Blogging for Connection

From time to time most bloggers ask themselves the question. 

"What question?" you ask.

That question. 

Why do we blog? 

If you are asking this question, pull up a seat and have a cold glass of peach infused ice tea. 

"Why this tea in particular?"you may well ask. "Why not plain? Why not coffee? "

Because this tea is the answer to your question. I hear your confusion. 
"Get to the point already, will you?" you say with a slight irritation in your voice. 

I will oblige you. 

I have never in the whole of my life had peach infused ice tea. Never given it a backwards glance. When the recipe was shared by Ricki Jill of Art@Home on her post for this year's Mad Tea Party I was intrigued. I had to try it. If you ask around, and I beg you don't, you may even learn that I became a bit obsessed with giving it a try. 

The ingredients I bought at a local farm. South Carolinan peaches were chosen over the white ones. Locally grown mint was procured. 


As we sat and sipped and proclaimed over the tea I mused upon the ties that bind us as bloggers. The richness of experience we are granted for the inspiration and kindness from each other, persons unknown to each other in our local, everyday lives. The tea was, and remains, delicious. Ricki was astute in mentioning that the recipe can last a while, but won't because it will be finished long before it's expiration date. For the record, I drank more than one glass. 















Blogging, instagram, and a variety of other ways of connecting are a blessing to those of those who stick with it, who engage and who share. It requires a certain level of engagement, however, and that connection does not come without effort. We blog to see and be seen, to inspire and be inspired, to express and find expressions that help us understand our own experience. We blog to send beauty into the world and to fill our lives with that beauty. 

These are all things I am thinking as I muse over the beauty of the connection we gain from blogging. There is so much more. I need not be complete in this post. 

Dear reader, thank you for being part of this blogging experience. Ricki Jill, thank you so much for this recipe. So delicious! 

Why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? What do you get out of the experience?

The Mad to Glad Tea Party

Welcome to the 

Mad to Glad Tea Party 2016

These days there is so much to be mad about, sad about, absolutely devastated about.

Wherever I look I see people questioning why...

wondering how we got to this place....

wondering if the things they do matter...

if they matter....

and they do.

They do matter. 

You matter. 

So as I pondered these things, along came the time for

Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist to post the invitation 

to her annual

Mad Tea Party. 

Each year I look forward to this wonderful party. The loveliness, the creativity, the joy of it all. 

As I pondered these things I decided to hold a 

Mad to Glad Tea Party this year. 

First we must entice a rabbit with a bouquet of basil and fresh dill. 

Everyone knows that rabbits are great for inspiration. 

Sir Fernly Fern and I thought a long time. I stroked his silky fur. He nuzzled me and nipped me when I stopped petting him. Sir Fernly Fern doesn't shy away from comfort as we humans sometimes do. 

The idea to turn Mad to Glad came to me as we snuggled. Tea, friendship and art journaling - the focus for this year. 

I used craft paper instead of a pretty cloth so we could spill as much as we wanted, or write, or paint. 

Guest tags were replaced by black sharpie free flowing names on the table. Naturally we set a place for the Unexpected Guest. 

Three kinds of tea. Why not? A taste testing adventure.

Silly labels made us laugh. 

And we can't forget to stop and smell the roses.

While I know that a cuppa tea can often change my mad to glad, I had more planned for my party friends.

I gave each friend a piece of cold pressed watercolor paper and told them to write what was making them mad or sad or anxious or worried. Like 18th century letter writers would conserved paper, we turned the paper and wrote crosswise. In days gone by the paper was expensive. We used it as a design element. 

After choosing some colors to paint over the words we picked up our cards and spread paint.

My spot at the table after painting a few layers. 

Collage ensued. Scrap paper. Paper bags. Paper from presents last Christmas. Magazine pages. If it could be pasted down it was fair game. 

More color. More layers. We stopped only when it became apparent that our pages needed to dry before adding any more. We hope to continue these now glad pieces. Pieces that inspire us to move forward when it seemed hard to move a muscle.

Here's hoping that you have some inspiration to turn something mad into something glad. Thanks for joining us.  

Please be sure to visit A Fanciful Twist for links to see all the Mad Tea Parties that are happening today. Just click on the invitation to zip over there. 

Mad Tea Party 2016

It is that time again. Mad Tea Party Time! This year is a unique year. So a unique interpertation of this theme seems in order, don't you think? I've got something up my sleeve and I'm excited to share it with you. So sneak around by on Saturday and see what is cooking on the blog. I assure you it will be Assam. Oh Darjeeling, you must drop by. 

Mad Tea Party 2015 Invitation

It's that time of year again!

I look forward to it each year. 

The Mad Tea Party

hosted by Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist

I have been plotting for some time what kind of tea party I would throw this year. So many directions I could go, but I decided to go with a new skill set. Step out of my own box. I hope you will like it. 

The Mad Tea Party is tons of fun. Want to join? Head over to Vanessa's blog and sign yourself up. There's still time. 

Mother's Day Gelli Prints - Stamping and Printing Sunday

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and to the fathers out there who have to fill in a mother's shoes. 

I wanted to send you flowers so here are a couple of gelli printed flowers. I don't know whether I will leave them as is or whether I will choose to fill them in. 

 My family had our meal out yesterday and so today was a lovely day for sleeping in. Just what I wanted! 

I hadn't gelli printed in a few weeks and I was eager to do some. Here are some of my favorites from today. 

I love the prints as they are, as part of my art journaling, and also as a layer in my double exposure photos. I love the way they combine with other photos. 

I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day. It was great for me to celebrate yesterday (less crowd in the restaurant) and have today to loll about. If you could plan your own Mother's Day event, what would be most meaningful to you? Now that you've thought about it, how about asking for it?

The Gift of Laughter and Books - Self Care Saturday

Laughter is one of the most powerful self care strategies I can think of. Others might prefer face masks or manicures. A good ole belly laugh that makes me snort and pound on the table while tears stream down my face…now that's the kind of self care I love best. It is extra good if I'm with a good friend. 

So today I indulged. I could tell you about the lovely lunch with my family at a nice restaurant. I could tell you about stopping for the first ice cream of the season from the local cone maker. The best part of the day, however, was the company and the sense of humor and the uncontrollable laughter. 

Ok, so books were a plus. I'm a librarian. 

Almost forgot to mention one of the things that led to hilarity were the Mother's Day socks I received. One pair looks like library check out cards from years gone by and the other was a pair for banned book week. One of the socks has the titles of commonly banned books. The other has words crossed out…censored right off the sock. Perfect gift. 

What makes you laugh? What is your favorite kind of laugh? Who can you feel comfortable to laugh messy with? 

Tea Party Rain Check

It's what? 

Vanessa Valencia's Mad Tea Party?

http://afancifultwist.typepad.com

Really? 

Already? 

Well then, I guess I'm swimming in it again. 

I fear we're late for the party. 

Wouldn't be the first time. 

For all those hosting parties, we tip our hats to you. Thanks for all the wonderful posts for us to enjoy this year. If you aren't familiar with Vanessa's Mad Tea Parties, I encourage you to check them out. Click on the invitation above to be whisked away to her magical world. 

(Photos enhanced with a combination of apps - Snapeee and Bazaart)

Please come for Tea

Beautiful tea cups waiting on the shelf for you to come over for tea. Have a cuppa and pretend we are sitting together exchanging stories. 

The Joys of Menu Planning and a Give Away - My Happy List Tuesday

It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in My Happy List Tuesday. 

Here's what's been making me happy these days. 

The school year is almost upon us. Last year, I spent much of the year lunch-less. I worked straight through the day and found myself ravenous once the last student had left my charge. This was good - I had a lot of work to do and it was easier to get it done without taking the time for lunch. I also spent more time with students. This was bad - I didn't eat as well as is good for me and I missed out on the bonding time with colleagues.

After school there is always a maze of appointments and things to do. Evening meals proved to also be a challenge.

This year I decided I would take the bull by the horns and do something I hadn't done in years - make weekly meal plans. There was a point when I was reading a lot of books about home organization and all of them recommended a weekly meal plan. My reasons for resisting trying this included the inability to take advantage of deals at the green grocer or fish market - a reason that never stood up to examination. Once tried, it was clear that weekly menu plans simplified life. Even the odd daily deal could be accommodated by pushing the plans back one day. It should have been a no brainer to continue this plan. Yet, it's been years since a weekly menu has been in residence here.

Enter Just Bento, a website dedicated to the art of packing lunch boxes, Japanese style. It's a wonderful site full of great resources. One of the personally most helpful parts of the website were the meal planning PDFs. These PDFs were what inspired me to get back on the horse with weekly meal planning. After looking at them, I made my own forms that addressed the needs of my family. The form includes a checklist for protein sources and one for color balance. It helps me to see visually that I am creating a varied menu. There is also a check list for items to be made the night before. The next step is shopping list.

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Ebisuya, a Japanese grocery store in Medford, MA. It's a wonderful store with a very wide range of Japanese foods. In the book section of the store was the Just Bento book! I snatched it up. Even though our stash of o-bentou making supplies is prodigious, some new tools ended up in the grocery cart.

I bought some boiled egg molds. You open the up, place the raw egg inside, snap closed and boil. Presto – a rabbit or bear shaped boiled egg! Cute, right?

Meanwhile, I have been trying out an app called Snap Recipes for tackling the large stack of loose recipes that has defied organization. The app allows you to take up to five photos of the clipped recipe and add information. Tagging the recipes make them searchable by type. The elimination of that stack of clipped recipes and the ease of mobile access to them makes this a real win. It has helped me to work on this project on the go.

Last week I did a trial run of week one menu plan. I hope to eliminate some of the kinks of my system and see where my problems lay. Eventually I hope to have at least four weeks of lunch plans to choose from.

And here’s the give away!

Tools for making your lunch special!

Cookie cutters you can use for cookies, sandwiches, omelets, carrots and more. There are even message stamps – it’s like scrapbooking your food!

Want to win one of these prizes? Subscribe to my blog and leave a comment below with your email. I will select the winners on September 15th.