
A few weeks ago, we attended a Japanese Festival at the local college, sponsored in part by the Japanese company my husband works for. As a result of that sponsorship, Mr. Peepaw was given a Japanese tea bowl as a token of appreciation. And this is what you see above.
Now a couple of things I need to tell you. First, Mr. Peepaw only drinks hot tea at our traditional family Christmas Eve Tea. He has no choice. Neither does anybody else who attends. {After all, it is a 'tea'. And, no, on that occasion, iced tea does not count.} So he kindly brought the tea bowl home to me. Second, the tea bowl was not made in Japan. It was made here in Kentucky. Go figure.
Nevertheless, I love it! It's quite different than anything we own or anything I might choose for myself and it is probably half again as big as the tea bowls I recently found at our favorite tea shop and which I've shared with you before. I haven't used it to drink from. The card that came with it didn't say anything about care or whether it was safe for food consumption. It's glazed so I assume it is but why take chances. Thus, it has become an ornament in our house that is still looking for a permanent home.
Now, the spoon. This is something I chose for myself from a little Etsy shop. The spoon, though larger than I thought, is very beautifully handmade of cherry wood, which was one of three of four finishes that you could choose from. Sorry, I don't have the link. Just go on Etsy and search for handmade spoons.
Next, the tea bags. I share a love of tea with my friend, Pam, who lives in Nova Scotia. I send her things from our favorite tea shoppe here and she sends me things from her favorite local tea shoppe. A few weeks ago, two boxes of caffeine-free, flavored loose teas and a box of tea bags arrived at my home. This is what you see here.
As soon as I opened the tea bags, I was smitten! Now, I've had tea bags for making loose tea but they were square and the only way I could think of to effectively close them was to staple them. Yeah. A pain in the tea bag so that didn't last long. But these little sweethearts have a drawstring and a tea tag at the end. How cute is that?!?
And, finally, the tea. This particular kind is Orange Blossom, chosen because of my love for Orange-Spice tea, my daily morning cuppa. Well, friends ... I wish you could smell this tea! It is so aromatic, it's heavenly. So please look closely at it, one because it's beautiful and then to imagine the wonderful aroma from a blend of rooibos {red tea}, currants, orange peel, orange blossoms, vanilla pieces, marigold blossoms and safflower petals. Yeah. It smells and tastes good ... to the last drop.

So I'm feeling blessed today as I share this week's finds with you because most of them came from two people who love me and whom I love dearly.
Thank you, Mr. Peepaw.
Thank you, Pam.
Life is made sweeter by the love of family and friends ... and tea. {{ smile }} And my life is immeasurably sweeter when I share with you here on Friday Finds and when you stop by to say hello.
And I do hope you'll come visit at Focusing on Life where I'm posting today.
See you soon!
