A Saturday in Tea

I drink a LOT of tea, and I thought I'd document my Saturday in cups drank.

Cup 1: Drank with breakfast as I made my list of things to do for the day....

Lipton Cranberry Pomegranate Green tea with sweetener and lemon

Cup 2: Steeping as I hand washed the dishes that can't go in the dishwasher

Tessco's Finest Mango and Passion Fruit with Sweetener and Lemon

 And Earl's cup of tea steeped next to mine for a while :)

Please note, we keep a small bowl for the post steeping trash on the counter, means I'm not dragging dripping bags across the kitchen.

 Cup 3: As I made Ice tea in the tea maker, put away the dishes from the dish washer and changed over the laundry

Zehna's Renew Me (Cranbery & Ginger) with sweetener.

 Cup 4:  As I was putting away the third load of laundry (towels) and with lunch.

Traditional Medicinal's Organic Hibiscus

Cup 5: At Earl's mom's house as we talked about a dozen  and a half things I've already had blend together in my brain.

Zehna's Chocolate Chai Rooibos Tea with sweetener.

 And then it devolved.I would have undoubtedly drank more tea, but we were out and about, running around looking for all manner of things, and it was rather remarkably warm today.

There was the two Wood Chuck Pear Ciders with Dinner.

And the cup of Fresh and Easy Rainforest blend Coffee while I worked on other things and eventually this ;)

To be fair, I also drank a fair amount of water, but water's boring.

January's Craft: Cork Birdhouse

So my plan to do one craft project a month is going okay…. I’m counting this one finished though the glue is still drying.

This month I made a cork birdhouse. And I’m going to tell you how to too!

Fair warning... this takes a bit of time.

What you’ll need:

A birdhouse (You can build one yourself, or you can take the easy way out like I did.)

Corks! (Drink a lot of wine!!! Okay, so we had most of these in an old school leaded glass ice “bucket” and most of them are from Lambic beer.)

Wood Glue

Cutting implement and cutting surface (I used an exacto knife and a scrap piece of cardboard.)

(A nail is optional for securing the chimney – I felt better with the finishing nail holding it up.)

Step One: Halve A bunch of your corks! 

Flat surfaces will work best, so the flat half of the cork will adhere

Step Two: Pick a side and Arrange!

 I took pictures each time so I'd remember how they went back on (this is before the glue) but you get the idea. Make sure it fits!

Step Three: Glue and let Dry!
Now that you've got your layout figured, get to gluing!

 REPEAT STEPS 2 & 3 FOR ALL FOUR SIDES!

 I set mine to dry in the window with the longest sunlight of the day. (Ignore the bowl of tea lights and eyes... I don't have time to explain right now)

Step 4: Shingle the roof and apply the Chimney!
I made roof shingles by taking the cork halves and cutting slivers from the length.
The Chimney is a champagne cork glued on  (you can still see the glue in the picture below) and then secured with a longish finishing nail!