little gift idea: herbal tea jar

Working on Scratch Farm left me with plenty of herbs and no idea how to use all of them, so I dried them and made a little herbal tea jar gift. 

All you need is:

1) spice jar

2) dried herbs (I used about 1/3 lemon balm, 1/3 mint, and 1/3 chamomile plus a tiny bit of ginger, chrysanthemum, and greek mountain tea)

3) an old shirt (or just any extra fabric you might have)

And then just combine the herbs in the little jar, put the extra fabric over the top, close the lid and then hot glue some embellishments on the lid! Add a homemade label and there you have a little heartfelt gift.

little moments.

Since I've gotten back to Providence there's been a silly amount of work and school in my days.  So, I've been doing my best to appreciate the little moments I have in between.
1) Monday night after work I biked on over to suzie's place and we shared pastries and caught up on our vacation time
2) ...and yesterday after work we did the same except over burritos!
3)  Also, a new practice: take just 30 minutes in the morning before class to sit, eat granola, read and write.  It's amazing how just a few minutes of peace, creativity and pumpkin granola can improve your day.
4) Also, to keep that day going - some tea and honey in between classes!
There's also been library exploring with Leonore, a brief listening at a poetry reading, and a kitten viewing at a nearby friends house too!  These things make up for all the less fun classes and the large amount of work hours, so, I'm happy.

back in asheville!

For the last 3 days I've been in my old home: asheville, nc.  So, I've been doing my best revisit all the old favorite places.
i-ii. Melissa and I's old sunday morning favorite, the Corner Kitchen! We brought Leah along too and we all had the most amazing brunch.  Man, it is so great being back in the land of sweet tea.
iii.  A chocolate lounge date with Melissa - are you seeing that chocolate cake?!
iv. The Goodwill outlet! A place where you rummage through bins to find the tack and best things and everything is only 1.10 a pound!?  It is probably the only place you can find a dress with cows all over it and medical scrubs in the same place. I missed it so much.
v. Chai and hot chocolate at a cool little house coffee shop in west asheville.
vi. Fancy taiwanese tea at Matthew's!
vii. Mango eatin' and just messing around on my old college campus.
viii.  Indian food with all the best people.
It's been so nice to be back.

weekend!

i-ii. after-work butternut squash soup and tea with noah
iii. folklore night at a friend's coop nearby! there were folksongs and folktales and medieval hymns and I was just so impressed.
iv-v. moroccan mint tea with my new favorite friend here! i have so much to say, but i'm sure you will see more of her. she's the cute one hiding behind the tea.
vi.  her and i biked to a talent night at a friend's place. it was such a comfortable space to have fun and show off something silly or impressive that you can do and then all laugh about it.  without going on and on, i'll just say that it was probably one of my favorite nights here.

PIZZA

Last night it was pumpkin pizza (!!!!) (pumpkin sauce, spinach, carmelized onions, goat cheese) (sounds like everything I like) and a game of battleship plus Greek mountain tea in my tiny living room.