of your spout, sl st in to the first stitch to resume crocheting in the round. Repeat the pattern rows until you reach the top of your pot, hopefully ending on a Row 5, 6, or 7 repeat so you can use that for your ribbon.

When you’re done, just tie it off and weave in the ends.

If you don’t have a spare ribbon or cotton strip laying around, you can, of course, make one by crocheting a long chain in the same yarn or one that would look nice with it and tying that off, weaving in the ends, and using that as a cinching tie. I prefer my cotton ribbon because it isn’t stretchy.

You should have a nice sweater for your teapot now!

Go Enjoy Something!

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Business Breeds Lateness

November being National Novel Writing Month, I am (predictably) working on my first novel. It's long, hard work, and I don't get my word counts down more often than not, but I am plugging away! The first part of the novel is 11.7k words long (and unedited), and the second part, which I'm currently working on, is currently 14.7k words long and... only about half done I'd estimate. I've been working on this novel for about a year now, all told, and it's the longest I've ever focused on one project. Which is why it is currently 3x longer than anything I've ever written, makes more sense, and doesn't suck (according to my First Reader).

You'd think I was fueling this mad dash for literary completion with a flood of my morning instant mocha blend, but instead... I've switched half of my hot beverage intake to tea. I've mentioned my testing of various Chamomiles (and the new Bigelow chamomile I've been drinking lately isn't quite the same as the... aged variety I found in the back of the cupboard, but it's still incredibly good), but I have needed to branch out into other kinds of non-herbal teas, so my mother was kind enough to deliver me a box of Morning Thunder from Celestial Seasonings.

Morning Thunder is a black tea with roasted maté. When my mother was in college, she swears she would drink it because she hadn't yet converted to coffee and she believes that, forty years ago, it contained roasted carob instead of maté. It did still have a buffalo on the box, though! I have to wonder if she perhaps is conflating Morning Thunder with Roastaroma, which is sold as a caffeine-free coffee alternative? It's over thirty years old, so perhaps that's what happened.

Morning Thunder brewed in my nice teapot!

The teapot has a bit of a story to it, too. My mother has had this teapot and its four little matching cups for as long as I can remember, but during one of her Object Purges, she decided she didn't want it anymore. I rescued it from the Goodwill bin, always hoping that one day I'd find a tea I liked and use it. One day, I set it down and the lid flew off, breaking into pieces on the floor. I was devastated. I was also very careful with the mending epoxy and unless you look inside the lid, you have to almost have your nose on it to see the hairline crack! I have the chips I rescued saved on a piece of tape in a plastic bag just in case I get one of those repair kits where you fix something with silver or gold.

I brewed the Morning Thunder in my pretty pot the other day and tried it, hoping it wouldn't leave me pulling faces and dumping it out like the Red Rose with Lemon experiment (yuck - that had to have been a bad lemon!).

I know my first mistake was in only using one bag for the teapot. My second was being impatient, but...

It was still quite nice!

It definitely had that... soggy flavor that most teas impart on me - a dark, rounded tone that reminds me of hiking in the woods of Camden Hills State Park as a kid right after a downpour - but it was balanced out by the stronger, drier flavor of the maté, which you could certainly tell was roasted! Overall, it's not a mocha alternative, but I'll drink it again and gladly! I tried this tea naked, but my partner had milk and reports that it was a bit weak but still quite good.

I'll brew it stronger next time, and we'll see how that goes.

I've since used the teapot to make two separate pots of Chamomile from Bigelow. The first attempt was with two Chamomile bags and another bout of impatience which left me with a fairly weak flowery tea that was still enjoyable but nowhere near my usual four-to-seven-minute steep (I may or may not take the steeping time to go take care of whatever the quickest chore is). My second attempt was a single teabag but I left it in the pot and poured myself several smaller cups of tea until the pot went cold.

This is a major issue, because I cannot finish an entire pot within one hour while crocheting and writing - it's physically impossible.

Solution? I'm making a tea cozy for it. Now, that yielded its own problems because, again, I'm impatient. I don't like having to hunt for the perfect pattern, and Ravelry failed me. It would seem that no one has made a free pattern that I like for a vertically handled teapot. They're all side-handled. Boo.

So I'm making my own pattern using the ugliest yarn I have because there's not enough of it for much else, and I love it in spite of the fact that it's a grungy taupe, navy blue, denim blue, and bright orange. I'm using an F hook, and you can expect pattern notes next Monday if you, too, have a light DK weight yarn you'd like to convert into a teapot sweater.

I think that'll do it from me tonight - it's past midnight and is now officially Wednesdaymania, but I'm both impatient and lazy, so I won't change the title or the content :P

I'll get back to bobbling and weaving my way to cozy perfection and then go to bed.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Survival Sunday - Chamomile Comparison

In Which I Am Trying New(ish) Things!

If you've ever met me in real life, you'll know that I have long disdained the "dirty leaf water" that so many use as a way of avoiding the black, bitter goodness of coffee or the sweet, sultry invitation of cocoa. That has been changing recently. My love of what my partner lovingly calls my "Morning Gruel" - my two-to-three parts cocoa to one part instant coffee - has not been kind to my waistline, and with COVID still in full swing and opportunities to move around outside dwindling due to a concern for lung health and the slow creep of chill into the air, occasional 70℉ (21.1℃) day notwithstanding, I haven't had anywhere near enough exercise to offset my caloric intake.

In short, I'm getting fatter, and I need to not, and my favorite comfort beverage is partly to blame.

So I have begun forcing myself to imbibe tea instead of mocha.

Except that I really, really didn't like the Red Rose my grandmother favors, so I've been starting small with herbal teas. The only herbal tea we have that isn't also a spice/dessert tea is... Chamomile. Specifically we have four varieties, but one is also slightly medicinal, so I'm leaving that for nights when my sinuses are inflamed (and those nights are coming soon, I'm sure).

So here I am, forcing myself to sip hot flower-water, and something remarkable starts to happen.

I start to lose my disgust.

The first cup of tea gave me a legitimate "bleh" reaction. I grimaced, furrowed my brows, and forced myself to power through - my heated hydration breaks count on this experiment, after all! And after a couple of cups of Sleepytime, I went from "bleh" to simply... "meh". I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. A neutral reaction. Progress!

And then it happened. I ran out of Stash and was beginning to run out of Sleepytime, so I hunted for anything else we had and came across some ancient Bigelow "Cozy Chamomile", the only ingredient of which was the flower itself. I brewed it up and....

Huh.

I liked it.

I tried the other teas (found a Stash chamomile in the back of the cupboard!) and... same reaction. I finally broke my tastebuds and bent them to my will! I enjoyed tea!!!

I should mention, though, that all of these teas were brewed in a cup without squeezing the teabag, so your mileage may vary on your flavor detection!

So without further ado, here are my subjective reviews of the three chamomile teas we currently have in our cupboard!

Celestial Seasonings "Sleepytime Herbal Tea"

This herbal tea has Chamomile as its main ingredient, but it also contains "Chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, tilia flowers, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn and rosebuds." And I have to say... I didn't really taste any of it. Even at a full 5 minute steep, it mostly just kinda tastes like faintly minty grass, and that was exactly what I needed when I couldn't sleep a wink. It's probably my least favorite of the three, but I almost certainly won't turn down a cup if offered.

Stash "Chamomile Nights" Tea

This tea contains Chamomile with spearmint and natural lotus flavor, and yeah, I can absolutely taste the lotus and feel the minty coolness after the fact. The lotus gives an odd but not unpleasant sweetness and definitely "greener" (it's the only description I can give) flavor. It's not quite as soothing as the Sleepytime, but it's a decent late afternoon tea, and I'm pretty bummed we're out. If you've got it and you hand it to me, I'll smile and sip it for an hour.

Bigelow "Cozy Chamomile" tea

This is a single-ingredient tea. You like chamomile? This is for you. That's literally all it is. No mint, no fillers or additives... but apparently if you leave it in a mason jar for years and forget about it until you have a dietary freak out, it takes on... a unique scent.

It straight-up smells like honey. It's not stored next to our honey - it's not even on the same shelf! And they're individually wrapped and stowed in a glass jar! But they smell like honey and grass, and it's a smell that really stimulates my tastebuds, so here we are, with me gulping down mugs and mugs of chamomile tea and enjoying it more and more with every cup.

Now, if you are looking for a tannin-free tea, this is not that tea. While chamomile contains far fewer tannins than your average tea-leaf tea, it still contains some, so don't drink too much of this if you're anemic. Ask a doctor if that's something you should be careful of, since tannins can mess with iron absorption.

In conclusion, I really like the Cozy Chamomile I've been drinking, and all of the other chamomile teas I've tried, and I'm going to start branching out to other teas soon! I'll prepare them all straight like the chamomiles (because again, I'm trying to lower my sugar and dairy intakes,) and try them in a pre-warmed mug at their longest steep time (so they are at peak strength). If you are a regular tea drinker, please do tell me whether or not I should be squeezing the tea bag - I've heard that makes the tea bitter, but I'm not a tea aficionado yet, so I need guidance!

Also, if you have suggestions on what kinds of tea to try next, please do tell me!

And uh... if you wanna send me some tea, hit me up ;)

(You do not have to send me tea!)

I think that'll do it for me, folks :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC