Tea Review - Fae Inspired: Sunshine Honey Lavender

So here I am, you all know that I Love Tea. Like, adore it beyond anything (well almost anything, see: glitter and keys.)
I'm going to start a weekly tea review, or at least try to make it weekly. Tuesday nights to be exact.

I'll be reviewing any tea that I buy or any tea that shows up at my house. (This may or may not be a hint.)

This week is a tea blend from one of my favorite tea shops. Fae Inspired (aka Faerie Tea).

Blend Name: Sunshine Honey Lavender


Sweetener Used: None
Milk Used: None

Steeping Time: 4 minutes

Overall Opinion: At first smell while steeping this blend is a very strong lavender, I was afraid that the blend itself would taste strongly of lavender as well but I was very pleased to find it was just right. The lavender is not overpowering at all, and I for one am not a huge lavender fan. The aftertaste is reminiscent of a Japanese rice candy.
This would be a very good before bed tea if the drinker was not susceptible to caffeine, otherwise I would suggest the Rooibus Honey Lavender tea.

How it's done

If you've been following my blog you might have seen photos of glass beads and comments that I make glass beads.

This post is to show you a bit of the behind the scenes stuff. I took some photos while working yesterday, and I'm going to share them with you.

Let's get started, shall we?

This, is my workbench. Yep, where all the glassy magic happens. Its not usually any cleaner than what you see here.

And apparently I've started collecting cute things to go on top of my ventilation hood. I'm okay with this fact. Right now I have a turtle and two pirate duckies with an old fashioned coke bottle behind them. This collection may grow.

This is my kiln. This is really where all of the magic happens. When I'm done with a bead I pop it into the kiln (960 degrees! or 954 in this case, it'll get there.) and the kiln will control the cooling process at roughly 400 degrees an hour so the beads don't stress fracture.

This is my glass. I have a lot of colors, but I also have room for a lot more. I work with 104 coe glass, coe is the Coefficient of Expansion. It's pretty awesome but I won't bore you. :)

All of these things allow me to make works of art like:

Where have the days gone?

It's December.

Seriously. Where did the time go?

I find that the tree has gone up, the lights are on the houses... and there are presents being wrapped. Have I mentioned that's my favorite thing to do? I LOVE wrapping presents! All of the choices make me SO HAPPY. I mean really, the greens, the candy cane print... I love it all!

(Yes, these are actually presents that are under the tree over here.)

Along with wrapping presents, and shipping presents I find myself at the torch a ton more than normal. Today I took more beads over to The Peacock Shop. Lots of Triton beads, which I am very excited about. Triton is like Clio, only blue. (Don't know what Clio looks like? See this post)

I'll probably get a photo of all of the new goodies soon though, until then I have lots of new beads up on etsy.

So, tell me. What is your favorite part of the holidays?

!!!

Dear Blog:

I finished 50,000 words in 26 days, validated it and everything. I would like you to know that I managed for the first time in about 12 years to win NaNoWriMo.

Me. This Pooka. I won.

See???? They even gave me a nifty badge thingie!

I'm really excited that I actually won, and ahead of schedule. Mind you, my story might be half done, if I'm lucky... So I still have a lot more to write (and I'm working on it too!).

On top of that I'm going through and editing MORE of the novel that I started for NaNo 2007, and didn't finish until '08 or '09.

Maybe, just maybe both of these will some day go to beta readers. (fingers crossed here)

Holiday Shopping - A Pooka's Opinion.

Here I am, a few days before this Holiday that you're supposed to stuff yourself silly with turkey and other yummy things.

I'm also more than half done with my Yule shopping. (*gasp!*)

I decided that this year I would do more shopping at small businesses than I have in years past. There are some things that you can't get from handmade shops though, and if that's the case I try to find small business shops that sell things like CDs and DVDs.

Some of my favorite shops are over on Etsy though.

Here's just a few!:

(Photo Thanks to Glamourkin)

Glamourkin is a small shop that's run by an amazing author (Here's a link to Sarah's blog). The pieces that she sells are made of pure magic, and great gifts for anyone! (Yes, even boys.)

(Photo of so many yummy soaps from HeartJCreations)

I'm a huge fan of handmade soaps too. I find that they don't dry out my skin nearly as much, and they smell soooo yummy!

(Cute My Little Pony Scarf!)

If you have any anime fans on your list, this shop is pretty rockin for them! From actual costumes to cute scarves and jewelry, they're a pretty epic pair!

(Above Photo Copyright Chaz Kemp.)

Looking for some awesome art? Shadowcat has an Etsy shop too! Here you can find great Steampunk pieces in Art Nouveau style.

(My darling Sven, thanks to NightLily Designs)

I just got my brand new Kindle cover from this great shop. My darling Sven (pictured above) will be headed home to me very soon, I am so excited! She has some of Sven's family still for sale in her shop, go take a look!

Lucky!

(Photo thanks to Copper, Glass and Recycled Trash)

So a few days ago I was reading through my blog list when I came across This Blog holding a contest of sorts. She asked for suggestions of what to put on her "Treasure Tubes" and whoever she chose would get a Treasure Tube with their chosen word on it. Being me I suggested "Believe" and I got an e-mail today telling me I won!!!!! :D

SO EXCITED!!!!!

I can't wait to do something AWESOME with it, and *gasp* wear it on stage!

I'll post photos when I get it!!! :D

You can find her Etsy Shop Here.

A Benefit

Yesterday I was given the honor to be able to sing with Pandora Celtica at a benefit for a woman that has impacted many, many lives in Colorado. Especially those around the Colorado Faire circuit.

It was an amazing benefit, so many people showed up to support this woman.

What was even better? The look on her face as she walked in and realized exactly what we were doing. We stood as she walked in, and just applauded. No words, no yelling of "surprise!" but honest and caring applause.

It was magical.

(This photo was taken on the drive home from Nebraska.)