Tea Time: Full Moon by The Forest Witch

Today's Tea: Full Moon from The Forest Witch

What is it? From the Forest Witch website: "A lovely and light tea. Floral hints, with juicy plum and a sprinkling of fennel mingle together, bringing you a cup with gentle mugwort to help with your Full Moon endeavours."

Ingredients: organic green tea, plums, organic fennel, organic mugwort, organic jasmine

Recommendations: My sample pack didn't have brewing instructions, but generally green tea should be steeped for 1 to 3 minutes.

About the Tea: Full Moon tea is created by independent tea blender The Forest Witch Mia, located in Canada. All of her teas are inspired by Celtic deities or fantasy themes such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Good Omens. Full Moon is from her spiritual collection.

The tea has a bright, straw-like flavour profile, with just a slight hint of sweetness, which comes from the fruit and jasmine flower. The version I have contains apple rather than plum, but I think it works just as well. Fennel and mugwort are classic ingredients in spiritual brews. Mugwort is the perfect herb for working with the full moon. It's other name Artemisia comes from the Greek goddess of the moon Artemis, and it's used for moon meditations and connecting with the feminine cycles that the moon also follows. Fennel adds strength and fertility, and is used for meditation and protection.

Available:
Full Moon is available online from The Forest Witch shop. I found the price (in Canadian dollars) very reasonable and the postage costs to Australia, too, especially compared with many U.S. sources. She also has an Etsy shop if you prefer. I loved dealing with Mia and look forward to making many more purchases with her. Her Instagram is here.

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Tea Time : The Norns by The Forest Witch             

Hobonichi Unboxing, Part 2: Custom Covers from Snow Cover Journal

Please see here for Part 1 in which I write about my purchase from the Hobonichi Techo shop.

This year I wasn't very enthused with the covers that Hobonichi were offering. I was in the market for 2 covers, because in the first couple of years, I didn't buy a cover, thinking I'd make one myself. That never happened, so now I'm trying to catch up by buying one extra cover each year until all my diaries are covered (so to speak!). There were two covers in the shop that I quite liked, but I wasn't sure. (These were the Candy Plaid and the Floral Handkerchief, for any curious Hobo fans reading.) Then I realised that I didn't like the interior colours of either of them! They were beige and black respectively -- my two least favourite colours! I spend at least as much time looking at the inside of the cover as the outside, as it peeks out around the edges when the book lies open. I don't want to spend a whole year looking at a colour I don't like (sorry Hobo!). So I decided to seek my fortune elsewhere.

After extensive searching on Etsy I found a shop called Snow Journal Cover in China. The seller makes custom covers with your choice of design for the exterior, and a selection of 12 interior colours. I liked many of the cover designs, and the interior colours were pleasing. The bookmark ends could also be customised. When factoring in the postage and the inclusion of a cover-on-cover, the cost came out to be only slightly more for the customised Snow Journal covers. So I decided to go for it!

I placed my order for the covers on 28th August, knowing that custom orders take time to make. It turned out perfectly as they arrived one day before my Hobo order did! It wasn't deliberately timed, but it couldn't have worked out better. My order was packed very well, even with bubble wrap and cute wrapping paper tied up with string.

The two designs I chose were Fuji-San with Sakura in grey, and van Gogh's Almond Blossoms. I chose the option which includes a cover-on-cover for both (a clear plastic cover which goes over the cover proper to protect the fabric). I definitely insist on the extra protection as I leave my diary out on the coffee table most of the time: it's in danger of tea spills and sometimes the cat sits on it.

This cute postcard came with it. It says: "Sometimes when I'm with you, I forget myself." It will make a lovely pocket deco. This photo shows off the custom bookmark ends as well. They're exactly as I requested.

These covers have one less pocket (I think) than the Hobonichi brand covers, but there are still plenty, in my opinion.

The biggest problem I will have now is deciding which cover to put on my 2020 Hobo, and which to put on my old one! I still work with my older Hobos quite a bit though, as I like to go through and fill up the blank/spare pages with paintings, practice drawings, quotes, ideas for art projects, etc. Or sometimes I find old ephemera (brochures, movie tickets, restaurant business cards etc) that I can add to the relevant year.

In the end I decided to put the Almond Blossoms cover on my 2017 Hobo. This photo shows well how the interior of the cover is visible when you're working in it.

Even though it isn't full (yet!) my 2017 Hobo is still quite chonky!

Here it is with my current/2019 Hobonichi side by side for comparison. This is the plain pink cover matched with the Night Forest print cover-on-cover. The Hobonichi cover looks slightly bigger in this photo, but it's not -- I think it just looks like that because it's (even) thicker. And it's still very much a working item so please excuse the bulldog clips and ugly sticky notes! As you can see, the Hobonichi cover-on-cover has a matte finish, whereas the generic cover is shiny. This doesn't matter in everyday use, only when you're trying to take photos, ahem. It has a different, smoother feel, but I personally find it just as pleasant.

Here is a comparison shot of the interiors. The Snow Cover Journal is on top, and the Hobonichi cover underneath. You can see when looking at the corners that the generic cover-on-cover doesn't fit quite as closely to the cover itself. I'm not bothered by this, but others can always stick to the Hobonichi brand cover-on-cover if they prefer.
P.S. I did a course on colouring-in as therapy back in 2017. XD

I am absolutely thrilled with my covers from Snow Journal Cover. They're exactly what I wanted and will make my diary-writing experience more pleasurable all year long. I'll definitely keep them in mind for next year.

Tea Time : The Norns by The Forest Witch

Note: I have already removed the tea from its original packaging and placed it in a tin for storage, but originally it came in a resealable stand-up pouch the same as the one pictured.

Today's Tea: The Norns from The Forest Witch
What is it? From the Forest Witch website: "A black tea swirling with deep forest fruits of elderberry, currant, and blueberry. Woody clove and sweet fennel round out the flavour, all creating a deep cup of tea, dive in if you've the heart for it."
Ingredients: organic black tea, organic blueberries, organic elderberries, organic currants, organic cloves, organic fennel, flavour
Recommendations: Steep 1 teaspoon for 3-5 minutes.

The Tea and Me:
The Norns is created by independent tea blender The Forest Witch Mia, located in Canada. All of her teas are inspired by Celtic deities or fantasy themes such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and most recently, Good Omens. The Norns are the little-known Goddesses of fate in the Norse pantheon, deep and mysterious.

The dry tea has a very strong, earthy spice scent. I steeped it for 4 minutes, hedging my bets with the instructions. I usually try black teas both with milk and without. My preference is to drink black tea with milk, but I like to try it both ways to find the best. The black tea has a very strong fennel flavour, though not as much like liquorice as the spice itself. This is possibly due to the influence of the cloves, which come through too in a moderate way. Strong tannins made my tongue wrinkle, made even more astringent by the fennel. I found that the fruits were barely noticeable.

Adding milk punches down the tannins and allows the fruit flavour to come out. Even still, I found the berry flavours too subtle to be satisfying. My personal taste in teas is to the sweet side, so perhaps my taste buds were searching in vain for something that was never meant to be there.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed The Norns and would purchase it again. It's the perfect tea to sip deep into the night, staring into the flame of a single candle, waiting for the witching hour to arrive.

Available:
The Norns is available online from The Forest Witch shop. I found the price (in Canadian dollars) very reasonable and the postage costs to Australia, too, especially compared with many U.S. sources. She also has an Etsy shop if you prefer. I loved dealing with Mia and look forward to making many more purchases with her. Her Instagram is here.

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Tea Time : Gewürzhaus Easter Bun Tea             

Tea Time : Gewürzhaus Easter Bun Tea

Today's Tea: Organic Easter Bun Tea from Gewürzhaus
What is it?: a black tea spiced with cinnamon and orange, blended to drink as an accompaniment to hot cross buns at Easter time.
Recommendations: 1.5 teaspoons per cup, brew for 4 minutes. Drink with or without milk.

The Tea and Me:
Gewürzhaus is a local Melbourne shop specialising in spice blends from around the world. I love to go there a couple of times a year to stock up on spices for Christmas and other festive times. I always make sure to get some of their Easter Bun tea as it's one of my favourites. This year however, the flavour is different! It's no longer a sweet, subtle floral tea, but a spicy orange blend. After some initial confusion, I decided to give it a try, and thought, why not use it as an opportunity to start a tea review series?

So here we go.

The dry tea has a very strong orange aroma, with a hint of cinnamon behind it. It was appealing enough to make me decide to purchase some, despite it being different from what I was familiar with in the past. The brewing recommendation of 1.5 teaspoons per cup seemed quite a lot for such a strong-smelling tea. As the instructions say Easter Bun Tea can be drunk with or without milk, I poured it both ways to compare.

After brewing, the orange scent draws back, leaving a spicy cinnamon scent with just a hint of fruit. This is reflected in the flavour, too. I have to admit, I was a little surprised when I read that cinnamon is the only spice in this tea. Gewürzhaus is known for its spice blends, so I would have expected a more sophisticated blend. There's a slight astringent note on the tongue along with the spice.

Once the spicy punch subsided, the tea was much sweeter than I expected. This balanced out the cinnamon quite well. Adding milk tones down the spice and compliments the sweetness nicely. I preferred the milk version. As to whether the tea goes well with Easter Buns? Unfortunately, I didn't have any buns to hand (hence the pumpkin for decoration instead!) but I think the tea would go well with them. A drink to accompany a spicy, fruity bun would need to be strong in flavour to work, and this tea fits the bill.

Ingredients: organic Ceylon and China black tea, cinnamon, orange peel, natural cinnamon flavouring, natural orange flavouring (from the Gewürzhaus website)
Available: Gewürzhaus shops in Melbourne and online, only during Easter time.

I hope you liked my first tea review! If there's anything I left out that I could include next time, please let me know. I was also trying out a new photography set-up. It isn't perfect yet (I need more lighting!) but it's something I want to work on this year.

My PoPo Pocket Printer

Some of the photos in this post came out very yellow, and I'm not
very good at colour-correcting photos yet, apologies!

For my birthday I asked for and received a PoPo Pocket Printer. I decided I wanted one after I saw a review on Violet Le Beaux's Youtube channel. The PoPo connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth, and you can use the app to select and edit photos, then print them out.

I'd been wanting something like this for years, but never quite found what I was looking for. I did have a printer which printed straight from my camera onto good old-fashioned photo paper, but it was very fiddly and there was no way to edit the photos. For a while I coveted an Instax or other Polaroid-style camera, but I balked at the price of the paper. I even resorted to printing photos out on my computer's printer onto plain paper. The PoPo seemed to have none of these issues, plus the paper was much more affordable.

Husband ordered the PoPo from an ebay seller in Korea, and it came with the instructions in Korean. However, it was quite clear that we should scan the QR code on the side of the box. This downloaded the app and the instruction manual in various languages. (Handy note: the instruction manual can only be accessed when the printer is switched on.) The app connects directly to my photo album, allowing me to choose any photo I've taken on my phone to print. (Including any that I've posted to a certain social media site!) It includes some simple editing features (zoom, brightness and contrast adjustment, etc) but of course you could use a preferred editing app to make changes to photos beforehand.

The resulting photos aren't amazingly high quality, but they're a lot of fun. The printer can edge-print rectangular format photos or square format with a white border at top and bottom. Best of all, the paper is glossy, real photo paper. My main use for the photos so far is for my Hobonichi art diary. It's been so fun to be able to document an event or something interesting I saw with photos.

One of the biggest advantages of the PoPo over an Instax is that you can select the photos you want to print and edit them before printing, so you know exactly what you're going to get. You can also print more than one copy to share. It's much quicker and easier than firing up your computer's printer and much more portable: it's only slightly bigger than my phone. I'm looking forward to taking it with me next time I go away on holidays.

Mocoro Robotic Mop Ball

After seeing it on an old episode of Eat Your Kimchi, I couldn't resist getting a Mocoro ball, which allegedly sweeps the lint from your floors. Our house has hardwood flooring throughout, so the Mocoro is perfect ... if it works!

It was almost obligatory for me to buy a pair of balls, so I could make the jokes that naturally stem from such a product. I purchased them from this ebay shop; the price was $25.20 for two, including postage. They came from Laos and arrived within 10 days. The parcel was a bit crushed on one side, but the products inside weren't affected.

The Mocoro balls come with a set of 4 different coloured microfibre covers. The covers zip off for easy cleaning.

Each needs 1 AA battery to work. Inserting the battery requires a screwdriver. According to the box, the battery should last for up to 5 hours. I hope this is true as replacing the battery is quite fiddly.

There is an on-off push button on the side of the ball. I was worried that this would get pressed accidentally while the balls are rolling, but this wasn't the case. The balls have a weight inside them, which causes them to jiggle and roll around in random directions. At first my balls didn't move around very much. I posted a short video here on my Instagram. (You can also hear the sound they make.) They seemed to serve more to distract the cat than anything else!

However, just as I was composing a lukewarm review in my head, one of the balls shot off down the hallway, all the way into the bedroom and collected a good amount of lint from under the bed!

Surprisingly, the Mocoro balls work!

However, you will still have to sweep your floor! Because they move around in such a random way, there's very little chance the whole floor will be covered. Plus, I haven't tried cleaning the covers yet. It may well be easier to just sweep. The Mocoro Robotic Mop Ball is more of a novelty than a useful cleaning product, but it's fun.

And, you know, balls. Teehee.