Teavana Tea Time

My special tea corner, thanks to my fabulous Darling Daughter, Christine.  One of the cool, really cool Christmas Gifts she got me was this Teavana Tea Set.  There are the foil bags of loose tea which are pretty heavy duty foil packs for freshness and can sealed...like a zip lock.  You get cute tea canisters, a special tea measuring spoon, a cool pouch of raw sugar cube.  The bags and the canisters have the information you need to know about much tea to use and how long to steep it.  You can write the name of the tea right on your canister, wash it off later if you store a different type of tea in it.  This nice wire basket was from another Christmas gift from Stacie and Megan.  Wanted you to know, all the goodies from it may now be gone; but the basket is being used.

In addition, you get these awesome tea pot.  It holds a nice large mug size amount, and or two nice tea cups worth of tea.  The diffuser is in the bottom of the pot.  Notice the little legs holding the pot up about 1/4 inch?  The bottom of the pot is pressure sensitive....so, after it's steeped, all you do

 

is sit it on your cup/mug and it starts to drain,

leaving you with a nice cup of hot yummy tea.   I generally leave the loose tea in the pot in case I want another cup.  Sometimes you can get a 2nd round...depending on the tea and how long you let it steep.  Sometimes I add just a pinch of fresh loose tea to make the 2nd cup.  Awesome gift.  I've used it almost everyday since Christmas.  Even took it to Hilton Head with us several weeks ago for vacation.  Enjoyed a cup after being out and about on the bike tooting around.  Thank You Darling Daughter.

Start, finish and Continue Crocheting and Knitting.

 

Arapaho Afghan here right after finishing it.  It's being displayed on the sofa in the condo while we were vacationing in Hilton Head.  It traveled from Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina into South Carolina and was worked on all along the way.  This picture is before it was laundered and blocked.  Made from donated stripes through Bridge and Beyond.  Once it's laundered (being done as we speak), it will require blocking and then will be donated to Homeless Families Foundation through my charity, Bridge and Beyond. 

 This afghan also made from donated strips also made the same journey; though it wasn't assembled in the car throughout the states as Arapaho was.  I started working on this one after we arrived and completed the previous one.  It's in the works here before adding necessary width and prior to being named.

 Here it is again, back home in Ohio after the additional inches were added to the width by way of border using the 3 colors shown above.  This has now been named Desert Rose after some voting over on Bridge and Beyond.  This also is in the works of being laundered and blocked.  Believe this one will require pinning even when it's being blocked.  They don't always, but with the wider border on it's edge you note some curling.  I do think the size is better after adding the border and belief it will lay appropriately after some major blocking. 

And still in the works, though farther along is Sea and Sand.  You've not seen this one since November.  It now has 2 additional sections done.  Am currently working on the last of the light gray sections.  The light gray sections are the largest sections so I feel like I'm making some reasonable headway.

The first 2 afghans are crocheted from donated stripes, the 3rd afghan is one I cast on quite some back.  Knitting a large feather and fan style afghan does take time.

I've not done anything with the traveling scarf, even though it too made the journey (just as 3 afghans did); nor did I work on my belated Christmas Gift for DD which was noted here on the Love Your Library Post.  It is on my YOP list in the form of something for DD.  Though it turned into a sweater from a scarf.........much bigger project.

YOP meme, badge, and list found in tab above.

Brief summary:
8 of the 10 afghans completed from donated squares/strip
no progress on cotton washcloth or cable skirt for self
no progress on blocking cable scarf and blue scarf
Christmas project for DD changed from scarf (almost done) to Green Sweater, not yet cast on.  Probably going to frog scarf.