Tea for Tuesday: An Introduction

It wasn't until I began my sophomore year of college that I realized my love for tea. I had been a faithful coffee drinker since I was able to figure out the coffee maker when I was in high school. Strangely enough, I drank less coffee in college than I did at home. Soon, it was hard for me to drink coffee regularly without getting an upset tummy. Still needing my caffeine fix, I craved an alternative.

image from Kind over Matter

My Grandma has always been a tea drinker, but my interest in tea stopped at imaginary tea parties and thoughts of fancy English women. I wanted to start small - the typical Lipton bagged tea that sat out in baskets in my University's cafeteria seemed like a good starter-tea. Add a little sugar (no milk for me, that was part of the reason I needed to get away from coffee), and I was set! I soon fell in love with all sorts of teasl green tea, chamomile, black tea, herbal infusions, and so on. A cup in the morning, a cup of decaf at night... It got to the point during my senior year that my roommates and I had a whole shelf dedicated to the multitude of boxed tea owned between the three of us.

I even had the pleasure of putting on historic tea parties at my summer job to highlight three generations of tea parties and recipes. (I'll be sharing my favorite recipe with you later in this series). Through all this, I stuck primarily to pre-bagged, brand name teas. I had only experienced loose tea during my historic tea parties and those were pretty basic teas - Oolong and Darjeeling, mainly. I didn't fully realize the lengths to which loose tea had become so varied and unique.

Well, my dear readers, I have seen the error in my ways. I've recently gone head-first into the world of loose tea and the wonders it holds. This series, Tea for Tuesday will be a record of my exploration of various teas and all of the delicate luxuries of tea culture. I will have recipes from myself and other bloggers, crafty tea-related tutorials, and (of course) a few giveaways here and there. I highly suggest you stick around.

This week's feature comes from the fabulous foodie blog of my good friend, Alexandra. She and I go waaaay back to a few years ago when I was her RA during her first year of college. That year was filled with plenty of laughs and late-night lounge-dwelling. Ahh, the good old days. I was so happy/proud/excited when she went on to become an RA herself. Anyways... A Food Coma contains recipes, reviews, and helpful hints for the budget-conscious food lover. Brought to you by Alex and her partner-in-crime Brandon (another former RA), this blog really is the place to go when you want to indulge in some eye-candy. Earlier this week Alex was featured on Epicurious.com with tips for college foodies. How cool is that!?

A Food Coma has great Podcasts that walk you through recipes and other kitchen adventures. A while back, when A Food Coma was just getting started with podcasts, Alex starred in a really helpful guide to brewing loose tea. Lights... camera...

 

video from www.afoodcoma.com

If you're new to loose tea brewing, I hope that takes a bit of the edge off. I know I was clueless, so I want to give a HUGE "Thanks" to Alex and Brandon. Keep up the great work! Come back next week and I'll provide you with a few tea reviews and maybe even some samples ;)

RA Training: Day Seven & Eight

Sorry for no post last night, Bobby came to visit. We hung out with my fellow RA's playing Rock Band and then hung out for a nice quiet evening. Tonight was a lot of fun. I went out with a whole gaggle of fellow RA's and had a great night! Dancing, laughing, and a few drinks. Love it!

Training is officially over. Just check-in and then the school year begins. The past two days have been mainly short presentations from various agencies on campus - health center, football coach, student activities, etc. Good times! I got to help out in a mock-trial we held to talk about ethics. I was a witness to an "inappropriate romantic relationship" between an RA and her resident. It was fun! I love acting things out on a small scale. No more stage work for me, though.

Well, tomorrow I hope to have a bit more time to craft. There has been a sleep mask staring at me on my desk for the past four days and I think tomorrow will be the day I actually put it together. I hope to make a tutorial to go with it. See you all tomorrow!!

RA Training: Day Six

Not a whole lot to report today... No crafting, nothing too interesting. I mailed out two swaps and bought text books today. For RA training, we went on our annual picnic at a park. I got a bit sunburnt, but not too bad. I enjoyed watching my fellow RA's get soaked in the dunk tank. 

My roomie Andrea came by today to move in some of her things. We complained about boys and then went out for some ice cream at Friendly's. It was great! I can't wait until both of my roommates move back in this weekend. Finally I won't be alone in this quiet apartment!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

RA Training: Day Five

Today was the longest day of training - 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Yikes! I took a tiny nap after dinner, but I was more tired after that than I was before. Today was filled with policy, confrontation skills, and Behind Closed Doors. BCD is where newly hired RAs are faced with the task of confronting returning RAs who are acting out different scenarios in the residence halls. My first year as a returner, I was in a messy roommate scenario. Last year, I was in a situation where we had just snuck someone into our room through the fire door (which isn't supposed to be used except for emergencies), and this year I was in a situation where there is an abusive relationship. I was paired with a newer RA who is only in his second year, Pat. He's a nice guy so at first I wasn't sure how he would do at being the aggressor, but he did great!! And he's about 6'4'' compared to my 5'1'' and that just made for fun times! The funny thing is that my real boyfriend was an RA with me up until this past May, so he and I probably would have had a blast doing this! Haha!

Anyways, Guess who finally found her glasses!!! After not having them for about a month, I finally pulled them out of a bag that was filled with cords and cables for my desktop. How they got there, I don't know. All there is to know is that now the roads are safer because I'm not driving blind anymore. And yes, that picture is of me right now. Excuse the yucky hair, it's hot.

A bit of claying the other night, as I had mentioned yesterday. I've been playing with scenting  my clay, and so far, so good. I only have strawberry scenting oil, so I'm a bit limited at the moment. Good thing I love strawberries! I made a few larger ones as well as a bunch of TEEENY TINY ones to decorate a cheesecake charm I am making for a friend. I really like how they turned out.

RA Training: Day Three and Sleep Mask

Another day just about done. Today was another easy day... Just a short meeting in the morning and then lunch with my staff. I went to the Dollar Tree Store with another RA, Mike, and I got a few goodies. A few stickers, cute hair ties, and a couple of "Mini Scrapbook" kits. I figure those could either be used in my own scrapbook, or utilized for some Swaps in the future!

I was also able to finally finish up my swap for the Handmade Sleep Mask swap. I am pretty proud of it! I hope my partner likes it. I plan on making another one for myself or for sale at my Etsy Shop.

I made this by tracing a sleep mask that I already have and cutting the shape out of plain cotton, silk-like fabric for the lining on the back, and a bit of interfacing. Fused the interfacing on and then cut out a cute little heart and X-Stitched it on like a patch. I pinned it all together and began sewing around the edges through a pretty white ribbon I had. I had fun with this. Perhaps with the next one I do, I will create my first craft tutorial!

RA Training: Day Two and Jingle Bells!

Today was pretty chill. A lot of in-house work in my building. Papers, papers, papers. The good thing about that, though, was that once I was done with all of  my work, I had the rest of the day to myself. My boyfriend Bobby came over for dinner and I did a bunch of crafting. I finished up my Swap for the Christmas in July Matchbox swap at Swap-bot. Check it out!

On the thought of Christmas, I also did a little bit of claying last night... Woo!

I plan on doing a bunch more, perhaps a charm bracelet. Hmmm... Ideas?

RA Training: Day One

So training has begun and I have mixed feelings. I try to stay active and all that, but there's only so much I can take after hearing the same thing four years in a row. Day one of training isn't too bad... Just did all of the walk-throughs of my apartments and in a while I'm heading to dinner and then bowling with all of the other RA's. Super cool! 

So in my down-time, instead of unpacking, I finished the birthday gift for my roomie Casey. Check it out!!

Never Fails

So this is what happens when I move back to school. It never fails, every year I do some sort of damage to myself in the process of moving my stuff out of my house and back to school. This little beauty happened when I was moving a big box of stuff with my brother and the inside of my arm got caught on the latch to the fence in front of our house. Moral of the story - Don't let Jessica near sharp objects. Ever. 

Back to School... Back to School!

The time has come for me to move my junk down the NJ Turnpike and cram it into my tiny college dorm apartment again! It seems no matter what I do, I end up with more and more junk to haul around each year. I'm trying so hard to keep the amount down this time since I will only be at school for one semester. Pshh. As I look around my room now, I can see that I've totally failed. 

I am sad and happy at the same time that I'm leaving to go back to school. Sad because, obviously, I'll be away from my family and my best friend. It's going to be strange this semester because my boyfriend, Bobby, who I have been with since Freshman year, graduated in May and won't be back at Rowan with me. He doesn't live far, so I am sure I will see him, but not nearly as much as I'm used to. I guess I'm a little spoiled XD  I am happy to go back because I neeeeeed my own space. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I get along great with my Mom and Dad, but I need to be able to set the rules myself. I am nervous about Student Teaching, I really hope I don't screw it up. Oh well, we will see how that cookie crumbles. 

But for now, I'm off to my fourth (FOURTH??!!) RA training session. Sheesh. Most RA's don't even make it to two years and I'm on four. I must love pain and punishment. Hahaha!